FBI names suspect in 1996 campsite murders of couple

The FBI has identified a serial rapist as the culprit in the sexual assault and murders almost three decades ago of a young couple at a US national park.

Police found Julianne Williams, 24, and her partner Laura Winans, 26, bound and gagged with their throats slashed at their Virginia campsite on 1 June 1996. The FBI says DNA tests match Walter Leo Jackson, a convicted rapist who died in 2018 aged 70 in an Ohio prison. Investigators said there is no evidence the victims were targeted because of their sexual orientation. The young women's family called the authorities after the two failed to return home from Shenandoah National Park.

Williams and Winans, both experienced hikers, were in the park with a golden retriever when they were last seen by park personnel, nine days before their bodies were found near Skyline Resort.