A Murder in the Woods: The Mystery Behind Shenandoah National Park's Last Homicide

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri Mar 6, 2020, 02:52 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm clearing out old papers. There was a homicide in SNP since then:

TWO HIKERS ATTACKED ON APPALACHIAN TRAIL SATURDAY, ONE VICTIM DEAD

13 May 19|Kim Dinan

A man who has been terrorizing hikers on the Appalachian Trail since at least April has been charged with murder after the brutal attack of two hikers over the weekend. James Louis Jordan, 30, also known as “Sovereign,” was arrested Saturday morning after police followed the SOS signal triggered by one of the victims.

Wythe County, Va police say that a group of hikers camping on Friday night reported being threatened by a man wielding a large knife. The man pursued two of the hikers who fled north but they were able to elude him and reported the incident to the sheriff’s office. The other two hikers in the group fled south, and the man caught up to and attacked the hikers. The male hiker triggered the SOS signal on his phone before his murder. The female hiker suffered defensive wounds and was seriously injured. She played dead until the attacker left the scene, and then ran for help, eventually encountering another group of hikers six miles away.

A Wythe County tactical team entered the forest Saturday morning to locate the SOS signal. While talking with other hikers, Jordan’s dog wandered up to the police and led them to the suspect who was arrested without incident. A 20-inch knife was found along the trail shortly before police discovered the male victim.

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Here's the first article:

A MURDER IN THE WOODS: THE MYSTERY BEHIND SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK’S LAST HOMICIDE

01 Mar 18|Kim Dinan

IN MAY OF 1996, JULIANNE “JULIE” WILLIAMS AND LAURA “LOLLIE” WINANS WALKED INTO THE WOODS AND NEVER CAME OUT ALIVE. THEIR DOUBLE-MURDER SPARKED SHOCK AND FEAR WITHIN SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, WHERE THEY WERE MURDERED AT THEIR BACKCOUNTRY CAMPSITE, AND FAR BEYOND, PROMPTING A NATION-WIDE SEARCH FOR THEIR KILLER.

I was in high school when Julie and Lollie were murdered. If I heard the news as it unfolded, I don’t remember. But a year after their death Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods was published and opened a previously unknown chamber inside of me. At the time, I was just a kid in Ohio who took solace in nature. But in Bryson’s kooky memoir about walking the Appalachian Trail, I found an obsession, enthralled by the idea that one could walk over 2,000 miles without ever leaving the forest. It was in one of the years that followed, as my curiosity about the Appalachian Trail deepened, that I first learned of Julie and Lollie.

Julie and Lollie weren’t hiking the Appalachian Trail when they were murdered, but their bodies were discovered not far from the popular footpath. As I learned more about their lives, I began to see myself reflected in their stories—Julie’s love of travel, Lollie’s belief in the transformative powers of testing oneself in the outdoors. Reading between the lines, I could sense their yearning to find themselves, to build a simple and meaningful life. It was the same desire that drove me to eventually make my home in Western North Carolina, so many years after first feeling the pull of the Appalachian Mountains.

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If you have any information concerning the murder of Julianne “Julie” Williams or Laura “Lollie” Winans, please contact the FBI-Richmond Division at [phone].