The Colonial Parkway murders

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The Colonial Parkway is a scenic 23-mile (37 km) stretch of road that links the three points of Virginia’s Historic Triangle, Jamestown, Williamsburg & Yorktown, running between the James River & the York River. Since long stretches of the road are so dark & isolated, it was a popular lover’s lane destination frequented by young adults. On a darker note, this also made it the perfect spot for a predator to hunt for distracted, innocent victims.

This seemingly quiet road is a place where four double homicides occurred between 1986 & 1989. All of the victims were young, white & either in a romantic relationship or may have resembled one from the outside. They were each sitting inside a car when they were targeted, with both partners killed. While three pairs, or six victims, have been recovered, another couple has never been found, but are presumed dead.

Double-homicides are a rare occurrence in & of itself, so the fact that four had taken place in such close proximity over such a short span of time, made many assume that a serial killer was likely involved.

The first known victims in what became known as the Colonial Parkway murders, were 27-year-old Cathy Thomas & 21-year-old Becky Dowski, who had been dating for several months. Cathy graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1981 as part of only the second class to admit women. Since homosexuality was banned within the Navy at the time, her brother indicated that she had been investigated by nine agents regarding her sexuality. After leaving the armed forces, she transitioned into a successful career as a stockbroker while she worked towards a master’s degree.

Cathy Thomas (left), Becky Dowski (right)

Meanwhile, Becky was a senior at College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, studying business management while working two jobs. She cared for toddlers at a local daycare center & also worked in the college’s English department. The couple vanished after they left a computer lab on the William & Mary campus at about 6:30 pm on October 9, 1986. They had been helping friends with a class project & were leaving to get dinner together before Becky left town for fall break.

Three days later, a jogger came across Cathy’s white 1980 Honda Civic, which was nose-down at the bottom of an embankment at the Cheatham Annex Overlook, an area that Becky & Cathy were known to frequent. The car was off the road in thick shrubbery only a few feet from a 15-drop down to the York River. After a highway patrolman was called to the scene, he found both women’s bodies inside the car. Becky’s body was found in the backseat while Cathy’s body had been stuffed into the hatchback. The driver’s seat was adjusted back to a position that suggested someone taller than Cathy had moved it.

Not only had the autopsy confirmed that both of the women’s necks had been so severely slashed that they’d been nearly decapitated, but rope burns were also found on their necks & wrists that indicated strangulation. Although their bodies as well as the car had been doused in diesel fuel & matches were found near the parking area, it had not been ignited. There were more than 100 latent & full prints on both the interior & exterior of the car, but they weren’t a match to anyone in police records.

It was clear that Cathy had fought their attacker as a clump of hair was located between her fingers. Both women were fully clothed & there was no evidence of a sexual assault. Robbery was also ruled out as a motive since each of their purses were found in the car & no money or jewelry had been taken.

Investigators believed that the murders had taken place elsewhere since little blood was found inside the car. Only weeks later, in November 1986, FBI profilers were constructing a profile of the person or people responsible. At one point, they suggested that the perpetrator may have been a member of law enforcement.

Moving forward to nearly one year later, when on the very rainy night of Saturday, September 19, 1987, 20-year-old David Knobling agreed to drive his younger cousin, his brother, Michael, & his brother’s friend, 14-year-old Robin Edwards, out to have a good time so they wouldn’t have to walk in the bad weather. That night, David’s younger cousin had intended to take Robin out on a date.

Initially, they planned to go see a movie, but they ended up at an arcade instead, where they stayed for an hour or two. While they rode back in David’s beloved black Ford Ranger pickup truck to take their cousin & Robin home sometime after 11 pm, the boys chose to ride in the bed of the truck so Robin wouldn’t get wet. This left David & Robin in the cab of the truck together for the 15-20 minute ride back. This would have been the only time they were alone together that night.

