Authorities know Jackson not answerable for unsolved Colonial Parkway murders and this crime not LGBTQ+ associated
Walter Leo Jackson Sr. died in an Ohio jail in 2018 — six years earlier than the FBI made a DNA match linking him to 2 1996 killings in Shenandoah Nationwide Park. MadRapp/GreeneJournal photograph courtesy of FBI.
This text, written by Web page Valley Information Writer Randy Arrington first appeared on the web site on June 21, 2024.
On Could 19, 1996, “Julie” and “Lollie” entered Shenandoah Nationwide Park for a five-day hike. The 2 girls of their 20s spent a number of days on the path and have been final seen round 5:30 p.m. on Could 24, 1996, after getting a experience from a park official. Their our bodies have been discovered eight days later at a campsite a couple of half mile from Skyland Lodge in Web page County with their arms certain and their throats slashed. Federal authorities spent the subsequent 28 years looking for the killer — together with one arrest that was later dismissed.
On Thursday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Richmond Area Workplace and the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Western District of Virginia introduced that the killer has lastly been recognized. Diploma of certainty? One in 2.6 trillion.
“After 28 years, we at the moment are capable of say who dedicated the brutal murders of Lollie Winans and Julie Williams in Shenandoah Nationwide Park,” United States Lawyer Christopher R. Kavanaugh mentioned at Thursday’s press convention. “I need to once more prolong my condolences to the Winans and Williams households and hope at the moment’s announcement gives some small measure of solace.”
Just lately, a personal lab efficiently pulled DNA from a number of objects of proof and, with help from the Virginia State Police, the profile was submitted to the FBI’s Mixed DNA Index System (CODIS), in response to an FBI press launch issued following Thursday’s press convention.
Walter Leo Jackson Senior proved to be a optimistic DNA match to a number of items of proof within the 1996 nationwide park murders. The Cleveland, Ohio native and residential painter by commerce, was additionally a convicted serial rapist, in response to the FBI report, and “was an avid hiker and was recognized to go to Shenandoah Nationwide Park.”
In 2021, a brand new FBI Richmond investigative workforce was assigned to conduct a methodic overview of the case, Thursday’s report acknowledged. FBI particular brokers, intelligence analysts, and different FBI Richmond workers reassessed a whole bunch of leads and interviews. They spent numerous hours to determine and prioritize proof from the crime scene to retest and submitted the objects to an accredited personal lab.
“Although we had this DNA match, we took further steps and in contrast proof from Lollie and Julie’s murders on to a buccal swab containing Jackson’s DNA. These outcomes confirmed we had the fitting man and at last may inform the sufferer’s households we all know who’s answerable for this heinous crime,” mentioned Stanley M. Meador, the FBI Richmond particular agent in cost.
In October of 2003, U.S. Lawyer Normal John Ashcroft moved to proceed the case he had positioned in opposition to Darrell David Rice for the park murders, mainly dismissing the fees that had been positioned “beneath intense public stress responsible somebody,” in response to Kavanaugh’s feedback on Thursday. He acknowledged that the case in opposition to Rice was “not constructed on forensic proof.”
Nevertheless, the DNA match to Jackson has a margin of error of 1 in 2.6 trillion.
“I’ve by no means witnessed that top a stage of certainty,” Kavanaugh mentioned. “If he have been alive at the moment, with the proof we’ve got at the moment…I’d search two counts of first-degree homicide, and I’ve little question, primarily based on the energy of the proof, we’d have success in court docket.”
Jackson, who glided by the identify “Leo,” died in jail in March 2018 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Jackson had a prolonged legal historical past, together with kidnapping, rapes, and assaults, in response to the FBI press launch. The investigative workforce continued taking steps to study extra about Jackson’s actions by means of the years, which included coordination with the Cleveland Police Division and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Workplace.
Again in 1996, when the 2 younger girls didn’t return dwelling and their households had not heard from them, an in depth search was launched by Nationwide Park Service rangers for Julianne “Julie” Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn. and Laura “Lollie” Winans, 26, of Grosse Pointe, Mich. They have been discovered on June 1, 1996 — slightly below two weeks from once they entered the park, and simply eight days after final being seen. Investigators later acknowledged that the ladies had probably been killed on Could 28, 1996.
