Murder Invades Idyllic World of Backpackers

Julianne Williams and Lollie Winans were killed doing what they loved most, their bodies discovered last weekend along the awe-inspiring Appalachian National Scenic Trail in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park.

They had ventured into the wilderness on foot, 80 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., two accomplished hikers who had met last year working as intern guides for hiking tours in the Midwest. They sought nature’s beauty. They found something far different.

Park police and federal law enforcement agents would say only that each woman suffered an “incised wound to the neck” but refusing to disclose how long they may have lain dead along the mountain crest road known as Skyline Drive.

And for hikers and hiking organizers, the murders have brought home the reality that even the idyllic world of nature cannot escape crime.

“I’ve been a hiking leader for 20 years,” said Jack Goldberg, who at 72 leads tours through Southern California’s Angeles National Forest and the San Gabriel Mountains.

“I’ve had people break an arm or leg from a fall. I’ve had one person have a heart attack. No, two people have had a heart attack. And you’re always falling down in the brush and ripping your pants.

“But 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.”

The summer season’s recreational trips in the wilderness and in national parks now are beginning in full swing. In recent years, the number of hikers and guided hiking tours has increased sharply, bringing more and more city dwellers into the woods and mountains for weekend getaways. But this new interest has come with a high price.

According to the National Parks and Conservation Assn., an independent group of national parks users, the number of park visitors has increased by 10% over the last decade--just as crime is rising.

Homicides in the national parks have almost tripled since 1971. Car thefts have doubled. Assaults are up by more than 60%. Rape and larceny are up 30%.

Officials said Tuesday that safety is still their No. 1 priority in the 83 million acres that make up the National Park Service system.

“The parks are relatively safe,” said David Barna, a spokesman at Park Service headquarters in Washington. “But they are also a microcosm of our society. We have drunk drivers and we have assaults and we have all the other problems people face in the cities.”

Barna said the Shenandoah killings are a reminder of the importance of park safety.

“As a fad or an exercise, hiking for the last 10 years has become a very big recreational activity. In fact, outdoor recreation has grown overall in this country in the last decade,” he said.

Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn., and Winans, 26, of Unity, Me., were the eighth and ninth people to be murdered in the last 22 years along the Appalachian trail, which runs south from Maine into Georgia.

The last murder occurred in 1990, when a drifter shot one hiker in the head and stabbed another as they slept in a camping shelter near Harrisburg, Pa.

Authorities arrested a man Monday who was walking on the trail without a backpack or other hiking gear. He was not implicated in the murders but was being held in connection with an unrelated offense in New York, officials said.

Williams and Winans met last summer while conducting tours for Woodswomen Inc., a Minnesota company that sponsors hiking and other outdoor trips.

Denise Mitten, executive director of Woodswomen, said the women were not afraid to go into the wilderness alone or together. She said that they had taught outdoor programs in Minnesota, including hiking, backpacking and canoeing. “They were wonderful, extremely dedicated outdoorswomen.”

Winans would have graduated this year with a college degree in outdoor recreation. Williams had earned a degree in the natural sciences.

“They loved the outdoors so much because they felt safe and they felt good when they were out there,” Mitten said. “They felt healthy. They just enjoyed being with nature.”