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The Colonial Parkway Murders /// Part 2 /// 227

November 25, 2022 / 01:11:33

This episode of True Crime Garage covers the Colonial Parkway murders, focusing on the disappearances of Anna Marie Phelps and Daniel Lower in 1989, and their connection to other unsolved cases.

Hosts Nick and the Captain discuss the background of Anna Marie Phelps, who went missing after visiting her family in Amelia, Virginia. They detail the timeline of events leading to her disappearance, including the discovery of her car at a rest stop on I-64, which was found with personal belongings inside but no signs of struggle.

The episode highlights the subsequent discovery of the victims' bodies, which were found weeks later in a wooded area. The hosts analyze the evidence collected at the crime scene, including the condition of the remains and the peculiar circumstances surrounding their deaths.

Nick and the Captain also compare this case to other similar murders in the region, discussing the possibility of a serial killer and the challenges faced by law enforcement due to jurisdictional issues. They explore various suspects and theories, including the potential motives behind the crimes.

Throughout the episode, the hosts emphasize the importance of community involvement and the ongoing quest for justice for the victims and their families.

TLDR

The episode discusses the Colonial Parkway murders, focusing on Anna Marie Phelps and Daniel Lower's disappearance and its connections to other cases.

Episode

1:11:33
00:00:40
Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and
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with me as always is a man that often wonders why the word abbreviated is so long. He is the Captain.
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's good to be seen and it's good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for
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telling a friend. Today we are drinking Good Life by Billsburg Brewery Garage Grade four out
00:01:09
of five bottle caps. This is an IPA and it's got everything you would want and expect from a good IPA. And for you
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travelers, Billsburg is in the heart of Williamsburg surrounded in history and all that Jamestown stuff located just
00:01:23
off of the Colonial Parkway. And this week's beer was brought to us by First up a big thank you to Seal from where?
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Parts Unknown. Seal recommended some beers, Zombie Dust and 100 Million Angels Singing, which I'm positive we
00:01:36
have featured that one before, but thank you for the suggestions. And a big shout out to Stephanie from
00:01:41
Shy-Town. Next to cheers to Bridget in Audubon, Pennsylvania. A big shout out to Valerie and John in
00:01:47
Minneapolis. Next up a big cheers to Sophie and a tiny little cheers to baby Daisy.
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And a big shout out to baby Jesus. And last but not least a shout to Martha in parts unknown. Crazy how these things
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come full circle. And if you'd like to be in the inner circle, all it takes is a round or two of some good beers and
00:02:05
you can do that. You can buy us a round for next week's show by going to truecrimegarage.com
00:02:10
and click on the donate button. finally here, the be good, be kind, don't litter t-shirts. They're on
00:02:16
pre-order now. You can order them. You have till Friday to get one of those. Also, if you'd like to be a part of the
00:02:23
horse people gang, then you can also order a horse people t-shirt. And that's at truecrimegarage.com and click on the
00:02:30
store page. All right, horse people gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. I think they're called centaurs.
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Let's talk some true crime. 18-year-old Anna Marie Phelps had recently moved in with her boyfriend
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Clinton Lower in Virginia Beach. Anna Marie had frosted blonde hair and a penchant for blue eyeliner. She loved
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the band Poison. Now, don't get it twisted, sister, but that's not the only crime
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of this episode. Well, she had returned home to Amelia. This is located southwest of Richmond to visit her
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family for the Labor Day holiday weekend. She was accompanied by Daniel Lower. Uh this is Clinton's brother.
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They were driving back to Virginia Beach together. Daniel was planning to move in
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with his brother and Anna Maria to help them with their rent and to live near the beach. Apparently, they both had
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jobs, this couple, but they I believe they made minimum wage at the time. So, paying the rent was a struggle and the
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brother wanted to live near the beach. It's kind of a win-win for all involved. So,
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Daniel had packed up his car with all of his things. They said goodbye to Anna Maria's family who had warned them, just
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before the two pulled off, to lock their car doors and to drive safely. Now, they left about 11:15 p.m.
