Man charged in 25-year-old rape, slaying

A man suspected of raping and disemboweling a woman who'd told friends she didn't want to date him is in King County Jail facing first-degree murder charges on the 25-year-old crime.

Seattle police and King County prosecutors said DNA found on the body of 22-year-old Wilma Williams, who was found dead in her Seattle apartment on July 22, 1981, was matched to Darrell Eugene Lowe through the state DNA database in February.

Along with the DNA match, detectives with the Sexual Assault Unit and cold case prosecutors said their evidence against Lowe includes corroborating statements from former friends who'd heard about the murder, and from Lowe's ex-girlfriend who'd worried for years about the night she saw Lowe come home covered in blood.

Lowe, who had been in jails in Pierce and Yakima counties during the investigation, is now in King County Jail charged with first-degree murder.

An initial court date has not yet been set, prosecutors said.

Williams' father, Ed Williams, said he thought for years that the police had just forgotten about his daughter.

He was just talking to his grandson, he said, about DNA advancements and was planning to ask police to reopen his daughter's file when police knocked on his door with news of the impending arrest.

"Not a day goes by I don't think of my baby," he said.

"I was just happy to hear they got somebody after all these years."

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com