Trailed

March 15, 2022
An award-winning science writer investigates the 1996 backcountry murders of two hikers. Miles first heard about the Shenandoah Valley murders of Lollie Winans and Julie Williams at Unity College, "a small environmental studies college located in the foothills of central Maine," where she began teaching in 2001. A survivor of sexual abuse, Winans had been a popular student who led wilderness trips to help other assault victims move through the healing process. The summer before their deaths, Winans and Williams had fallen in love while working at an outdoor program called Woodswomen, Inc. By the time Miles left Unity in 2016, she found herself "trailed" by their story, which had never found resolution. Their suspected attacker, Darrell Rice, served a 10-year prison term for their assault before being released. However, the prosecution for murder stalled, leaving the case in limbo. For the next four years, Miles immersed herself in court transcripts, news stories, scholarship, and interviews with more than 100 sources. The "deficiencies and mistakes" she uncovered in police investigations appalled her. Richard Marc Evonitz, another suspect, had been linked with other kidnappings and murders in the South. Yet police dismissed him despite DNA evidence collected from the Winans-Williams murder site that suggested his guilt. Researching a vibrator left behind at the crime scene, Miles found links back to Evonitz, a sexual fetishist and known pedophile who killed himself in 2002. What makes this story so chilling is not just that the author had to "police law enforcement" in order to determine their investigative errors. She also shows how "every year there is demonstrable evidence that women, African Americans, and nonbinary and LGBT people have good reason to wonder if they are safe in the wilderness, which in many ways is still considered a white male domain." Gripping and thoughtful, this book will appeal to those with an interest in true-crime stories and unsettling truths about places deemed safe for all. Disturbing and provocative.

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Starred review from March 21, 2022
In 2016, Miles (Quakeland: On the Road to America’s Next Devastating Earthquake) became obsessed with the unsolved case of Julie Williams and Lollie Winans, a couple in their 20s who were murdered in 1996 while hiking in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, leading her to spend four years researching this engrossing account. Through extensive investigations and the help of attorney Deirdre Enright and her Innocence Project students, Miles discounted the National Park Service rangers’ and FBI’s theories that Darrel David Rice was the murderer. Rice, in prison for assaulting a female cyclist in Shenandoah Park in 1998, was indicted for the double homicide in 2002, but the case was dismissed in 2004 when DNA evidence ruled him out. The loss of evidence by the time the crime scene was investigated and park service efforts to keep the deaths quiet for fear of losing tourists hampered the inquiry, but Miles makes a convincing case that serial killer Richard Marc Evonitz, who died by suicide in 2002 as police closed in on him, was the likely culprit, though the FBI declined to connect him to the Williams and Winans murders. Along the way, Miles takes a comprehensive look at police procedures in federal parks and violence against women in rural areas. This fascinating if often grim story is a must for true crime buffs. Agents: Wendy Strothman and Lauren MacLeod, Strothman Literary.

April 23, 2022

In 1996, Julianne Williams and her girlfriend Laura Winans were backpacking in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, where they were brutally murdered. After years of dead ends, law enforcement identified a man they believed guilty of the murders, however they dismissed the case against him in 2016 due to lack of evidence. Miles, an avid backpacker and journalist for Outside magazine, began working on a story about the unsolved case. The story turned into four years of reviewing court transcripts, case files, news stories, and hundreds of interviews with witnesses, law enforcement and forensic experts. Miles identifies some serious missteps in the investigation and sheds light on the troubling issues of the National Park Service when it comes to solving violent crimes. VERDICT Miles strikes a good balance between laying out the details of the crime and investigation, and fully developing the stories of the victims' lives. Fans of unsolved cases will appreciate this well-researched, compelling story.--Melissa Stoeger

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Starred review from April 1, 2022
Miles (Quakeland, 2017) turns to true crime in her latest work of mesmerizing journalism. In 1996, Julie Williams and Lollie Winans were murdered in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, near the Appalachian Trail. Twenty years later, working as a professor at the Maine college Winans had attended, Miles begins her investigation into these unsolved murders. Skilled hikers with different yet equally magnetic personalities, Williams and Winans fell in love while working at Woodswomen, an outdoor leadership training organization. Like Michelle McNamara in I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2018), Miles becomes obsessed with the crime as she researches it, to the point of fearing for her own safety on camping trips. Discovering the relatively high rate of violence in national parks, especially against women, and their woefully understaffed ranger services does nothing to ease her mind. As she digs further into the case, Miles finds huge loopholes in the FBI's investigation, especially after they set their sights on a suspect, Darrell David Rice. Utterly engaging and always respectful, Trailed is highly recommended for true crime fans who love fascinating tangents, like those Miles offers on the National Park Service, Woodswomen, and the establishment of hate crime laws.

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