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Suspect in "Colonial Parkway Murders" in Virginia Linked to 2 More Cold-Case Killings, FBI Says
DNA evidence linked Alan Wilmer Sr. to the 1986 double murder and at least five other killings from the 1980s, resolving decades-old cold cases, the FBI said.
- On January 20, 2026, the FBI Norfolk Field Office announced it linked Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. by DNA to the Oct. 12, 1986 murders of Cathleen Marian Thomas and Rebecca Ann Dowski.
- Using modern DNA techniques, investigators and cold-case teams reviewed decades-old evidence and matched Wilmer's DNA after breakthroughs in Jan. 2024, the FBI Norfolk and Virginia State Police said.
- A jogger found the victims' car down an embankment near Cheatham Annex and the York River with their bodies inside, while contemporary news reports described strangulation, stabbing, slashed throats, and an attempted car fire.
- Because Wilmer died in 2017 at age 63, he cannot be prosecuted, though federal prosecutors said evidence would have supported charges; families of Cathleen Thomas and Rebecca Dowski attended the announcement Tuesday.
- The series includes eight homicides between 1986 and 1989, and investigators now link Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. to at least six murders and disappearances in the Colonial Parkway murders.
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DNA Unmasks Deceased Fisherman As Killer In 1986 Virginia Colonial Parkway Murders
It took nearly four decades of uncertainty, rumors, and waiting, but the families of Cathleen Thomas and Rebecca Dowski finally have a name. On Monday, the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office announced that forensic evidence has posthumously linked Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. to the brutal 1986 murders of the two women. The revelation marks the first […] DNA Unmasks Deceased Fisherman As Killer In 1986 Virginia Colonial Parkway Murders
·Tampa, United States
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Colonial Parkway killer officially linked to first 2 murders, FBI announces
The man authorities believe is responsible for the infamous Colonial Parkway murders has officially been linked to the 1986 killings of the first known victims, Cathleen Thomas and Rebecca Dowski.
·Richmond, United States
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Total News Sources11
Leaning Left1Leaning Right3Center6Last UpdatedBias Distribution60% Center
Bias Distribution
- 60% of the sources are Center
60% Center
C 60%
R 30%
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