1996 cold case killings of 2 campers at Shenandoah National Park solved, FBI says, pointing to serial rapist

Richmond, Virginia. – Nearly three decades after two young women were found with their throats slit in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, federal authorities announced Thursday that they have identified a now-deceased Ohio serial rapist as the person they believe him to be. responsible for the murders.

The bodies of Julianne “Julie” Williams, 24, and her partner, Laura “Lollie” Winans, 26, were found bound and gagged at their campsite in the park in 1996. The murders sent a wave of fear through the LGBTQ+ community, but the FBI said during a press conference on Thursday that there is no evidence that women have been targeted because of their sexual orientation.

The long-unsolved murders were reviewed by a new investigative team starting in 2021, said Stanley Meador, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Richmond office. Recently, a private laboratory took DNA from several pieces of evidence at the crime scene and sent the genetic profile to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, a database used by law enforcement agencies to match DNA to a criminal suspect. .

They got a positive match with Walter “Leo” Jackson Sr., a convicted rapist originally from the Cleveland, Ohio area. Meador said the FBI obtained DNA from the original swab taken from Jackson when he was accused of another rape in Ohio, which confirmed the match. He said recent DNA testing found there was only a one in 2.6 trillion chance that the DNA found at the crime scene came from someone other than Jackson.

This week, FBI officials were able to tell the families of the two women who they believe committed the murders, Meador said.

“They’ve been looking for answers for a long time.” Meador said.

Jackson, who worked as a house painter, died in prison in 2018 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, at age 70. He served at least four separate prison terms after being convicted of kidnapping and several rapes and assaults.

Recent retesting of crime scene evidence showed that both Williams and Winans were sexually assaulted, said Christopher Kavanaugh, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. Kavanaugh said authorities investigated whether the rapes and murders could be considered hate crimes. But he said they found no evidence that Jackson knew about their sexual orientation or attacked them for that reason.

“Make no mistake, this crime was brutal, this crime was definitely heinous, yet we have no evidence” that the crime was motivated by anti-gay bias, Kavanaugh said.

“No matter how long it takes, we don’t give up” WTVR, CBS Richmond affiliate, cited Kavanaugh as saying. “If he were alive today, we would seek a single indictment of defendant charging Walter ‘Leo’ Jackson Sr. with these crimes.”

Authorities were vague when asked whether the same DNA test could have been done years ago and identified the suspect earlier.

In 2001, authorities arrested another man involved in the murders. Darrell David Rice, a Maryland computer programmer, was charged with capital murder, and authorities alleged that he chose Williams and Winans because of their hatred of women and gays.

Rice pleaded guilty in 1998 to the attempted kidnapping of a bicyclist he tried to force into his truck, also in Shenandoah National Park. He was serving an 11-year prison sentence when he was accused of killing WIlliams and Winans. The charges were eventually dropped after forensic tests showed that hair found at the crime scene ruled him out as a possible suspect.

Williams, who was from St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Winans, who grew up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, were experienced hikers and passionate about environmental issues, Kavanaugh said. They were walking a golden retriever named Taj when they were last seen by park staff on May 24, 1996. Their bodies were discovered on June 1, 1996, at their campsite near the Skyline Resort.

Meador said the FBI continues to work with other law enforcement agencies to determine whether Jackson is responsible for other unsolved crimes.

“Our investigation will not stop,” he said.