Go back

The National Park Killer

38m 39s

The National Park Killer

In 1996, two women, Julie Williams and Lolly Wineants, were murdered in Shenandoah National Park, their bodies discovered in a tent after a failed search. The case quickly became a national mystery due to jurisdictional confusion, inadequate investigation protocols, and a critical three-day delay in publicizing the crime. Daryl David Rice, a man with a history of homophobic statements and violent behavior, was initially believed to be the killer, but DNA testing later exonerated him. Despite this, investigators continued to focus on him for years, ignoring other suspects like Richard Mark Ivannitz, a known serial killer in the area. In 2024, after a comprehensive review, the FBI identified Walter Leo Jackson, a convicted serial rapist, as the true killer through a DNA match at the crime scene. The case illustrates systemic failures in wilderness law enforcement, including jurisdictional gaps, poor forensic practices, and a lack of thoroughness. It also raises concerns about how justice can be delayed or distorted by institutional bias and media narratives. Ultimately, the episode reflects on how nature can be both liberating and perilous, and how the pursuit of truth must be grounded in rigorous, impartial investigation—highlighting that even when public figures are wrongly blamed, the truth can still emerge decades later.

Transcription

6050 Words, 33343 Characters

English
Everyone here we are again welcome back. It's hard like do we do our intro or not because the episode is going to play and have our normal intro so like we're doing like a pre intro to the intro because we're still here. We just came down to Records of Mads to say hi. The episode is going to play right after this. We're both downstairs. Peyton currently has a baby in her hands. Baby Ron just ate. She's just sleeping on her mommy. We're hanging in there. Peyton's doing an amazing job. Yeah, what else? Every day it gets more natural. It starts to feel more real. I won't lie those first couple of days now looking back. A little weird. Yeah, I don't need to go off on a postpartum tangent but it's definitely like when you're it's your first baby it was a weird adjustment because I felt like me plus a baby not a mom because it's one minute they're not with you the next minute they're on your chest and you're just like what do I do? But it's definitely feeling so much more like natural and normal starting to feel like kind of meshing into our family. Daisy's getting more used to it. So yeah, sort of. Yeah, it's going good. It's been good. Thanks for your guys of support. I also got sick. Like the day after we brought Ron home so that was not fun at a pretty nasty cold. I'm finally on the tail end of it. So yeah, it's been a pretty crazy week for us. Well, I guess it'll be two weeks on Wednesday, which is so crazy. Anyways, granting. That's what we got. Thanks, everyone. We love you. Episode's going to start in a second. You can skip forward if you're sick of us talking. We don't really have any big major updates or anything crazy for 10 seconds because we're just taking care of the baby and keeping up with the work. And yeah, so on that note, let's hop into this week's episode. You're listening to an ono media podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast. This is murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband and the husband. Welcome back. Subscribers, paid subscribers. Thank you for being here. Thank you for supporting us. If you are watching this on video, don't because I look absolutely insane. I just got back from pickleball. And I'm finally feeling better today. I've been sick the last week. So I'm been doing much, but I look crazy. So just listen on audio. Everyone's sick right now. Everybody's sick right now. I know. Again, honestly, thank you for being here. We love you guys. Hope everyone has this should be coming out on Halloween. So yeah, which is tomorrow, where we're recording on some Thursday. This should be coming on Friday, I think. And do you hope you guys have a good Halloween? What's everyone doing? I'll tell you what we're doing. Nothing, which is sad, but we're doing app. We're going to end out candy to kids. And yeah, right then. Yeah, ending out candy. We still can't see each other because we have skeleton here. So we don't we don't get a look at each other a little sad. That's okay. Peyton's looking good. Kelly in my way. You could be a little considerate. Oh, there we go. It's a little better. Good job, baby. The fact that we could affect that with one motion. All right. We're getting into today's case. We sure are sugar warning. This episode contains discussions of sexual assault, homophobia, violence against queer people, self harm and murder. So please listen with care. Now, I want to kick things off with a quote about nature. There are so many good ones. It's hard to choose, but here are a few that stick with me. Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better. Or in every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks. Or a walk in nature walks the soul back home. And what's interesting is how these words come from very different people. One is a physicist, one is an environmentalist, one is a writer, but they all do touch on the same truth. And that is that being outdoors does something for humans. It clears our heads. It reminds us who we are. But as amazing as, you know, not being in your house and being outside and in nature can be, it can also be dangerous, even deadly. And unlike when you're in a city, there might not be cell service or cops nearby when something bad happens in nature. So it's beautiful, it's healing, it's inspiring, but it's also important to remember that when you're in the wilderness, you are on your own. So let's take it back to the year 1996. I was going to be born here pretty soon, but on May 19, 1996, two women drove into Shenandoah National Park. Now this park sits in Virginia. It's just a couple