After David & Michael got back home, Michael recalls David going outside to smoke a cigarette. They sat outside together until David told Michael that he had somewhere to go. When they said goodbye to one another, this was sadly the last time Michael ever saw his older brother.

The next morning, David’s mom got a phone call that her son’s truck had been found abandoned at Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge across from the James River. An Isle of Wight sheriff’s deputy spotted it early Sunday morning; the truck was parked with one window slightly down, the driver’s side door ajar, while the keys were in the ignition with the radio playing & the windshield wipers going.

David’s wallet sat on the dashboard while clothing was strewn across the gear shift & shoes were on the floor of the passenger side that didn’t belong to David. When David’s mom asked Michael about some of the clothing & shoes, he was able to say that they belonged to Robin. Although each of their underwear were inside the truck, their pants were nowhere to be found.

At this point in time, no one knew where David had gone the night before, who he had been with or where he was now. It turned out that David had been with Robin Edwards, who had snuck out of her home.

For two days, the rain continued to pour down as police searched the James River, but there was no sign of David or Robin. David’s father, Karl Knobling, went down to the river to search for his son, wearing waders as he searched the swamps for any sign of him.

It wasn’t until days later on Wednesday, September 23 when a jogger, who was running along the beach of the James River, spotted Robin’s remains lying face down. Only minutes later, David’s body was also found. Meanwhile, his father as well as an officer, were further down the beach, about 50 yards away. Like Robin, David was also lying face-down & both victims had been shot, David twice; once in the back of the shoulder with the bullet angled up & the other to his head. Robin had been shot once in the back of the head execution style.

Both victims were partially clothed; Robin with her jeans unfastened & her bra up around her neck. Despite the fact that she was underage & only 14-years-old, it was presumed that she & David had a sexual encounter while they were at Ragged Island that night.

Sadly, their devastated families learned that their bodies had been recovered while they were watching the news. They were horrified that authorities hadn’t notified them before the information reached the media.

According to her family, Robin was an eighth grader who was mature beyond her years due to the experiences she had endured. She was a fearless spitfire who had run away several times in the past. She struggled with her mental health & she was prone to reckless behavior. Although her family worried that she could have gotten hurt or potentially drowned, they never fathomed that she had been murdered. In the months before her death, she’d started therapy & had begun to get herself back on track & had been in the process of turning her life around. Her family was left to only wonder what type of woman she would have become.

David, who lived in Hampton while he worked for his father’s landscaping business, had a long-term girlfriend who recently discovered that she was pregnant with his child. Why David had been with a much younger Robin that night was unknown to those who knew them. Other than the time they spent together in the cab of his truck on the night they went missing, to Michael’s knowledge, they’d never met prior to this night.

Ragged Island, where David’s truck had been found, was said to be a rough area with a gritty reputation, a place that was poorly lit & isolated, making it nearly pitch dark at night. There are only two paths that the killer & his victims would have taken; one was from the parking lot straight to the James River Bridge. Since the area was lined by a chain link fence & a swamp, there was no escape route. The second path is a winding trail through the swamp to the beach not far from where their bodies were recovered. On a dark rainy night, either path would have been precarious & dangerous.

It was determined that David’s truck had been staged that night. He was known to always back his truck into a parking spot & he never left it unlocked. David & his brother had wired the radio so they were able to play it without needing the keys, whereas the killer had turned the keys to accessories in order to turn the radio on, something David knew he didn’t have to do.

It seemed that the killer had left the truck unlocked with the keys in the ignition, potentially hoping that someone would have stolen it.

It’s likely that Robin & David had been in the back of his truck when the killer approached the vehicle. They were likely forced out of the car at gun point & marched down to the James River. Because David was shot in the back, it’s likely he took off running & then the killer turned his attention to Robin.

As far as David & Robin’s murders were concerned, a group of teens who were out partying on Ragged Island until about 2 am on Sunday morning, September 20, 1987, indicated that they hadn’t seen David’s truck while they were out there.

