BATON ROUGE, La. -- At a news conference Tuesday in Baton Rouge, La., police announced that the murder of Louisiana State University graduate student Carrie Lynn Yoder has been linked to the south Louisiana serial killer.

Yoder, 26, disappeared March 3 from her home near the LSU campus. Her body was discovered March 13 near Whiskey Bay, the same area where the body of another serial killer victim was found eight months ago.

The East Baton Rouge Parish coroner's office listed Yoder's cause of death as asphyxiation.

No other details about the crime or the condition of the body were provided. Yoder is the fifth known victim linked through DNA to one killer.

Serial killer task force spokeswoman Cpl. Mary Ann Godawa said police were urging women to take measures to protect themselves, including taking a self-defense course being offered by Baton Rouge police.

"We want to stress to the women of Baton Rouge the importance of exercising caution in every aspect of their lives," Godawa said. "It is absolutely necessary that we not only watch out for ourselves, but we must also watch out for each other."

The news conference was attended by FBI Special Agent-In-Charge Kenneth Kaiser, U.S. Attorney David Dugas and Gov. Mike Foster, among others.

Dugas and Kaiser stressed that the federal agencies they represent are deeply involved in the investigation, and both expressed confidence in the ability of task force to solve the case.

"I want to assure the public that even with the looming war and the war on terrorism, that the FBI has resources committed on a full-time basis to the task force," Kaiser said. "I have been in contact with and have briefed the director of the FBI several times, and he's asked me if the FBI in Louisiana is fully engaged in the task force, and we are.

"Not only do we have agents full time assigned to the task force, but we have our two senior profilers in the Behavioral Science Unit back at FBI headquarters that are assigned to the case. They have reviewed the case files, they have reviewed the crime scenes, they have looked at all the forensic evidence and they are assisting the task force.

"In addition, our Violent Criminal Apprehension Program has provided a crime analysis and is helping the task force. ...I will tell you that this task force is doing everything possible to solve this crime."

Meanwhile, a North Carolina investigative psychologist claims crime scene locations can pinpoint where the Louisiana serial killer may live, and he said he hopes detectives take notice of the geographic profile he has constructed.

Dr. Maurice Godwin said his work predicts that the serial killer likely lives closer to the victims than police might suspect.

Godwin put his geographic profile together several months ago, but he said the serial killer task force wasn't interested in it. Now, another woman has been murdered in an area where Godwin predicts the killer lives.

Godwin's profile is based on where the serial killer's victims lived and where their bodies were found. In his analysis of the cases, Godwin believes the killer's home is near LSU.

"Around the College Town and the University Lake area, specifically around West Lakeshore Drive," Godwin said.

Two of the killer's victims, Murray Pace and Gina Green, were murdered in their homes near LSU. The third victim, Pam Kinamore, lived further east. She was taken from her home and found in Iberville Parish. Dene Colomb, the killer's fourth victim, was from Lafayette. Her body was found in Scott. Yoder lived just blocks from Pace and Green.

Godwyn said the crime scenes form a significant triangular shape.

"He's probably been travelling this area for years, going to visit relatives, going shopping, his work, travels, whatever," Godwin said. "That's the reason he knows this only limited, narrow, triangle-shaped pattern, and it runs from Baton Rouge down toward Whiskey Bay down toward Lafayette."

Godwyn said he doesn't think it's coincidence that Yoder was abducted from the same area where Pace and Green were killed, nor does he find it coincidence that Yoder's body was found in the same place as Kinamore's eight months earlier. The difference, he said, is that Yoder was found in water, while Kinamore was found on shore -- a sign that the killer may be responding to detective's reports that they are only connecting murders linked by DNA. The reports may be pushing the killer to get rid of that evidence.

"I stated several times on radio, TV and on my Web site -- even as far back as months ago -- that future victims would be found in water. This is based on years of research."