Going West: True Crime - The Shenandoah National Park Murders // 425

Episode Date: July 27, 2024

In May of 1996, two women set off into the wilderness of the Appalachian Mountains for a hike, and never came back out again. Strange details at the scene of their murder lead many to wonder who their killer was, brutally slaying them in their tent. But eventually, the investigation named a suspect. These are the murders of Julie Williams and Lollie Winans, also known as the Shenandoah National Park Murders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host T and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going west Hello everybody. I hope you're having a great day West. Hello everybody. I hope you're having a great day. Today's case has not been recommended, but it came up in our research on Richard of Vonitz in episode 422 on the Spotsylvania killer, which we covered just last week. And today's case, it's an important story to tell that has a call to action at the end. So make sure that you listen up for that. Thank you everybody for tuning in and happy Olympics to everybody else who's watching. I think it really coincides with this episode in the name of unity and love for all.

Yes, absolutely. So thank you guys so much for tuning in and without further ado, this is episode 425 of Going West. So let's get into it. Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night.

That's the powerful backing of AmeriCM Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. In May of 1996, two women set off into the wilderness of the Appalachian Mountains for a hike and never came back out. Strange details at the scene of their murder led many to wonder who their killer was, brutally slaying them in their tent. But eventually, the investigation named a suspect. These are the murders of Julie Williams and Lolly Winans, also known as the Shenandoah National Park Murders. Juliane Marie Williams, better known as Julie by friends and family, was born on September

11, 1971. She grew up in St. Cloud, Minnesota with parents Patsy and Tom Williams and siblings Deena G., John, and Mary Beth. And her family actually owned three funeral homes in the area just northwest of Minneapolis. From a young age, Julie was known for being very bright. For example, in grade school, multiple teachers approached her parents questioning whether or not they wanted to advance her a couple of grades because she was such an excellent student.

Julie attended Cathedral High School and won a state tennis championship, as well as departmental awards for geology studies. She volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and led wilderness expeditions and sledding excursions for local children because she loved helping people and she was very passionate about the outdoors. Her geology professor, Mary Savina, remembered proudly, quote, Julie was a wonderful role model. Wherever Julie had choices, she chose the path that valued people.

She settled on attending Carleton College to study geology, which is just a couple hours outside of her hometown. So she wasn't straying far from her parents and her family at all. But she spent as much time traveling in nature hometown so she wasn't straying far from her parents and her family at all. But she spent as much time traveling in nature and on the water as she could, volunteering in various countries in her young life. Julie graduated summa cum laude from Carleton College in 1994 and eventually settled in

Vermont working at a bookstore while searching for a job in conservation. Julie flourished in Richmond, Vermont, which is southeast of Burlington. And there, she lived with a roommate above a cafe and worked at Walden Bookstore in Burlington. I mean, that's kind of like a picturesque kind of life. Like you live above a cafe. Oh my god, it's perfect. You know, you're trying to work in conservation and wildlife and outdoors and stuff like that. It just seems very quaint and cozy and nice. Yeah, and it's awesome because she has so much passion

for life and for the outdoors and for helping people and being an aid to people. And she was really exploring a lot of different options career-wise to adhere to her passions, which is awesome. So in the summer of 1995, she scored a job working for Woods Women, which is a nonprofit that sought to educate and entertain like-minded nature loving and travel enthused women of all ages. It was led for women by women and Julie was hired to lead outdoor tour groups, and it was there

that she met Lolly Winans. Laura Winans, better known as Lolly, was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan on March 9, 1970, to parents Laura and John. Her mom Laura was the heir to the Emory Ford family fortune, descendant of a prominent family in Detroit, who owned a plate glass company, and eventually amassed an impressive real estate portfolio of stately, historic homes.

