Attorney General John D. Ashcroft announced yesterday that a Federal Grand Jury in Charlottesville indicted a Columbia, Md., man Tuesday for the murder of two female hikers in Shenandoah National Park in 1996. If convicted, David Darrell Rice, 34, could receive the death penalty.
Rice is charged with capital murder and a hate crime for singling out Julianne Marie Williams, 24, and Laura "Lollie" S. Winans, 26, based on their gender and sexual orientation.
"As outlined in the government's pleadings, Rice has stated on several occasions that he enjoys assaulting women because they are, in his words, quote 'more vulnerable' than men," Ashcroft said.
There also is evidence that Rice hated homosexuals, which he believed the women were, Ashcroft added.
Rice faces charges from federal courts since the murder took place on U.S. government property.
Virginia and federal hate crime laws do not protect against sexual orientation or gender as motives in a crime. However, federal sentencing guidelines allow for tougher punishments if the crime is based on a person's sexual orientation. The Justice Department thus was able to obtain a hate-crime indictment.
"Today's murder indictment specifically invokes a federal sentencing enhancement enacted to ensure justice for victims of hate crimes," Ashcroft said.
Williams and Winans were last seen alive May 24, 1996. Their bodies were found June 1, 1996 at a campsite "bound and gagged, with their throats cut," Ashcroft said.
Ever since the investigation began in May of 1996, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Park Service have been working on an estimated 15,000 leads and contacts.
Rice is currently serving a 135-month federal sentence in the Petersburg, Va., federal prison for an unrelated abduction of a female biker in the Shenandoah National Park in 1997.
Special Agent Jane L. Collins of the FBI and Special Agent Timothy W. Alley of the National Park Service conducted the investigation.
The prosecutors against Rice will be Thomas J. Bondurant Jr., criminal chief of the Western district of Virginia and Asst. Attorney Anthony P. Giorno.
The time and place of the trial has not been announced, said Mark Corallo, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Williams was a native of St. Cloude, Minn.
"She was interested in helping migrant workers," Ashcroft said. She also "was part of a group of individuals whose knowledge of geology and the natural world was valuable in terms of our culture."
Winans was a student at Unity College in Maine.
"She was in the final stages of becoming an accredited guide," Ashcroft said.
"She loved the outdoors and she loved to introduce people to the outdoors."
National Park murders are highly unusual, said Brian King, spokesperson for the Appalachian Trail Conference, a non-profit group based in Harper's Ferry, W.Va.
Thirteen people were killed in all of America's national parks in 2000, he said.
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