Shenandoah Valley Friends
Reprinted from 
Friday, August 21, 1998
Man Arrested in Appalachian Trail Knife Attack
FBI finds ‘nothing to indicate’ that assault is related to 1996 murder of two Lesbian hikers
by Lisa Keen
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| In May 1996, Julianne Williams (right) and her lover Lollie Winans were found stabbed to death at their campsite on the Appalachian Trail. FBI authorities investigated the posibility that a recent knife assault near the Trail is related to the murders. |
The FBI this month looked into the possibility that a man arrested for assaulting a female camper near the Appalachian Trail in Waynesboro, Virginia, on August 13 might be connected to the murders of two Lesbian hikers along the trail in May 1996. But an FBI spokesperson said this week that the FBI found "nothing to indicate that the two incidents are connected."
The latest attack took place about 60 miles south of the 1996 murders. According to spokesperson Rebecca Weaver of the Waynesboro Police, that department received a call for help at 12:17 a.m. on Aug. 13 from a young Austrian woman who had been camping in a small park within the city of Waynesboro. According to Weaver, the woman reportedly woke up to find a man attacking her with a knife. An Associated Press report indicated the woman was able to fend off the attack using a walking stick and to flee across the street for help.
Weaver noted that the park where the attack occurred is about five miles off the Appalachian Trail but that many hikers come off the trail to camp there and take advantage of the showers and facilities available at a YMCA nearby. Weaver said police were able to respond immediately and locate the woman’s attacker in a weeded area near the park by 1 a.m.
Weaver identified the arrested man as Edward Coffey, 40. He has been charged with attempted murder and is being held without bail. Weaver said the woman who was attacked was traveling alone and is staying in the Waynesboro area for a few days while her wounds heal.
Mary Johlie, a spokesperson for the FBI office in Richmond, Va., said the FBI did look into the possibility that the Waynesboro attack might be connected to the murders of two Lesbians along the Appalachian Trail in Virginia in May 1996.
Julianne Williams, 24, and her lover, Lollie Winans, 26, were found stabbed to death at their campsite on the Appalachian Trail near Luray, Va. The woman who was attacked in Waynesboro suffered stab wounds to the back, neck, and chest.
Just a few months after the 1996 murders, FBI officials said there were reasons to believe that more than one assailant may have been involved in the attack on the couple. The FBI said it was also looking into the possibility that the so-called Shenandoah murders of 1996 might be linked to the murders of another two women in their 20s in a federal park near Williamsburg, Va., in 1986. Those women — Rebecca Dowski and Cathleen Thomas — were also found with their throats slashed and their wrists bound.
Johlie said Monday that the investigation into the Winans-Williams murders was still ongoing but that the agency had no new developments to report.
A spokesperson for the court in Waynesboro said Coffey, who will be arraigned Oct. 2, has been arrested a number of times on a variety of misdemeanors.
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