From Mbockjones@aol.com Fri Jul 26 08:24:49 1996 Subject: Murder of hikers may be linked to 10-year-old case, Washington Blade The Washington Blade 26 July 1996 -- Vol. 27, No. 30 by Sue Fox and Lisa Keen Murder of Hikers May Be Linked to 10-Year-Old Case FBI: Shenandoah killings may involve more than one assailant. New information emerged this week about the investigation of the double-murder of a Lesbian couple camping in Shenandoah National Park two months ago. An FBI agent investigating the case said the women's wrists were bound, indicating that whoever killed the most likely went to the women's secluded campsite with the intention of murdering them. Another FBI spokesperson said this week that the agency believes that the murders may have been committed by more than one assailant. And another FBI spokesperson confirmed this week that the agency is "considering the possibility" that the Shenandoah murders "might be" connected to the murder of a female couple on federal park land in Virginia 10 years ago. Appearing on a segment of America's Most Wanted television program on Saturday, July 20, FBI investigator Bill Falls called the Shenandoah murders "brutal" and "cold- blooded" and said that the assailant appeared to kill without remorse. The bodies of Julianne Williams, 24, and Lollie Winans, 26, were found on June 1, with their wrists bound and their throats slashed. In an interview with the Blade this week, FBI agent John Donahue, who serves as spokesperson for the FBI's Richmond, VA., office, said the FBI believes the murders "could have been committed by more than one person." If the women were killed by a lone assailant, Donahue said, "that person would have to have been very strong to have controlled the situation." Asked what he meant by "controlled," Donahue explained that "both of the women were experienced hikers, in excellent shape, well=conditioned. ... They were independent, confident, accomplished hikers. That brings us to the conclusion that more than one person could have been responsible for it." Many of those same characteristics -- including, apparently, that there were no signs of struggle at the Shenandoah scene -- were true about the two women murdered together near Williamsburg, Va., in October 1986. Cathleen Thomas, 27, an Rebecca Dowski, 21, were found dead inside a car belonging to one of the, which had been pushed down an embankment on federal property along the Colonial Parkway in York, Va. A story in Norfolk's Virginian Pilot, a daily newspaper, noted that friends of the two women indicated that Dowski and Thomas were in a "budding relationship" and liked to go to the Parkway site for privacy. The area where their bodies were found was popular with Gay couples. Both women were described by friends and coworkers as being very athletic. Investigators found their purses and wallets intact inside the car, and the brother of one of the women said the FBI found no signs that the women had struggled against their attacker or attackers. A medical examiner's report indicated that both women were found fully clothed, and there was no indication that either had been sexually assaulted or that either had used alcohol or drugs. The report also noted that the women had rope burns on their necks and wrists, that they had been strangled, and that their throats had been slashed deeply by a very sharp instrument. The Daily Press, a newspaper for the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, reported Wednesday that "FBI agents in Norfolk are probing" whether the Shenandoah slayings "are possibly connected to the murders of two women on the Colonial Parkway 10 years ago." Bo McFarland, a spokesperson for the FBI's Norfolk office, which investigated the 1986 Colonial Parkway murders, confirmed Wednesday that there are "a number" of similarities between the Parkway and the Shenandoah murders. "I didn't mean to imply that the FBI has made any connection between the two cases," said McFarland, just that we're investigating everything." He declined to answer any questions about the similarities or provide any direct answers to questions for details about the crime scene in Shenandoah, saying that release of such information could "compromise the integrity of the investigation." But FBI investigator Falls said on national television Saturday night that whoever killed the women in Shenandoah apparently went to the couple's secluded campsite with the intention of murdering them. In the Shenandoah murders, investigators mapped out a timeline of the couple's last days using photographs that the women had taken during their hiking trip to the park. On Sunday, May 19, they arrived at Shenandoah National Park with Winans's dog, which was found unharmed after the slayings. The last confirmed sighting of Williams and Winans was Friday, May 24, when a park ranger gave them a rice to a parking lot across from the trail that leads to the site where their bodies were found more than a week later Donahue said that other witnesses also reported seeing the women alive on May 24. Donahue said there was a "strong possibility" that the women knew their killer or killers, though he said investigators have not yet been able to establish this connection. "Finding them [at their campsite] would be like finding a needle in a haystack in the Shenandoah Valley," explained Donahue. "It wouldn't be a coincidental murder." Donahue also said that investigators were "having a hard time" with the medical examiner's results, which showed only that the women died between Monday, May 27, and Saturday, June 1. "We can't pin [the time] down any closer," Donahue said. "If the murder had been in an apartment or car, it would have been different. The fact that it was in a heavily wooded area made it different." Asked if he meant that the bodies had begun to decompose, Donahue said yes, that the weather and climate complicated efforts to determine the time of death. Last weekend, the Washington Post reported that Stanley Klein, special agent in charge of the Richmond FBI office, said that one body was found inside the women's tent and the other was found outside. He also said that investigators do not believe robbery was a motive and that there is no evidence suggesting any of the women's belongings were stolen during the attack. Neither Klein nor Falls returned repeated calls form the Blade. But the Daily Press noted that there were "few or no signs of a struggle in either case" and that this fact "has led investigators in both cases to speculate that more than one person could have been involved." The FBI has also considered that the 1986 Colonial Parkway murders and the murders of three heterosexual couples in 1987, 1988, and 1989 on or near park land in Virginia might also be linked. In at least three of those four cases, a wallet was left open and untouched in the automobile. That, and the lack of any sign of struggle, has let a number of reporters and observers following the investigations to speculate that the assailant or assailants might be posing as law enforcement authorities in order to gain control over their victims. McFarland said that while the FBI is "considering everything," that theory is "just speculation." According to Donahue, the FBI is investigating whether the fact that Williams and Winans were Lesbians was a motive in the murders. He also said that the possibility that the women were killed by a jilted ex=boyfriend "has not been ruled out." Similar theories were considered in the Colonial Parkway slayings, too. Donahue also said that the FBI has asked more than 500 people whether they heard, during the presumed time of the murders, people screaming in the vicinity of the Shenandoah crime scene, but "so far, no one has heard anything." Eight FBI agents are still investigating the slayings seven days a week at the Shenandoah National Park, Donahue said, and there are more than 100 people from the FBI and National Park Service working on the case. He added that on Friday, July 19, Klein renewed his commitment to "devoting [sic] as much manpower as possible" to solve the case.