Darkest Before the Dawn

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We're ever said it's darkest just before the dawn, know what they were talking about. I got to work early, you could say I got to work so early, it might be considered late. It's dark out too. I can't decide if the headlights in my car are getting worse or if that's my eyesight. It's not the quickest route by any chance, but a lot of more than slightly I've been

taking college with us Boulevard, coming down one ninety-tours, our studios and coming to them. And as I come through here, of course the area's changed dramatically since then, but I could still afford to identify where Roxanne's body's sound. As I pass that point, I'll say something solidly to myself or either sometimes out loud.

We're working on it, Stephens is going to figure this out, it will take much longer. And then I'm passed, it's funny that 40-plus years later, so many people are still thinking about and working this all this crime. But Stephens' Montgomery has been very clear that this is an uphill battle, and the longer it goes, the harder it's going to be to pull off.

But I also know that investigator, I feel like I've gotten annoying quite well, and there's no give up in that gap. So even if I question whether this is going to work, here we are, a year and a half down

“the road from the start of the podcast, I'll sit here and wonder, what's next?”

Will anything ever happen? And then something did. The following is a production of North Shore Media Group. Good morning. I'm Colonel Robert Hodges, Superintendent of Louisiana State Police.

To my left, is a district attorney, Colin Sims for 22nd JDC, St. Tamley and Washington Parishes, and other law enforcement personnel from the Covington Police Department in Louisiana State Police, as well as some community.

It's like life just went on, and these young girls never really got away from their offenders.

I mean, it's no wonder no one was willing to come forward in 1982, they were terrified. Robert has a mandate to bring justice to victims. It's what we wake up every single day and do. We do it with our partners, standing behind us, and as you can see, the commitment is strong. Like the Colonel said, a young life was left like trash in the Fairgrounds in Covington in 1982, a mother who never saw that guy. How are you doing?

Well, Brian and Ellie were talking about, stop trying to keep me freaking out. But that was part of William, what he did, a lot of he's done it before, to see if he could do it. I expect in the next coming weeks to present this case to a grand jury for indictment, and we will begin the process of bringing closure. To this family, today is the start of a process that will continue and one that we will see to the fruition and that justice is achieved in this family. Let's go with that photo.

Without it?

“Yeah, because if you all can, if you all can hear me, thank you.”

Much better. Because every time you hit that, you can. Gotcha, thank you. All right. All right.

All right. All right. Good morning, y'all. My name is Trooper Mark Romion with the Louisiana State Police. I'm the Public Information Officer for Troop Bell.

Currently, shortly, we're going to have Robert Hodges, our Colonel with the State Police, going to be coming. And he's been giving a debrief about an update on the Roxanne sharp cold case murder. Following him will be District Attorney Colin Sims.

“He will be speaking on behalf of the 22nd to Sherry.”

If we have any questions, we ask you to please save it for the end. We're going to start with our questions from the left hand side from us working to the right hand side. Please keep the questions relevant to the case on and they will be in here shortly. My name is Troil Stouting with the North Shore Media Group. And this is episode eight of the True Crime Podcast, who killed Roxanne.

I found out something big was happening earlier in the week. After waiting so long, this was kind of shocking, and I did not know how to respond. I recorded that opening bit of my car early on Tuesday morning. Not because I had two or felt like I needed two. I mean, I knew something was going to happen in Roxanne's case.

I did not know exactly what. And I had no clue what to do with myself. I wanted to scream it out loud.

“The whole week, I was an emotional wreck.”

And I couldn't tell anyone why. I was stunned by the intensity of my reaction. It was visceral. It still is. Powerful. Just waves of emotion at random times.

I mean, I never knew Roxanne.

I know part of why I was feeling so weird was that I did not know how to react. Do you celebrate something like this? Once again, here's Colonel Hodges with Louisiana State Police. Today, we're proud to stand with our law enforcement and community partners to provide an update on the case that has impacted the Covington community

for more than four decades. The 1982 murder of Roxanne Sharpe. Roxanne's body was found on February 12, 1982. Three days after she was reporting missing in a wooded area near the same parish background. Investigates determine she had been raped and murdered.

Despite extensive work by the Covington Police Department, the case remained unsolved. Largely limited to the absence of DNA, tracking technology and limited public cooperation at that time. Over the years, the case has been revisited as forensic science has advanced.

