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

by Kathryn Miles

“Just you and your big smile in the wilderness?”

Their stories were disturbingly similar: all about a clean-cut Caucasian man, thirty-five to forty years old, driving a dark pickup truck, who would pull up alongside them, frantically waving and motioning for the women to pull over.

Meanwhile, Tom Williams and his brother, still hoping to visit the place where Julie spent her last moments, had returned to their bench at Skyland.

“I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about Julie and to tell you a lot of stories about my spunky girl.”

Ken wrote back that he was sincerely glad she’d found a way to make sex feel fun and freeing.

But there, near the stream, the Williamses found the circle of stones left by one of Julie’s friends—one for each of the dozens of places she’d visited in her short life.

“And while it maybe sounds odd, the more I learned about the people who do these kinds of crimes, the more I began to trust everyone else.”