new orleans — Louisiana police said an audio broadcast helped them solve the decades-old murder of a 16-year-old girl, and announced Friday that four men now face criminal charges in connection with her rape and murder.
In 1982, teenager Roxanne Sharp was murdered in the woods of St. Tammany Parish, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of New Orleans. Police struggled to solve the case due to a lack of evidence and witnesses willing to come forward. But then investigators contacted a local media company, which agreed to produce a podcast called “Who Killed Roxanne Sharp?” Public interest in the case was renewed after the six-part series aired last year.
Louisiana State Police spokesman Mark Gremillion credited the podcast with generating important tips from the public and prompting new witnesses to contact investigators.
“This helped our investigators determine where Roxanne was days before her death and where we are now,” Gremillion told the Associated Press. “It was a very big help in getting that message out to the public and having these witnesses come back to us.”
Over the past few days, police have charged four men with aggravated rape and second-degree murder: Perry Wayne Taylor, 64; Darrell Dean Spell, 64; Carlos Cooper, 64; and Billy Williams Jr., 62.
Cooper and Taylor were already in jail on unrelated charges, and Williams and Spell were arrested earlier this week. Gremillion added that Sharpe was an acquaintance of the four arrested suspects and was known to frequent their neighborhood.
“We appreciate the hard work and love that was given to Roxanne Sharp’s case,” Michelle Lappin, Sharp’s niece, said in a statement on behalf of her family. “We hope that with justice will come healing and closure for our family, loved ones and the community.”
Billy Williams Jr.’s son, Billy Williams III, said his father is innocent of the crime.
“He thinks they’re putting him through something he didn’t do,” the younger Williams said. “He says he will never hurt anyone in his life.”
The St. Tammany Parish Clerk of Court did not have attorneys listed for any of the suspects. Family members of Spell, Cooper and Taylor did not respond to requests for comment via phone numbers linked to them.
“When we started the podcast, we kind of thought no one cared — and we were quickly corrected,” said Charles Doody, vice president of Northshore Media, which produced the podcast. “A lot of people came forward and said they knew Roxanne, remembered her, were friends with her.”
Dowdy recorded audio while investigators recreated the crime scene using measuring tapes to determine the exact locations where Sharpe’s body was found and where other evidence was uncovered.
“It clearly showed that she was grabbed in the street and dragged into the woods,” Daudi said.
Police once thought the case was solved after serial killer Henry Lucas claimed responsibility for Sharpe’s murder. But Lucas, known for making false confessions, later retracted his claim, and other evidence refuted his connection to the murder.
St. Tammany Parish resident Justin Joyner, 39, told the AP that his father, a Covington police officer, was one of the first law enforcement officers to arrive at the scene of Sharpe’s death and remained frustrated about the lack of closure for the rest of his life. He kept a briefcase full of his notes on the case until his death last year.
“It was a big black cloud over the community,” Joyner said. “No one would talk about it. It was silence, silence. You talked about it in your home, not in public.”
Joyner added that the podcast opened up discussion about the issue across generations and throughout society.
“Cold cases do not close on their own,” Michael Ferrell, Chief of the Covington Police Department, said in a statement. “They close because people show up, year after year, and refuse to quit. That’s exactly what our agencies did, and today, Roxanne and her family finally got the justice they’ve waited so long for.”
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Brock is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America It is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.