Since the driver’s side window was found partially rolled down, investigators wondered if the perpetrator had been posing as a uniformed officer. As with Becky & Cathy’s murders, David’s wallet was found on the dash, ruling robbery out as a motive.

Authorities suspected that the two sets of double-murders were connected since each set of victims were couples that had been murdered at or near lover’s lane areas. Their locations were about a 40-minute drive from one another.

About seven months after David & Robin’s murders, Christopher Newport College students, 18-year-old Cassandra Hailey & 20-year-old Richard “Keith” Call were reported missing on April 10, 1988 after they were last seen the night before on April 9. Keith had only recently broken up with his girlfriend of four years when he asked Cassandra out, his business classmate, to see a movie on Saturday night before going to a party together.

Keith was a lover of technology who was majoring in computer science & his friends & family joked that he was a pre-geek since he got into technology before the computer craze of the mid-90s.

Before Keith picked Cassandra up at her parent’s house in Grafton for their first date, his brother bought him beer since he was underage. They drove off in Keith’s red 1982 Toyota Celica & after they attended a party at the University Square Apartments, they were seen leaving sometime around 1:45 am. According to partygoers, much of that night, they had been socializing separately.

Keith’s empty Celica was found at the York River Overlook in Yorktown with the keys as well as his gold watch on the driver’s seat. According to his family, he would have never taken his watch off on his own accord. Nearly all of the clothes that Keith had been wearing that night, including his underwear, were found on the backseat. Some of Cassandra’s clothing was there as well, including three shoes as one of Cassandra’s shoes was missing & has never been found. There were also a couple of empty beer cans in the backseat. The glove box was open & Keith’s wallet was on the console while Cassandra’s purse was also there.

Police dogs were able to track the couple’s scent along the Parkway past the site of where Cathy & Becky’s bodies had been found, to the Indian Field Creek shoreline where the dogs attempted to enter the water.

Initially, officers theorized that maybe the couple had gone skinny dipping that night & drowned since the mouth of the Indian Field Creek has sandy beaches & is a popular swimming hole during the summer months. However, overnight temperatures had been in the low-mid 40s, making swimming an unlikely scenario. After the river & surrounding areas were searched, there was no sign of Keith or Cassandra & despite the passage of nearly 38 years, their bodies have never been found.

Witnesses who were at the party with Keith & Cassandra that night indicated that the couple left at about 1:45 am. Their families do not believe they would have stopped along the Colonial Parkway for any reason. Since Cassandra was an incredibly responsible young woman who had a 2 am curfew, her parents believe she would have come straight home after the party. Not only that, but Keith’s family indicated that he avoided driving along the Parkway because of the recent murders, so they feel he would have never stopped at that location.

Investigators theorize that whatever happened took place in between the party & Cassandra’s home, along the Route 17 corridor. The killer likely got them to pull over before taking control of them. It’s possible they were forced to drive around until the killer ordered them to remove their clothing as a way to exert control over them until they were ultimately murdered & Keith’s car was abandoned. Since their bodies have never been recovered, where they were left or how they died is unknown.

Cassandra’s mom & dad have since relocated to Florida, but when they lived in York County, they kept a candle in their window waiting for their daughter to come home. For the 30th anniversary of their disappearances in 2018, the Hailey family wrote a message that voiced their frustration at the lack of answers in the case & the feelings of abandonment they have for the FBI, the Virginia State Police as well as the National Park Service.

In the days after Keith & Cassandra vanished, the FBI became aware of a local fisherman, 33-year-old Alan Wilmer, who drove a distinctive blue 1966 Dodge Fargo pickup truck with the license plate EM-RAW. The man had approached at least one other couple along the Colonial Parkway around the time of the murders, aggressively banging on their window. In this instance, the young man had long hair & after he banged on the glass, Wilmer asked, Are you girls having fun? When he realized that it was actually a man & a woman in the car, he backed off.