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on Labor Day, Monday, September 4th, 1989. This is a 2-hour drive east to Virginia Beach.
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Anna Maria and Daniel never showed up at their apartment in Virginia Beach. Kent,
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the brother, called his mom to tell her that they hadn't showed up as expected and she filed the missing person's
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report. Around 5:30 p.m. the next day, a state trooper spotted Daniel's gold 1972
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Chevy Nova in the westbound rest stop along I-64 in New Kent. Which is odd because they're heading east. Yes. I-64
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is a 1,000-mi major highway running between Missouri and Virginia. This rest stop between
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Richmond and Williamsburg is in the wrong direction. The couple should have been driving east. The rest stop is 30
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mi northwest of the Colonial Parkway. This rest stop had a reputation at the time as a meeting spot for drug deals
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and hookups. The abandoned car was on the lane leading onto the highway from the rest
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stop. So, picture this. The car is basically half on, half off of the road. It's almost blocking traffic.
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The trooper was about to have it towed from the rest stop when a radio check linked the car to a couple that was
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reported missing earlier that day. This being the two that we've already discussed. Now, Anna Maria's purse and
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clothing were found inside the vehicle, as was all of Daniel's stuff. But, Anna Anna Maria's wallet was
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missing, as was a blanket of Daniels. A feathered marijuana roach clip was hanging on the partially open driver's
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side window. Yeah, it was like clipped onto the window. Yeah, it was later identified as belonging to Anna Maria.
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The key was still in the ignition. One door was locked, the other wasn't. The car had plenty of gas. I believe it was
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reported that it had 3/4 of a tank of gas, full tank of gas. And seemed to be working just fine. So,
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there was no reason for them to abandon the vehicle. Some reports say that the glove
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compartment was open. There was no evidence of a struggle. The car just seemed to have been left there for
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whatever reason. There were sightings of the pair. And this took place both east and west
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bound of where the two where the vehicle was found. Mhm. But these sightings led nowhere.
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Now, I heard an investigator interviewed and he stated, "Look, we had we did have a
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lot of people say that they saw them after we found the vehicle. The problem with this was he said,
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"Look, this area at the time, there was a lot of partying going on. There would have been a lot of kids their age
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in this area traveling to or from Virginia Beach." Right. So, these eyewitnesses could have
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saw a different set of people. And And according to this investigator, he says, "Look, they To me, they look
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like just any other a lot." Well, he says, "Look, they look to me just like any other kids of that age at that
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time." He's He goes, "I understand that they You could easily mistake anybody for being these two."
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Now, they set up a a search. Okay, police dogs were unable to pick up a scent of either of the missing
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individuals. And they searched the surrounding areas. This turned up nothing. Almost immediately investigators began
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drawing comparisons to the disappearance of Keith and Sandy 18 months earlier and
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35 miles to the south. About a month after Lauer and Phelps went missing, Larry McCann, a profiler
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and special agent with the State Police Bureau of Investigation, told reporters there was, quote, a very
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good chance that the recent cases were related. A story in the Daily Press in October of 1989 mentioned each of the
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four cases that are now known collectively as the Colonial Parkway murders. But now their their bodies are
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going to be found. Unlike the last couple. Well, the issue here, Captain, is it's not until October
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19th. This is when the bodies are found by hunters walking along an old secluded
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logging road found the two sets of human skeletal remains in a wooded area. This
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is about a quarter mile off of Courthouse Road, barely a mile north of the exit off of I-64.
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The bodies lay side by side and they were covered by a blanket later identified as the one that was missing
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from the car. Anna Maria's locket, uh, necklace was lying on the trail. Whether she had left it there as some
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kind of signal, some kind of, you know, bread crumb, or the killer had dumped it there, we
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don't know. The interesting thing here though is, Captain, while the locket was found on the trail,
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the necklace itself was was never found. And because there was so much time that passed, their
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bodies are going to be pretty badly decomposed. Yeah, we're looking at a period of,
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what, 45 days? So, these remains were found about a mile from the rest area where the car was
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found. State Police sent four crime scene techs and two medical examiners to this scene.
