Sister of Possible Serial Killer Victim Speaks
The loved ones of the people murdered by serial killers suffer everyday of their lives. The killer’s damage far outreaches just those that he actually kills.
Christine Moore
Michelle Skidmore thinks tragedy is right around the corner or just a phone call away. In fact, the San Antonio woman believes that her immediate family — one-by-one — will meet a tragic end. Her critical thinking or pessimism stems from the murder of her older sister.
The case remains unsolved by the Baton Rouge Police Department. However, there is heavy speculation that Skidmore’s sister, Christine Moore, is a victim of Derrick Todd Lee, a man considered as the south Louisiana serial killer.
Investigators from the Multi-Agency Homicide Task Force probing a string of women murdered in southern Louisiana said Lee is connected to the killings of seven victims by DNA. Yet, his alleged terror has been cast on the unsolved murders of other women in the Baton Rouge area. Moore is one of those cases.
According to authorities, the LSU graduate student vanished around May 23, 2002. She reportedly went jogging. Her car was found abandoned. Skidmore remembers a detective calling her parents’ New Orleans home asking permission to open Moore’s trunk. She said her mother broke into tears. The trunk was empty.
Nearly a month later, Moore’s skeletal remains were found near a church not far from Baton Rouge. Investigators believed she was killed by blunt force trauma. What was left of a vibrant beautiful young woman had been exposed to the elements too long to get a DNA sample.
“Nothing was the same after that,” her 30-year-old sister said. “I wanted to know what really happened.”
‘I will never know’
Conclusive answers have eluded the family for almost a decade. Speculation and the probability of victimology about Lee is as good as it gets. That’s still not enough for Skidmore.
“I will never know if that man murdered my sister,” Skidmore said.
However, she’d like to have a conversation with a man who is allegedly linked by DNA to the murders of 41-year-old nurse Gina Wilson Green, 21-year-old LSU grad student Geralyn DeSoto, 21-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace, 44-year-old mother and wife Pamela Kinamore, 23-year-old Dene Colomb, and 26-year-old Carrie Lynn Yoder.
Each was either reportedly strangled, stabbed, beaten, sexually assaulted, killed or some combination of the above.
“If I could ask him did you really kill her,” she said. ” I need to know. But would he tell the truth?”
Lee was convicted for the capitol murder of Pace. He remains in prison on death row awaiting execution by way of lethal injection. The so-called serial killer was also found guilty of killing DeSoto.
Moved to San Antonio
Justice seems only a dream for Moore’s family. Skidmore moved to San Antonio because of Hurricane Katrina. She still lives in the shadow of the tragedy. Her move to the Alamo City did not allow the pain to escape.
“I remember my dad telling me maybe someone was after my sister because of the work she did at LSU,” she said.
Moore was majoring in social work. Then, their father changed his mind. He felt Lee was his daughter’s killer. It put the family in the shadow of the so-called south Louisiana serial killer. They were ready to join other families in a fatal bond no one wanted to share.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about that and what happened to her,” she said.
It’s something Moore younger sister said she has to live with everyday of her life. She struggles with the inner guilt of “what if.”
“I didn’t lose just a sister,” she said. “I lost a best friend.”
There are other siblings. In fact, six children remain alive. Their mother died in 2009 of health issues. Skidmore thinks her sister’s unsolved murder ate away at their mom little-by-little.
“She never thought it would happen to one of her own,” Skidmore said.
‘Bad things happen to good people’
The Louisiana native recalls praying for her family’s safety. She calls that a naive wish.
“Sometimes bad things happen to good people,” she said. “We are not immune to any of the sufferings of this world.”
That harsh reality has given her strength. She claims it has helped her cope. But, many questions remain unanswered and closure appears a lofty dream. So, she believes that tragic deaths in her family are not over.
“It prepares me for the worst,” she said.
Christine Moore’s murder is a story this sister rarely tells because she admits there are still issues to overcome.
I hope that she finds ways to overcome these issues soon.
Real Life Monsters 