After Wilmer was placed under surveillance, officers noted him cleaning & spraypainting his truck. After the FBI obtained a warrant to search his trailer, they found handcuffs, a gun & pornography, but an FBI polygraph examiner cleared him from the case after he passed the exam with flying colors.

In May 1988, the FBI offered a $10,000 reward (about $28,000 in 2026) & by June 1988, the spree of three double homicides were dubbed Colonial Parkway Murders.

Nearly a year & a half later, on Labor Day, Monday, September 4, 1989, 18-year-old Annamaria “Anna” Phelps & her boyfriend’s older brother, 21-year-old Daniel “Danny” Lauer disappeared while they were on their way back to Virginia Beach from Amelia County. Danny’s gold 1972 Chevy Nova was later found abandoned along Interstate 64 at a rest stop in New Kent County.

Anna & Danny were not in a romantic relationship, but because she & Danny’s brother, Clint, who lived together, were struggling financially, Danny agreed to move in with them to help with their monthly payments. Since Danny needed to go back home to Amelia County to get his belongings, Anna decided to go with him so she could see her own family in their hometown, a drive that would have taken about 2 ½ hours each way. After Danny packed up his things, he picked Anna up at about 11 pm & on their way back to Virginia Beach, they vanished.

When Anna & Danny hadn’t arrived by the following morning, their family contacted the Virginia State Police to report them missing.

At about 5:30 pm that day, Tuesday, September 5, a Virginia State Police officer found Danny’s car at a rest stop along the westbound side of Interstate 64 in New Kent County despite the fact that they would have been traveling eastbound to get back to Virginia Beach. The car was parked at an odd angle on the merge/acceleration ramp.

Both the driver & passenger side doors were unlocked, the driver’s side window was rolled halfway down, the keys were in the ignition & there was a roach clip with feathers dangling from the window that Danny normally kept attached to the rearview mirror. The founder of the Virginia State Police’s Behavioral Science unit, Larry McCann, felt the roach clip was there to taunt the authorities. Since Anna’s purse was found in the car, robbery was ruled out as a motive.

The Virginia State Police as well as the New Kent County Sheriff’s office searched for Anna & Danny, but no trace of the pair was found. Much of the area was searched using helicopters, but because of the dense woods, it was nearly impossible to visualize anything on the ground. Meanwhile, their families held out hope that they would safely return home.

It wasn’t until 44 days later when the skeletonized bodies of Anna & Danny were found on October 19 by turkey hunters off of a logging trail in a wooded area along I-64 between Williamsburg & Richmond. This was about a mile from the rest stop where Danny’s car was found. Their remains were lying side-by-side & had been wrapped in an electric blanket from Danny’s car. Because they were so badly decomposed, their causes of death could not be determined nor could it be determined if a sexual assault had occured.

There was a knife wound found to one of Anna’s finger bones that proved she had fought with their killer. Fifty feet from her body, they found Anna’s locket that held photos of her nephews while the chain has never been located. Anna, who liked to go barefoot, was found wearing Danny’s socks & shoes.

Since the area where their remains had been recovered was very difficult to navigate, especially in the darkness of night, it’s likely the killer either knew the area well or had previously scoped it out.

Because it had rained a lot during the six weeks that Danny & Anna had been missing, a lot of the evidence could have been washed away.

Since there was no mud on Danny’s tires, it’s likely the killer picked Danny & Anna up from the eastbound rest area, drove them in his car to the wooded area where their remains were found, murdered them & left their bodies before driving back to the rest area & relocating Danny’s car to the opposite side of the interstate. The killer then took the electric blanket from Danny’s car, went back to the crime scene, covered their remains & left. As with David’s truck & Keith’s Celica, the keys were left out in the open, making it an easy target to be stolen.

