RICHMOND, Va. — The bodies of two teenaged friends were discovered in the trunk of a car in Richmond's Gilpin Court 25 years ago this month. A quarter century later, there are still more questions than answers about how they got there.
Nineteen-year-old Herman Woolfolk III and 17-year-old Latrice Houlin disappeared the night of April 21, 2001.
The Henrico teens, who relatives say were friends but were not dating, called Houlin’s mother to tell her they were going to get some food at the TGI Friday’s restaurant in the 7000 block of West Broad Street.
That was the last time anyone heard from them.
The teens were reported missing the next day, and Houlin’s mother began driving around the city looking for them herself.
While searching in Gilpin Court, she discovered Woolfolk’s silver Ford Taurus parked in the 1100 block of St. Paul Street.
She then called Richmond police.
“Uniformed officers showed up there, I believe there was a key in the car, and entry was gained into the trunk of the vehicle and that's where the remains were located,” said Detective Sgt. George Wade, the head of the Richmond police cold case unit, who joined Catie Beck on the most recent episode of ‘Untold – A WTVR Podcast.’
Woolfolk had been stabbed to death, while Houlin had been strangled, something that struck investigators as unusual.
“On most of the cases that I've worked, even when two people have been killed, they don't usually get killed in two different manners,” said Wade. “It's usually the same manner, you know. I mean, why would you asphyxiate one person and stab another?”
A heavy stereo speaker had been removed from the trunk to make room for the bodies, leading detectives to believe multiple people were involved in the murders. They also believed Woolfolk and Houlin were killed somewhere other than Gilpin Court.
An arrest was ultimately made in the case, after the DNA of one of Woolfolk’s coworkers was found on a cigarette butt inside the car, but that person was found not guilty at trial. He had an alibi, and admitted he had been in the car, but said it was only because Woolfolk had recently given him a ride home from work.
Though 25 years have passed, Wade says the case hasn’t been forgotten.
“We’ve got some DNA that's still being tested and we're waiting for the results to come back,” said Wade. “We have a foreign DNA sample that we don't know who it is, but the DNA itself will only put a person at the scene. They don’t put you committing the crime.”
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call 804-646-6741.
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