The home that Lolly grew up in, the Wingford Estate, had actually been a wedding gift for Edsel Ford, the son of Henry Ford, who, as a lot of you guys know, was the founder of the Ford Motor Company. So there's a little fun fact for you guys. But from a young age, Lolly kind of rejected her parents lavish lifestyle, doing things like insisting on pitching a tent in her backyard, which she actually favored over her sprawling eight-bedroom home. Lolly attended the very prestigious private university,

Lolly attended the very prestigious private university, Liggett School, and it was there that she fell in love with the outdoors, while attending a week-long trip to Proud Lake near Wixom, Michigan, when she was in the sixth grade. And that trip gave her a lifelong love of nature and the outdoors. But as Lolly grew into her teen years, her parents divorced and both remarried, with John moving to Florida with his new wife, and Lolly remaining with her mom and her new stepdad. Well, unfortunately, her problems at home only increased following the divorce because she later admitted to her friends that her stepdad had been sexually abusing her. She claimed that she once attempted to tell her mom, but that she had been met with either outrage or disbelief,

so Lolly dropped it and refused to bring it up again. But she did conclude that she needed to get as far away from home as possible, so she fled to suburban Baltimore, where she enrolled in the Garrison Forest School. There she studied environmental science, and after graduating, went on to major in that subject in college. Her guidance counselor in high school remembered her excitedly organizing camping trips for her peers, saying, quote, She was one of those people who just had the charm and sincerity that just made her loved by everyone.

After graduation, Lolly enrolled in a small Vermont college to pursue her associate's degree in environmental studies, landing at Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, Vermont. She and a friend moved into a small cabin near campus and enjoyed gardening and attending jam band concerts, so it seemed like she also had this very idyllic lifestyle just like Julie did. Absolutely yeah she lives in a cabin near the campus I mean picturesque of course. Yeah seriously. Not that it actually fucking matters but that's that's what I studied when I went to college environmental studies so I just think that that's really cool. Well it was actually through her love of the outdoors and in Vermont that she finally discovered her greater purpose helping other survivors of sexual assault heal through nature. In 1994 she enrolled in Unity College in New Gloucester, Maine and there she pursued her bachelor's degree in outdoor recreation and leadership. She also adopted a golden

retriever mix who she named Taj and like in her early college days, she and her new group of friends would park her beat-up Volkswagen bus in the woods, blast the Grateful Dead and dance while Lolly played harmonica. It was the summer of 1995 that both women interned for Woods women, and as soon as they met they developed this amazing relationship that turned romantic. At the time their relationship was forming, Lolly was newly separated from her fiance Ken and both she and Julie were exploring their sexualities, which had previously been difficult for Julie because she grew up in a very religious household and she still at

this point had a deep connection to her faith. So she and Lolly were just having a good time, enjoying each other's company, and seeing where things could go. I mean, they had so much in common and they got along so well. We're gonna post a bunch of photos of them and as you guys will see,

in every single one they're just adorable and they're laughing and smiling. They look like they have so much fun together. Yeah, they just look extremely happy. Yeah, and actually by this point, Julie had joined local Christ Church Presbyterian, even beginning a small group that she called Church Ladies with three other queer women who were seeking to explore, you know, how to feel more welcome in

a community that has a tendency to tell them that they're doing something sinful by just being themselves. So she had also developed this smaller community at her church where she could continue to explore her faith and remain the amazing person that she was. Absolutely. So with Julie based in Vermont and Lolly finishing up school in Maine, the two faced long distance until Lolly could join her the following summer. So it was kind of complicated, and sadly Julie and Lolly

were never able to reveal their relationship at their own discretion because it would be disclosed posthumously in the media and was initially believed to be one of the reasons that they were targeted. Yeah they didn't even get to tell their families that they were in a relationship and by the time that this story takes place in the summer of 1996 They had been dating for almost a year and never even got to tell their families So their families had to find out from somebody else Yeah, it's it's incredibly tragic, you know to hear about the fact that

They weren't able to be open at that point in their relationship and that nobody really knew Well for the year that they were together after their introduction, they made this long distance work. Julie became active at her church and both women began volunteering for LGBTQ organizations. When Lolly finished school the following year, the two made a plan to move in together in Vermont where Julie had found a new job. Wanting to mark the occasion with a celebratory trip, the girls headed out on Sunday May 19th 1996 for Appalachia, planning to spend the week enjoying the

outdoors together on these winding trails. They set out for Shenandoah National Park in Northwest Virginia which is located near the border of West Virginia. They were accompanied again by Lolly's dog Taj, this lovely golden retriever, and looking forward to celebrating Julie's new job, which was set to start in early June in Lake Champlain, Vermont. So, they started out along the White Oak Canyon Trail, and after five days of hiking and relaxing in the mountains, they descended from their climb of Hawksbill Mountain, which is the highest peak of the

