2026-04-26T11:57:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
路易斯安那州警方表示，一档播客帮助他们侦破了这起涉及一名16岁少女的数十年旧谋杀案，并于周五宣布，已有四名男子因涉嫌强奸并杀害她而面临刑事指控。
1982年，少女罗克珊·夏普在新奥尔良以北约30英里的圣坦曼尼堂区的树林中遇害。由于缺乏证据且证人不愿出面指证，警方迟迟未能侦破此案。但后来，调查人员联系了一家当地媒体公司，后者同意制作一档名为《谁杀害了罗克珊·夏普？》的播客。该播客共六集，于去年播出后重新引发了公众对这起案件的关注。
路易斯安那州警方发言人马克·格雷米利翁将这起案件的侦破归功于播客，称其从公众那里获得了关键线索，并促使新的证人联系调查人员。
“它帮助我们的调查人员拼凑出罗克珊遇害前几天的行踪，以及我们目前掌握的线索，”格雷米利翁在接受美联社采访时表示。“它在向公众传递信息方面发挥了巨大作用，因此才有证人主动联系我们。”
在过去几天里，警方已对四名男子提出加重强奸和二级谋杀指控：64岁的佩里·韦恩·泰勒、64岁的达雷尔·迪恩·斯普尔、64岁的卡洛斯·库珀以及62岁的小比利·威廉姆斯。
库珀和泰勒已因其他 unrelated 罪名入狱，威廉姆斯和斯普尔于本周早些时候被捕。格雷米利翁补充说，夏普是这四名被捕嫌疑人的熟人，且经常出没于他们居住的社区。
“我们感谢大家为罗克珊·夏普案付出的辛勤努力和倾注的爱心，”夏普的侄女米歇尔·拉平代表其家人在一份声明中说道。“我们希望正义能为我们的家庭、她的亲人和社区带来治愈和了结。”
这张由米歇尔·拉平提供的照片拍摄于1980年，展示了在路易斯安那州卡温顿的罗克珊·夏普。美联社
小比利·威廉姆斯的儿子比利·威廉姆斯三世表示，他的父亲对此罪名不认罪。
“他认为他们是在冤枉无辜，”小威廉姆斯说道。“他说他这辈子从未伤害过任何人。”
圣坦曼尼堂区法院书记员并未查到任何一名嫌疑人的代理律师信息。斯普尔、库珀和泰勒的家人也未通过与他们相关的电话号码回复置评请求。
“制作播客时，我们一度以为没人关心这起案件——但很快我们就发现错了，”制作该播客的北岸传媒副总裁查尔斯·道迪说道。“很多人站出来说他们认识罗克珊，记得她，曾是她的朋友。”
道迪还录制了调查人员利用卷尺标记夏普遗体发现地点及其他物证发现位置的犯罪现场重建音频。
“这清楚地表明她是在街上被掳走并拖进树林的，”道迪说道。
警方曾以为在连环杀手亨利·卢卡斯承认杀害夏普后就破了案。但以虚假认罪著称的卢卡斯后来撤回了供词，且其他证据也证明他与这起谋杀案无关。
39岁的圣坦曼尼堂区居民贾斯汀·乔伊纳告诉美联社，他的父亲曾是卡温顿警方的一名警员，也是最早抵达夏普遇害现场的执法人员之一，并在余生中一直为未能破案感到挫败。他一直保留着一个装满案件笔记的公文包，直到去年去世。
“这起案件一直是社区上空的一片乌云，”乔伊纳说道。“没人愿意谈论它——都秘而不宣，你只能在家里说说，不能在公开场合讨论。”
乔伊纳补充说，这档播客让跨代际的社区民众都开始讨论这起案件。
“悬案不会自己告破，”卡温顿警察局局长迈克尔·费雷尔在一份声明中说道。“它们告破是因为人们年复一年地挺身而出，绝不放弃。我们的执法机构正是这么做的，而今天，罗克珊和她的家人终于等到了他们期盼已久的正义。”
地区检察官科林·西姆斯也表达了同样的观点。
“这起案件有力证明了坚持不懈、通力合作以及调查技术进步所能取得的成果。四十多年来，这名受害者和她的家人一直在等待答案，”西姆斯在一份声明中说道。“今天的逮捕行动体现了我们坚定不移的承诺——无论过去多久，都要追求正义，将罪责难逃者绳之以法。”
近年来，播客已帮助执法部门侦破了其他多起悬案。去年，伊利诺伊州的侦探们侦破了一起失踪人口悬案，并将其归功于埃尔金警察局自制的播客《有人知情》。2024年，南卡罗来纳州一名警长表示，一档播客帮助他们确认了1975年一起悬案的受害者身份，这名受害者此前被称为“X先生”。
Who Killed Roxanne Sharp? podcast leads to 4 arrests in decades-old murder of girl in Louisiana
2026-04-26T11:57:00-0400 / CBS/AP
Louisiana police say a podcast helped them solve the decades-old killing 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 killed in the woods of St. Tammany Parish, about 30 miles 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 approached a local media company, which agreed to produce a podcast, “Who Killed Roxanne Sharp?” renewing public interest in the case after its six-part series aired last year.