hours outside of DC. Now this park is known for waterfalls, mountains, wildflower covered meadows and over 196,000 acres of dedicated wilderness. So to some people, this might feel remote, but to these two women in 1996, Shenandoah felt familiar. They both were experienced backcountry hikers. They could backpack or days in the wilderness without access to civilization. Nope, can't do that. I respect the new one who can do that. I couldn't. I wish I could camp. They, these two women knew how to get water and food, how to build fires and shelter. Their names were Julie Williams and lowly wine ants. They had actually met Julie and lowly on a backcountry expedition about a year before this in 1995. They were two women from very different worlds who were both survivors. Lowly was the older of the two. She was 26 at the time. She took great pains not to show it, but lowly came from wealth. She was descended from John Baptist Ford, an industrialist who made a fortune off chemicals back in the 1800s. That company he started actually still exists today and the money it generated was astronomical. Lowly was just one of his many descendants, but she grew up on a sprawling estate in Michigan, her family wintered on a ranch in Arizona, her mother spent her time training laboratories and entertaining guests on their 140 foot yacht. It was the kind of lifestyle most of us can't even imagine. And as lowly grew up, she wanted none of it. She fell out of place in her family's world. She longed for something real. And maybe that's why she fell so in love with being outdoors. At age five, she asked for a tent so she could sleep in their backyard. And as she got older, nature became not just a passion, but a refuge. Lowly later said that she was sexually abused by her stepfather. She tried to tell her mom about it, but the response was not well. So she did anything she could to get away boarding schools and other states, outdoor camps, the last at all summer long. And when it came time for college, lowly got as far away from her family's world as she could. She chose a place called Sterling College and Craftsbury Common Vermont, almost a thousand miles away from home. Now Sterling was and is focused on quote ecological thinking and action. Students chopped wood, they built things they learned how to grow their own food, how to survive in the wilderness. And in December of 1989, one of lowly's classes went on a backpacking exhibition. In the middle of winter in Vermont. Oh my gosh. This obviously sounds like the worst extra credit option ever carrying a heavy backpack through snow for a week, often in sub zero temperatures, but lowly absolutely loved it. It was one of the most liberating experiences of her life. Yeah, I think a lot of people, it's like it's the completing something hard. It's the, I don't know, the feeling of success and I thought people like doing that for me, no, but I get why people do it. So basically from this extra credit opportunity point on, she was committed to living in sync with nature. She became a vegetarian. She started growing her own food. And later she joined an adventure travel group called woods women, which catered specifically to women who loved the outdoors. And on one of their expeditions in 1995, she meets Julie Williams. Julie was two years younger than Lali and she came from a totally different world. While Lali's mom was an ares Julie's dad, Tom was a few in world director. Her mom, Patsy was a nurse. They were a middle class family in the mid sized town of St. Cloud, Minnesota. And all Tom and Patsy wanted for their daughter was to be happy. Julie was exceptionally brilliant. Her teachers repeatedly suggested that her parents skip her up a grade or even two, but Tom and Patsy declined. want to push their daughter into things, they just wanted her to have fun being a kid. And maybe because of that decision, Julie flourished. She graduated valedictorian of her high school. She went on to college and dove into a ton of different interests. She studied geology. She joined archeological digs in Europe to study dinosaurs. She became fluent in Spanish and volunteered throughout South America. She was so well-traveled in giving of her time that her classmates called her the one woman peace corps. And like Lollie, she became passionate about the natural world. Julie had learned through her travels and life experience that nature is sometimes reserved for the privileged. Women, minorities and working class people don't always have the freedom to go enjoy it. And Julie thought that was wrong. She believed information would increase access. So in addition to all her other activities, she volunteered in city parks. Teaching single moms and their kids how to camp, how to hike safely. And then in 1995, Julie also joined woods women. And that's when she met Lollie and the two girls, Lollie at 26, Julie at 24, click right away. Despite their differences, their passion for nature was so great that it bonded them instantly. Friendship quickly turned into love. And about six months later, Julie moved in with her college friend Derek in Vermont just to be closer to Lollie, who was now studying at the Progressive Unity College in Maine. And for the next nine months or so, as they began dating, the two women lived about five hours apart. They saw each other as often as they could. But in the meantime, they wrote letters, they talked about their future. And then in May 1996, Lollie got a job in Vermont. And so essentially she came down to be with Julie. And it seems maybe they were moving in together. The detail isn't clear, but whether for that or some other reason, Julie decided to move out of the apartment she had been living in with Derek. And she and Lollie had a backpacking trip planned. It would be a week of camping and hiking in Shenandoah National Park. Their backcountry permit expired on May 28th. So after that, Julie told Derek she would come back, move her stuff out. But May 28th came and went and then it was May 29th and then