But a critical breakthrough remained just out of reach.

In 2020, Louisiana State Police partnered with the Covington Police Department to detect us to re-examine this case. By 2023, the Louisiana State Police, Covington Bureau of Investigation Field Office, assumed the lead role on the investigation. They conducted a comprehensive review of all original case files.

Re-in-a-viewed witnesses and potential suspects and also collected additional evidence. The original case evidence was also resimitted for advanced DNA analysis. In 2025, an LSP partnership with the North Shore Media Group and Charles Dowdy pictured with his lead to the podcast Who Killed Roxanne, which generated national attention. More importantly, new leads renewed public cooperation.

The response provided critical information to continue moving the case forward. With new information and advancements in the investigative technologies, Louisiana State Police collaborated with the District Attorney's Office and the Covington Police Department to obtain arrest warrants for aggravated rape

and second-degree murder on four individuals.

Harry Taylor, Darrell Spell, Colors Cooper, and Billy Williams. All four suspects were associates of Roxanne Sharp in Covington in 1982. On April 21st, 2026, Billy Williams Jr. was arrested and booked in the same timing in Paris, jail. At the same time, agents with the Ohio Attorney General's

Bureau of Criminal Investigation Unit located in arrested Darrell Spell in Dayton, Ohio. On April 22nd, 2026, LSP detectives may contact with Perry Taylor and Carlos Cooper, who are incarcerated within Louisiana Department of Corrections on unrelated charges. So just to be clear, two arrests were made that weren't already in custody

All four were ultimately booked back here in the same time in Paris, jail.

“These arrests made a major mark and step forward, but this case is about more than investigation.”

It's about promise that no victim is ever forgotten. I want to thank our LSP investigators and all assisting LSP personnel for their persistence and pursuing this case and bringing it to a close. In addition, we want to thank our partners, the Covington Police Department, the District Attorney's Office, DA Collins Sims, the St. Timony Parish Corners Office,

the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Charles Dowdy with the North Shore Media Group and the WDSU Channel Six Local for their dedication and collaboration. This was truly a team effort strengthened by the community's willingness to come forward and give us the information needed to close this case. Roxanne was a 16-year-old girl with a life waiting to be lived.

She was a young mother who left behind a two-year-old son who never knew her.

Today, we hope this brings a measure of justice for Roxanne and a beginning of healing for her family.

“Thank you and I'll turn it over to our District Attorney, DA Collins Sims.”

And there it is, four names. After all of this, four men have now been charged with Roxanne's rape and murder. Four men known to Roxanne. Four men, some of whom have been mentioned in this podcast. Names you would hear when people talked about the old days in Covington.

These were men who would have spent time around Roxanne. And before this story goes forward from here, I got to back up just a bit. Friday morning, 930, the meeting before the press conference. A conference room in the courthouse, the DA is at the head of the table. Two is right as the superintendent of Louisiana State Police.

They're talking about Roxanne's case and what each will say to the press. Just getting organized on how the press conference will go.

“To the DA's left is one of his assistant DA's.”

Maybe the woman who will leave the prosecution or maybe not. I have no clue. I've interviewed her before, though, and she's impressive as hell. Well, all of them are impressive as hell. There's 15 or so police officers crammed in there, including investigator Stephen Montgomery.

He will hate that I say this, but we would not be in this room, but for him. Steffins in a soup hadn't seen that before. He's a playing close guy and no offense, but he does the playing close thing well. Now he looks sharp, polished. Most of the cops are in uniform.

I'm abruptly wondering if I'm the only person in this room who is an armed. Space is a little tight, it's a little warm. What in the hell am I doing here? Suddenly I realized the state police superintendent is looking at me. He's speaking to me.

I nod and say yes, sir. I have no idea what he just said or what I just agreed to. We file out of the conference room up the stairs into another room. Reporters are there, cameras, and Roxanne's niece is on the front row. It will forever be one of the most incredible days of my life.

And for most of the professionals around me, it was a Friday.

I've never felt as insignificant as I did in that conference room,

and at the same time, more proud. Like I said, weird, weird emotions. Here's DA Collins Sims. Today is the first step to bring enclosure to that family, to giving that young lady who was left behind brutally raped, a voice today

to go and put her abusers in jail for the heinous acts they committed so long ago. These cases take the public. It takes experience law enforcement who have no quit in them. To pick up a file and go through every single thing that was done in 1982. And then revisit things done in 2010, and then collaborate as a collective with experiences.

