May 19, 1996. Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. 24-year old Julianne “Julie” Williams and her 26-year old girlfriend, Laura “Lollie” Winans, leave on a backpacking trip, but are eventually reported missing when they fail to return home. Nearly two weeks later, Julie and Lollie are found dead at a campsite inside the park and have been bound, gagged and had their throats slashed. The murders are looked at as a possible hate crime and a suspect named Darrell David Rice is indicted in 2002. However, when forensic evidence fails to link Rice to the crime, the charges against him are dropped. Was Rice actually the perpetrator or was someone else responsible? This week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” explores the horrific double-murder of a lesbian couple, as well as its possible connections to some other infamous unsolved crimes from Virginia, including the Route 29 murder of Alicia Showalter Reynolds and the Colonial Parkway Murders.

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Additional Reading:

https://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/features/murder-woods-shenandoah-national-park/

https://www.fredericksburg.com/news/crime_courts/after-years-shenandoah-national-park-double-murder-still-unsolved-but/article_c161cfe5-156e-50e7-8b76-0761f186ae79.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2004/02/26/charges-dismissed-in-shenandoah-park-slayings/962f304e-1111-484b-ad9c-46cbad2362da/

https://barryyeoman.com/1996/11/murder-on-the-mountain/

http://www.readthehook.com/98890/explosive-words

http://www.readthehook.com/94820/cover-after-rice-new-questions-park-murders

http://www.readthehook.com/85777/cover-cold-case-alicia-showalter-reynolds-fall-and-rise-darrell-rice

http://www.readthehook.com/85806/cover-murder-park-rice-release-revives-memories

https://www.fredericksburg.com/news/local/families-want-evidence-checked-in-shenandoah-double-slaying/article_7873a07f-f56a-5448-a2d9-59c88fd5cc07.html

http://unsolved.com/gallery/alicia-showalter

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Alicia_Showalter_Reynolds

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Parkway_murders

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The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.