May 30th. And by now Derek is getting aggravated. He wasn't necessarily worried. I mean, after all, he had known Julie since college. She had traveled all over the world. She'd always been fine. She was very equipped to handle the outdoors. Derek was annoyed that she hadn't shown up to move out or called and given him an update. To him, it felt like she had ditched him to finally spend time with her girlfriend, Lollie. So he picks up the phone. And he calls Julie's dad, Tom, who is back in Minnesota and said, hey, she's supposed to move out. All her stuff is here. Have you heard from her? And Julie's parents are like, no, we haven't. And unlike Derek, Tom and Patsy did start to worry. So they decide to report Julie missing. But it wasn't easy to figure out who to call Shenandoah National Park is huge. It spans multiple jurisdictions, several police departments. So finally, someone told Tom to just call the park. And by the time they did, it was after business hours. So all Tom could do was leave a message and wait and hope for good news. Now the next day, the park opens up and it is a madhouse because it's a memorial day weekend. Oh, no, that's like the worst thing that could have happened. Yeah, it's one of the busiest times of the year. The park is overcrowded. It's understaffed. So the Rangers didn't have a lot of time to search for this missing girl that supposedly went missing in the park. Luckily though, one of them remembered meeting Julie and Lali earlier in their trip. They had actually told this park Ranger where they planned on hiking and that they also had a dog with them. It was a Labrador Retriever named Taj. So the Ranger passed that along to the park's senior investigator. Yes, National Parks have detectives like they have their basically full blown force. But we'll we'll get to that more later in the story. The senior investigator assigned the case to another Ranger investigator and the search begins and they call this a bastard search. As in, where is the bastard? This is Ranger slang for a missing person case where someone probably just took the wrong trail and is lost. Most of the time, these cases end with a call from the people who had reported them missing saying something like, hey, he was actually in a hotel this entire time. But this time there was no such call. Rangers in the park searched and tell dark they interviewed hikers. No one had seen Julia Lali and the Rangers found no sign of them. So the next day, Saturday, June 1st, the search continued. Seven Rangers were part of this search crew combing the park. They can't find anything. And then finally, around 5 p.m. that day, a hiker flagged down a Ranger and she pointed out a dog that she had found wandering alone along the trail. Now this Ranger wasn't part of the search team, but he had heard about the missing woman. And when he saw the dog and that the dog was a lab, something clicked. So he calls the dog over, come here, the dog doesn't move. So then he tries something else. He opens the door to his truck and he's like, hey, Taj, come on, hop in. The dog comes running over, jumps in. It must have been a chilling moment. So the Ranger radioed the search team saying, hey, I'm pretty sure we found the women's dog. Oh, that's so sad for the dog too. So I know that's kind of random, but it is sad. How long has it been alone? I'm sure the dog knows what happened. And I mean, obviously, yeah, that's just horrible. So the search team actually hurries over to join the dog and the other Ranger on the trail where they've found the dog, because this is like the best clue they have. And they hike for hours searching, meanwhile, the light was fading fast. And just when the search team thought they'd have to stop for the night, two Rangers spotted a flash of blue somewhere in the trees. And they realize it's a tent. There's a tent pitched in the trees. So cautiously, they walked toward it. They're calling out, maybe hoping to hear voices call back, but as they get closer, they realize that this is not going to happen. They saw the tent had been slashed open. Here was scattered everywhere in this camping site. There was a roll of toilet paper soaked in blood. And among the mess one inside the tent, one outside, they found two women bound with duct tape. Oh my gosh. Their throats had been cut. There was no question in the Ranger's minds. They had just found the missing women. It was Julie and lolly and they had been brutally murdered. This wasn't an animal attack. This wasn't a got lost and couldn't find our way back and ended up succumbing to the circumstance. There might not be something creepier and scarier than someone who's like in the woods killing people in a national part. That is hundreds of thousands of acres horrible. So not far from Shenandoah is another one of America's great parks, Yellowstone. There's a place known as the zone of death there. It's a 50 square mile section of land where in theory, someone could commit a crime even murder and then walk away without a conviction. Now, this sounds like an urban legend, but it's not. It's actually a legal loophole. According to the Sixth Amendment, every person accused of a crime has the right to a trial by jury. And that jury has to come from the region where the crime took place. But in this particular jurisdiction of Yellowstone, there are no permanent residents. Nobody lives there. So there is no one to serve on a jury. Therefore, there's no legal way to conduct a trial. Now, to be clear, no one has ever tested this loophole. Like it's just an urban legend of theory. But it is a serious gray area of like Koden lawyer argue that this person isn't getting a fair trial because they're not getting a fair jury from the area. This is just one example of how in the wilderness, criminal investigations can kind of become an entirely different animal than the city and where people actually live. There are often jurisdictional issues. National parks, for example, are federal land, which would mean the FBI has authority