In the spring of 1998, the life of 32-year-old Kathleen Bracken was tragically cut short in Mobile, Alabama. Her body was discovered on the evening of April 11th or the early morning of April 12th at the Twilight Motel. An investigation quickly determined that she had been asphyxiated and stabbed to death. The scene also indicated that she had been sexually assaulted.
Investigators learned that Bracken had been working for an escort service and had an appointment with a man named
"Patrick" the night she was killed. A description of this man provided by one of Bracken's coworkers led police to Gerald Patrick Lewis. He was arrested for Bracken's murder just three days later, on April 14, 1998. Evidence collected from the motel room, including a DNA sample from a cigarette butt, definitively linked Lewis to the crime.
During questioning, Lewis not only confessed to the murder of Kathleen Bracken but also admitted to a string of other killings. His confession unraveled a dark history of violence that spanned multiple states and more than a decade. For the murder of Kathleen Bracken, Gerald Patrick Lewis was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was also sentenced to death for the murder of another woman in Alabama, Misty McGugin, and confessed to killing at least two women in Georgia. Lewis died in prison in 2009.
