COVINGTON — State police arrested four men in connection with the 1982 rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl whose body was found near the St. Tammany Parish Fairgrounds.

Roxanne Sharp's body was discovered in a wooded area on Feb. 12, 1982. The case went unsolved for more than 40 years due to a lack of physical evidence and limited public cooperation, according to Louisiana State Police.

State police took over the investigation in 2023. Detectives reviewed the original case file and physical evidence while re-interviewing witnesses and potential suspects.

In 2025, detectives worked with local radio host Charles Dowdy from Lake 94.7 to produce a podcast titled "Who Killed Roxanne." The podcast generated new information, leads and witness cooperation previously unknown to investigators, state police say.

With the new information and advancements in investigative technologies, detectives obtained aggravated rape and second-degree murder arrest warrants for four suspects. The suspects are Perry Wayne Taylor, 64, Darrell Dean Spell, 64, Carlos Cooper, 64, and Billy Williams Jr., 62, all of Covington.

On April 21, detectives arrested Williams at his Covington home. He was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail.

At the same time, agents with the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation arrested Spell at a home in Dayton, Ohio. Spell was booked into the Montgomery County Jail and is awaiting extradition to Louisiana, state police say.

On April 22, detectives made contact with Taylor and Cooper, who are incarcerated within the Louisiana Department of Corrections on unrelated charges.

"This case is a powerful example of what persistence, collaboration and advancements in investigative technology can accomplish," said District Attorney Collin Sims. "For more than four decades, this victim and her family have waited for answers."

Covington Police Chief Michael Ferrell said the resolution of Sharp's case is a testament to what happens when dedicated law enforcement officers refuse to let a victim be forgotten. "Cold cases don't close themselves," Ferrell said. "They close because people show up, year after year and refuse to quit."