over cases. But there's also a law enforcement arm of the National Park Service, an elite team of special agents trained to investigate major crimes that happen inside national parks. They know these places like the back of their hand. They also are well trained in the outdoors. These are the investigators I mentioned earlier. in addition. There are also local police of each jurisdiction where this land lies. There are sheriffs, there are volunteer search teams. So you have multiple agencies overlapping roles, and often there is unclear boundaries. This appears to have immediately been a problem in Julian Lollice case. So at first, the park service took over the crime scene, but they didn't have the equipment they needed to gather evidence. So they called in the Virginia State Police to help. And meanwhile, as the Virginia State Police are collecting evidence, the FBI shows up, and as highly trained as some of those agents were, they were not experienced in back country investigations. In fact, the Department of Justice at this time had just released a protocol, a series of steps for federal agents to follow on investigations. And step one was document the name and address of the building where the crime took place. Step two was determine points of entry and exit. Step three, check the door handles and light switches for prints. This is their like handbook if how to investigate and none of this applies to the situation. So the fed show up, they're not trained like the local people. They are learning on the fly. And there was another problem. One that appears to have been self-inflicted. All three agencies initially try to keep the crime a secret. For three days, no one told the public that two women had been found murdered inside the park. That's three days when potentially witnesses who had been hiking with these women were still in the park. Maybe the killer was still there too. And no one knows that this is happening. No one's on the lookout. No one's looking for anything while hiking, you know, being like actually maybe I did see something suspicious. There's a killer out there, but fine. So when the news finally does come out, it is vague. The head of the park service said it was an isolated incident. That cannot be exactly true because that same month, three other women had been murdered in Virginia. And by the end of the year, three more women would be killed all in the same general area. So maybe the park service director didn't know about those other cases, but he definitely knew one thing. He can't say for sure that this is an isolated event. Like this could definitely be a serial killer, a crazy lunatic just at loose in the park. So for reasons we don't know, he and the other agency leaders with held this information during the most critical time of the investigation was almost like they wanted the crime to go unnoticed. If so, to some degree, they were kind of successful, which meant that a year later in July of 1997, Julian Lawley's case was going cold. A tourist named Yvonne Malbasha was biking through the park a year later with no idea that these women had been killed their year before. Yvonne was riding along the main road. She felt totally safe until a pickup truck pulled up behind her in the park and then stayed behind her. So Yvonne pulls over as far as she can like waves them on. There's plenty of space. But instead of passing the driver through a soda bottle at Yvonne and then ran her off the road. Okay. So Yvonne is struggling with her bikes. She's trying to gain her balance. The man leaned out of his truck. He grabbed her on her chest area and yelled, "Basically show me your. " Oh, T-I-T-T-I-S is? Yes. So Yvonne then picks up her water bottle and smacks them with it. And it startled the man long enough to kind of put some space between the two, but he wasn't done. He then tried to run her down on his truck. Yvonne used her bike like a shield until she could get far enough into the woods that the man couldn't follow her. The man gives up and drives off. So Yvonne terrified, made her way back to the road. She flags down a passing ranger and says, "Hey, I was just assaulted." He sends out an alert and not long after, rangers found and arrested the driver of the pickup. His name was Darryl David Rice. He had no criminal record, but there were signs that this was more than a spontaneous assault. Darryl had changed his license plates. Since the attack, he had also changed his shirt, and he had leg and wrist bonds in the vehicle, like to tie someone up. So it feels like this man was prepared. Yeah. And if Yvonne hadn't fought him off, investigators were pretty sure they knew what he was going to do to her. So they quickly take Darryl into custody. He's charged with attempted kidnapping and sexual assault. And as he started making his way through the justice system, people begin to wonder, "Does Darryl have anything else that he's done in the park?" So as investigators are building their current case against Darryl Rice, they start digging into his background. And although he had no criminal record, there were definitely a few red flags. Darryl was a computer programmer in Maryland. He had been fired from his job a few weeks earlier due to a pattern of disturbing behavior. According to his file, he had yelled sexual comments at his co-workers. He had punched a hole in the bathroom wall. He repeatedly bumped into people holding hot coffee on purpose, trying to get them to spill their coffee on themselves. I think needless to say, this guy just had societal issues. And he also had a thing for bondage pornography. Now, this can be fine on its own, but when it's paired with stalking, aggressive behavior, sexual assault, attempted kidnapping, this suggests a unhealthy state of mind. It's like saying, "Hey, I like watching true crime within killing people." And then being like, "Oh, okay, it wasn't just an innocent obsession." Exactly. So perhaps this means he could have committed other crimes like killing Julie and Lolly. Soon, the