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It was pouring rain all day long, so the the local fire department pitched in and
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helped out. They put up a canopy above the bones, and they brought in a generator to power electric lights used
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in the search. It was very muddy that day. One trooper slipped in a hole and and sank up to his knees, and the crime
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scene specialist painstakingly dug and sifted through it until they found everything that they believed was left
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there, including the victim's finger nails. They used several kinds of metal detectors that day and chemicals to
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detect blood stains on the bushes. Signs were found to suggest that the murder site might have been at the
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intersection of the logging road and the dirt lane. Meaning that where they found the car is
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not where they were killed. More likely where the bodies were found is very close to where it's believed that they
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had been killed. The victim's car had weeds up underneath of it that matched those
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at the believed murder scene. Investigators concluded that the killer must have driven it to the dump. I'm
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sorry, driven it to dump the bodies. Right. And then had parked it in the rest area going the wrong direction from
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where the two victims were heading. Strangely, Anna Maria was found wearing Dennis Daniel's socks and shoes.
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And so, this is very weird, right? They're They're partially They're partially stripped, but she's wearing his socks
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and shoes. Somebody is One investigator had always wondered that several of the victims being found without their shoes
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on, if that was some kind of form of control. You know, that that one of the not only
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having them partially undressed or all the way undressed, but have them remove their
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shoes and maybe their shoes first. That way if they take off running, it can be very uncomfortable to run out in these
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areas with no shoes on. You might be You might be slowed in your attempt to escape.
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Mhm. The killer then used Daniel's blanket to cover the bodies. From my understanding, the bodies were
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covered up to the neck area. Uh the bodies were left outside for like 6 weeks, badly decomposed as you had
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said. They were identified through dental records. It took about 2 days for this process. And in the course of those
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2 days, law enforcement, they were kind enough to reach out to both families. And they
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said, "Look, we think that this is who we found. We've already found the vehicle.
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And we think that we found your two loved ones. We wanted you to hear it from us first, but we cannot confirm
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that until the dental records come back." They didn't want the family to hear this on the news and not from them.
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Yeah. The bodies were sent to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum for Natural
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History in Washington, D.C. So, forensic anthropologist could look for hints at the cause of death.
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The best they could do was to identify a nick in one of Anna Marie's finger bones, potentially a defensive wound
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from from a knife attack. Mhm. Once the bodies were recovered, it was undeniable
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in the minds of many people that Virginia had a serial killer on the loose. The FBI and the state police held
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a joint press conference in July of 1990 declaring that there was a possibility that the cases were all
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connected, all related, and asking the public for help. Now, the cases, Captain,
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were all different, obviously. But, there are they are similar enough that there are some patterns and connections
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between them. So, let's talk about the similarities and differences in these murders.
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So, first we have all four were couples or at least appeared to be couples. We know that Becky and Kathy were dating.
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We don't know whether they were targeted because they were a same-sex couple or not, but it is possible that the killer
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didn't realize that until he had already begun his attack. It was very dark along
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the parkway at night. Kathy and Becky were inside a dark car presumably. The killer looking to prey on couples may
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have assumed that they were in fact man and woman. Becky's hair at the time was on the
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shorter side. So, perhaps the extreme viciousness of this attack was because the killer was angry that
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they were two women when when he had been looking for a guy and a girl. Several people close to the victims
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strongly suspect that David and Robin were hooking up that night. This is the second couple. Yeah. And we
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know that according to some reports out there that Robin had had sex recently before she was found.
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And then we have Keith and Sandy who were on a first date if you want to call it that. And finally, we have Daniel and
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Anna Maria who were driving together to Virginia Beach. They weren't a couple, but you know, there's much speculation
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that perhaps they had stopped along the parkway or stopped at some point maybe having something to do with the roach
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clip that was later found. And so, we have a situation here where all four situations would appear to be couples.
