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NEW ORLEANS — <\/span>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. <\/p>\n In 1982, teenager Roxanne Sharp was killed in the woods of St. Tammany Parish, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) 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, \u201cWho Killed Roxanne Sharp?\u201d renewing public interest in the case after its six-part series aired last year. <\/p>\n Louisiana State Police spokesperson Marc Gremillion credited the podcast with generating crucial tips from the public and prompting new witnesses to approach investigators.<\/p>\n \u201cIt helped our investigators piece together where Roxanne was days before to the time she died, to where we’re at now,\u201d Gremillion told The Associated Press. \u201cIt was a very large help with getting that message out to the public, and then, therefore, those witnesses getting back to us.”<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe appreciate the hard work and love that has been shown to Roxanne Sharp\u2019s case,\u201d Sharp\u2019s niece, Michele Lappin, said in a statement on behalf of her family. \u201cWe hope that with justice will come healing and closure for our family, her loved ones, and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Billy Williams Jr.\u2019s son, Billy Williams III, said his father is innocent of the crime.<\/p>\n \u201cHe thinks they\u2019re putting him in for something he didn\u2019t do,\u201d the younger Williams said. \u201cHe says he would never in his life hurt anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we started the podcast, we kind of thought nobody cared \u2014 we were quickly corrected,\u201d said Charles Dowdy, vice president of Northshore Media, which produced the podcast. \u201cA lot of people stepped up and said they knew Roxanne, they remembered her, they were friends with her.\u201d<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n \u201cIt clearly showed that she’d been grabbed on the street and dragged into the woods,\u201d Dowdy said.<\/p>\n Police had once thought the case solved after serial killer Henry Lucas claimed responsibility for Sharp\u2019s murder. But Lucas, known for making false confessions, later retracted his claim, and other evidence disproved his connection to the murder.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a big black cloud on the community,\u201d Joiner said. \u201cNobody would talk about it — it was hush, hush, you talk about it in your house, not in public.\u201d<\/p>\n Joiner added that the podcast opened up discussion about the case across generations and throughout the community.<\/p>\n \u201cCold cases don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press\/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America<\/a> is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n