feds were looking at Darryl in connection with the murders. And they found a clue that placed him near the scene of the crime. Security footage showed Darryl Rice entering the National Park on May 25th, 26th and June 1st, back in 1996. This is around the days that the women were killed. Turns out he was a nature lover too. Like his victim, Ivan, he was actually an avid cyclor. Maybe all he was doing during those days was enjoying the scenery, but when agents questioned Darryl about the women's murders, his response was suspicious. He denied entering the park on the 25th and 26th. And although he also denied knowing anything about the murders, he says in his interrogation that Julie and Lolly quote, "deserved to die because they were gay." Whoa, you said that. Yes. Now, this obviously isn't a confession, but it is enough to make investigators obviously zero in on him. So they spent the next five years building this murder case against him. And meanwhile, the impact of the crime kept rippling outward. Julie and Lolly weren't forgotten, but their families, their friends, or the communities that had grown to love them. One such place was Unity College in Maine, where Lolly had been a student. Well, by 2001, they had built a monument in her memory. They also had a fellowship in her name. Lolly had become a kind of school icon, a welcoming symbol of courage and dedication to natural life. That fall, a young professor named Catherine Miles arrived on campus. Catherine was just 27 years old, and she had been a reporter since the age of 16. She was fresh out of grad school, now new to teaching, new to this tight-knit community. And one of the things that impressed her about the school was how they honored Lolly's memory. She was almost like a martyr, a woman killed for living her truth. And despite the violence of her death, there was an innocence in the way that people remembered her, a sense that the world for all its cruelty was still essentially beautiful. And then September 11, 2001 came. Obviously, we know that's 9/11, 3,000 people were killed. And Catherine and her students watched the horror unfold on television. And in that moment, it became clear to them. The world had changed. It had lost its innocence, and it wasn't long before they started to see what that would mean. New laws were introduced. Some aimed at stopping terrorists. Others tried to control this rage. There was attacks on minorities, especially people of Arab descent. So all of this to say, the government was imposing new penalties for hate crimes after 9/11, which is going to impact our case. So if a person was convicted of a federal homicide, motivated by their hatred for a specific group, they could now be sentenced to death for that. Now, this legal shift changed the approach to Julie and Lolly's case. Behind closed doors, the Department of Justice under Attorney General John Ashcroft had determined determined that Julian Lawley's murders were hate crimes, and this meant renewed pressure to find a killer, but it also opened up a new angle to the investigation. Digging deeper, officials found that Daryl had made a harassing phone call to an LGBTQ organization in California, not long before Julian Lawley were killed. Daryl said it was a wrong number. He was actually trying to call a hotline, but be that as it may, combined with his homophobic statements, his history of violence, and the fact that he had been in the park around the time of the murders, federal agents feel like this was enough evidence. And on April 10, 2002, they charged Daryl with Julian Lawley's murders. So this is kind of what is in the news about the case, right? Like we've charged this person for a hate crime, and it's one of the first. But then 15 years later, in 2016, Katherine, who was back at the school, who was kind of around and watching this unfold in real time, is stunned to see a familiar headline. The FBI was seeking new information in the murders of Julian Lawley. And she's like, why? Like this was major news. They had caught the person. They had charged him. So Katherine looks into it and realized that the charges against Daryl had been dropped back in 2004 because DNA evidence had ruled him out. He wasn't a match. And yet when she reached out to the FBI about this, they're like, no, no, he's not exonerated. Back in 1998, Daryl had been sentenced to 14 years for that attack on Yvonne, the attempted attack. He had been released in 2007, but he'd never really been a free man because the FBI were like, we know you killed these women, even though DNA, exonerated, well, ruled you out. They just couldn't prove it. So after all these years, after the headlines, the press conferences, the national outrage, Julian Lawley's murders had actually remained unsolved. And the man people thought was responsible because it had blown up for 20 years now. People had assumed that he did this. You might have actually been innocent because way back then they ruled him out with DNA. What? But Daryl might be innocent. Yes. Daryl. Daryl? Yeah. But it's now fast forward. He did serve time for the attempted. But the FBI still are zeroing in on him saying he's the one who did it, even though DNA rolled him out. That's confusing. Catherine starts looking into this because she's like, how was this such huge news? And then he wasn't actually charged for it. So back in 1996, investigators had collected huge amounts of evidence from the scene. And some of it had been tested for DNA. And they had found a sample that didn't match Julie or Lawley, presumably the killers. Now at the time when they checked it against Daryl, it didn't rule him out. But by 2003, DNA technology had improved. They tested it again because this is all blowing up. They really want to put him away and they find that it's not Daryl's DNA. This was after they had basically come forward told the families, told the public that the killer had been found. This is confusing. So he could have come out and been like, you guys never mind. We definitely