CBS News
1996 cold case killings of 2 campers at Shenandoah National Park solved, FBI says, pointing to serial rapist
Richmond, Va. — Nearly three decades after two young women were found with their throats slashed in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, federal authorities announced Thursday that they have identified a now-deceased serial rapist from Ohio as the person they believe was responsible for the killings.
The bodies of Julianne “Julie” Williams, 24, and her partner, Laura “Lollie” Winans, 26, were found bound and gagged at their campsite in the park in 1996. The killings sent a wave of fear through the LGBTQ+ community, but the FBI said during a news conference Thursday that there is no evidence that the women were targeted because of their sexual orientation.
AP Photo / Steve Helber
The long-unsolved killings were reviewed by a new investigative team starting in 2021, said Stanley Meador, the Special Agent in Charge of the Richmond FBI office. Recently, a private lab pulled DNA from several pieces of evidence from the crime scene and sent the genetic profile to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, a database used by law enforcement agencies to match DNA to a criminal suspect.
They got a positive match to Walter “Leo” Jackson Sr., a convicted rapist originally from the Cleveland, Ohio, area. Meador said the FBI then got DNA from the original swab taken from Jackson when he was charged in another rape in Ohio, which confirmed the match. He said the recent DNA testing found there is only a one in 2.6 trillion chance that the DNA found at the crime scene came from someone other than Jackson.
This week, FBI officials were able to tell the families of the two women who they believe committed the killings, Meador said.
“They’ve been seeking answers far too long.” Meador said.
Jackson, who worked as a house painter, died in prison in 2018 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, at age 70. He had served at least four separate prison terms after being convicted of kidnapping and multiple rapes and assaults.
The recent retesting of crime scene evidence showed that both Williams and Winans were sexually assaulted, said Christopher Kavanaugh, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. Kavanaugh said authorities investigated whether the rapes and killings could be considered hate crimes. But he said they found no evidence that Jackson knew of their sexual orientation or targeted them for that reason.
“Make no mistake, this crime was brutal, this crime was definitely hateful, nevertheless we do not have any evidence” that the crime was motivated by anti-gay bias, Kavanaugh said.
“No matter how long it takes, we don’t give up,” CBS Richmond affiliate WTVR quoted Kavanaugh as saying. “If he were alive today, we would seek a single defendant indictment charging Walter ‘Leo’ Jackson, Sr. with these crimes.”
AP Photo/Steve Helber
Authorities were vague when asked whether the same DNA testing could have been done years ago and identified the suspect earlier.
In 2001, authorities arrested another man in the killings. Darrell David Rice, a computer programmer from Maryland, was charged with capital murder, and authorities alleged that he selected Williams and Winans because of his hatred of women and gay people.
Rice had pleaded guilty in 1998 in the attempted abduction of a female bicyclist he tried to force into his truck, also in Shenandoah National Park. He was serving an 11-year prison sentence when he was charged with killing WIlliams and Winans. The charges were eventually dropped after forensic testing showed that hairs found at the crime scene ruled him out as a possible suspect.
Williams, who was from St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Winans, who grew up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, were both experienced hikers and were passionate about environmental issues, Kavanaugh said. They were hiking with a golden retriever named Taj when they were last seen by park personnel on May 24, 1996. Their bodies were discovered on June 1, 1996, at their campsite near Skyline Resort.
Meador said the FBI is continuing to work with other law enforcement agencies to determine if Jackson is responsible for other unsolved crimes.
“Our investigation will not stop,” he said.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
An Orange County, California, jury found 26-year-old Sam Woodward guilty of first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement Wednesday for the 2018 death of Blaze Bernstein, whose body was found days after he went missing, buried in a shallow grave at a Lake Forest park.
The jury reached its verdict after deliberating for just one day.
The judge hushed the courtroom as applause was heard during the reading of the verdict.
The prosecution had argued for Woodward to be found guilty of first-degree murder as a hate crime. Defense attorneys argued that Woodward should be convicted for voluntary manslaughter and acquitted of hate-crime allegations.
Jurors also were asked to consider second-degree murder. Closing arguments in the case had begun Friday, two-and-a-half months after the trial began in Santa Ana.
Following the reading of the guilty verdict, Bernstein’s parents shared their gratitude to the jury, to law enforcement and to the “army of supporters and volunteers” who were with them through the six-and-a-half-year ordeal.
“This was a great relief that justice was served and this despicable human, who murdered our son, will no longer be a threat to the public,” his mother Jeanne Pepper Bernstein said. “We are grateful to the jury for their service and their long days and weeks they spent in that service. Justice has been served.”
Sam Woodward was charged with stabbing Bernstein to death a little over six years ago. The Newport Beach man admitted to stabbing Bernstein, a 19-year-old gay, Jewish man, multiple times in 2018, but pleaded not guilty to murder with an enhancement for a hate crime.
Orange County prosecutor Jennifer Walker maintained to jurors that Woodward stabbed Bernstein, his former high school classmate, because he was gay, and buried his body at Borrego Park in Lake Forest.
“To dig a grave in that terrain, and bury and clean up and murder someone in an hour and half..that is not someone who is just going, ‘Oh..something happened and I need to figure it out.’ That is determined,” Walker said.
Bernstein, who was a college sophomore, was home visiting his family on winter break in January 2018 when he went missing after going with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, California. Woodward picked Bernstein up from his parents’ home after connecting with him on social media.
Bernstein’s parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom the next day when he missed a dentist appointment and wasn’t responding to texts or calls, prosecutors wrote in a trial brief.
Days later, Bernstein’s body was found buried at the park in a shallow grave.
The case took years to go to trial after questions were raised about Woodward’s mental state and following defense attorney changes. Woodward was deemed competent to stand trial in late 2022.
Woodward took the stand for several days and confessed to jurors that he stabbed Bernstein multiple times.
DNA evidence linked Woodward to the killing and his cellphone contained troves of anti-gay, antisemitic and hate group materials, authorities said.
“Now with the verdict in hand, we believe justice has been served and that Blaze’s memory will be honored through this outcome,” Pepper Bernstein said.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
