Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 16:37:20 -0500 (CDT) Sender: at-l@patsy.hack.net From: Marshall DeBerry (mdb@access.digex.net) This long article (~208 lines), with a sidebar item, appeared in the Washington DC newspaper "The Washington Blade", a newsweekly for the Gay and Lesbian community of the DC area. It is dated June 7, 1996, vol 27, no. 24, and appeared on the front page. I would just like to echo Kathy's comments, in that as time goes by, and no new information is forthcoming, it will become increasingly difficult to solve this case. I appologize for the length, but perhaps there might be some useful information that might jog someone's thoughts regarding possible clues in this hiking community murder. As noted before, the toll free number to call if anyone has any informaton is 888-856-2467. Marshall "Tarkus" ------------------------------------ Lesbian hikers found slain in national park Couple planned to live together by Sue Fox Wendy Johnson and Kristina Campbell contributed to this report. The two female hikers slain in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park were Lesbians who were romantically involved, according to sources who knew Julianne Williams, 24, of Burlington, VT., and Lollie Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine. Investigators of the double murder would not say whether they are pursuing any Gay-related motives or angles in the unsolved case, said Shenandoah National Park spokesperson Paul Pfenninger. Park rangers found the bodies of Williams and Winans at a backcountry campsite near the Appalachian Trail at approximately 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 1, the day after William's father reported the women missing. The bodies of the hikers, who had planned a five-day hike through the park, were found near Skyland Lodge, along Skyline Drive near Luray, Va. According to the medical examiner, the cause of death for both women was "an incised wound to the neck." People who worked at a Burlington bookstore with Williams, a 1994 graduate of Carleton Colege in Minnesota, knew she was a Lesbian, but few others did, according to a coworker and friend of Williams who spoke to the Blade on the condition of anonymity. "A lot of people here don't know about that part of her," said the coworker. "...Yeah, people at work knew." The coworker also said that Williams and Winans were "having a relationship." Rebecca Strader, the Presbyterian minister of a "More Light" congregation, known for its welcoming attitude toward Lesbians and Gay men, said that Williams attended services at her church on the campus of the Universty of Vermont. "I did know, yes" that Williams was a Lesbian, Strader said, adding that she felt ambivalent about what to say. "She wasn't out to everyone. ...She was not out to her parents, but I'm sure they know now." Strader said she, too, knew that Williams and Winans "had a relationship." "I assumed that they defined themselves that way--they were getting ready to move in together," said Strader. Members of a Gay organization in Vermont said that Williams was also a member. A friend of Winans in Maine, who spoke to the Blade on the condition of anonymity, confirmed Winans and Williams were lovers. "They were really important to each other and wanted to deepen what they had," the friend added. "...I'm getting really frustrated that [their Lesbian relationship] is not coming out [in the mainstream press]. But there's been concern about outing them. People have been hoping it would go through word of mouth in the Gay community." Williams and Winans had planned to move in together this summer in Huntington, Vt., according to the Burlington Free Press, a daily newspaper in Vermont. The investigation into the murders is being jointly conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Virginia State Police, and criminal investigators from the National Park Service. Many local law enforcement officials are also providing support, according to park spokesperson Pfenninger. Pfenninger, who is acting as the public information officer on this incident, told the Blade that he asked investigators whether they were examining any Gay-related angles but was told they would not comment on whether the murders could have been bias-motivated. "I asked [investigators] the question and they said they just can't talk about the investigation," Pfenninger said. "I explained why I needed to know, that the Gay and Lesbian community was concerned. ..One [investigator] I did talk to directly said we didn't have any evidence of that sort ... that they were Lesbians." Park officials said Tuesday that the slayings were "an isolated incident." According to the Washington Post, Pfenninger said that "something [investigators] found at the site led them to believe it was an isolated incident," but he would not say what this evidence was. Pfenninger later said that park officials "do not know" if the murder or murderers will strike again, according to the Post, and by Wednesday, park officials were passing out fliers about the murder and warning campers to be careful. Pfenninger said he used the phrase "isolated incident" to mean investigators have no similar crimes at national parks to link the murders to. "I think the term 'isolated' is what everyone's getting hung up on," he told the Blade Thursday. "This particular case does not resemble any of the evidence [from] any other cases in the country. I think it was just a bad choice of words." John Donahue, spokesperson for the FBI's Richmond