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Yes. Now, the first couple we're going to find them inside the car. Second couple we find outside the car. Third
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couple we do not find at all. Fourth couple we find roughly about 6 weeks later and
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a distance away from uh the car that we find. Another similarity, all of these cases
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involved cars. Um many of the cars were left with open doors and or open windows and some
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reported to have had the glove boxes opened. Right, which again, I I I think this is a
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I'm going to play both sides of the fence here. Possibly because the first murder being
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so sloppy and that that they probably had reports saying that this possibly could be law
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enforcement, it possibly could be a park ranger, this possibly could be somebody
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pretending to be. Mhm. That could be something that the killer uses to set them up the second couple, the third
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couple, and the fourth couple because that individual is moving the car. Mhm. And so if that individual's moving the
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car, he's the one that's leaving the door open, he's possibly the one that is rolling down the window, he's the one
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that's possibly uh opening up the glove box, he's the one that's possibly taking
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uh a wallet or something and putting it on the dash to make it look like this this person that's stalking
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these individuals is law enforcement. Right, if we want to go as so far to believe that he's sophisticated enough
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to move the vehicle and stage the vehicle, then we should think that he's sophisticated enough to stage these
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other things at the crime scene at the vehicle. Well, and the reason why I have a gut
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feeling that those are staged because if you are posing as a law enforcement, if
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you are posing as a park ranger or something, that is your way to get these people to
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uh your victims to drop their guard. Right. So, if you're set You know what I mean? Like so if you're using that to
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get people to drop their guard, then don't you think when you move the car, you'd roll up the window, shut the
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glove box, put their wallet somewhere else. Well, yeah, because you don't want law enforcement warning future potential
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victims Mhm. of this approach. That hey, look out for somebody pretending to be law enforcement pulling people over or
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approaching vehicles. The third similarity that we should note here is none of the cases involved any
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signs of a struggle and the cars were largely undisturbed with the exception of the first attack.
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The exception to this is the other situation in the first attack of Kathy having hair in her hand,
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which Mhm. I think we should assume to be the perpetrators as the FBI has not said that it was Becky's or her own
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hair. So, this means that the killer somehow controlled the victims enough to get
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them out of their cars without actually attacking them inside of the vehicles. Mhm.
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In three of the crimes, the victims clothing items were found inside the cars. Kathy and Becky were found to be
00:18:20
fully clothed. First couple. But the rest were either only partially clothed or in the case of Keith and Sandy, we
00:18:27
don't we don't know. We don't, right. But but we do have pieces of their clothing found in the
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car, quite a bit of pieces of clothing. So, we could assume that they're only partially clothed wherever they went.
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And I wonder because with the fourth couple and not being able to find them for 6
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weeks, I wonder if I wonder if the third couple, the killer buried maybe in a shallow grave
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and with the search, we've never found them and so therefore, that's why he didn't possibly bury the fourth
00:19:06
couple and just left them out covered in with a blanket. My other question would be how far from
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the water are they? Because we saw with the second attack, it it looks to me, my speculation is
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with the second attack, that the attempt was to throw the bodies in the water and
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for whatever reason they washed ashore. And in the third attack, we have no bodies. I wonder if the killer was
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successful in placing them in the water and the tides took them away. Mhm. So, another similarity, all of the
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crimes happened within 60 miles of one another. Ragged Island and the I-64 rest stop are each about 30 miles away in
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different directions from the central murders on the Colonial Parkway. Mhm. The crimes all took place on a weekend
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and two of them took place on a holiday weekend. Three of the crimes were in September or October and one of them was
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in April. So, all of them took place in either fall or spring, none at winter or
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summer and all took place at night time. Yeah, and you then it makes you wonder is this um killer
00:20:17
does he have some kind of job that they get holiday time? Well, and all of the victims were young.
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We should consider that as well. Kathy being the oldest at 27 years of age. Now,
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when I was listing out the similarities in the differences between the crimes. Okay, so that has us listed at seven
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obvious similarities in these crimes in my opinion. There was one that that is tricky.
