Paul Durousseau Indicted for the Murders of Five Young Women in Jacksonville
The women, aged 17 to 20, were killed over two months in the winter of 2002-03. Durousseau had been in jail since the day after the last two bodies were found.
Published
Paul Durousseau had been sitting in a Jacksonville jail since February on a probation violation. By June 23, 2003, he stood indicted on five counts of first-degree murder.
The indictment covered the deaths of Nichole Williams, Nikia Kilpatrick, Shawanda McCallister, Jovanna Jefferson and Surita Cohen, five young women aged 17 to 20 who were killed in Jacksonville between December 19, 2002, and February 5, 2003. Durousseau had been arrested on February 6 for violating his probation in a 2001 rape case, one day after the last two bodies were found. While he was in jail, police began to connect him to the murders, and on June 17 he was formally charged with all five.
The charges led the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office to look for other killings with similar characteristics. Georgia authorities soon charged him with the 1997 murder of a woman in Columbus, Georgia, where he had been stationed with the Army. In August, DNA evidence connected him to the unsolved 1999 murder of Tyresa Mack, a 24-year-old mother of three, and he was charged with her death as well. Investigators said they were checking unsolved killings in every place he had lived over the previous ten years, from Florida and Georgia to Germany.
Jacksonville station WJXT reported Durousseau's indictment on June 19, 2003, while the state's later court filing dated the indictment to June 23.
Sources
- Appellee's Answer Brief, Durousseau v. State, SC08-68, Florida Attorney General (filed in Supreme Court of Florida)
- Suspected serial killer faces one more murder charge, WJXT News4JAX