A decades long cold case that shocked the hiking community and the nation has been solved. The FBI says it has identified the person responsible for killing Unity College student Lollie Winans and her girlfriend Julie Williams in Shenandoah National Park in 1996.
The cold case got a fresh look a few years ago when a new investigative team combed over evidence and submitted items to retest for DNA evidence using the latest advancements.
During a press conference Thursday, FBI special agent in charge, Stanley Meador, said the results matched Walter "Leo" Jackson, Senior, of Ohio.
"Those match results confirm with a certainty that is rarely seen: one in 2.6 trillion," he said.
Meador said the results also revealed that Winans and Williams were sexually assaulted by Jackson. He was an avid hiker who was known to visit Shenandoah National Park. Jackson also had a lengthy criminal history, including several kidnapping, rapes, and assaults. He died in prison in 2018.
The FBI's announcement drew a sense of relief and frustration from Maine author Kate Miles who wrote about the case. Her book, Trailed, asserts that government agencies botched the initial investigation and mistakenly named another man as the suspect. Miles says effective DNA testing was available years ago.
"So had they been willing to retest this evidence 10 years ago, Jackson would still be alive, and the family could see something that is a lot closer to justice," she said.
Miles points out that Winan's and Williams' case was among 250,000 unsolved murders in the U.S.
