Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders w/ Kathryn Miles

On this edition of Parallax Views, journalist Kathyrn Miles joins the show to discuss her new true crime book Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders. In the spring of May 1996, Julianne “Julie” Williams and Laura “Lollie” Winans went into Shenandoah National Park, part of the Appalachian trail. They were two bright young women in college with a future ahead of them. That future, however, was stolen as both Lollie and Julie were murdered in the woods of Shenandoah Nation Park.

Their murder became nationwide news. So much so in fact that when George W. Bush became President of the United States, the Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales of announced that they had found a suspect and that the murder was a hate crime. You see, Lollie and Julie had been in a romantic relationship. As such, their murder could've been a hate crime. The culprit? A man by the name of Darrell David Rice.

However, not all is as it seems. Kathyrn Miles takes us through her investigation of the Shenandoah murders explaining the missteps and even, in some cases, malfeasance by the FBI, National Park Service, and the Department of Justice. In doing show she cast doubt on Rice as the perpetrator (note: Rice has not been convicted, even to this day) and offers another suspect. But this isn't just the story of the investigation of the murders. It's also an exploration of what it's like to be a woman, LGBTQ+, or other marginalized identity exploring the frontier of the Appalachian trail and the ways in which that trail is experienced differently by men and women.

We discuss all that and more on this edition of Parallax Views.