Paul Durousseau: The Jacksonville Strangler
Overview
Paul Durousseau is an American serial killer whose crimes were committed in Georgia and Florida between 1997 and 2003. Often called the “Jacksonville Strangler” or the “Cabbie Killer,” he was linked to the deaths of seven young women. Two of the victims were pregnant, and several were mothers of small children.
Durousseau repeatedly targeted young Black women, gained access to them through personal contact or employment, and attacked them in locations where they were isolated. Most of the victims were strangled with cords or other common household items. DNA evidence, witness statements, similarities between the crime scenes, and Durousseau’s connections to the victims eventually allowed investigators to identify a pattern among cases that had initially been examined separately.
Background and Military Service
Paul Durousseau was born on August 11, 1970, in Beaumont, Texas. He spent much of his childhood in California and later worked as a security guard. In November 1992, he enlisted in the United States Army. While stationed in Germany, he met Natoca, another soldier whom he later married. The couple subsequently moved to Fort Benning, Georgia, where Durousseau was stationed during the mid-1990s.
Durousseau’s military career ended after he was accused of misconduct and found in possession of stolen property. He was court-martialed and discharged from the Army in 1999. German authorities later reviewed unsolved killings and disappearances from the period when he was stationed there, although no German homicide was conclusively attributed to him.
After leaving the Army, Durousseau moved to Jacksonville, Florida. He held several jobs, including work as a security guard, tire-store employee and taxi driver. His employment placed him in regular contact with women and allowed him to travel throughout Jacksonville without attracting immediate suspicion.
Pattern of the Crimes
Durousseau’s known victims were young women between the ages of 17 and 26. Investigators found significant similarities among the Jacksonville killings. Several victims were discovered partially undressed in or near their bedrooms, with cords wrapped around their necks. Some had been bound, and evidence indicated that sexual assaults had occurred.
The apartments connected to several victims were located within a relatively small area near the St. Johns River. Durousseau’s DNA was recovered in multiple investigations, but his fingerprints were generally absent from the scenes. Prosecutors argued that this combination demonstrated both a consistent method and an effort to avoid leaving readily identifiable evidence.
Confirmed and Attributed Victims
- Tracy Habersham, 26 — September 5, 1997 — Fort Benning, Georgia: Habersham was last seen leaving a gathering near Fort Benning. Her nude body was discovered on September 7, approximately two days after she disappeared. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with a cord. Durousseau was not initially considered a suspect, but DNA evidence later connected him to the crime. Following his arrest in Florida, he reportedly confessed to killing Habersham.
- Tyresa Mack, 24 — July 26, 1999 — Jacksonville, Florida: Mack spent part of the morning applying for jobs with a friend. Witnesses later saw Durousseau at her apartment, and one person observed him carrying a television from the residence to a red automobile. Mack was last heard from during a telephone call at approximately 1:25 p.m. Her sister and stepfather found her body that evening in her apartment on Florida Avenue. A cord was wrapped around her neck, and the medical examiner determined that she died from asphyxia. Durousseau’s DNA was recovered, and he was ultimately convicted of Mack’s murder.
- Nichole Lashawn Williams, 18 — December 19, 2002 — Jacksonville, Florida: Williams disappeared shortly before her body was found wrapped in a blue blanket in a ditch. Investigators determined that she had been strangled. Durousseau was later indicted for her murder after authorities connected the case to the other Jacksonville strangulations through forensic evidence and similarities in the method of attack.
- Nikia Shanell Kilpatrick, 20 — January 1, 2003 — Jacksonville, Florida: Kilpatrick was approximately six months pregnant and lived with her two young sons. When relatives became concerned because they had not heard from her, they went to her apartment and found her body in the bedroom. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with an electrical cord. Her children, ages two years and eleven months, had been left inside the residence and were found alive but in need of food and care. DNA evidence linked Durousseau to Kilpatrick.
- Shawanda Denise McCalister, 20 — January 10, 2003 — Jacksonville, Florida: McCalister was a certified nursing assistant and was pregnant when she was killed in her apartment. She was found partially undressed near her bedroom with a cord around her neck. The arrangement of the scene closely resembled the Kilpatrick and Mack homicides. Durousseau’s DNA was recovered, and prosecutors later used evidence from McCalister’s murder to demonstrate his distinctive pattern during the Mack trial.
- Jovanna Tyrica Jefferson, 17 — approximately January 20, 2003 — Jacksonville, Florida: Jefferson disappeared after reportedly being seen with a taxi driver matching Durousseau’s description. Her body was discovered on February 5 in a drainage ditch near a construction area along New Kings Road. Investigators believed she had been dead for approximately two weeks. She had been strangled, and evidence linked her death to the same series of attacks.
