He's a former Gloucester deputy, who, almost a year ago, says he told authorities who leaked the pictures, how they got out, and who has them. The only couples that had anything in common seemed to be the first pair and the (potentially connected) final couple, Lollie Winans and Julianne Williams, both of which Historic Mysteries says were lesbian couples, but the others were perceived to be straight couples. Copyright 2023 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Joyce Call, sister of Richard Keith Call, who disappeared in April 1988 with his date along the Colonial Parkway, said: "When I first learned about it, I was shocked, and I was even more shocked to learn they had been out a while.". The case of the Atlas Vampire became a national sensation on May 4, 1932. Cathy Thomas and Rebecca Dowski One of the many scenic overpasses on the Colonial Parkway as it appears now. Daniel Lauer + Annamaria Phelps . This post examines four murders of young couples along the Colonial Parkway in Virginia during the 1980s, as well as a fifth homicide, which may be related, in 1996. Their bodies were found over a month later on October 19th by hunters on a logging road about a mile away from the rest stop. Do you feel like you've seen and heard about every true crime case on tv and in books? A crime blog referencing unsolved criminal cases. There was no sign of sexual assault, and the womens purses were still in the car, with all their money still inside. Keith Call + Sandra Hailey. When the FBI and VSP failed to follow up, Atwell went to the media, specifically WTKR channel 3 TV News in Norfolk. Hope there is resolution. They had been bound and gagged, similarly to Cathy and Rebecca, and their throats had also been slit. He did it again with a Toyota, and one final time at a rest area with a Chevy Nova. FBI photograph of the smashed back window of Cathy Thomass Honda Civic. And he would find it. I was in disbelief for a while. There was no evidence of sexual assault. The Colonial Parkway Murders - Revisiting The Crime Scenes Mobile Instinct 370K subscribers Subscribe 10K 264K views 1 year ago Virginia's beautiful Colonial Parkway has a dark history. The police believed that the murders had happened elsewhere, and the bodies had been dumped in the car since there was not much blood in the car itself. A day later, Richards car was found at the York River Outlook off the Colonial Parkway, about 2 miles from where Cathy and Rebecca had been discovered. But Atwell died behind bars before his involvement in the killings could be confirmed. Fred Atwell told the reporter he tried for almost a year to get the FBI to investigate the leak of the crime scene photos. Like all of the so-called Colonial Parkway murders, this was a double homicide. The club opened in 1982, eventually fostering the Manchester acid house and rave scene in the late 1980s. A former FBI photographer had taken them when he left, and was using the photos in classes he taught at a local law enforcement training school. The Untold Truth Of The Colonial Parkway Murders, Predators on the Parkway: A Former Homicide Detective Explores the Colonial Parkway Murders. Apparently, she's also known as "Verna White". . Unfortunately, this was the beginning of a nightmare, not the end of one. Like Thomas and Dowski, Winans and Williams were bound and had their throats slit nearly to the point of decapitation. What's your biggest turn off? His targets, young girls who he kidnapped, raped, and left their remains along busy roadways in plain view. "We want to make sure that our victims' families are not hurt by any of the information that is being put out there," she said. Man died Wednesday. Bundy admitted to killing 36 women, but experts think the numbers reach into the hundreds. There's less of a chance that a single victim will get away or fight back. Regardless, the murders shook the state and instilled an insidious fear during the decade when each killing cropped up within a few years of the others. Daniel Lauer was from Amelia County, Virginia. It's possible they just hadn't found the right fit for acting out on their illness, or that the killer was growing, evolving, branching out their system to better sate dark desires and lessen the possibility of being caught. Over the years, police have questioned 150 suspects in connection to these four cases, but all have been cleared. Annamaria Phelps locket as found on the logging trail. Cathy Thomas, a 27-year-old graduate of the Naval Academy, and Rebecca 'Becky' Dowski, a 21-year-old student at the College of William and Mary, were the first two known victims in the homicides that have been dubbed the Colonial Parkway murders. New Book Shines a Light on the Mysterious Colonial Parkway Murders by Written By: Don Harrison | Aug 31, 2018 America's narrowest national park, the Colonial Parkway, connects the southern edge of Jamestown to Yorktown via a winding 23-mile route that cuts through Williamsburg. Coming soon by Tiddy Smith DEATH BY TALONS: Did An Owl