Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders

Written by Kathryn Miles

Narrated by Gabra Zackman

A riveting, "beautifully written" deep dive into the unsolved murder of two free-spirited young women in the wilderness (John Grisham, #1 New York Times bestselling author), a journalist's obsession—and a new theory of who might have done it.​

They must have been followed. That’s the thought I return to after all these years . . .
 
In May 1996, two skilled backcountry leaders, Lollie Winans and Julie Williams, entered Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park for a week-long backcountry camping trip. The free-spirited and remarkable young couple had met and fallen in love the previous summer while working at a world-renowned outdoor program for women. During their final days in the park, they descended the narrow remnants of a trail and pitched their tent in a hidden spot. After the pair didn’t return home as planned, park rangers found a scene of horror at their campsite, their tent slashed open, their beloved dog missing, and both women dead in their sleeping bags. The unsolved murders of Winans and Williams continue to haunt all who had encountered them or knew their story.

When award-winning journalist and outdoors expert Kathryn Miles begins looking into the case, she discovers conflicting evidence, mismatched timelines, and details that just don’t add up. With unprecedented access to crucial crime-scene forensics and key witnesses—and with a growing sense of both mission and obsession—she begins to uncover the truth. An innocent man, Miles is convinced, has been under suspicion for decades, while the true culprit is a known serial killer, if only authorities would take a closer look.

Intimate, page-turning, and brilliantly reported, Trailed is a love story and a call to justice—and a searching and urgent plea to make wilderness a safe space for women—destined to become a true crime classic.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: May 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781649040992

Kathryn Miles

Kathryn Miles is a professor of environmental writing at Unity College. She is the author of Adventures With Ari and dozens of articles that have appeared in publications, including Alimentum, Best American Essays, Ecotone, Flyway, Meatpaper, and Terrain. She lives—and sails—in Belfast, Maine.

Reviews for Trailed

[dele2451 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As a woman who spends a LOT of time on public lands, both state and federal, I found this book extremely interesting and somewhat frightening at times. It should be required reading for all individuals working for the Department of the Interior, especially rangers--both interpretive and law enforcement.

[gpangel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles is a 2022 Algonquin Books publication.

This is very good examination, not only of the double murder of Julie Williams and Lollie Winans, but of other murders in our National Parks and the implications of crimes against women, possible hate crimes, and the process of the investigations, which led to what is most likely an erroneous suspect, and resulted in an unsolved double murder case.

This is a different approach to true crime, as the author doesn’t just outline the case, investigations, etc., in the traditional manner we normally find in true crime books. This book also doubles as a commentary about how women are often the targets of crimes in a wilderness environment. The study includes the possibility that some of these crimes might be motivated by hate, especially considering that Julie and Lollie were a lesbian couple.

Based on the evidence presented here, the one and only suspect for the investigators, is most likely not the doer. There is, though, some strong evidence that the real murderer was a known sexual deviant, but has since died by suicide.

Miles's findings weren’t welcomed by those who worked the case, as it would indicate they got it wrong or didn’t to a very good job with the investigation.

It would appear that women- from all walks of life- are at risk when in a wilderness environment- not from wildlife or the forces of nature, but from human predators.

Sadly, some women will forego or give up entirely on enjoying the full, invigorating pleasures of our National Parks because they don’t feel safe.

This is a recurring theme in the book, but at times, the author tended to spend more time on this topic than was absolutely necessary and I would have preferred to have more balance with the criminal elements, which I feel are required for any true crime book.

While backpacking and ‘roughing it’ in the wilderness is a place one might feel they could let their guard down and be more aware of the natural surroundings, such as wildlife, and survival measures, sadly, there is no place women, no matter their sexuality or race, can fully relax against the possibility of an attack, sexual or otherwise, especially considering that men are usually the predominant population in this specific landscape.

Overall, this book has been yet another example of shoddy, tunnel vision like investigations, and is also a study of crimes against women, while examining the challenges of solving crimes committed in National Parks or wilderness areas.

True crime readers will want to check this out. It is not only a riveting crime saga- it is as thought provoking as it is disturbing.

4 stars

[susan0316 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I vaguely remember the killing of two young women on the Appalachian Trail in 1996. Julie Williams and Lollie Winans were brutally murdered while backpacking in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. It got a lot of news headlines in the beginning of the investigation but it disappeared from the headlines when it wasn't quickly solved and became a cold case. Kathryn Miles went on a quest to learn more about the murders and to try to solve the case. Along the way, she found some shoddy work done by the FBI and local police that ended up accusing the wrong person of the crime. He was arrested but they never had formal charges and they let him out of prison. He was only considered a person of interest.

Both women were skilled backpackers who had met - and fallen in love at an outdoor program for women. As the FBI case followed leads, the case became a cold case. In 2002, the federal government decided to prosecute this case as a hate crime due to the women's sexuality. They decide to try Darrell David Rice and planned to use the death penalty on this crime. Two years later, the case was suspended due to lack of information that supported Rice as the killer.

The author got deeply involved in the case and talked to the FBI and the local authorities and followed up on many of their leads and met with the two women's family and friends. The further she got into the case, the more aware she became of cover-ups, incompetence, and crime-scene sloppiness. The information she gathered did not point to Rice as the murderer and she named the person that her research pointed to.

I don't read a lot of non-fiction because it's usually boring to me. This book was not boring. In fact, it was difficult to put down. It read more like a CSI program than an accumulation of data and the author did a fantastic job of letting us see Julie and Lollie and what their lives could have been had they not been murdered.

Thanks to the publisher Algonquin Book for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.