Alan Wade Wilmer, of Lancaster County, was determined to be the perpetrator in the deaths of Cathleen Thomas and Rebecca Dowski, who were found dead in their car along Colonial Parkway in October 1986. according to to the FBI Norfolk Field Office.
The killings of Thomas, 27, and Dowski, 21, were among at least eight murders and disappearances of young people that occurred along or near the Parkway and surrounding areas between 1986 and 1989, the FBI said. These crimes remained unsolved for decades, giving way to “one of the most complex and lengthy cold case investigations in Virginia history,” the agency said.
Investigators say modern forensic testing in recent years has allowed them to link Wilmer to the murders and disappearances of at least six young people in Virginia during the three years in which the “Colonial Parkway murders” occurred. In addition to Thomas and Dowski, he was also identified as a suspect in 2024 in two of those murders as well as a third unrelated murder.
WTKR
At the time, Virginia State Police named Wilmer as the suspected assailant in the 1987 fatal shootings of David Knobling, 20, and Robin Edwards, 14, as well as the unrelated 1989 strangulation death of Teresa Lynn Spaw Howell, 29.
Wilmer died in 2017 at the age of 63, but authorities say he would have been prosecuted for the murders of Thomas, Dowski, Knobling, Edwards and Howell if he were still alive.
Dominique Evans, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office, said in a video statement that her office would continue to actively investigate other cases related to the “Colonial Parkway murders” and called the breakthrough in the cold case of Thomas and Dowski “a testament to the tenacity of generations of investigators.”
“Our message today underlines that we will not stop, we will not forget, and we will seek justice no matter how long it takes,” Evans said.
The FBI has asked anyone with information possibly related to unsolved cases to report what they know to law enforcement.
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