And there's a lot of experience standing behind me. And some who couldn't be here with us today that have 30 and 40 years of doing cold cases, homicides, excellent police and detective work, and like the Colonel alluded to evidence, not evidence, but technology that wasn't available to collect evidence that now exist today

to help do certain things to guide an investigation.

"Oh, it's absolutely this guy, had we only tested that?" That did not usually the case.

“It's putting all of these little pieces together.”

It's partnering with Charles Dowdy, and selectively providing information at a podcast to trigger and spark community involvement, community interest and the safe things. And one of the protective set made a very good observation earlier as we were getting ready to come here.

And it's not always just the eyewitness accounts.

It had it things look in 1982. Things when you're putting eyes on it now, buildings that didn't exist. Businesses that didn't exist, development that has occurred. You need people to repay that picture for you, and that's where we should trigger it in this case.

So Charles, thank you so much for your efforts in this case. For those of you out there, I know we have many cases that are cold cases that have gone on solve. I can assure you there's a team committed to solve them and work on them. We can't always promise an outcome,

but what we do promise is to work ethic and determination to get there, that a team like this and the team are people that aren't here today, for every single day to this job. I expect in the next coming weeks to present this case to a grand jury for indictment, and we will begin the process of bringing closure to this family.

Today is the start of a process that will continue

and one that we will see to the fruition, and that justice is achieved for this family. Thank you very much. Of course, the press conference didn't answer a lot of questions, and you would not expect it to.

Very little was said about the evidence against the four men, and we probably won't know a whole lot about that until a trial. There was some conversation about advances in DNA, and the DNA spoke about a new process for retrieving or obtaining DNA. Don't expect me to make a lot of sense of that right now,

but even as I stood up there along those law enforcement professionals, and even as I have acknowledged multiple times, how much work has gone into breathing life back in the Roxanne's case,

“I think this quick statement from the press conference”

sums up how I feel about our contribution. And just to follow up on a question you had, that we discussed earlier about the podcast, I want to say that when this occurred in 1982, one of the obstacles was a culture of fear in the area

with the people that were involved in it, and this podcast helped us generate new witnesses, and collect information that really helped get us there.

The podcast was a crucial part of getting us information that we needed,

and like the Cardinal said, to rebuild that what this was in 1982 is now to investigate it in freezing times, but the podcast was phenomenal. That's Lieutenant Heath Miller with Louisiana State Police. There was one person I wanted to see as soon as the press conference broke up.

Sure, we hung around and talked for a few minutes, but I wanted to speak to Donald Sharp. The retired chief deputy from the St. Timony Sheriff's Office. I wanted to give him this list of names, and hear what he had to say about them.

With the police, with the DA,

“I'm not going to get anything more than what was in the press release.”

With Donald, who knew what I would get? Donald is a walking history book for that time and St. Timony, and I knew that he knew these men. Since I was at the courthouse, he suggested we made it one of the local places where some of this criminal element used to hang out,

and is now a family owned restaurant called Matina Bella. But Donald showed me where the pool tables were, and pointed out the old bar. I've eaten there many times, and the food, the service, and the atmosphere, it's all excellent.

But the acoustics were not conducive to recording. So after bailing out on a meal, we sat on a bench together outside. Of course, we started with a story about Robert Willie, coming to his most notorious citizen,

even on the day of four men being charged with Roxanne's murder. Willie was around, which seems weird, but Willie is not quite done with this story. Like Donald's sharp, Willie knew these men. He committed some crimes with some of these men.

When it comes to crime around here, all roads somehow lead back to him. Donald pointed it a nearby building, and explained that Willie had broken out of the old jail on the top floor of that building.

Willie escaped. There was a number of them escaped. They got had an exercise shot up there. On the roof, it was actually in a well-aired area. Please put on pants over the top of it.

Of course, like all the time of the world, we're gonna have to get out. They got it to broke loose. Willie crawled up, a couple more guys did. And all the way down was a jump.

Willie jumped. And he landed right in a yucca plant, right on the colder on the other side of the building.

to Billy Williams's house.

Nobody was home. And he went that far on a broken ankle.

“And he knew how to go through these back streets.”

