THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607210040
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 48 lines
More than one assailant may have killed two young women hiking in the Shenandoah National Park, the FBI says.
The women's wrists were tied, and one body was inside their tent and one outside when National Park Service rangers discovered them on June 1, said Stanley Klein, special agent in charge of the FBI's Richmond office.
Their throats had been cut, but Klein would not say whether a knife or some other sharp object was used.
He said it may have been difficult for one assailant to tie up both victims, and he said he could not ``discount the fact that there might be more than one'' assailant.
The bodies of Julianne Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn., and Lollie Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine, were found at a secluded creek-side campsite a half-mile from the Skyland Lodge on Skyline Drive.
In an interview Friday with The Washington Post, Klein said the FBI also is investigating whether the hikers' lesbian lifestyles were connected to their deaths.
Shortly after the investigation began, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force asked that the FBI investigate the killings as a possible hate crime, but an FBI spokesman at the time said investigators were not looking into such a motive.
``Whatever their lifestyles were . . . we follow it,'' Klein said. ``Absolutely, we are looking into every aspect, whether it involves their lifestyles, hiking habits, family, friends or whatever.''
It was the FBI's first disclosure of new details in six weeks. Klein said the agency hopes to generate information from any witnesses.
Although the women were last seen in the park on May 23, an autopsy suggested the women were killed on or after May 27.
Investigators do not believe robbery was a motive because there was no evidence to indicate any belongings were taken. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
The FBI says it could have been hard for one person to have killed
Julianne Williams, left, and Lollie Winans, right.
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KEYWORDS: MURDER APPALACHIAN TRAIL INVESTIGATION by CNB