Murder Kathleen Peterson? All rights reserved. Then we come to the latest, and presumed to be the final, set of victims: A pair of women who'd been camping together in 1996. One of the stories Bill came across detailed how the FBI had recently lost control of 84 graphic crime scene photos from the Colonial Parkway murders. I just don't think it's right.". Colonial Parkway murder victims (Oxygen) Thomas said that over the years, there have been moments where he was frustrated with the investigation of his sister's murder. The former officer in question, Fred Atwell, had also inserted himself into the investigation several times, according to HuffPost. He snatched a couple from their truck, leaving their clothes inside. It is easy to see how the vehicle was overlooked for so long. Though this case has appeared in the media several times over the past 30+ years, it's still as mysterious as it is unique. Joyce Call's brother was one of the victims. From about October 1986 to September 1989, 8 people are presumed to have been murdered near Colonial Parkway in Eastern Virginia. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This was the first of the Colonial Parkway Murders and that makes it significant on several fronts. However, the car was. Three pairs were definitively murdered, but another couple went missing but were suspected to have been targeted by the same killer. But this road flips from a gorgeous sun-lit drive to a haunting trek when the night falls, and it's in part because of the troubled past hidden among this road's lanes. The propriety of releasing the photographs -- which appear to have been an FBI slideshow on the Parkway Murders -- outside of law enforcement or their potential value as evidence in any future trial is unclear. 1 ranking in country. His brother and several others saw it shortly after their disappearance and Keiths father found it the following morning as well. Fred Atwell, a former deputy from Gloucester, began informing the family members of victims that valuable crime scene photos - containing images of the . I was pleased that the victims were truly brought to life and we were able to learn more about them very well done! Being spoiled by my rich friend makes me feel like a charity case, Anti-agers no one but you needs to know about,Inge Van Lotringen tells all, How to dress like a grown up: Trust me, loose fit can be flattering, says Shane Watson, The one thing I've learnt byBinky Felstead. The grim finale came just five months later. 'Murder scenes have the sense of an aura.' No motive for the killings was ever established. Biden honors 20 years of the Homeland Security Dept. The second pair of victims, David Knobling and Robin Edwards, had just met before heading out to a local makeout spot, where they were attacked, according to NBC. It was run by the record label Factory Records.. The Colonial Parkway Murders UPDATE! They had been strangled and their throats were slashed, though there was no evidence of sexual assault. ', Unsolved mystery: A team of experts delve into the Colonial Parkway murders in Virginia in the 1980s in Oxygen's two-night true-crime special Lovers' Lane Murders, Deep dive: Forensic criminologist Laura Pettler explains in a preview clip that her job is to 'take everything we know and we reconstruct the scene', The site: The Colonial Parkway in Virginia - a 23-mile stretch of road known as Lovers' Lane (pictured) - was the site of four double homicides in the 1980s, all of which remain unsolved. While the route was created to allow visitors to enjoy the regions natural beauty and historic interest, it has since attained a more sinister history of its own. For four years a killer, or killers, stalked Virginia's Tidewater region, carefully selecting victims and terrorizing the local community. There were only two things the Colonial Parkway murder victims had in common: They were killed near Colonial Parkway, and they were killed in couples. heading in the wrong direction, away from their destination, which confused police. His brother's girlfriend was the second half of the murdered pair. On Memorial Day weekend 1989, Daniel Lauer, 21, was driving to his brothers house in Virginia Beach with his brothers girlfriend, Annamaria Phelps, 18. They were brothers, sisters, sons, daughters,' says Joyce Call. On October 12, 1986, a pedestrian saw a car down an embankment on the Colonial Parkway where it was obscured from the view of the road. Davids car had been discovered in a parking lot by the James River Bridge. Posted on February 27, 2023 by laguardia airport food terminal c The two women had been bound with rope and strangled, and the killer had slit their throats so deeply that they were nearly decapitated. biggest unsolved murders in alaska | February 26 / 2023 | alastair atchison pilotalastair atchison pilot Thanks, Bill Thomas Detective Steve Spingola was asked to investigate the Colonial Parkway Murders as a private investigator. It was left with the door open, the keys turned to accessories, and