A Deadly New Year's

Around 10:30 p.m. on January 1, 2003 family members of nineteen-year-old Nikia Shanell Kilpatrick went to her Spanish Oaks apartment in Jacksonville, Florida to check up on her. No one in the family had heard from her for several days, which was unusual considering it was the holiday season. When some of the family members arrived at the house they were surprised and worried to see Nikia's two-year old son banging on the window as if pleading for help. When they entered the apartment a putrid stench overwhelmed them. Something was terribly wrong.

Nikia was nowhere in sight. However, as they walked through the apartment they found Nikia's eleven-month old son crawling about on the floor. Then to their horror, they discovered Nikia's decomposing remains lying in one of the bedrooms. She had been bound and strangled to death with a cord. The police were immediately called to the scene.

Investigators conducted an extensive search of the home and its surroundings. Soon afterwards, Nikia's body was removed and taken to the coroner. The medical investigation later revealed evidence pointing to Nikia having been sexually assaulted and murdered up to forty-eight hours before the discovery of her body. Further examination of the body revealed that she had been six months pregnant at the time of her death.

Although Nikia's two small children were unharmed, they suffered from malnutrition as well as the trauma of being confined with their mother's corpse. According to First Coast News, the boys managed to survive by eating dried food from the kitchen. They were put in the care of Nikia's family.

Investigators were able to collect vital physical evidence from the murder scene, yet the evidence did not lead to the identity of the murderer. Police were confident that the murder was not the killer's first because some aspects of the crime appeared too organized. It was further speculated that Nikia would not be his last victim. They couldn't have been more accurate.

Within the space of approximately one month, three more bodies would be discovered that would be attributed to the same killer. Moreover, three other murders, including that of another unborn child, would later be added to the list, totaling eight known victims. It quickly became clear that Jacksonville had a terrifying serial killer on its hands.

A Murderous Rampage

Twenty-year-old Shawanda Denise McCalister was an independent and hard-working girl, determined to forge a successful, happy life. She simultaneously worked as a certified nursing assistant and attended school in the hopes of one day climbing the ladder within the medical field. However, all of her dreams were cut short by the hands of a ruthless killer.

On January 10, 2003 Shawanda had been found strangled to death with a cord in her Jacksonville apartment on Arco Drive. In many ways, Shawanda's death bore marked similarities to Nikia's murder. Like Nikia, there was evidence of a sexual assault and both victims had been bound in a similar manner. Also like Nikia, she had been pregnant at the time of her death. Investigators suspected that Shawanda and Nikia died at the hands of the same killer.

Investigators also linked another previous murder to that of Shawanda and Nikia. On December 19, 2002 police discovered the remains of eighteen-year-old Nicole L. Williams. According to Times-Union staff writer Veronica Chapin, Williams had been found wrapped in a light blue blanket in a ditch on Soutel Drive in Jacksonville. It was suggested that she was murdered in a local Jacksonville hotel.

Nicole had been bound and strangled likeShawanda and Nikia. There was also evidence of sexual assault. Moreover, investigators revealed that DNA taken from the unknown assailant matched samples taken from all three victims. There was little doubt that the same killer was responsible for the deaths of the three women.

On February 5, 2003 a construction crew clearing out a vacant lot on New Kings Road in Jacksonville made a gruesome discovery. Workers found the remains of seventeen-year-old Jovanna Tyrica Jefferson in a ditch. She had been missing since January 20, 2003.

The police were immediately called to the scene. Shortly after their arrival they discovered the remains of another young woman six feet from where Jovanna's body had been found. The young woman was later identified as a nineteen-year-old mother of two, Surita Ann Cohen, who had been missing since February 4^th.

Ron Word of the Associated Press reported that evidence suggested that the girls' hands had been bound behind their backs. There was also evidence that the girls had been sexually abused prior to their deaths. However, one of the most vital clues of the investigation was revealed when witnesses claimed to have seen both Jovanna and Surita with a cab driver prior to their disappearance. Word further stated in his article that it was the cab driver clue that linked the case to a man named Paul Durousseau.

Paul Durousseau

Paul Durousseau was born on August 11, 1970 in Beaumont, Texas and moved around frequently throughout his life. To date, little is known about his childhood. What is known is that Paul had a checkered history including, an extensive police record dating back to 1991.

