44 years after 16-year-old Roxanne Sharp was raped and murdered in Covington, State Police have arrested four men in connection with that murder. Trooper Marc Gremillion says the February 1982 murder remained unsolved for decades, until Charles Dowdy’s podcast “Who Killed Roxanne” spurred interest in the case.
“With the help of that podcast, there was a rejuvenation of public interest. And it reached people that originally lived in Covington that may have moved away,” Gremillion explained.
Gremillion says that renewed interest helped investigators generate new leads and ultimately led them to four men – three of whom were 20 and the other one 18 at the time of the murder.
“64-year-old Perry Wayne Taylor, 64-year-old Darrell Dean Spell, 64-year-old Carlos Cooper and 62-year-old Billy Williams. All four were charged with aggravated rape and second-degree murder,” Gremillion said.
Perry Taylor and Carlos Cooper were already behind bars on unrelated charges. Billy Williams was arrested in Covington, and Darrell Spell was arrested in Dayton, Ohio. Gremillion says he hopes after all these years, the arrests of the four men bring a sense of closure and healing to Roxanne’s family.
“Things may change, wherever you live at, but that memory and that pain was still there with that family. With the effort of all these agencies, we’re able to hopefully help salve them that with these arrests that were made,” Gremillion said.
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