thought it was him, but it was a mistake. He chose not to do it. Neither he nor the FBI appeared to believe that this DNA made him innocent. They remain sure that Daryl had done it. So they kept looking into him to the exclusion of almost all other people. And there was another man that came up on the radar in this investigation that they didn't even really look into. His name was Richard Mark Ivannitz. He was a serial killer who was active in the Virginia area. Now remember, this is all being opened up and discovered later. This is the same time Julian Lolli were murdered. In 1996, Ivannitz abducted and killed at least three young women in Virginia. He fit the profile. He had the means. He was operating right under investigators noses. So why hadn't they tested his DNA? One reason was maybe that he was dead at this point. He had killed himself in 2002 rather than face his arrest. And at the time, investigators still thought they had their man. So they wouldn't have a reason to test anyone else. So Catherine, who was like, this investigation was completely botched, decides to write a book about it. It's called Trailed One Woman's Quest to solve the Shenandoah murders. Her findings aren't conclusive, but they make a compelling case that investigators did sloppy work and had missed something. And just maybe her pressure would help get things moving again. So in 2021, the FBI assigned a new team to the case. This time, they were more thorough than ever. Special agents, intelligence and analysts, forensic experts, everyone combed through the case files. They reviewed every piece of physical evidence. New DNA samples were sent to a private lab. And this time, they get a hit, not for Daryl, not for Richard, the serial killer operating in the area around the time. But for a man named Walter Leo Jackson, OK, I don't understand how many killers are in this place. Right. This is getting ridiculous. So Walter was a house painter from Ohio. He was a convicted serial rapist. He died in prison in 2018, but his DNA was a match to the DNA found at the crime scene. So on June 20th, 2024, 28 years after the murders, a press conference was held to announce the real killer had finally been found. And everyone's like, wait, I thought this, this, this crime was already solved. For many, it's a huge relief. Julie's dad, Tom, said it was immaterial that Walter was dead. All that mattered was that they finally knew the truth. They had the right man this time. The Catherine, who had been reporting on all this, isn't so sure. What exactly was the DNA they tested? Was it semen? Was it a single skin cell? Was it trace evidence? She's like, these details matter. You already got it wrong the first time we really need to know. She makes it a point that even when the real killer was named in 2024, the press didn't really say much about Daryl, even though his life had basically, I mean, he served time for that attempted assault, which was horrible. But he was kind of plagued a murderer after his arrest. And then a few days after the real killer was announced, Daryl was hit by a car and killed while riding his bike. What for? So finally, it like, his name is cleared for good because they get killed. And then he gets killed in an extreme display of irony. But he did do something bad. And did do something bad, but he did not murder the women. Yes. Correct. Okay. So this just goes to show that violence can happen anywhere, no matter who you are, safety is not guaranteed. But what we do have is each other are lives, the ability to live our truth. And that's exactly what Julian Molly did. They went into the wild and search of freedom and they found it. They lived their lives out in the open exactly where they were meant to be. And that is the extremely twisted trail of the case of Julie Williams and Lollie Winons. And I just, there's a lot. It's just so crazy to me. I don't know how you can get it wrong like three different times. Well, and then also, you know, not saying that he was innocent, obviously, but there's a serial killer operating in the area. And then it just happens to be a random painter who's a serial rapist. I don't understand that. In 2024. I just think how many coincidences can we have, you know? Well, then also his name finally gets cleared and then a couple days later, he dies. Yeah. It's just so random and weird, but as are these cases. Yeah. All right, you guys, that was our bonus episode and we will see you with a regular one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. In 1996, two women, Julie Williams and Lolly Wineants, were brutally murdered in Shenandoah National Park, with their bodies found in a tent after a missing persons investigation.
  2. The initial investigation was hampered by jurisdictional confusion, lack of proper forensic training, and a three-day delay in publicizing the crime, allowing a potential suspect to go unnoticed.
  3. Daryl David Rice, a man with a history of violent and homophobic behavior, was widely believed to be the killer, but DNA evidence later exonerated him, leading to a long-standing case that remained unsolved despite public outrage.
  4. A serial killer, Richard Mark Ivannitz, was active in the region at the time of the murders, yet investigators failed to test his DNA, possibly due to his death by suicide in 2002.
  5. In 2024, after a thorough reexamination, FBI agents identified Walter Leo Jackson, a convicted serial rapist, as the true killer through a DNA match at the crime scene.
  6. The case highlights systemic failures in wilderness crime investigations, including jurisdictional gaps, outdated protocols, and flawed forensic decisions.
  7. The prolonged failure to solve the case and the eventual wrongful focus on Daryl Rice raise concerns about justice, bias, and the impact of media narratives on public perception.
  8. The story underscores the importance of nature as both a sanctuary and a dangerous space, where isolation and lack of oversight can enable violence and complicate investigations.