Louisiana State Police spokesperson Marc Gremillion credited the podcast with generating crucial tips from the public and prompting new witnesses to approach investigators.
“It helped our investigators piece together where Roxanne was days before to the time she died, to where we’re at now,” Gremillion told The Associated Press. “It was a very large help with getting that message out to the public, and then, therefore, those witnesses getting back to us.”
Over the past few days, police 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 prison on unrelated charges, and Williams and Spell were arrested earlier this week. Sharp was an acquaintance of the four arrested suspects and was known to frequent the neighborhood where they lived, Gremillion added.
“We appreciate the hard work and love that has been shown to Roxanne Sharp’s case,” Sharp’s niece, Michele Lappin, said in a statement on behalf of her family. “We hope that with justice will come healing and closure for our family, her loved ones, and the community.”
This photo provided by Michele Lappin shows Roxanne Sharp in Covington, La., in 1980. AP
Billy Williams Jr.’s son, Billy Williams III, said his father is innocent of the crime.
“He thinks they’re putting him in for something he didn’t do,” the younger Williams said. “He says he would never in his life hurt anyone.”
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 associated with them.
“When we started the podcast, we kind of thought nobody cared – we were quickly corrected,” said Charles Dowdy, vice president of Northshore Media, which produced the podcast. “A lot of people stepped up and said they knew Roxanne, they remembered her, they were friends with her.”
Dowdy recorded audio as investigators recreated the crime scene using measuring tapes to mark the exact locations where Sharp’s body was found and where other pieces of evidence were uncovered.
“It clearly showed that she’d been grabbed on the street and dragged into the woods,” Dowdy said.
Police had once thought the case solved after serial killer Henry Lucas claimed responsibility for Sharp’s murder. But Lucas, known for making false confessions, later retracted his claim, and other evidence disproved his connection to the murder.
St. Tammany Parish resident Justin Joiner, 39, told the AP that his father, a Covington police officer, had been one of the first law enforcement to arrive at the scene of Sharp’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 he passed away last year.
“It’s been a big black cloud on the community,” Joiner said. “Nobody would talk about it — it was hush, hush, you talk about it in your house, not in public.”
Joiner added that the podcast opened up discussion about the case across generations and throughout the community.
“Cold cases don’t close themselves,” Covington Police Department Chief Michael Ferrell said in a statement. “They close because people show up, year after year, and refuse to quit. That is exactly what our agencies did, and today, Roxanne and her family finally have the justice they have waited so long for.”
District Attorney Collin Sims echoed that sentiment.
“This case is a powerful example of what persistence, collaboration, and advancements in investigative technology can accomplish. For more than four decades, this victim and her family have waited for answers,” Sims said in a statement. “Today’s arrests reflect our unwavering commitment to pursue justice—no matter how much time has passed—and to hold those responsible fully accountable.”
Podcasts have helped law enforcement solve other cold cases recently. Last year, detectives in Illinois solved a missing person’s cold case and credited the podcast “Somebody Knows Something,” which the Elgin Police Department itself launched. In 2024, a sheriff in South Carolina credited a podcast with helping to identify a 1975 cold case victim, formerly known as “Mr X.”
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