Four men have been arrested and charged in the 1982 rape and murder of 16-year-old Roxanne Sharp, closing one of Louisiana’s longest-running cold cases more than 40 years after her body was found in Covington. Sharp was discovered dead on Feb. 12, 1982, in a wooded area near the St. Tammany Parish Fairgrounds, where investigators said she had been raped and killed.
The arrests came after Louisiana State Police detectives in Covington took over the case in 2023 and began reviewing the original file, re-interviewing witnesses and potential suspects, collecting additional evidence and resubmitting old evidence for DNA analysis. Investigators said a 2025 podcast titled “Who Killed Roxanne” also produced new information, leads and witness cooperation that had not previously been known to police.
State Police said arrest warrants were obtained for aggravated rape and second-degree murder for four men. On April 21, detectives, LSP Troop L, LSP SWAT and Covington police executed search and arrest warrants at Williams’ home in Covington, and Williams was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail. At the same time, agents with the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation arrested Spell at a home in Dayton, Ohio, and he was booked into the Montgomery County Jail pending extradition to Louisiana. On April 22, detectives contacted Taylor and Cooper, who are already incarcerated in the Louisiana Department of Corrections on unrelated charges.
Collin Sims said the case showed what persistence, collaboration and advances in investigative technology can accomplish, and noted that the victim and her family had waited more than four decades for answers. Michael Ferrell said cold cases do not close themselves; they close because people show up year after year and refuse to quit. The case had remained unsolved for more than 40 years because of limited physical evidence and limited cooperation from the public, but investigators said that changed when detectives revisited the evidence and new witnesses came forward.
The arrests now put the focus on the court process that follows and on how much of the 1982 case can be proved before a jury after so many years. Anyone with information is asked to contact Louisiana State Police at 985-635-3167.