office, did not return a reporter's numerous telephone calls. The Burlington Free Press reported Thursday that Donahue discounted a theory that the women might have been targeted because the killer believed they were Lesbians. "There has been no indication that this is a hate crime of any particular type," Donahue said, according to the Free Press. Tracy Conaty, a field organizer the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force who is an expert on anti-Gay violence issues, said she had spoken with Donahue. According to Conaty, Donahue "said that they are looking at all the aspects. He did not understand why there was such a response from the Gay and Lesbian community [about the murders]. He said he's gotten over 200 phone calls since the murders." According to friends and coworkers, both Williams and Winans were very active in the outdoors and shared an interest in women's issues. They met in the summer of 1995 while working at the Minneapolis-based organization Woodswomen Inc., a group that provides outdoor education for women, according to its executive director Denise Mitten. Winans's dream, according to Mitten, was to create an outdoor program to provide "healing experiences" for women who had been abused. Winans was studying outdoor recreation at Unity College in Maine, where she had organized a wilderness canoe trip for women, according to college spokesperson Heidi Brugger. Williams was also an accomplished outdoor leader who left "a lasting legacy" at the geology department of Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., said a faculty member. A geology major who graduated in 1994, Williams conducted groundbreaking research on the "classroom climate" for women studying geology. "She did a paper on our department [asking] whether it was as successful at attracting women scientists as it could be," according to geology professor Mary Savina. The Shenandoah slayings reminded many Gay activists of another attack on a Lesbian couple eight years ago. In May 1988, a 28-year-old Lesbian was fatally shot while camping with her lover near the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. The victim, Rebecca Wight of Blacksburg, Va., was camping with her lover Claudia Brenner, 31, when the two were ambushed by Stephen Roy Carr, 28, who reportedly lived in an electricity- equipped cave nearby. According to testimony provided by Brenner at a preliminary hearing, Carr surprised the two women after dark, shooting them while they were engaged in sex. Brenner, who was seriously wounded in the shooting, also testified that the women believed they were alone in the woods but that they had seen Carr at their campsite earlier that day and deliberately relocated in an effort to seek privacy. Carr was later convicted of first-degree murder in the Adams County Court of Common Pleas in Gettysburg, Pa. He was sentenced the following year to life in prison without the possibility of parole. "I feel like [Julianne Willliams] was just getting her life together," said Stradler, whose church will hold a memorial for Williams on Sunday. "I'm reluctant to violate her reticence [to be openly Lesbian] and I want to be honest about who she was. It's important to celebrate who she was." ------------------------------------------------ Since 1986, five couples slain in national parks by Lisa Keen A Shenandoah National Park spokesperson said this week the murder of two women near Skyline Drive last week was an "isolated incident." He said something found at the site of the murders led investigators to this conclusion, though he refused to say what was found. But there is reason to believe the murders may not be "isolated." At least four other couples have been murdered on park land in Virginia since 1986. Three of those four were at or very near know Gay cruising areas. On of those four involved a female couple who, like the Skyline pair, were found with their throats slit. In October 1986, the bodies of two athletic women, also in their 20's, were found with their throats slit on federal property known as the Colonial Parkway near Williamsburg, Va. The ara was popular with couples as a "lovers' lane" site and was also situated very near a place known to be popular with Gay couples. There were no signs that the women had struggled against their killer or killers and no sign of drug or alcohol use. Their bodies were fully clothed and there were no signs of sexual assault. Police ruled out robbery as a motive because their money was still with them. Their bodies were found in the back of a car belonging to one of the women; the car had been pushed down an embankment and into some thick shrubbery. Police found evidence that someone had attempted to ignite the vehicle. Three other couples, all heterosexual, were found murdered in somewhat similar circumstances in the eastern Virgina area in 1987, 1988, and 1989. In 1987, a couple was found on Ragged Island, a place known for Gay cruising near the James River in the Newport News area. In 1988, another couple's bodies were never found but their car was discovered at a pull-off along the same Colonial Parkway and about two to three miles from where the female couple's bodies were found. And in 1989, a couple's car was found at a reststop on Interstate 64 between Richmond and Williamsburg and their bodies were found buried nearby. The reststop had been the site of a brutal murder of a male nurse in 1986 by a group of Navy sailors. The FBI investigated the murders but never indentified suspects. -----End of Article(s)-------------