And covered in a biotech team. But once he got out of here by the hose, he went through the woods all the way. And waited across the river. He got him a stick, made him a crutch.

Got on. He wound up going to why I was a grocery store out there. It was a little bar in the back with one food table. So he goes in there. He knew, they knew him well.

I said, "Right on, what are you doing?" I jumped off the top of that courthouse. I broke my ankle. He said, "But he made a chair." Oh, oh, oh, oh.

We're climbing a chair. But I saw this ankle.

And he told us to call this chair.

Until $12 dropped, come pick me up. They're called us. I went out there. He said, "Now, drink in a slits beer." What's the really?

What are you doing?

“I want you to get out of the wrong, get me up there.”

So I said, "What are you up? Let's go." He kind of finished my beer. I said, "Well, by all means, yes, finish your beer." He finished my beer.

I didn't even have to hit with the car. And they said, "Well, you've got to hit with the car. You've got to broke that." I didn't hit me in here. I'm not hit with it.

Now, this would have been pre-mortarist crime-spray for Robert Willie. And this wasn't all that Donald Sharpe shared with me. Good Lord. The people sitting beside us, waiting for their table inside, will probably need therapy.

After overhearing some of the stuff Donald was talking about. It was a lot. And just like me, they were listening.

We finally got around the four men who had just been charged

with Roxanne Sharpe's death. I showed him the press release and asked him how it made him feel that these four men were now charged with her crime. "You had a young guy who saw the case earlier. Took it and ran with it and he didn't let up."

And that was just... That young guy being Stefan. Stefan Montgomery. Just a fine police officer. Good investigator.

Very meticulous and took his time doing the mistake. I don't want him coming after me. No, what he gets at you. He's going to be at you. You better not slip down.

And it was just it gave me a lot of satisfaction. I guess. I was happy. Really? I was happy that Stefan got him.

And the way he's done his business. I want to go through these guys one by one. And I know we talked inside, but the acoustics were so bad. So if you'll repeat some of that. But let's start with Perry Wayne Taylor coming.

What would you say about him? Perry Taylor is where he needs to be. He is a dangerous individual. And if he was to get out of jail, he will hurt some more people. A lot of people.

He's dangerous. He's that dangerous. He served time for manslaughter in what case. He served time on a case that I arrested him all. I went...

God man, they didn't send me from Missouri. They didn't even rob it with it. Drowned even a river. And he didn't even do a drug even to woods. And the case they didn't like that for five years.

Nobody ever seen the body found a body of nothing. But to Willie told me about it when he was there in different regions. So he gave me the information on him. How they killed him. They set on a pair.

He set on him and drowned. He's been about a foot of water. That's how he did to River Lodge. Tell him about Darrell's smell. Downspel was a person who lived in the ozone

just like the rest of the screw. That bone raised right there. Darrell's smell had a lot of knowledge of everything. That happened in and out of that ozone. Where there's better gangsters was born and raised.

“Now, did Darrell's smell participate in all of those crimes?”

No. But he knew about it. Well, who is Carlos Cooper? Carlos Cooper was another one that came out of that same little neighborhood. And from the time he was...

15 years old, he started being the train of learning how to be a criminal. He did. And he was watching people like pay attention to Robert Willie. All the ones before him. And even now I'll spell that.

Now I'll know him well. Carlos Cooper was investigated for two other rapes

And people just got scared to come talk to victims that would come. Downspel knew a lot.

“I think he knows exactly if he would just go ahead and talk”

and tell him what he knows about Perry Taylor. And his actions with rocks in the shore. That's what he needs to do. And he knows. I believe he knows.

And then Billy Williams was the one that was arrested here earlier this week.

And Billy Williams was a guy that I never had a lot of dealing with.

He was a law enforcement side of the criminal side. He kind of stayed in the... Wine and Road area, which was Willie Stomping grounds. Because Willie was friends with that whole entire family. He stayed there a lot.

When he escaped from jail. He was killed by his time. He only had 30 days left.

“And he escaped. He went to the Williams family home.”

Nobody was there. But they were all truck drivers. But Billy Williams was moved out of jail. They were friends. So did he know Carter's group. He knew all exactly.

I thought this would be the first episode where we would not hear from investigators

stuff in Montgomery. I've talked about this a few times already. We knew if we ever got to this point that the roles would change. His priorities have shifted to seeing those charged through the system. Now I'm committed to telling the story to the end.

