The FBI stated on Thursday that forensic tests had identified the killer of two women who were found dead in a Virginia national park nearly thirty years ago. The perpetrator was a “serial rapist” who passed away in jail in 2018.
The FBI’s Richmond Field Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia jointly released a statement on Thursday stating that DNA testing has established that Walter “Leo” Jackson Sr. killed Laura “Lollie” Winans, 26, and Julianne “Julie” Williams, 24, at Shenandoah National Park on May 24, 1996.
“After 28 years, we are now able to say who committed the brutal murders,” U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh stated. “I want to again extend my condolences to the Winans and Williams families and hope today’s announcement provides some small measure of solace.”
When the women failed to return home on schedule, their family members contacted the National Park Service. They were missing for a long time, but their bodies were discovered on June 1, 1996.
According to the FBI, they had died at their campground close to Skyland Resort.
After years of unsolved cases, a new FBI team was tasked with investigating the killings in 2021. According to the FBI, hundreds of leads and interviews were reevaluated by special agents, intelligence analysts, and other FBI staff members.
The FBI said that the team gave priority to the material from the crime scene and had it retested by a private lab with accreditation.
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The FBI noted that after the private lab extracted DNA from “several items of evidence,” the Virginia State Police assisted in sending the DNA profile to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System. This resulted in a successful match with Cleveland-born serial rapist Jackson.
Additionally, the FBI claimed to have compared evidence from the deaths of Winans and Williams to a buccal swab that included Jackson’s DNA.
The FBI’s special agent in charge of Richmond, Stanley M. Meador, said, “Those results confirmed we had the right man and we could finally tell the victims’ families we know who is responsible for this heinous crime.”
According to the FBI, Jackson, a painter, loved to hike and was known to frequent Shenandoah National Park. It stated that he passed away in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, prison in March of 2018.
The FBI noted that kidnapping, rapes, and assaults were among the crimes on Jackson’s criminal record. It said that the FBI collaborated with Cleveland police and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office on the case.
