Podcast Helps Louisiana Police Charge 4 in Criminal Investigation
Louisiana police say a podcast helped advance a criminal investigation that led to charges against four men in the 1982 rape and murder of 16-year-old Roxanne Sharp. The case had stalled for years because investigators lacked evidence and witnesses willing to come forward.
Over the past few days, Perry Wayne Taylor, Darrell Dean Spell, Carlos Cooper and Billy Williams, Jr. were charged with aggravated rape and second-degree murder. Taylor and Cooper were already in prison on unrelated charges, while Spell and Williams were arrested earlier this week.
St. Tammany Parish case
Sharp was killed in 1982 in the woods of St. Tammany Parish, about 30 miles north of New Orleans. Police said she was an acquaintance of the four men and was known to frequent the neighborhood where they lived.
Louisiana State Police spokesperson Marc Gremillion said investigators turned to a local media company for the podcast, Who Killed Roxanne Sharp?, which aired as a six-part series last year. He said it produced tips from the public and brought new witnesses forward. “It helped our investigators piece together where Roxanne was days before to the time she died, to where we’re at now,” Gremillion said.
Who Killed Roxanne Sharp?
Gremillion also said, “It was a very large help with getting that message out to the public, and then, therefore, those witnesses getting back to us.” That public response, police said, gave investigators enough new information to move on a case that had been inactive for decades.
Michele Lappin, Sharp’s niece, said in a statement for the family, “We appreciate the hard work and love that has been shown to Roxanne Sharp’s case,” and added, “We hope that with justice will come healing and closure for our family, her loved ones, and the community.”
Billy Williams III said his father, Billy Williams, Jr., told him, “He thinks they’re putting him in for something he didn’t do.” Williams III also said, “He says he would never in his life hurt anyone.”
Charges Against Four Men
The charges against Taylor, Spell, Cooper and Williams put names and arrests to a killing that had remained unsolved since 1982. For Sharp’s family, the case now moves from a decades-long search for answers to a court process centered on the accusations police say they have built from new witnesses and public tips.
The filings leave the men facing aggravated rape and second-degree murder charges tied to Sharp’s death, while the investigation’s momentum came after the podcast reached the public and drew people back to detectives with new information.