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There is one that doesn't really end up on either list as being a similarity or a difference. And that is the one that
00:20:53
is that reported so often in this crime that I think we should take a look at take a new look at it for a second.
00:21:01
Because one that most people would consider to be a similarity amongst all four of
00:21:07
these crimes is that the general conception is that there's no MO. There's no uh motive. I'm sorry, not
00:21:15
MO. There's no motive in these crimes. Mhm. Being that there's no signs of sexual assault and there's no signs of
00:21:23
robbery. Well, let's go back on that real quick because the first couple we know were lesbians. But there was no
00:21:30
sexual assault there. The second couple we do know that Robin Edwards had sex with somebody
00:21:39
before her murder. Mhm. The third couple Cassandra's never found. So, we don't know if there was sexual
00:21:49
assault attempted or not. And then the fourth couple we got such bad decomposition that we
00:21:56
can't even tell if if there was a sexual assault or not. So, we can't rule that out as a possible
00:22:02
motive. No, we absolutely can't. And that's why I don't think you can put that as a
00:22:07
similarity saying that there's no obvious motive in either one of these situations. When you do a little further
00:22:14
digging here let's talk about the um the case of Robin and David. Okay. The reports are
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that we know what the reports usually says, we know that Robin had sex shortly before she was killed. And when they say
00:22:29
shortly, who knows exactly what that means. Okay, as far as timeline goes. Let's just say that means within a few
00:22:37
hours. Well, I'm I don't even need to speculate because one thing that I found was we have an investigator. Now, he's
00:22:44
going off of memory, but he worked that case. And going off of memory, when asked
00:22:50
about the situation of Robin having had sex beforehand and wondering if that was
00:22:55
with David or could it be possibly that she was raped, he said in this interview
00:23:02
you know, and and take him keep this in mind. This is hearsay. This is him recalling this
00:23:07
maybe 25 years after the case, after he investigated it. But, he says due to his
00:23:14
regulation recollection, they were working under the assumption that Robin was raped and potentially
00:23:20
sodomized as well. Mhm. So, that makes that creates one big giant motive in that particular case.
00:23:29
Then, we have another situation with Anna Maria and Daniel. This is the fourth couple. Correct. And
00:23:37
one thing that is often not reported in this situation is Daniel had gotten paid about $800 over the
00:23:45
course of that weekend. It's believed that when they took off for that trip back to that apartment, that he had the
00:23:53
$800 cash on him. This was never recovered from the vehicle or from his belongings. Mhm. So, we have a potential
00:24:01
that there might have been motive for robbery in this particular case. Yeah, or it's just such an amount that the
00:24:08
killer just "I'm here, might as well take it." Now, for the differences, the most obvious is
00:24:15
the MO being different in each case. We have a strangulation, a throat cutting. This is the Becky and Kathy case.
00:24:21
First couple. A shooting with the David and Robin. Second couple. A suspected stabbing in Anna Maria and
00:24:28
Daniel. That's the fourth couple. And an unknown disappearance of Keith and Sandy. Mhm.
00:24:35
Another Go ahead. Well, and I kind of wondered this because in the second couple, Robin, she's only
00:24:43
14. So, I wonder if the motive, if it was sexual base sexually based at the first
00:24:49
couple, he he goes "Okay, here's this lesbian couple. Maybe there was Now, this possibly could be the first
00:24:59
attack. So, we have a situation where somebody gets a handful of hair. And was that enough, you know, of a
00:25:09
deterrent Mhm. to stop the sexual assault. Therefore, then we're saying that that's
00:25:15
not the motive, well, because they weren't sexually assaulted. But then we have the situation with the
00:25:20
second couple with Robin and her being 14 and being young and you know, I'm just going to put that put
00:25:29
it out there. I know it sounds a little sick, but maybe that's not what Maybe this killer sees David and goes,
00:25:37
20-year-old ban. And then when he gets to the car, he sees Robin and she's young. And that's not
00:25:45
the type of individual, not the type of sexual assault that he want he doesn't want to
00:25:53
sexually assault a 14-year-old. He does, but that's not his type, right? Mhm. And then you have the situation with the
00:26:01
third couple. You you keep on calling her Sandy, right? Right. Her full name is Cassandra. And her name was Cassandra.