Shenandoah Mountains, with an elevation of just over 4,000 feet or over 121 meters. Julie and Lolly were last seen around 5.30pm on Friday, May 24th, 1996. So again, five days into this trip. They made it to the parking lot for the Hawksbill Gap Trail just north of LaRae, Virginia, when a female ranger pulled over to offer them a ride to their next destination, because she spotted them kind of trudging through the rain that day. So at 5.30 p.m., she dropped Julie, Lolly, and Taj

off at a parking lot for the Stony Man Trailhead near the Skyland Resort located four miles or just over six kilometers from where they were picked up. So she wasn't taking them very far, you know, this was just a very quick little ride and then they were back to it. Yeah, but getting them out of the rain for four miles was really, it was a nice break for them, I'm sure. Yeah, it was definitely like a significant amount of, you know, time being out of the rain, but they, you know, they had more plans, so she dropped them off about four miles down the road. Well, the Ranger recalls them studying their map together in the backseat of her car, but said that they were friendly and in good spirits and that nothing really seemed to be amiss,

like they were just very happy. The two continued on their route, heading down the Skyland Big Meadows horse trail known as the Bridal Trail. They walked about 500 feet along this trail, heading left down a sloped path surrounded by dense woods that led to a clearing along a stream. And that's where they set up camp for the night. This beautiful little clearing right by this gorgeous stream. Also by the way, Julie and Lolly did make a habit of calling home when they could, but

they didn't have cell phones. It's 1996, so a lot of people still didn't have them. So if their parents didn't hear from them for a few days, they weren't immediately worried. They knew that they were together out there on the trails. It actually wasn't until Julie's parents, Patsy and Tom, got a call from Julie's roommate that they began to worry. Now, late on the evening of Thursday, May 30th, 1996, Tom received a call from Julie's roommate

who was expecting Julie to return home and move out of their apartment. As Julie was due to move into her new home and start her new job that weekend, she was also supposed to be going to a friend's wedding that Saturday, so she had these very important plans ahead of her.

She wouldn't have just not come home to be out there. So she had these very important plans ahead of her. She wouldn't have just not come home to be out there hiking when she had so much going on in her life. So her roommate was very surprised that she never made it back to start packing and became alarmed. And then she called Julie's parents. So early the morning after he got the call from Julie's roommate, Friday, May 31st, Tom Williams called and reported his daughter missing to the National Park Service. Because at this point, he's becoming concerned that there had been an accident on the trail or maybe one of them had gotten injured or they got lost.

That's where his head is going. So Park Rangers quickly determined when and where the girls had last been seen based on the account of one of their own rangers, and then they worked from there. Around 10 a.m. that day, Julie's car, which the women had driven down there in, was found parked in a parking lot near Stoney Man Outlook,

locked and undisturbed. Now initially, they didn't think again that the women had been met with any sort of crime or violence because that's pretty rare within the confines of the park. Yeah I mean that doesn't you would assume that maybe somebody had fallen off a cliff or something like that had happened over a violent crime happening. Yeah that's a way more likely for there to be an injury or like maybe they ran out of food or they got lost. Like I said, that is definitely where your head usually goes when

you're out there in the wilderness with just one other person. So Bridget Bonet, who is the deputy chief ranger at Shenandoah National Park, remembered, quote, we started doing hasty searches to cover all of those trail corridors in that general area to see if we could locate them. At some point during those hasty searches, we did locate the dog. And you know, this is obviously a very terrifying sign because the girls are still missing and Taj, this golden retriever is just wandering around the trail system. Yeah. And Lolly's not not gonna just separate from her dog, so this was very concerning.

