FBI identifies serial rapist as person responsible for 1996 Shenandoah National Park killings
RICHMOND, Va. — 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 serial rapist from Ohio as the person they believe is responsible for the killings.
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 killings sent a wave of fear through the LGBTQ+ community, but the FBI said at a press conference Thursday that there is no evidence the women were 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 extracted DNA from several pieces of crime scene evidence 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 had a positive match with Walter “Leo” Jackson Sr., a convicted rapist originally from the Cleveland, Ohio area. Meador said the FBI then obtained DNA from the original swab taken from Jackson when he was charged with another rape in Ohio, which confirmed the match. He said recent DNA testing has shown there is 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 they believe committed the murders, Meador said.
“They’ve been looking for answers for far too long.” Meador said.
Jackson, who worked as a house painter, died in 2018 at the age of 70 in prison in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. He had served at least four separate prison sentences after being convicted of kidnapping and multiple rapes and sexual assaults.
Recent retesting of crime scene evidence showed that both Williams and Winans were sexually assaulted, said Christopher Kavanaugh, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. Kavanaugh said authorities were investigating 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 that they had attacked them for that reason.
“Make no mistake, this crime was brutal, this crime was absolutely hateful, and yet we have no evidence whatsoever” that the crime was motivated by anti-gay bias, Kavanaugh said.
Authorities were vague when asked if the same DNA test could have been done years ago and identified the suspect earlier.
In 2001, authorities arrested another man in the murders. Darrell David Rice, a computer programmer from Maryland, was charged with murder, and authorities alleged that he singled out Williams and Winans because of his hatred of women and gays.
Rice had pleaded guilty in 1998 to the attempted kidnapping of a female cyclist whom he tried to force into his truck, also in Shenandoah National Park. He was serving an eleven-year prison sentence when he was charged with the murders of WIlliams and Winans. The charges were eventually dropped after forensic examination showed that hairs found at the crime scene ruled him out as a possible suspect.
Williams, a native of St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Winans, who grew up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, were both 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 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.