the radio on. Logically, this is the most easily accessible place at Ragged Island for the two young victims to have reached the water. The two women in the car were identified as Cathleen "Cathy" Thomas, a 27 . April 8, 1988: Keith Call, 20, left, left his family's house in Gloucester County to pick up his date, Cassandra Hailey. This crime scene photo shows Robin Edwards shoe that she had doodled on, laying on the floor of Davids truck. It was at this beautiful spot, overlooking the river, that a killer, or killers, attacked the two women. FBI starts to respond to media . Were these crimes the work of one perpetrator, or unrelated slayings that happened to fall close togetherboth chronologically and geographically? Someone has leaked graphic crime-scene photographs of the most notorious serial killings in Virginia history, the Colonial Parkway murders. Keith Call's brother Chris is upset. A bright young man studying computer science at Christopher Newport. This image shows the James River Bridge and the roadway leading from the parking area to the river. Maybe you're reminiscing about sparks that flew during a chemistry-laden conversation, maybe your cheeks are feeling flushed from the back-and-forth banter that lifted you to the clouds, or maybe you're prepping to fog up the windows a little bit. . In this case, the victims were 20-year-old David Knobling and, 14-year-old Robin Edwards. Copyright 2022 Crime Museum, LLC - All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy |. The Colonial Parkway Murders: Part OneGuest: Bill Thomas, brother of victim Cathy ThomasConstruction stretched over twenty-six years through the Depression, World War II, and funding shortages.The Parkway allows for a stress-free drive from Yorktown to Jamestown that avoids the regular trafficThe parkway is made of stone pavement to give the feel of old-timey highwaysThe parkway connects . Almost seven months passed before the next incidentthe only one of the four in which the presumed victims have never been found. Required fields are marked *. Three days later, over Columbus Day weekend, their bodies were found bound with rope inside Thomas's white 1980 Honda Civic, which had been pushed down an embankment off of the Colonial Parkwayin Williamsburg. He could work magic on a safe that would have sent Mandrake the Magician [More], On an unseasonably warm April evening in 2001, the headless body of a tiny girl was found discarded in a makeshift dump site in the woods on the southeast side of Kansas City, Missouri. In 2018, the Facebook page Colonial Parkway Murders, which is run by Cathys brother Bill Thomas, revealed that DNA had been found at 3 of the 4 crime scenes which could potentially conclusively link the cases and lead to an arrest. The man's famil, Plaintiff Kara Williams asserts that Richmond Public Schools fired her as manager of the Head Start Program after she had repeatedly objected . This recent image shows the only marker at Ragged Island, a gunshot sign. I very much and highly recommend this book. But that isn't the case for this killer. . A new documentary is exploring a string of unsolved double homicides that occurred at a 'lovers' lane' in Virginia more than three decades ago, as experts try to figure out if the murders were the work of a serial killer or just a gruesome coincidence. Its isolation and lack of patrols by the NPS made it a perfect place for murder or to dispose of a vehicle/bodies. 10 Disturbing Facts About The Colonial Parkway Murders; Robins pants were partially rolled down, but police were unsure if there had been sexual assault since it was presumed that Robin and David had had some sort of sexual relationship. You saw Dr. Pettler in the four part true crime TV series, "Lovers Lane Murders" on the Oxygen Network. For two decades, the crime-scene pictures. In the center of the image is Danny Plott, standing next to Dr. Marcella Fierro of the Virginia State Medical Examiners office. The Colonial Parkway Murders-the name given eight murders that took place in the Tidewater region in the late 1980's, two of which were on the historic Colonial Parkway, the nation's narrowest National Park. Almost 80 crime-scene photographs taken in one of the most exhaustive and closely held criminal investigations ever conducted in Virginia are in the public domain. According to the Daily Press, Spingola was hired by Annamaria Phelps' family to look into the girl's murder. The Strangest True Crime Cases in States Across the Country, It was nearly a year later when the second slaying took place along the Colonial Parkway. About The Book On January 7, 1994, residents of Berkshire [Read More], BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD by Marla Bernard and narrated by Claire Duncan, is available in audiobook format now. The center of the smashed back window of Cathy Thomass Honda Civic follow up, went. Work of one of one experts think the numbers reach into the hundreds women, all. 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