And more on that. On the morning of Saturday, June 1st, Lolly's beloved dog, again Taj, was found wandering around on his own in the woods near the White Oak Canyon Trail, which is where the women had begun their journey. Now, thankfully, he was unharmed. But as Rangers traced the many hiking trails, they came across a clearing near a stream that would have offered a perfect place to camp. And there, they spotted a tent. body. On the night of Saturday, June 1st, 1996, Lolly and Julie's campsite was finally found.

They were just a half mile or eight tenths of a kilometer from the Skyland Lodge, which is a popular destination in the park with a bar, restaurant, cabins, and tons of visitors. It sounds really fun and this means that they weren't out, you know, in the middle of it. They were close to people and life. Right, and that's why, like, the fact that no one saw or heard what happened to Lolly and Julie was astounding. But that particular clearing was tucked away on an offshoot of this trail. Bridget Bonet recalled that hikers may have passed right by them without seeing them,

explaining, quote, it wasn't a heavily used or heavily traveled trail. They were following the backcountry regulations at the time, which required them to be out of sight. So when their tent was found, the bodies of 24-year-old Julie and 26-year-old Lolly were too. Lolly was discovered inside the tent, with her mouth sealed, her wrists bound with duct tape, and her legs tied together with long underwear brought by one of the women to stay warm. Now, Julie, on the other hand, was also found bound and gagged, but her legs had not been tied. Julie was in her sleeping bag, but whether she had been placed there or possibly their killer had attacked the women when they were still asleep in their bedding

inside the tent is still unknown. Julie had been left by the stream that passed by their campsite, between 40 and 75 feet from the tent, depending on the source. 75 feet from the tent, depending on the source. Both women had been cut across their throats so violently that they were nearly decapitated. At the time, authorities didn't believe that the women had been sexually assaulted, but both women were missing clothing

that had likely come off in the struggle for their lives. And I mean, this is such a violent scene, the fact that both of them were bound and gagged so that they couldn't move They couldn't say anything and the fact that they were both nearly decapitated. This is so Violent and gruesome. Yeah, and at first sight, you know, you kind of assume that something like this might have been personal But I mean they're these two women are out in the outdoors. They're not around anybody probably that they know. So it's hard to see this as a personal attack, you know? Yeah, and that's a really good point

because they are out there. They've been out there for days. If this was somebody that they knew, they would have had to have followed them from the beginning. Like, this really does feel like a horrible crime of opportunity when we're looking at it like this. Now the Park Rangers had to be the ones to alert the women's parents of their discovery,

which was done at around 3am on Sunday, June 2, 1996, nine days after their daughters had been last seen. Tom remembered sadly, quote, They picked a nice spot off the trail by a stream, a spot anybody would pick, a picture perfect spot. I went down there and just sat. I drank the water and I talked to Julie and she talked to me. I listened to her.

We visited. We weren't leaving until having visited there, nor was I leaving without Julie. This is just so heartbreaking. The fact that her dad has to go to the site of her murder and he's trying to talk to Julie, he's trying to like, essentially I think what he's saying is he's trying to talk to her spirit, you know? He wants to be in the last known place that she was. Yeah, and kind of like show his support in her final moments, especially being her dad

and knowing what she endured in her final moments. It's just horrifying. It's a really beautiful quote. Well, because this crime took place on national park land, the investigation would prove to be a lot more complicated because the land falls under federal jurisdiction. So the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch, which is the investigative arm of the Park Service, teamed up with the FBI to comb the crime scene.

Now, the FBI quickly papered the area with wanted posters, offering a $25,000 reward for information. And the case was featured on an episode of America's Most Wanted. And they had actually also been investigating an eerily similar case along Colonial Parkway in eastern Virginia, where the victims had been bound and had their throats slashed in a similar fashion to Julie and Lolly.

Also like Julie and Lolly, these two female victims were in a relationship, so the FBI thought that maybe both double homicides had been hate crimes. Now let's talk about this other crime for a moment, which happened 10 years earlier. So in October of 1986, Rebecca Dowsky and Kathleen or Kathy Thomas were murdered in their car with their throats slashed and their wrists bound. Nothing was taken from their car or the crime scene, which of course indicated that burglary was not the motivation for the crime. Their murders were two in a string of what became known as the Colonial Parkway Murders, claiming at least eight victims.

