LURAY, Va. — After nearly 30 years, DNA has finally helped solve a murder that has haunted investigators in Virginia. FBI agents said Thursday they had identified a suspect in the murders of Laura “Lollie” Winans and Julianne “Julie” Williams in May 1996.
Investigators found the nude, bound and gagged bodies of Winans and Williams at a campsite in Shenandoah National Park just off Skyline Drive near the Skyland Lodge on June 1, 1996. Their throats had been slashed.
A year later, police arrested Darrell Rice for attempting to abduct another woman – a bicyclist -- near Skyline Drive.
Five years after that, a grand jury indicted Rice in the murders of Williams and Winans.
In 2004, federal prosecutors were forced to drop the murder charges against Rice, after hair and DNA evidence found at the scene didn’t match his.
Two years ago, a new team of investigators conducted a methodical review of the case, agents in Richmond reassessed hundreds of leads and interviews. They spent hours to identify and prioritize evidence from the crime scene to retest and submitted the items to an accredited private lab.
Recently, the private lab successfully pulled DNA from several items of evidence and, with assistance from the Virginia State Police, the profile was submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). There was a positive match to Walter Leo Jackson Sr.
Jackson was a convicted serial rapist, originally from the Cleveland, Ohio area.
“Even though we had this DNA match, we took additional steps and compared evidence from Lollie and Julie’s murders directly to a buccal swab containing Jackson’s DNA. Those results confirmed we had the right man and finally could tell the victim’s families we know who is responsible for this heinous crime,” said Stanley M. Meador, the FBI Richmond special agent in charge.
Jackson, who went by the name “Leo,” died in prison in March 2018 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Jackson had a lengthy criminal history, including kidnapping, rapes, and assaults. A residential painter by trade, he was an avid hiker and was known to visit Shenandoah National Park.
“After 28 years, we are now able to say who committed the brutal murders of Lollie Winans and Julie Williams in Shenandoah National Park,” United States Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh said Thursday. “I want to again extend my condolences to the Winans and Williams families and hope today’s announcement provides some small measure of solace.”
The FBI will continue to work with law enforcement partners to determine if Jackson is responsible for other unsolved crimes. Anyone with information on Jackson should call 1-800-CALL FBI or submit online at tips.fbi.gov.
RELATED: Innocence Project says answers to cold case Shenandoah murders may sit buried in FBI evidence locker
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