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Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge
*** Note -- since my earlier post at 9:45 the 10 o'clock news added another confirmed victim to the list accrued by this man. **
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Gillis Confesses To Another Murder
www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=1831138
Lillian Gorham Robinson
After continued questioning, sources tell 9 News that Sean Vincent Gillis has confessed to yet another killing. Sources say Gillis has confessed to killing prostitute Lillian Gorham Robinson. Robinson's family members say they've now been told Gillis confessed to killing 51-year-old Lillian after police showed them her picture. This comes just hours after the Joint Homicide Task Force says Gillis confessed to the murders of 81-year-old Ann Bryan and 52-year-old Hardee Schmidt.
Gillis was arrested Thursday and charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of ritualistic acts in the murders of 29-year-old Katherine Hall, 45-year-old Johnnie May Williams and 43-year-old Donna Bennett Johnston. Detectives have conclusively connected Gillis to these three murders through a voluntary DNA sample.
Lillian Robinson turned up missing in January of 2000. Months later, someone found her body in the Atchafaylaya Basin near Whiskey Bay, just two miles from where Pam Kinamore's body was recovered. Lillian had been strangled and thrown off from bridge. The coroner's office says she also showed signs of drowning.
Authorities are now testing evidence in the murders to which Gillis has confessed. Those confessions include graphic details described in arrest warrants released Friday.
According to the arrest warrant, Gillis told detectives he went to St. James Place in the early morning of March 21st, 1994. The warrant says Gillis told detectives he entered Ann Bryan's home to rape the 81 year old, but she started screaming when he touched her. Gillis then told detectives he cut her throat to stop her screaming and began stabbing her. The warrant says Gillis gave them details about this elderly woman's death only the killer could know.
The description of what the killer did to Hardee Schmidt is far more graphic. Detectives say Hardee was abducted while jogging in the Perkins Road/Quail Run area on May 30, 1999. Her body was dumped into a St. James Parish bayou back in May of 1999. Gillis now has additional charges of first degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and stalking in the Hardee Schmidt case and first degree murder in the Ann Bryan case.
The arrest affidavit sheds new light on both crimes. It says that in May of 1999, Gillis saw Hardee jogging in the south Baton Rouge area and then spent the following three weeks driving around the area looking for her. It was about 5:30 in Sunday morning, May 30, 1999 when Gillis was driving on Quail Run Drive and first saw Hardee jogging. The affidavit says he hit her with his vehicle and knocked her into a ditch. It says Gillis got out of his vehicle armed with heavy duty wire plastic wrap, placed the wrap around her neck and pulled it tight. Gillis then forced her into his vehicle, drove to a park in the Highland Road area, removed her clothes and sexually assaulted her.
The affidavit says Gillis then placed her dead, naked body into the trunk of his vehicle and drove to his house. According to that affidavit, Gillis waited until the next day to drive to Highway 61 in St. James Parish and dump Hardee's body into a bayou. Her body was found June 1st--two days after her murder.
Gillis is now officially charged with the murders of five women. Sources tell 9-News he has confessed to eight. While authorities won't talk about any specific cases, Lieuntenant Colonel Greg Phares says investigators will continue to look into the possibility of Gillis's involvement in other unsolved murders in the Baton Rouge Metro and surrounding areas. Both Phares and Baton Rouge Police Chief Pat Englade say the investigation will not be limited and they will go back as far as they can to determine exactly how many murders are linked to Gillis.
"We're going to be very careful not to say anything that would muddy the waters for a successful prosecution of Sean Gillis," said Phares.