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This article appeared in Thursday's (July 25, 1996) Metro section of the
Washington Post on page B3.
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             FBI Compares Slaying in Shenandoah to '86 Colonial Parkway Deaths

  An FBI official said yesterday that the agency is studying similarites
between the killings in May of two female hikers in Shenandoah National
Park and a decade-old double homicide in eastern Virginia to determine
whether the two might be connected. 

  Bo McFarland, special supervisory agent in the FBI's Norfolk office,
said that no clear connection has been established between the two but
that "the FBI has noted the similarities as just one aspect of the case. 
We're trying to pursue every angle possible." 

  On June 1, park rangers discovered the bodies of hikers Julianne
Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn., and Lollie Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine,
at a remote campsite near the busy Skyland Lodge off Skyline Drive.  Their
throats had been slashed, and the FBI revealed last week that both women's
wrists had been bound. 

  McFarland said FBI investigators are reviewing evidence to see whether
there are links to the October 1986 killings of Rebecca A. Dowski and
Cathleen M. Thomas, whose bodies were found on the Colonial Parkway in
eastern Virginia.  Dowski's and Thomas's wrists also were bound and their
throats were slashed. 

  In both cases, investigators said, no evidence of robbery was discovered.  
Police said they found no evidence of sexual assault in the Colonial Parkway 
case.  The FBI has declined to say whether the Shenandoah victims were sexually
assaulted.
 
 If a direct connection is found, the Shenandoah case would mark the
latest twist in what the FBI and Virginia State Police believe may be a
serial murder case. It started with the deaths of Thomas and Dowski and
involved three additional double homicides on the Colonial Parkway from
1987 through 1989. 

  McFarland said investigations of those cases yielded several suspects
over the intervening years but not enough evidence to make an arrest.