And the Colonial Parkway Murders was the string of unsolved murders attributed to a possible serial killer that took place between 1986 and 1989. Yeah, I know a lot of you guys probably know about these murders that happened, that took place. But if you guys have not heard about these murders, we can definitely cover it on Going West for anybody who wants to, you know, hear more details about this string of murders.

Yeah, Colonial Parkway Murders is a popular name. I hadn't known the details before diving into this case. But yeah, definitely down to cover that one if you guys are interested. But, although some of the murders in the Colonial Parkway murders have been solved, Rebecca and Kathy's case is still unsolved. So obviously, you know, the FBI were wondering if it was possible for the two sets of women's murders to be involved.

But the only way to find out was to solve them and bring justice to them and their families Now based on their findings at the crime scene the FBI announced that they believed that it may have been to assailants in Julie and Lollie's murder They also muse that the culprit may have been somebody that you know might have known the women Based on the brutality and nature of the attack which Daphne and I already discussed we don't believe obviously we know we're gonna get to that we know that it wasn't personal but back then they weren't sure yeah and they even had to of course interview and give a polygraph to Lolly's ex-fiance Ken who she had separated from before she started dating Julie.

So they did look into him to see if maybe he had stalked them in possibly a jealous fit and murdered them while they were on this trip, but there was no evidence to prove that that was the case at all. While inside the tent, investigators found Lolly's camera. And the FBI kind of hoped that, you know, maybe there were some clues on this camera, like maybe they took a photo of their attack or something, but that didn't seem to be the case. The last photos were taken on Friday, May 24th, 1996, which was the last day that they were seen alive. One photo shows Julie jotting in her journal as they both waited out a rainstorm, and another

shows them with their arms around each other, smiling and perched on a rock. So unfortunately, the photos didn't leave any clues behind or depict who had murdered them. After the case aired on America's Most Wanted, Bill Fahls, who's a special agent with the FBI, assured the public, quote, We literally interviewed hundreds of people who were in the park that weekend, and followed up on thousands of leads. It's a difficult case to investigate, because it was in a forest and there were no witnesses. And then sadly, the case slowed to a standstill.

the case slowed to a standstill. But the following year in 1997, a man was arrested for an unrelated crime and came under suspicion for the murders of Julie and Lolly. On July 9th, 1997, Yvonne Malbassa, who was a Canadian woman traveling through the Shenandoah National Park, was out for a bike ride on Skyline Drive, very close to where Julie and Lolly were found deceased.

Daryl David Rice, who went by David, was a computer programmer from Columbia, Maryland, and he was driving his pickup truck along Skyline Drive when he spotted Yvonne alone and approached her. Now, according to Yvonne, David leaned out his window, yelling obscenities at her, including that he wanted to see her breasts. When she ignored him, rightfully so,

he began to demand that she get into his truck with him, and then he began trailing behind her in an attempt to force her inside, grabbing at her roughly as he drove. Such a piece of shit this guy is. Ah, it's so gross. So Yvonne managed to break away from this creep, but she was wearing cycling shoes

that locked onto the pedals of her bike, which made a fast getaway impossible. She attempted to run into the brush and hid behind a tree, at which point David tried to hit her with his car multiple times. Eventually he gave up and sped away, later pulling over to change his shirt and return his license plates to his truck because by the way, he had removed them to make himself less recognizable to Yvonne later on so he was he knew that he was going out preying on a girl and

and he removed his license plates in case he couldn't catch up to the said woman and she could identify him later. I mean it's pretty obvious that this guy probably had I mean obviously he had bad intentions, but I think he had intentions to rape and kill Yvonne and he'd probably done similar things like this before like it's just crazy to me that this was all pre-planned and that this guy probably is or was you know a serial killer. Well get this, inside his car were hand and leg restraints, because thankfully, Yvonne relayed what he looked like

and what his car looked like, and park rangers found and detained him a short while later, only to find again, these hand and leg restraints in his car. Yeah, so this guy is definitely a very dangerous person and absolutely had nefarious, you know intentions here well, he was just a very hateful and Hurtful person in general because while he was being held ahead of his trial David frequently ran his mouth about his distaste for women and

members of the LGBTQ community one fellow inmate reported that he stated that he, quote, hates gays and that he intentionally preys on women because they are, quote, more vulnerable than men. So this guy is just a disgusting piece of shit. Piece of shit. To steal Heath's famous line. I don't mind if you steal it, it works.

