Man indicted in Shenandoah Park deaths

“I'm sure this has been a topic discussed in the past here. Just ran across it on the Minneapolis Star Tribune website:

Man indicted in Virginia slaying of St. Cloud hiker
Todd Milbourn
Star Tribune

Published Apr 11, 2002
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Tom and Patsy Williams of St. Cloud, Minn., waited nearly six years for the FBI to investigate the killings of their daughter and her hiking partner at a camp site in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

With the announcement of an indictment Wednesday, Tom Williams said they moved "a step closer to justice."


Julianne Williams

Associated Press
Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the indictment of an already jailed Maryland man on charges of murder and hate crimes. A federal grand jury in Charlottesville, Va., charged Darrell David Rice, 34, with the murders of Julianne Williams, 24, and Laura (Lollie) Winans, 26, of Maine.

While in custody on an unrelated abduction charge, prosecutors said in court papers, Rice told authorities that he selected women to assault "because they are more vulnerable than men" and that Williams and Winans "deserved to die because they were lesbian."

Ashcroft said, "The volatile, poisonous mixture of hatred and violence will not go unchallenged in the American system of justice. Hatred is the enemy of justice, regardless of its source." The FBI took jurisdiction because the crimes occurred in a national park and because of the possibility they were hate crimes, which are covered by federal law.

Rice is serving an 11-year term for the attempted abduction of another woman in Shenandoah National Park in 1997. If convicted of the new charges, he could face the death penalty.

Tom Williams said his reaction to the indictment was "one of gratitude."

"You always have certain doubts and you wonder if things get forgotten," he said, noting the length of the investigation. "But, by the same token, we were always aware of the fact . . . that they were working very hard to bring the accused to justice." The Williamses spoke with Ashcroft Wednesday morning.

Authorities found the women bound and gagged at a secluded, creek-side campsite near the Appalachian Trail in summer 1996. Their throats had been slit.

FBI agents and National Park Service investigators tracked an estimated 15,000 leads and contacts, Ashcroft said.

Because of the brutal nature of the crime and the lack of evidence of a robbery, within months of the slayings national gay and lesbian rights groups asked then-Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate the matter as a possible hate crime.

Rice pleaded guilty to attempting to abduct a female bicyclist in the park the next summer. When the kidnapping failed, he tried to kill her by running her over with his truck, according to court papers.

Prosecutors said they will produce evidence showing that Rice had "an ongoing plan, scheme or modus operandi" to assault women because of their gender or sexual orientation.

Lawrence Barry, an FBI spokesman in Richmond, Va., declined to comment on the case other to say that it took "longer than most."

Gay rights groups expressed satisfaction with the indictment.

"We're relieved that finally, after five years, we've seen justice," said Betsy Gressler, director of public affairs for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Williams graduated from St. Cloud's Cathedral High School. In 1994, she graduated summa cum laude from Carleton College in Northfield. She lived in Vermont before her death.

Winans was finishing a degree at Unity College in Maine. Both had worked as interns for Woodswomen Inc., a Minneapolis-based group that provides outdoor adventure and education programs for women.

"Both Julie and Lollie were two wonderful young women who had dynamic lives," Tom Williams said.

-- The Washington Post contributed to this report.


-- Todd Milbourn is at tmilbourn@mcclatchydc.com .”

“That dude is sick!!!!

I hope he gets his in the clink!

8|”

“Second time is a charm, I hope.

Murderer charged ”

“A quick death is too easy for this sick b@stard.”

“and then put him on the rack, draw and quarter him, feed his guts to the rats, feed the rats to Sarabelle.

Now thats justice.”

“is that you CRAZY MIKE??”

“Ya its me.

8)


By the way fry him!”

“I would like to think I'm above all that, but the guy should be impaled on a sharp stick. Make that a pole shoved up his anus so his body weight slowly skewers him.”

“I hope that he is physically diminutive (we already know that he is a small man) and that he gets life in prison. That way he can spend the rest of his life finding out exactly what it feels like to be viewed as an easy victim.”

“I think Skully is on the right track, here. Hooking him up with an IV and having him take a nap doesn't quite 'get it' in my book.

Which of the realistic outcomes is closer to 'cruel and unusual' without quite crossing the line?”