Of the four sets of double homicides, this crime scene was the farthest from the Colonial Parkway,but it was a relatively short drive to each of the other crime scenes. Many people questioned whether Anna & Danny’s case was tied to the others, including criminal behavioral specialists from the FBI & the Virginia State Police.

Two weeks after Jewel Phelps buried her daughter, investigators had given her a box of Anna’s belongings after they had been analyzed. Not feeling ready to go through the items, she just put the box up somewhere. It wasn’t until more than 20 years later in 2010 when her relatives went through the box after a former homicide detective independently investigated the Colonial Parkway murders & later wrote about them in an e-magazine.

Here, they found an undated note in Anna’s handwriting that indicated she was planning to meet someone in a blue van at a rest stop. The note not only named the person, but also provided a phone number, but law enforcement has not released the details.

At the first crime scene where Cathy & Becky had been murdered, Cathy’s wallet had been removed from her purse, as if she was getting ready to show her ID when they were attacked. The window of David’s truck was slightly down as was the driver’s side window of Danny’s Nova. This suggested that the killer may`have either been a member of law enforcement or had been impersonating one. In Keith & Cassandra’s murders, the glove box in Keith’s Celica was found open as if he had been trying to get the registration out. This would explain how the attacker was able to easily approach victims & subdue them.

Another theory was that the killer was a fisherman. In the first set of murders, a piece of nautical line was found in Cathy’s hair. Diesel fuel had also been doused on Cathy & Becky’s bodies as well as the car, suggesting that the perpetrator purchased the fuel at a gas station for the use of a boat rather than directly from a marina, something that is common among local fishermen. Because the knife that was used to slash their throats had nearly decapitated Cathy, this also suggested a fisherman. David & Robin’s bodies were also found on the banks of the James River while Cassandra & Keith’s scents were tracked by dogs to the edge of the York River, suggesting potential involvement of a boat.

In September 2009, nearly 80 graphic photos were leaked when it was discovered they had been used inappropriately in training sessions run by a private security company. A former agency photographer, who has since died, took copies of the photos when he retired. The photos were internal evidence not intended for public viewing & the leak caused significant distress to the victims’ family members. With this, authorities vowed to restart the investigation.

It wasn’t until January 8, 2024, more than 36 years after 20-year-old David Knobling & 14-year-old Robin Edwards were murdered in September 1987 when the Virginia State Police & multiple law enforcement agencies announced a suspect in their murders.

Alan Wilmer Sr. was linked to David & Robin’s case through DNA evidence. Wilmer had been the FBI’s suspect only days after Keith Call & Cassandra Hailey vanished in April 1988, but had been cleared from the case after he passed his polygraph exam.

Because Wilmer had no felonies on his criminal record, his DNA was never obtained & entered into the CODIS database. It wasn’t until December 15, 2017 when he died alone in his Virginia home at 63-years-old when his DNA was obtained for identification purposes as his decomposing body wasn’t found for a month.

With a fresh look at the cold cases, authorities looked into Wilmer as a suspect when they realized he was dead. They legally obtained his genetic material & submitted it to the forensic science department to compare it to evidence that was collected in the murders.

In June 2023, the Virginia Department of Forensic Science issued a Certificate of Analysis that confirmed a genetic match to Wilmer based on evidence collected from the Isle of Wight County & City of Hampton homicide victims.

Although initial investigators were unsure if Robin Edwards had been sexually assaulted, it was later determined that she had been & in 2024, with the DNA that had been left behind, investigators were able to identify the man responsible as Wilmer.

In addition to David & Robin’s murders, Wilmer has also been forensically tied to the 1988 murder of 18-year-old Laurie Ann Powell as well as the 1989 murder of 29-year-old Teresa Howell.

18-year-old Laurie Powell was last seen on March 8, 1988 after she & her boyfriend, Chris Cutler, got into an argument & she stormed out of his car at 11:30 pm. She walked along Route 614 in the direction of Route 17 in the White Marsh area of Gloucester County. Initially, Chris was a suspect in her disappearance.