So David pleaded guilty to the attack on and attempted abduction of Yvonne and was sentenced to 135 months in prison, which is about 11 years. Well, while he was detained, the link between David Rice and the murders of Julie and Lolly became more and more clear. Now, although David said that he didn't have any knowledge or any involvement in the crime, multiple witnesses in the area that day claimed that they spotted him

entering Shenandoah National Park. He was even spotted on security camera footage in the park on May 25th and May 26th, so two days after Lolly and Julie were last seen publicly. It's pretty interesting. Very interesting and suspicious. He reportedly also told an inmate that the women had deserved to die because they were in a same-sex relationship.

Just so hateful. What an asshole. Although the prosecution would have a long way to go to build a case against him, David seemed to be somehow the only viable suspect. So, in 2002, he was indicted on four counts of capital murder for the gruesome slangs of Julie Williams and Lolly Winans, which was labeled a hate crime by the Department of Justice. However, the investigation to forensically connect David to the women failed, and the investigators were forced to rethink their charges. Investigators had collected male DNA and hair from Lolly's bindings, and it was not a match

for David's. So, in February of 2004, the murder charges against him were dropped due to lack of evidence. He was also considered a suspect in a series of attempted abductions attributed to the Route 29 stalker, which interestingly enough, we briefly discussed last week in the Spotsylvania Killer episode because Richard Avonitz was also believed to be the Route 29 stalker. In 2005, David pleaded no contest to one of these attempted abductions and has never been charged with the others. And it's also unknown if any or all of them can be attributed to him, or if multiple assailants are to blame here. There are numerous unsolved disappearances and murders along Route 29 believed to be attributed to the Route 29 stalker that have yet to

be solved. Which we can also cover. Yeah, if that's something you guys want to hear about let us know. So sadly after the release of David Rice, Julie and Lolly's case grew quiet after 2004. Until this year, people, this year, that's right. Yeah, so there was like a kind of a 20 year standstill, but it was really in 2021 when they started looking deeper into it again with all of our technological advancements.

So on June 20th, 2024, the FBI held a press conference announcing that they had linked the DNA evidence left at the scene to the murders of Julie and Lolly. After 28 years, they determined the murderer to be a man named Walter Leo Jackson Sr., who went by Leo. And he was 48 years old when Lolly and Julie were murdered. Leo was not known to the women before the crime and it's believed that it was a

heinous crime of opportunity or perhaps that he was trailing them during their hike and attack them when they were unsuspecting and alone in their campsite, which really just feels like the most likely that he had possibly, because I'm going to mention it in a second, but he did enjoy hiking. So it seems like maybe he was out there, whether preying on women intentionally or not, or just again, a crime of opportunity, and saw them and kind of waited out and targeted them, which is so scary. Now Leo was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and though not convicted of the murders until much later,

was no stranger to horrific crimes against women, which I'm sure is not a surprise to anybody. Now he served prison sentences for multiple assaults, abductions and rapes, and was imprisoned from January of 1984 to February of 1989, May of 1994 through September of 1994, August of 2000 to May of 2007, and then May of 2012 until March of 2018.

So this guy is like a career piece of shit. I mean, he's been- Yeah, in and out of prison. Yeah, in and out of prison, been doing this for a long piece of shit. I mean, yeah, in and out of prison. Yeah, in and out of prison. Been doing this for a long, long time. Yeah. And also, so that means that from September of 1994, when he was released at one point to August of 2000, he was out, you know, making him a free man in 1996

when Lolly and Julie were killed. And actually, on June 5th, 1996, less than a week after the murders of Julie and Lolly and Julie were killed. And actually, on June 5th, 1996, less than a week after the murders of Julie and Lolly, Leo abducted and raped a woman while he held a knife against her throat. And then, the following month, he committed the same crime to another woman. So he was very much active at that time.