According to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Paul's first known arrests took place in December 1991 and January 1992 for two separate counts of concealment of firearms in California. Paul then enlisted into the United States Army and was temporarily stationed in Germany. While there he met a twenty-one-year old service woman at a nightclub. The two fell in love and married in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1995.

The two were then transferred to Fort Benning, Georgia. It was there that Paul's legal problems began to re-emerge. He was arrested and later acquitted on charges of the 1997 kidnapping and rape of a young woman. One month following his acquittal, a young woman, Tracy Habersham, was found dead, but for some reason, Paul was not a suspect in the crime. According to Ron Word, Paul was found in possession of stolen goods, which led to a court-martial hearing and his being discharged early from the army.

Paul's legal issues put a tremendous strain on his marriage. Following his dishonorable discharge, Paul found it increasingly difficult to find a job. He worked at a series of temporary positions. Yet, it remained difficult for the couple to make ends meet.

1997 was an eventful year for the struggling couple. They relocated to his wife's hometown of Jacksonville, where they moved into an apartment on Moncrief Road. Soon after they welcomed the birth of a new baby girl into the family, which was quickly followed by the birth of another little girl approximately one year later.

Interviews with friends and neighbors of the couple suggested that they continued to experience tremendous marital strain during the late 1990's. According to an article by Dana Treen, Paul was described by acquaintances as a " lewd womanizer" who often fought with his wife over financial problems, his inability to maintain a job and his adulterous behavior. The article stated that Paul frequently made sexually suggestive comments to area women and attempted to seduce young girls in the neighborhood.

On occasion, the couple's marital spats would escalate to the point of physical violence. The Times-Union wrote:

"in August 1999, police told Durousseau's wife, how to seek a domestic violence restraining order after she told them she was slapped and that her husband tried to grab her around the neck in a fight over finances.

"The first time she petitioned for protection came a year later, when Durousseau "became violently angry when I told him that I was planning to file for a divorce," she wrote.

"The violence was ongoing, she wrote in the 2000 petition, and "I am afraid it will escalate," she said.

The injunction was never granted because Paul and his wife came to an agreement to drop the petition. In fact, the problems had already begun to escalate. A month earlier, Paul had been arrested for trespassing on private property.

Then in March 2001 Paul physically assaulted his wife once again. He put his hands around her neck and threatened to kill her. Another injunction was sought.

Friends felt sorry for his wife, who was a very nice person who both worked and went to school.

According to the Paul Durousseau Timeline provided by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the State Attorney's Office, Paul was then arrested and sentenced to one month in jail and two years' probation for the June 2001 rape of a Jacksonville woman. He was then arrested again for physically abusing his wife in August 2001, for which he spent another month and a half behind bars. Paul's criminal files expanded even more following his arrest in April 2002 for burglary, although he was later acquitted of the charge.

By many accounts Paul had a lengthy police record. However, despite the fact that he was a convicted felon, Paul had no difficulty finding temporary work. In August 2001 he worked for several weeks as a school bus driver, as well as in other temporary positions such as an animal control worker. In January 2003 he also worked for Gator City Taxi, a local Jacksonville cab company.

During his job as a cab driver it was believed that Paul became acquainted with many women, including murder victims Cohen and Jefferson. At the time of their murders, Paul was already a leading suspect in the investigation due to his outstanding police record and clues linking him to some of the victims. One important clue came from Jovanna's mother.

According to a First Coast News article dated June 18, 2003, Jovanna was last seen getting into a cab driven by a man referred to as "D". When Jovanna failed to return home, her aunt called her cell phone, which was answered by the cab driver. The man told the aunt that he would return Jovanna soon, yet she never made it back home.

Worried for her daughter, Jovanna's mother went to the cab company to inquire about the man named "D" who had driven her daughter prior to her disappearance. They quickly learned that the driver was Paul Durousseau. The clue was an important lead, however according to Jacksonville Sheriff Nat Glover there was not enough evidence yet available to charge him.

At around the same time, the strains of an unhappy relationship had already taken their toll on the couple. After approximately eight and a half years of marriage, Paul and his wife separated in January 2003. She and the couple's two girls moved to another house in Jacksonville. According to Dana Treen, Paul continued to live at what was once the family's house on Patterson Avenue. However, he spent the majority of his available time at his wife's new house.