Summary:

In 1996, two women, Julie Williams and Lolly Wineants, were murdered in Shenandoah National Park, their bodies discovered in a tent after a failed search. The case quickly became a national mystery due to jurisdictional confusion, inadequate investigation protocols, and a critical three-day delay in publicizing the crime. Daryl David Rice, a man with a history of homophobic statements and violent behavior, was initially believed to be the killer, but DNA testing later exonerated him.

Despite this, investigators continued to focus on him for years, ignoring other suspects like Richard Mark Ivannitz, a known serial killer in the area. In 2024, after a comprehensive review, the FBI identified Walter Leo Jackson, a convicted serial rapist, as the true killer through a DNA match at the crime scene. The case illustrates systemic failures in wilderness law enforcement, including jurisdictional gaps, poor forensic practices, and a lack of thoroughness.

It also raises concerns about how justice can be delayed or distorted by institutional bias and media narratives. Ultimately, the episode reflects on how nature can be both liberating and perilous, and how the pursuit of truth must be grounded in rigorous, impartial investigation—highlighting that even when public figures are wrongly blamed, the truth can still emerge decades later.

FAQs

Julie Williams and Lolly Winson were brutally murdered in Shenandoah National Park in 1996. Their bodies were found in a tent with their throats cut and bound with duct tape, inside a remote area of the park.

Darryl David Rice was initially suspected due to his presence in the park around the time of the murders, homophobic statements, and prior history of aggressive behavior, including an attempted assault on a woman.

No, Darryl David Rice was not convicted of the murders. DNA evidence ruled him out as a suspect, and charges were dropped in 2004, though the FBI continued to believe he was responsible for years afterward.

Walter Leo Jackson, a convicted serial rapist from Ohio, was identified as the real killer based on DNA evidence found at the crime scene in 2024, 28 years after the murders.

The investigation was hampered by jurisdictional issues, lack of proper training in backcountry investigations, suppression of information, and failure to test alternative suspects' DNA, including a known serial killer in the area.

After 9/11, new hate crime laws were introduced, leading the Department of Justice to classify the murders as hate crimes, which intensified pressure to solve the case and re-examine the evidence.

Chat with AI

Loading...

Pro features

Go deeper with this episode

Unlock creator-grade tools that turn any transcript into show notes and subtitle files.