Now, although he was a house painter by trade and spent most of his life in Cleveland, like I said, he was an avid hiker and he had a known interest in Shenandoah National Park. But before they found this guy, again in 2021, a special FBI task force was assigned to Julie and Lolly's case and re-examined the forensic evidence and DNA left behind at the scene. When his DNA was entered into CODIS and compared to that of the DNA left behind at the scene, it was such a close match that the possibility that it belonged to someone other than Walter Leo Jackson was measured at just a one in two point six trillion chance so yeah it's his yeah yeah this is the guy yeah and he

he's kind of a creepy dude oh he is a creepy looking fucker we are gonna post photos of him and of course Julie and Lolly so you guys can see but there's one photo online that is just like oh guys, it's an icky bastard. So true. Well sadly to the frustration of those waiting for justice for Julie and Lolly Walter Leo Jackson Sr. Passed away on March 3rd 2018 at the age of 70 while incarcerated in Ohio for his other horrific crimes against women. So this just sucks because I hate the fact that, you know, he died before he could go to trial and before he could face justice for those murders, but I guess, you know, he's out of this world, so fuck him.

It's great that he did serve a lot of time, so at least throughout his life he was off the streets multiple times, but you know, just knowing that he had hurt so many other women too, it just kind of takes away from his years in prison because there were still so many stints when he was out and able to hurt women. Yeah, and it just appears that this guy was, you know, purely a predator because, you know, the FBI concluded that this was actually not a hate crime. You know, they did not believe that Leo was aware that the women were in a relationship, and instead just used the opportunity to prey upon these women when they were alone in the woods. They did announce, however, that contrary to the belief of investigators at the time, you know, back in 1996,

that the women had not been sexually assaulted, they did conclude later on that they were sexually assaulted. But now, the FBI are asking for the public's help in identifying any other crimes that may potentially be linked to Walter Leo Jackson Sr. And if there were any suspicious sightings of his brown 1984 Chevrolet AMC Eagle 30, or his 1979 Ford Econoline 250 van, the former of which he was believed to have been driving at the time of the murders. He frequently switched vehicles and license plates, just like David Rice, and was also known to use fake temporary tags for his cars.

Lolly's mother Laura died in 2011, never learning who had killed her daughter. Lolly's father John is still alive, but is allegedly suffering from Alzheimer's. Julie's parents started the Julianne Williams Fund in her memory, promoting outdoor activities and exploration in nature for the empowerment of young women, which is just awesome. I love that so much.

Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. And after the news that they had found his daughter's killer, Tom shared that he had made peace with the fact that Walter Leo Jackson Sr. was deceased and was even thankful that it would spare him and his wife from having to suffer through a trial. In June of this year, Tom said, quote, knowing that it's truly the right person involved in the killings and other assaults, that he's the right person is good. It would not serve me or anybody having to sit through a trial legally saying this is the person and putting him away.

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. If you wanna see photos of Lolli and Julie, head on over to our socials. We're on Instagram at Going West podcast, and we're also on Facebook. Yes, we are. So check those out.

Thank you guys so much for tuning into this one. I'm so glad that there was some type of resolution. Of course, we don't necessarily need to hear from him because something we see in so many cases as well is they are just arrogant and crass and cruel during the trial and they don't even admit what they did and he does not seem like the dude who is going to do that. Yeah, I think the universe kind of really solidified everything and took him out of here. Yeah, so I'm glad that at least some of their family members were able to receive this news and have some type of closure,

but what a horribly senseless case. Well, I am happy that he at least spent a lot of his life in prison and he actually died in prison, so. Yes, not enough time as many of us would think, but absolutely. So thank you guys so much for tuning in. If you have a case that you want to recommend for the show, send us an email going westpodcasts at gmail.com.

That is really the only way that we're going to see it. Our messages on our other socials, not other socials, on our socials are kind of flooded and it's hard to check them consistently. So send us an email if you want us to cover a particular case. And thank you guys so much for tuning in we will see you again on Tuesday. Alright guys so for everybody out there in the world don't be a stranger. I'm out.