- Surita Ann Cohen, 19 — approximately January 30, 2003 — Jacksonville, Florida: Cohen was also reportedly seen with a taxi driver before she disappeared. Her body was found on February 5 in the same New Kings Road area where Jefferson was located. The women had been left close to one another, although investigators believed Cohen was killed roughly ten days after Jefferson. Cohen’s murder became one of the five Jacksonville homicide charges filed against Durousseau in June 2003.
The Taxi Connection
Durousseau’s work as a taxi driver became an important part of the investigation. A cab driver could approach women without immediately appearing threatening, obtain information about where they lived and transport them without attracting attention. Witnesses reported seeing Jefferson and Cohen with a taxi driver matching Durousseau’s appearance shortly before their disappearances.
McCalister was killed during the period when Durousseau had begun driving for a Jacksonville taxi company. Investigators examined his work history, routes, personal contacts and access to the neighborhoods where the victims lived. The taxi connection helped explain how one offender could encounter women from different social circles while moving freely throughout the city.
Investigation and Arrest
The killings were not immediately recognized as the work of one offender. The victims were found at different times and in different locations, and some had personal circumstances that initially led investigators to examine unrelated possibilities. The similarities became increasingly difficult to dismiss as more young women were strangled and DNA evidence pointed toward the same man.
On June 19, 2003, Durousseau was indicted for the first-degree murders of Nichole Williams, Nikia Kilpatrick, Shawanda McCalister, Jovanna Jefferson and Surita Cohen. Investigators then reviewed additional Jacksonville homicides displaying comparable characteristics. That process led them to Tyresa Mack’s 1999 murder.
Durousseau initially denied knowing Mack. The forensic evidence, however, showed that he had been with her shortly before her death. Witnesses placed him at the apartment, and testimony indicated that he had removed Mack’s television. He was separately indicted for her murder on September 4, 2003.
Trial for the Murder of Tyresa Mack
Durousseau’s trial for Mack’s murder began in May 2007. His defense acknowledged that he had engaged in sexual activity with Mack but claimed that she was alive when he left and that an unknown person killed her afterward. Prosecutors countered with forensic evidence showing that the sexual contact occurred within hours of her death.
The prosecution also introduced evidence concerning the murders of Nikia Kilpatrick and Shawanda McCalister. The three women were of similar age and appearance, lived within a limited geographic area and were found partially undressed with household cords around their necks. Each died from asphyxia, and Durousseau’s DNA was associated with each scene.
Witness testimony placed Durousseau at Mack’s apartment during his lunch break on July 26, 1999. A witness saw him carrying a television from the apartment and placing it in a red car matching a vehicle he owned. Mack’s television and jewelry were missing when her body was discovered. On June 8, 2007, the jury found Durousseau guilty of first-degree murder.
Sentencing and Later Proceedings
The jury recommended a death sentence by a vote of 10–2, and Durousseau was sentenced to death in 2007. After the Mack conviction, prosecutors dismissed the remaining five Jacksonville murder counts rather than conducting additional trials. The dismissals did not represent findings that Durousseau was uninvolved; authorities continued to identify the women as victims linked to him through DNA, circumstantial evidence and a shared method of killing.
In 2017, the Florida Supreme Court overturned Durousseau’s death sentence because the jury recommendation had not been unanimous. His conviction for Mack’s murder remained intact. During a new sentencing proceeding, another jury voted 10–2 in favor of death, which was insufficient under the revised requirement. On December 10, 2021, Durousseau was resentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Unresolved Suspicions
After Durousseau was identified, investigators examined unsolved cases in every location where he had lived or served, including California, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma and Germany. His military service and frequent moves created the possibility that additional crimes had occurred outside Jacksonville.
Despite those reviews, the seven women listed above remain the victims most consistently and directly attributed to him. Only Tyresa Mack’s case resulted in a completed murder trial and conviction. Tracy Habersham’s killing was supported by DNA evidence and Durousseau’s reported confession, while the other five Jacksonville victims were named in the multi-count indictment that preceded the Mack prosecution.
Legacy of the Case
The investigation demonstrated the difficulty of recognizing serial violence when victims are discovered across separate jurisdictions or when their cases are initially treated as unrelated crimes. Durousseau exploited ordinary employment, personal familiarity and the appearance of trustworthiness to approach women who did not necessarily realize they were in danger.
The murders also left several children without their mothers. Kilpatrick’s sons were abandoned in the apartment with her body, while Mack’s children were left waiting at daycare after she failed to arrive. The deaths of Kilpatrick and McCalister additionally resulted in the loss of their unborn children.
Paul Durousseau remains imprisoned for life without parole. His conviction rests on the murder of Tyresa Mack, but the complete investigative record portrays a broader sequence of killings that began in Georgia in 1997 and ended after a concentrated series of murders in Jacksonville during the winter of 2002 and 2003.
