How the 1996 Shenandoah Park Murders Shook America

A Look Back at 1996 News Coverage

By Andrea | SEQUESTERED Blog Published: October 17, 2025

In late May 1996, two women set out on what was supposed to be a joyful backcountry trip. They carried with them a golden retriever, Taj, a love of the outdoors, and the kind of trust in the wilderness that so many of us have felt: that the forest is a refuge.

Julie Williams and Lollie Winans never made it home.

Their murders were brutal, senseless, and for decades unsolved. It sent shockwaves through hiking communities, LGBTQ+ circles, and small towns from Virginia to Minnesota. Nearly three decades later, as we revisit this story in Season 3 of SEQUESTERED, the newspaper coverage from June 1996 reads like a time capsule. It captures the confusion, fear, and cultural undercurrents of the moment in real time.

Breaking News Hits the Front Page

On June 5, 1996, headlines across the country carried the story with stark, unflinching language:

• “Two hikers’ throats cut, FBI reports” — Richmond Times-Dispatch

• “Murder Invades Idyllic World of Backpackers” — Los Angeles Times

• “Women’s deaths spark fear on Appalachian Trail” — Associated Press

The bluntness of those headlines is striking. This was before rolling news alerts, before social media, before podcasts like ours could contextualize stories in real time. The public received the news through morning papers and nightly broadcasts, often with little detail beyond the bare facts: two women, slain in their tent near Skyline Drive. Their dog was found alive. No suspects. No clear motive.

Front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reporting the murders.

Federal officials confirmed the women had died from incised knife wounds to the neck. Their bodies were discovered on May 31, in a secluded hollow roughly a third of a mile from the Appalachian Trail and a mile east of Skyline Drive. Julie and Lollie had obtained a backcountry permit for May 22–26 and were last seen at Skyland Lodge on May 24.

What wasn’t said in those first reports is just as telling as what was.

Fear Ripples Through the Trail

Within days, fear spread across the hiking community. The Baltimore Sun captured it vividly. Hikers began camping closer to others, carrying Mace, or changing their routes entirely. One man who had planned to head south into Shenandoah rerouted north, saying, “We don’t hike alone, or if you do, you look behind you or carry a stick. Maybe hike on the road. It’s just made you extra cautious and a little fearful.”Baltimore Sun - Hikers are unea…

For many hikers, the murders pierced a shared belief—that the wilderness was somehow separate from the dangers of the world. Brian King of the Appalachian Trail Conference put it plainly:

“There’s a very profound expectation of sanctuary in the woods. It’s been invaded.”

The sense of unease was compounded by the fact that law enforcement shared almost nothing publicly. Officials declined to say whether the women had been robbed or sexually assaulted. The investigation was deliberately quiet. Hikers were left to fill in the silence with speculation and fear.

LGBTQ+ Advocates Speak Up

Almost immediately, LGBTQ+ advocates recognized what the media did not fully articulate. Melinda Paras, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno, urging the FBI and National Park Service to investigate the murders as a potential hate crime:

“We are asking for your help to ensure that the FBI and the National Park Service are diligent in investigating all aspects of these crimes, including the possibility that the murders were motivated by anti-lesbian bias.” Baltimore Sun

At the time, federal hate crime protections did not include sexual orientation. Still, the Task Force’s letter made national news. Papers from Michigan to North Dakota ran versions of the headline: “Group Says Virginia Slayings May Be Hate Crimes.”

For LGBTQ hikers and outdoor enthusiasts, the fear was layered. These weren’t just hikers who had been killed. These were two women who loved each other, traveling together in a national park, a space that, for many queer people, has always held both freedom and risk.

Who Julie and Lollie Were

Beyond the crime, newspapers also captured the outpouring of grief from Julie and Lollie’s communities.

Julianne “Julie” Williams was a geology major, Class of 1994, known for her brilliance and deep love of wild places. A teacher read aloud from a letter Julie had written:

“Do not linger too long with your solemnities; go eat and drink and talk and when you can — follow a woodland trail, climb a high mountain, sleep beneath the stars...” — Star Tribune, June 7, 1996

Laura “Lollie” Winans, originally from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, was described in the Detroit Free Press as being happiest when she was outside. She had studied environmental science at Unity College in Maine and was about to spend her summer apprenticing as a wilderness guide.

The two met while working as interns for Woodswomen Inc., a Minneapolis-based outdoor organization. Denise Mitten, Woodswomen’s executive director, remembered them as “wonderful, extremely dedicated outdoorswomen.”LA Times - Murder Invades Idyll…

Minnesota memorial coverage honoring Julie’s life and spirit.

A Larger Pattern

The Los Angeles Times placed the murders within a national context. Park visitation had grown by 10% over the previous decade, and violent crime in national parks had increased alongside it. Homicides in U.S. parks had nearly tripled since 1971. Car thefts, assaults, and sexual assaults were all rising (LA Times).

For some hiking leaders, the murders marked a turning point:

“Is crime now coming to the wilderness? I guess it’s unavoidable. There’s crime in the streets, for crying out loud, so I guess this looks like nothing different than two women walking down Broadway and Main at night.”— Hiking tour leader quoted in Los Angeles Times

A Time Capsule of Uncertainty

Looking back at these articles, I’m struck by how much they don’t know. There are no suspects named, no forensic leads, no timeline of final movements beyond Skyland Lodge. The investigation is opaque. Communities are frightened and grieving. LGBTQ+ advocates are pushing for accountability in a world that doesn’t yet have the language or laws to support them.

These clippings aren’t just historical artifacts; they’re emotional snapshots of a moment when the trail went quiet, and the nation held its breath.

It would take nearly thirty years for a DNA breakthrough. Keep listening, there's more to come!

-Sara and Andrea SEQUESTERED Podcast

Sources:

• Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 1996

• Baltimore Sun, June 8, 1996Baltimore Sun - Hikers are unea…

• Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1996LA Times - Murder Invades Idyll…

• Star Tribune (Minnesota), June 7, 1996

• Detroit Free Press, June 1996

• Associated Press Wire Reports, June 1996