Body of missing Louisiana State student found in area of recent serial killings

Friday, March 14th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ The body of a missing Louisiana State University student was found in the area where a woman murdered by a serial killer was discovered last year, the student's professor said.

The student's death has not been linked to the killer, who has murdered four women since September 2001, but a task force investigating the murders has been aiding the investigation.

Results of an autopsy were expected Friday morning.

The Baton Rouge Advocate reported Friday that Carrie Lynn Yoder's doctoral professor and mentor, Bill Platt, was sitting with Yoder's parents Thursday evening when what he called ``official sources'' relayed the news.

Platt said pieces of identification the family provided to police were used to tentatively identify the body.

``They have essentially indicated that it is Carrie,'' Platt said. ``We are very certain of who the body is.''

The body was found Thursday in a marshy area west of Baton Rouge in the Atchafalaya River Basin _ the same area where the serial killer's victim was found.

Multi-Agency Homicide Task Force spokeswoman Mary Ann Godawa would not confirm whether the body found was Yoder's.

The 26-year-old graduate ecology student has been missing since March 3.

The serial killer has been linked to the four victims, all southeast Louisiana women, by DNA evidence.

Yoder disappeared from her home just off the LSU campus the day before Mardi Gras. Her boyfriend reported her missing two days later.