But I've lost a lot of my access. I'm not going to be in a rush. I'm just going to track the story to the end to the best of my ability. Obviously, I figured the next big step would happen when the grand jury convened. But something was suddenly bugging me.

Little Sharpe alluded to it and the clip I just played. And it was something I'd heard before. Someone raped and killed Roxanne. The crime almost medieval. Is that a one-off? If multiple men participated in what happened to her.

One of the chances that was the only time it happened. They raped Roxanne and nothing else like that ever occurs again or before. After reflecting on that, I thought back to some audio I had from stuff in Montgomery. It took some digging, but I found it.

Well, I first sat down with you and Donald. And we started talking about the ozone and all the things that happened there during the late 70s and 80s. It almost didn't seem like it was real. Do you think this was just an isolated incident?

“Unfortunately, no, it wasn't Roxanne's murder is undeniably the worst thing that happened in the ozone.”

But as we began telling her story, I started getting calls from other people who grew up in that neighborhood during the same time. They started telling me about sexual assaults that they had experienced or narrowly avoided. And these people don't necessarily know each other, but the pattern is the same. What happened to the people responsible for this? Nothing.

It was a very different time back then. And every one of these victims were either too scared to tell anybody or they didn't think anybody would believe them. Or if they told a parent or a guardian, it was just handled between the families that lived in the neighborhood. Then it's like life just went on.

And these young girls never really got away from their offenders.

I mean, it's no wonder no one was willing to come forward in 1982. They were terrified. Thankfully, St. Timony has some phenomenal resources for sexual assault victims today that didn't exist back then. You know, we have some of the best SVU investigators I think in the country. And, you know, they work hand in hand with places like the Child Advocacy Center in the Hope House to not only walk these young victims through the legal process now, but to help them begin the healing process on the other side.

You know, for anybody who watches law and order SVU, the lady who plays the detective on that show, Mariska Hargate, she has a national foundation for survivors of sexual abuse. And, you know, we might not always be able to stop it from happening, but we can certainly do something about it. It's sad that Roxanne will never have that chance, but if we can't do anything else, we can tell her story and maybe save somebody else. So we're in New Territory now, four men stand charged with Roxanne's rape and murder.

There could be victims to talk to, and by we, I mean, stepping. We are not waiting for indictments.

We are wondering if someone else experienced something at their hands, something like what happened to Roxanne. Now, this is Territory, I know little about, but I do know a guy, and this is an expert in this field. So, I will step out on a limb and see if he is willing to talk to me, and I'm definitely going to find my attorney friend Pete Burkhalter to talk about these charges and what they mean. And maybe, just maybe, by the time you hear from me again, there will be indictments. We don't know, but I think we've got another episode of our podcast shaping up.

“So, tentatively, that's what you'll hear the next time on who killed Roxanne. Oh, yeah, and I had a little bit of unfinished business to tend to this morning.”

That's the turn on the Collins Boulevard, and I'm going to ride by and see Roxanne again. I'm all way to work.

It's been a week, it's actually since I recorded that first message to her when I found out things were happening, even if I didn't know exactly what kind of glad I didn't know what was happening.

I had a really freaked out. It has been a crazy week, it's been a good week.

“Yesterday, I did an interview with the anchor in BC Nightly News.”

That's how ridiculous this is now.

And now it's our approach, the slide where Roxanne was found. I keep going back to the darkness of the surrounding right now. She's been down that dark road for a long, long time. And this podcast does nothing else. I feel like it's released in broader back into the light. Who killed Roxanne is a North Shore media group production, original music by Cresley Colora, connect with the podcast online at WhoKilledRoxanne.com. If you have a tip or information for Louisiana State Police, call 985-635-3167 or email North [email protected].

Every good thing I do gives me something to lose. Every year that goes by, I lose what catches you eye.

“What if I'm a night who I say I am? What if it doesn't work out? What if I started the drought?”

What if I'm out of the things that make you want me? What if I'm not who I say I am? And I'm scared to admit, what if this is as good as it gets? What if this is as good as it gets? I'm feeling like you don't need me, may you? Don't see me and my talking just to talk. What if I'm not who I say I am? Because I'm scared to admit that maybe this is as good as it gets? It's maybe this is as good as it gets?