[at-l] Killer indicted

[m2b@loa.com (Ryan Crawford)]

Just received this email from a friend of mine.  It seems strange to hear of
a murder case being solved 7 years later.

A Virginia man who has been in jail since 1999 has been indicted by a
Charlottesville, Va., grand jury on capital-murder charges in the
slayings of two women hikers in Shenandoah National Park in late May
1996, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced today. Darrell
David Rice will be prosecuted under federal hate-crimes statutes for
"intentionally selecting [each victim] because of actual or perceived
gender or sexual orientation." The bodies of Julianne Williams, 24,
and Lollie Winans, 26, who had been hiking side trails during a
week-long vacation, were found at a creekside campsite about a
quarter-mile east of the Skyland Drive/Appalachian Trail intersection
near Skyland Lodge. Rice has been in jail on unrelated abduction
charges, authorities said.