00:26:10
Um with Sandy, you have she was a model. Mhm. And she was a gymnast, I believe. Uh she
00:26:19
taught gymnastics, yes. Is it possible that after the second couple, he finds this very attractive woman and
00:26:29
he wants to spend more time with her and he brings her somewhere else. Right. why we never found um
00:26:36
her or Richard. Another difference, another possible difference, is the actual locations. And now, Captain, you
00:26:43
might say this is weird, you kind of included a similar thing on both of your list, both sides of your list, but I
00:26:49
think one could argue it either way. While all the crimes happened within a 60-miles within 60-miles of one another,
00:26:57
you could argue that it's similar location. However, you could make the argument that look, two of them two of
00:27:04
the cars were found on the Parkway, one is found on I-64 and the other on Ragged
00:27:09
Island. Where they're all within 60-miles of one another, but could be considered much different locations.
00:27:16
But 60-miles is not a huge radius for a killer to stalk the prey. All right, we're back. Cheers,
00:27:38
everybody. I'm just excited that I'm not a Captain Soup Nose. Well, the Colonial Parkway murders fell
00:27:46
under different law enforcement jurisdictions. To this day, the families of these victims cite the lack of
00:27:52
communication and cooperation among the various departments investigating. So, this has been seen as a major stumbling
00:28:00
block. It's It's tough when it's separate entities investigating, this being federal, state, and local. Mhm.
00:28:08
The families were so dissatisfied with the handling of the cases that in in 1989,
00:28:14
a few of them banded together along with families of victims in other unsolved murders in the area to obtain 12,000
00:28:23
signatures to require law enforcement to to renew the investigations into the murders on the Parkway and in the
00:28:31
Tidewater, Virginia region. They formed a group called FACT, Family and Friends Against Crime Today.
00:28:41
This was to push law enforcement to work together to find out what had happened to their loved ones.
00:28:47
The members went to the media and wrote to congressmen and senators complaining that the police weren't taking seriously
00:28:54
the possibility that all of the crimes were linked. The FBI said in 1990 that its agents had spent thousands of hours
00:29:02
trying to solve the two federal cases that they were working and had met frequently with local law enforcement
00:29:09
agencies to discuss the cases. Yeah. These cases are difficult though too because they they seem like very random
00:29:18
acts, four random acts of murder. That's why I wanted to take the time and go through the similarities and the
00:29:25
differences between the cases because I think it's it's a weird set of circumstances
00:29:31
that in my opinion you have enough things pointing that they are connected, that there are enough similarities, that
00:29:38
there is a pattern, that they are connected, but equally you have enough things pointing out that they could be
00:29:45
completely unrelated to one another. Yeah, and you kind of see this with Long Island serial killer. A lot of
00:29:51
people think that some are connected and some are not and that possibly there's two killers. So, is
00:29:57
is that a situation that we might have here? Well, and I don't think we should come down too hard on law enforcement
00:30:03
regarding these cases that we've discussed because one thing that I found throughout this was the the lack of
00:30:10
consensus about whether the four crimes were related at all and this coming from
00:30:15
both investigators and the families of these victims as well. Where do you stand on the possibility of
00:30:23
these being connected? Ooh, that that's a complicated answer, my friend. I I think
00:30:30
I I'd like to this is what I found and usually when I have a hard time coming up with answers on my own, I like to
00:30:36
just defer to people closer to the case and what I found in this situation is that you have depending on who you talk
00:30:45
to whether it be law enforcement or family members of the victims you have some people that think that
00:30:50
just one case is different than the other or that you know some of the cases are connected and others are not like
00:30:58
for example the David and Robin case local authorities are One couple two Yes Okay Local authorities are convinced
00:31:08
