THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606080415
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE, VA. LENGTH: 50 lines
A homosexual rights group is pressing the Justice Department to investigate the possibility that two women hikers who died of slashed throats were victims of anti-gay violence.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force sent a letter Friday to Attorney General Janet Reno, saying the killers of Julianne Williams and Lollie Winans may have believed them to be lesbians.
``We are asking for your help to insure that the FBI and the National Park Service are diligent in investigating all aspects of these crimes, including the possibility that the murders were motivated by anti-lesbian bias,'' wrote Melinda Paras, director of the task force.
Justice Department spokeswoman Lee Douglass did not immediately return telephone calls Friday, but a secretary confirmed that the attorney general's office received a faxed copy of Paras' letter.
Shenandoah National Park rangers found the bodies on June 1 at their campsite about a half-mile off the Appalachian Trail.
The FBI and Park Service have declined to discuss possible motives or any details of the crime. However, investigators did say that they weren't robbed, and one federal law enforcement official, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, would not discount the possibility that both women were sexually assaulted.
FBI spokesman John Donahue told the Burlington Free Press of Vermont that there was no indication that the attack ``is a hate crime of any particular type.''
Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn., and Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine, were experienced hiking and camping guides on a five-day camping trip in the park in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.
Woodswomen director Denise Mitten, who has organized outdoor trips for 20 years, said women who go camping together are often perceived to be lesbians, even if they are not.
``Some people consider hiking and camping as outside a woman's domain,'' she said. ``For some people, that makes them angry enough to do this kind of violent crime.''
The Washington Blade, a newspaper that serves gay readers in the nation's capital, quoted Rebecca Strader, a Presbyterian minister whose Burlington, Vt., congregation welcomes homosexuals, as saying Winans and Williams were lesbian lovers.
KEYWORDS: MURDER APPALACHIAN TRAIL VIRGINIA by CNB