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Bangor Daily News (Maine)
July 26, 1996 Friday
Byline: Beurmond Banville Of the NEWS Staff
WASHINGTON -- An FBI official says that the agency is studying similarities between the killings last May of two female hikers in Shenandoah National Park and a decade-old double homicide in eastern Virginia to determine whether the two might be connected.
Bo McFarland, special supervisory agent in the FBI's Norfolk,Va., office, said that no clear connection has been established between the two, but that "the FBI has noted the similarities as just one aspect of the case. We're trying to pursue every angle possible. "
On June 1, park rangers discovered the bodies of hikers
Julianne Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn., and Lollie Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine, at a remote campsite near the busy Skyland Lodge off Skyline Drive. Their throats had been slashed, and the FBI revealed last week that both women's wrists had been bound.
McFarland said FBI investigators are reviewing evidence to see if there are links to the October 1986 killings of Rebecca A.Dowski and Cathleen M. Thomas, whose bodies were found on the Colonial Parkway in eastern Virginia near Williamsburg. Dowski's and Thomas' wrists also were bound and their throats were slashed.
In both cases, investigators said, no evidence of robbery was discovered. Police said they found no evidence of sexual assault in the Colonial Parkway case. The FBI has declined to say whether the Shenandoah victims were sexually assaulted.
If a direct connection is found, the Shenandoah case would mark the latest twist in what the FBI and Virginia State Police believe may be a serial murder case. It started with the deaths of Thomas and Dowski and involved three additional double homicides on the
Colonial Parkway from 1987 through 1989.
McFarland said investigations of those cases yielded several suspects over the intervening years, but not enough evidence to make an arrest.
Meanwhile, the National Park Service says it is reviewing its procedures for notifying the public of slayings after it came under renewed criticism from Capitol Hill this week for delaying the release of information about the killings of Williams and Winans.
On June 4, Gregory F. Stiles, chief ranger at Shenandoah
National Park, said the Park Service waited 48 hours to announce that the slayings had occurred because, when investigators found the bodies, "it took us quite a while to determine" that the deaths were not due to suicide or accident.
"The point is that they werebound by the wrists," said Sen. Frank H. Murkowski, R-Alaska, which clearly indicates that the deaths were homicides. Murkowski said he planned to ask Park Service Director Roger Kennedy to explain the long delay in notifying campers in the park that a potential danger existed.
Murkowski posed similar questions to Kennedy during a Senate committee hearing June 6, but said the Park Service did not respond satisfactorily. "It seems pretty hard to justify [withholding the information], especially when they said earlier they weren't sure it was a homicide," he said.
"I don't think there was any conscious attempt to mislead anyone," said Mel Poole, a spokesman for Shenandoah National Park.
"We've been thinking long and hard about the messages we put out.
We want people to be cautious at all times while in the park, but we don't want to unduly alarm people. "
The FBI said it had received more than 50 phone calls with tips related to the Shenandoah case ever since it aired new evidence about the killings Saturday night on Fox television's "America's Most Wanted. " Poole added that many of the calls to a special Park Service hot line "appeared to be pretty solid tips. "
July 26, 1996 Friday
Byline: Beurmond Banville Of the NEWS Staff
WASHINGTON -- An FBI official says that the agency is studying similarities between the killings last May of two female hikers in Shenandoah National Park and a decade-old double homicide in eastern Virginia to determine whether the two might be connected.
Bo McFarland, special supervisory agent in the FBI's Norfolk,Va., office, said that no clear connection has been established between the two, but that "the FBI has noted the similarities as just one aspect of the case. We're trying to pursue every angle possible. "
On June 1, park rangers discovered the bodies of hikers
Julianne Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn., and Lollie Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine, at a remote campsite near the busy Skyland Lodge off Skyline Drive. Their throats had been slashed, and the FBI revealed last week that both women's wrists had been bound.
McFarland said FBI investigators are reviewing evidence to see if there are links to the October 1986 killings of Rebecca A.Dowski and Cathleen M. Thomas, whose bodies were found on the Colonial Parkway in eastern Virginia near Williamsburg. Dowski's and Thomas' wrists also were bound and their throats were slashed.
In both cases, investigators said, no evidence of robbery was discovered. Police said they found no evidence of sexual assault in the Colonial Parkway case. The FBI has declined to say whether the Shenandoah victims were sexually assaulted.
If a direct connection is found, the Shenandoah case would mark the latest twist in what the FBI and Virginia State Police believe may be a serial murder case. It started with the deaths of Thomas and Dowski and involved three additional double homicides on the
Colonial Parkway from 1987 through 1989.
McFarland said investigations of those cases yielded several suspects over the intervening years, but not enough evidence to make an arrest.
Meanwhile, the National Park Service says it is reviewing its procedures for notifying the public of slayings after it came under renewed criticism from Capitol Hill this week for delaying the release of information about the killings of Williams and Winans.
On June 4, Gregory F. Stiles, chief ranger at Shenandoah
National Park, said the Park Service waited 48 hours to announce that the slayings had occurred because, when investigators found the bodies, "it took us quite a while to determine" that the deaths were not due to suicide or accident.
"The point is that they werebound by the wrists," said Sen. Frank H. Murkowski, R-Alaska, which clearly indicates that the deaths were homicides. Murkowski said he planned to ask Park Service Director Roger Kennedy to explain the long delay in notifying campers in the park that a potential danger existed.
Murkowski posed similar questions to Kennedy during a Senate committee hearing June 6, but said the Park Service did not respond satisfactorily. "It seems pretty hard to justify [withholding the information], especially when they said earlier they weren't sure it was a homicide," he said.
"I don't think there was any conscious attempt to mislead anyone," said Mel Poole, a spokesman for Shenandoah National Park.
"We've been thinking long and hard about the messages we put out.
We want people to be cautious at all times while in the park, but we don't want to unduly alarm people. "
The FBI said it had received more than 50 phone calls with tips related to the Shenandoah case ever since it aired new evidence about the killings Saturday night on Fox television's "America's Most Wanted. " Poole added that many of the calls to a special Park Service hot line "appeared to be pretty solid tips. "