Nearly a month later, on April 2, 1988, her body was recovered from the Elizabeth River near Craney Island. She was found nude with multiple stab wounds to her back & she had been sexually assaulted. According to Laurie’s sister, she was brave, spontaneous, witty, smart & beautifully herself. She was a firecracker who spoke her mind, followed her heart & never apologized for being herself.

Laurie’s family realize that nothing can erase the pain of losing her, they find comfort that the truth has come to light after 36 long years without answers.

Wilmer’s fourth victim, 29-year-old Teresa “Teri” Howell was last seen leaving the Zodiac Club, a popular Hampton nightspot, at about 2:30 am on July 1, 1989. Seven hours later, her body was found by a construction worker in a nearby wooded area about 11 miles from where David & Robin’s bodies were recovered. She had been strangled & sexually assaulted. Her murder wasn’t connected to the Colonial Parkway murders until 2022 when DNA from her case matched to the DNA from David & Robin’s case.

Wilmer, who stood at 5’5” & weighed 165# was a stocky, muscular man with sandy-brown hair & a close-cropped beard. He went by the nickname Pokey & drove a blue 1966 Dodge Fargo pickup truck with the license plate EM RAW. He often carried clamming equipment & had a large, affixed metal toolbox in the bed of his truck. This was one of several pickup trucks he drove in the 1980s & early 1990s.

Wilmer also owned a small, commercial, custom-built wooden fishing boat that was built in 1976 named the Denni Wade. He often lived on the boat, docking it at marinas in Gloucester & Middlesex Counties & around the Northern Neck & Hampton Roads areas. He worked as a fisherman in the 1980s, mostly farming oysters & clams. He also ran a business called Better Tree Service. He was an avid hunter & belonged to at least one hunt club.

Wilmer was married in February 1975, but he later divorced. He had two children, both of whom were adults at the time of his death. His family released a statement after he was connected to the murders: The man who committed these crimes was not someone we knew. The revelation of what he’s done has deeply impacted our family as we are forced to reconcile who we believed him to be with the unimaginable things he has done. They went on to say that they’ve been cooperative with law enforcement & deeply mourn with the victims’ families.

According to Wilmer’s neighbor, Tommy Hemans, he knew the man to be peaceful & nice, someone who did a lot of work for people in the area, cutting their trees. He, like Wilmer’s family, is stunned to learn what he is responsible for.

Family members of the remaining six victims involved in the Colonial Parkway murders believe that Wilmer could be responsible for those as well. At this point in time, police & FBI investigators have not established a conclusive link, however, they are continuing to pursue those cases.

We know that only days after Keith Call & Cassandra Hailey vanished, the FBI was looking at Wilmer as a top suspect. According to Cathy Thomas’ family, there are unconfirmed reports that Cathy & Becky were seen at the Yorktown pub, a place that is situated along the Colonial Parkway where Wilmer was said to be a regular.

There has now been a major break in the case after we recorded & posted our podcast episode that was released on Sunday, January 18, 2026. On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, the FBI announced that they have officially connected Wilmer to the October 1986 murders of Cathy Thomas & Becky Dowski due to advances in DNA technology after they discovered DNA on one of the pieces of clothing that Becky was wearing. This came back with a hit on evidence that had been previously tested but had not been successful.

Family members of Keith Call say that they’ve also been told that Wilmer is connected to his & Cassandra Hailey’s April 1988 presumed murders.

However, at this point in time, the September 1989 murders of Danny Lauer & Anna Phelps remain unsolved.

The murders along Virginia’s Colonial Parkway remain some of the most haunting cases in American true crime history. For multiple decades, families have lived in limbo, many continuing to wait for answers. These innocent victims were young adults who were sons, daughters, sisters, brothers & friends. Each of their lives were violently cut short on quiet stretches of road. Hope remains that with advances in technology, the truth might still be brought to life despite the passage of multiple decades.

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