On the time, federal authorities had as estimated 30,000 to 50,000 suspects — the projected visitation to Shenandoah Nationwide Park throughout a Memorial Day surge over the three-day weekend.
“It’s a difficult case within the sense that the potential witnesses are huge,” acknowledged then-spokesperson for the FBI Richmond workplace, Mary Johlie, on the five-year anniversary of the SNP murders.
The crime scene was a number of days outdated when the our bodies have been discovered and in an space the place animals and folks have been coming and going continually. The FBI supplied a $50,000 reward for any info resulting in an arrest. Throughout the first yr, park officers acknowledged that investigators from each the FBI and the Nationwide Park Service had dominated out greater than 200 potential suspects. Nevertheless, nationwide media consideration drew 1000’s of leads from the general public.
“The media focus helped within the sense that it introduced extra consideration to the case… jogged individuals’s reminiscences and made extra individuals conscious of what we have been doing,” Johlie informed the Web page Information and Courier’s Jeb Caudill in 2001. “Clearly, it didn’t flip up the lead that we have been searching for.”
A lot of the nationwide media consideration centered across the couple’s sexual orientation, thus framing them as victims of a hate crime. The incident appeared as a featured section on tv’s “America’s Most Wished.” This created no less than a portion of the general public stress that Ashcroft felt to carry somebody accountable for the Shenandoah Nationwide Park killings. Public hypothesis additionally linked the Skyland murders to the 1986 killing of a lesbian couple in Colonial Park close to Williamsburg — a connection the FBI additionally explored, however no hyperlink was discovered.
Authorities contended all through the investigation that there was no proof indicating a hate crime as a result of the ladies have been a lesbian couple. The truth is, investigators couldn’t set up a motive within the killings till they discovered the killer and recognized him as a serial rapist.
At Thursday’s press convention, Kavanaugh revealed that the brand new proof not solely linked Jackson to the killings, but additionally confirmed clear proof of sexual assault on each girls. The U.S. District Lawyer additionally famous that inside two months after the killings in Shenandoah Nationwide Park, Jackson returned to Ohio to rape and kill two extra victims. Fifteen years later, in 2011, Jackson violently kidnapped and raped one other girl in Ohio…and he was lastly caught. Forensic proof, together with DNA, began linking Jackson to the crimes listed right here. He was convicted of the 2 1996 Ohio rapes and murders in 2014 and sentenced to twenty years in jail. He died in jail in 2018. Federal authorities consider there could also be extra chilly instances on the market that Jackson may very well be related to.
“On the time of Lollie and Julie’s murders, we consider he was driving a 1984 Chestnut Brown AMC Eagle 30. Jackson later drove a 1979 mannequin Ford Econoline 250 van. Jackson was recognized to make use of non permanent tags, alter license plates, and steadily change automobiles,” reads the FBI press launch. “The FBI will proceed to work with regulation enforcement companions to find out if Jackson is answerable for different unsolved crimes. Anybody with info on Jackson ought to name 1-800-CALL FBI or submit on-line at tips.fbi.gov.”
The FBI hopes to make use of future suggestions and results in create a timeline for the interval earlier than Jackson was incarcerated in Ohio.
On the primary anniversary of the Skyland murders, a bunch of out of doors schooling leaders known as the Ladies’s Skilled Group of the Affiliation for Experiential Schooling organized a “Take Again the Trails” initiative, the place 1000’s of ladies hiked trails nationwide over the Memorial Day weekend to name consideration to violence in opposition to girls. Williams’ mother and father took half by mountain climbing within the space the place their daughter was killed. Accounts of those “Take Again the Trails” hikes appeared in newspapers and on tv stations nationwide.
This week, the 28-year-old chilly case was closed and federal authorities famous the efforts of many brokers and lots of businesses, new sources and new know-how, that result in their eventual success.
“Regardless of how lengthy it takes, our investigation is not going to cease,” FBI Particular Agent Meador mentioned on Thursday. “Nobody can think about the ache the households of Julie and Lollie have endured for the final 28 years. It is a nice instance of our persistence to not surrender on a case.”
