New Orleans Serial Killer/Josiah Lawson

The heartbeat of the city of New Orleans is its raucous French Quarter, where great music, street celebrations, and Cajun cooking sometimes overshadow a more unsavory side of the city. On August 4, 1991, in Algiers, across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter, a lone recycler gleaned what he could along Nevada Street, a narrow, deserted city road that was often used illegally as a dump site. He had no idea he was about to launch one of the city’s most complex murder investigations. When he picked up a piece of garbage, he discovered the body of a young woman.

The body was identified as seventeen-year-old Danielle Britton, who lived nearby in Gretna with her mother. She had been strangled and possibly raped approximately twelve hours earlier. At first glance, her murder seemed to be an isolated incident. But the reality was far more sinister. She may have been the victim of a serial killer who preys on women he believes are prostitutes. By some chilling estimate, more than a hundred serial killers roam the streets of America at any given moment. Police are usually left to gather clues only from the silent testimony of gruesome crime scenes. But the New Orleans case would be different.