On February 6, 2003 during one of his visits to his wife and children, police arrested Paul. Initially he was not charged in any of the murders, although he was considered a key suspect. Instead he was arrested for violation of his probation for the 2001 rape case. While incarcerated in the Duval County Jail, investigators continued to accumulate evidence linking Paul to the murders. It didn't take long for them to hit "pay dirt".

Incriminating Evidence

During the murder investigation, police began to find clear links between Paul and the deaths of Kilpatrick, Williams, McCalister, Jefferson and Cohen. According to News4Jax.com, evidence including DNA sample matches, fiber analysis, cab and cell phone records could all be traced from the victims and crime scenes to Paul.

Some of the evidence included the fibers from a blanket in which Nicole Williams was found, which were later matched with those found in Paul's home. Furthermore, DNA samples taken from some of the crime scenes and victims matched with samples obtained from Paul. Jewelry belonging to Surita and Jovanna was also found during a search of Paul's car and cell phone records from the two girls showed that they called him prior to their disappearance. Moreover, Times-Union staff writer Veronica Chapin states that a bank surveillance tape showed Shawanda drawing money from an automated machine on the day she died, allegedly with Paul's cab in the background.

One of the unique characteristics that linked the murders was that in most of the cases the killer's M.O. was very similar. News4Jax.com stated that the killer used cords such as extension or coaxial cable cords as a ligature around the victims' necks. Sheriff Nat Glover stated that the killer fashioned the cord into a "peculiar slipknot" during his strangulation of the women.

The evidence increasingly supported the investigators' case against Paul. Finally on June 17, 2003 he was charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Nikia Kilpatrick, Shawanda McAlister, Nicole Williams, Surita Cohen and Jovanna Jefferson. Paul also faced two more counts of child abuse against Nikia's two small children, who were left alone in the apartment for up to two days with the decomposing remains of their mother.

Shortly after his arrest, Paul was linked to yet another murder in Columbus, Georgia that took place several years earlier when he was at Fort Benning. In September 1997, Tracy Habersham went missing after attending a party at Fort Benning's NCO Club. A couple of days following her disappearance, a man walking his dog found her nude body in a ditch in the area where Tracy grew up. She had been strangled. The murder case remained unsolved for years until after Paul's arrest on February 6, 2003.

According to a June 19, 2003 First Coast News article, the profile of Habersham's murder was similar to the deaths of the five Jacksonville victims, prompting a further analysis of the case. DNA samples from Tracy's body were obtained and compared with samples taken from the other murders. Investigators quickly learned that the same person who was responsible for the deaths of the five Jacksonville women and the two unborn children was also responsible for Tracy's murder.

According Fox News, the authorities stated that most of the women had been sexually assaulted. However, they would not reveal if Tracy had also been sexually abused. Ron Word of Associated Press wrote that warrants for Paul's arrest in connection with Tracy's murder were pending in Georgia. It was suggested in the article that if Paul was found guilty of the Florida murders, it was likely that he would never be directly tried for the murder of Tracy.

Building a Case

First Coast News reported on August 26, 2003 that Paul Durousseau had been arrested in the 1999 murder of Tyresa Mack, a mother of three. The DNA at the scene of the crime matched with samples of Durousseau's. Prosecutors believe that they have a very strong case against Durousseau to take to court.

On August 11, prosecutors confirmed that they would seek the death penalty in the trial of Durousseau. The court set his pretrial hearing for mid September.

Several days following his arrest, a grand jury indicted Paul for five counts of first-degree murder and the two counts of child abuse. News4Jax stated that the indictment was essential if the state were to seek the death penalty. State Attorney Harry Shorstein prosecuting the case against Paul was was believed to have welcomed the indictment, which would facilitate his plea for the death penalty at the upcoming trial.

Although Shorstein plans to seek the death penalty, he stated that he will not pursue the matter of fetal rights. According to an article by Paul Pinkham, it is believed that charging Paul with the deaths of the unborn children would likely cause more complications in the case. Shorstein states in the article that pursuing the matter, " would have a tendency to interject an ancilliary issue that could have a negative impact on the legal process down the road".

The Business Journal in Jacksonville reported that the parents of three of the victims have filed suit against Gator City Taxi. The parents' suit contends that their daughters were murdered because the cab company failed to perform an adequate background check when hiring accused serial killer Paul Durousseau to drive a cab.

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