ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607220091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The Washington Post
The FBI is investigating the possibility that more than one assailant was involved in the killings of two young women on a hiking trip in Shenandoah National Park, according to the agency's regional chief in Richmond.
In the FBI's first disclosure of new details in six weeks, Stanley Klein, special agent in charge of the FBI's Richmond office, also said that the women's wrists were bound. One body was inside their tent and the other was outside when National Park Service rangers discovered them June 1, he said.
Their throats had been slashed. Klein would not specify whether a knife or some other sharp object was used.
Klein acknowledged that it might have been difficult for one assailant to tie up both victims and said he could not ``discount the fact that there might be more than one'' assailant involved.
``We've had hundreds and hundreds of leads to follow,'' he said. ``This has been one of the most exhaustive investigations I've seen, and I've been with [the FBI] for 28 years.''
In an interview last week, he said the bureau also is investigating whether the fact that the hikers were lesbians was connected to their deaths.
The bodies of Julianne Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn., and Lollie Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine, were discovered at a secluded creekside campsite barely half a mile from the popular Skyland Lodge resort on Skyline Drive.
Shortly after the investigation began, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force asked that the FBI investigate the killings as a possible anti-lesbian hate crime, but a bureau spokesman at the time said investigators were not looking into such a motive.
``Whatever their lifestyles were ... we follow it,'' Klein said. ``Absolutely, we are looking into every aspect, whether it involves their lifestyles, hiking habits, family, friends or whatever.''
Klein said the agency is providing new details in hopes of generating information from any witnesses. Investigators also have cooperated in the filming of a segment for the television show ``America's Most Wanted,'' which will air at 9 tonight on Fox stations.
Although the women were last seen in the park May 23, an autopsy report suggested that the killings occurred on or after May 27.
Klein said that investigators do not believe robbery was a motive and that there is no evidence to suggest that any of the women's belongings were stolen during the attack. Their dog was found near the site, running free.
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