that the pair was executed by someone they know Mhm So and then other people think that the three cases in which
00:31:17
involved the heterosexual couples that they are all linked but Cathy and Becky's the first couple the lesbian
00:31:24
couple that their violent killing seemed more personable so it's not you know that they possibly were targeted and are
00:31:30
not linked to the other cases Right because they their claim is that normally when
00:31:36
somebody tries to burn the body that's normally a sign that they knew the individual
00:31:41
Here's the other thing and this is really interesting and this thought seems to be shared by families and law
00:31:48
enforcement they note that several of the victims should have been nowhere near the place where they were found
00:31:56
Okay I think that's important with the exception of the first couple it's believed that the other three cases
00:32:03
that those people would have been nowhere near where they were eventually found so some law enforcement officials
00:32:09
believe that maybe the parkway and rest stops are just dumping grounds for different killers and that there's
00:32:16
actually no connection at all The FBI in charge an FBI agent in charge of the case in
00:32:23
the late 80s and early 90s his name's Robert Meadows said the problem was that none of them
00:32:30
knew what to look for he stated quote if you think about it which is worse a serial killer or four separate killers.
00:32:39
Sorry, I said serial. She thought I said Like my whole story went away. Damn, I love that quote, too. Robert
00:32:48
Meadows said the problem was that none of them were sure what to look for, stating quote, "If you think about it,
00:32:55
which is worse? A serial killer or four separate killers running around out there and we don't know who any of them
00:33:01
are." Right. And so, this is very similar to um the Texas killing fields, possibly,
00:33:08
where it's just a dumping ground. Exactly. The the tough thing here, though, is that you're now dumping
00:33:14
not only couples, but you're dumping their vehicle, as well. And that becomes a a different problem. And so, in three
00:33:22
of the cases, you're dumping a you're possibly dumping a vehicle. Correct. Which which makes it very similar.
00:33:31
Again, look, if you're just if there's three random sets of bodies dumped somewhere along this area, that
00:33:39
makes a little more sense. Once you throw in the car scenario, that's a lot more time and effort. Somebody's going
00:33:44
to have to get somebody to pick them up, or we would at least seen some eyewitnesses that said, "Hey, the night
00:33:51
that these people went missing, we saw this guy walking on the side of the road," or whatever it was.
00:33:56
Here's the thought, though, too. Is it such a big deal that they're not working together? That the law
00:34:02
enforcement agencies aren't working together? Here's my thought. Meaning, whether
00:34:06
they're related or not, as long as they're being worked, if in fact it turns out that it is the work of one
00:34:13
serial killer, then if you solve one, likely you should solve some of the others or all of them, right? As long as
00:34:21
they're being worked and worked good. Yeah, and it well, if we have this hair from the first couple,
00:34:28
and we think that these cases are connected, this is something that's going to have to be answered pretty
00:34:32
quickly because if we do have this DNA as we know with all these other cases a lot of people are taking these cold
00:34:40
case files, taking DNA, and they're having them tested with ancestry. So, we're going to get within a spectrum,
00:34:47
you know, within cousins, within aunts and uncles of possibly the murder of this first couple because
00:34:54
we have that DNA evidence. Now you're going to have to figure out does this individual have alibis for
00:34:59
those other couples? Are you going to be able to get him to confess to those if they are connected?
00:35:06
Well, and here's the thing. I think the biggest factor that has contributed to the failure to solve any or all of these
00:35:15
crimes is that the crime scenes were compromised. Evidence has been lost, damaged, or destroyed. You know, and we
00:35:24
know in the first case that the park ranger smashed out the back window of Kathy's car.
00:35:30
We have some other examples, too. There are stories coming from family members that say and and and keep in mind we'll
00:35:37
keep we'll take this with a grain of salt because these are hurt loved ones of victims.
