THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240423
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: 58 lines
Noting a ``striking'' number of similarities, FBI agents in Norfolk are probing whether the recent slayings of two female hikers in Shenandoah National Park are possibly connected to the murders of two women on the Colonial Parkway 10 years ago.
The October 1986 murders of Rebecca A. Dowski and Cathleen M. Thomas became the first of four incidents FBI and State Police investigators believe may involve a serial killer and that have been dubbed by the media as the Parkway Murders.
On June 1 of this year, veteran hikers Julianne Williams and Lollie Winans were found dead in a back-country campsite in the Shenandoah park.
``There are a striking number of similarities,'' said Supervisory Agent Bo McFarland with the FBI's Norfolk office. ``We are looking into it to see if they are'' connected, McFarland said Tuesday.
Special Agent John Donahue, with the FBI office in Richmond, which is handling the Shenandoah investigation, said he knew of no investigation on his office's part, except that investigators have gone through the FBI database of murders to see if similarities exist.
Other than what has already been released, Donahue would not elaborate on the specifics about the most recent murders, and McFarland declined to discuss the similarities in detail to protect the ongoing investigation.
However, from what investigators have released about both double slayings, similarities include:
Thomas, a 21-year-old former college softball star and student at the College of William and Mary, and Dowski, a 27-year-old Virginia Beach stockbroker and Naval Academy graduate, were found strangled and with their throats slit.
Likewise, Julianne Williams, 24, of Burlington, Vt., and Lollie Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine, were found with their throats slashed.
In each case, the victims had been bound at the wrists. While the ties had been removed from Thomas and Dowski, Williams and Winans were found bound.
All four women were avid athletes, but there were few or no signs of a struggle in either case. That has led investigators in both cases to speculate that more than one person could have been involved.
The motive for the killings is unclear in each case. Robbery did not appear to be a motive because purses and wallets were still with the victims or their belongings. Investigators say Dowski and Thomas were found fully clothed and had not been sexually assaulted. Donahue refused to say whether Williams or Winans had been assaulted, pending further investigation.
Winans and Williams were good friends who planned to move in together, according to the Washington Blade, a gay newspaper in Washington which has called upon federal investigators to probe whether the killings were a hate-related crime.
Donahue said investigators have already gone through more than 500 leads since Williams and Winans were found June 1. Suspects were identified and then discounted, he said.
KEYWORDS: MURDER APPALACHIAN TRAIL by CNB