00:35:42
But there are stories that have come from family members that say that at least one of the vehicles
00:35:49
was towed back to the family and given back to the family and it was never processed. And in fact, that later when
00:35:58
they came to take fingerprints from inside of the truck, inside of David's truck, this is
00:36:04
days and days later that they took the fingerprints and then later the father finds the fingerprint
00:36:11
cards out in the front lawn. Right. That they didn't they didn't for whatever reason bring them back to the
00:36:17
lab or wherever they were intended to take these things. Right, and these cases have been cold for a while and I
00:36:23
don't think their frustration was from the beginning, but I think because the FBI was doing a lecture and
00:36:31
somebody made these these crime scene photos public during this lecture. I believe it was 2008. So,
00:36:40
everything's kind of resurfaced since then. Well, that was because the FBI had egg
00:36:46
on its face, and it needed to to reassure the families that they are going to make good on this and that they
00:36:55
are going to work these their two federal cases until they're solved. Yeah, and I think they like announced to
00:37:01
the public, "We're reopening them and assigning new people to them." But, they also throw they threw a local
00:37:08
um park ranger kind of under the bus. He's the one that I think exposed them cuz he
00:37:16
was at the lecture. Well, Okay, so the way this goes down is in October of 2008. This is at a law enforcement
00:37:24
training school in Hampton. Uh the school had an old FBI slideshow of crime scenes from the Colonial
00:37:32
Parkway murders. So, the school's owner The school's not run by the FBI. The school's owner asked this guy named Fred
00:37:40
Atwell, who was a former deputy sheriff, to speak at a few classes regarding the
00:37:46
murders. Atwell was very familiar with the cases. So, while he's there to speak to the classes, Atwell saw that crime
00:37:54
scene photos were being used in this training program. So, Right. for how long we don't know.
00:38:00
But, there were 78 images that featured detailed color shots of the cars, glove box open, wallets out, clothes in the
00:38:10
back seats. There were also pictures of the victims shot, strangled, slashed. So, Atwell called the FBI to report that
00:38:19
the active case photos were being used in a public forum. Mhm. The FBI didn't really respond in the
00:38:27
manner that Atwell wanted him to, so he contacted a local TV station, which then
00:38:32
later publicized the leak. Mhm. Okay, so an investigation revealed that the FBI um this was an FBI photographer
00:38:42
had taken a duplicate set of slides before retiring in 2001. And he became an instructor at this
00:38:50
Hampton Law Enforcement School, and he was using them for training purposes. Which yeah, you have to use stuff like
00:38:58
this, but you would assume that they'd be using cases that are one not of the area, but
00:39:03
two cases that are solved. Well, and before we even get to that, we have the situation of the Rangers finding the
00:39:10
vehicle, and then then the father finding the vehicle later. We already discussed that one.
00:39:15
Mhm. Law, egg on the Rangers' face. But we also we have compromised crime scenes to the point of remember they
00:39:21
find the lost vehicle, and a jogger later later finds the bodies. Mhm. Or finds the body. So, what does that mean?
00:39:31
They didn't rope off the crime scene enough. They allowed a jogger to go jogging through the crime scene Mhm. to
00:39:38
find the body. And then we have a situation that took place in 1994. Now, I do know that we have said that
00:39:46
there were no signs of sexual assault regarding Kathy and Becky's case, the first set of murders.
00:39:51
Mhm. But there were rape kits that were conducted in that investigation. For whatever reason, instead of them ending
00:39:58
up back at the FBI's office, they ended up at the York County Sheriff's Department. To which once they are it's
00:40:04
made known to them, "Hey, your rape kits ended up here." The FBI sent a fax to York County ordering them to destroy the
00:40:11
rape kits. So, even if they're you know, even though there's no signs of sexual assault, let's say that there
00:40:17
was. We don't know for certain that there was or was not. Mhm. All these years later, maybe that
00:40:23
could have led to something. Maybe we could have gained some evidence from those old rape kits. So, the first
00:40:29
couple is murdered in '86, second couple in '87, third couple in '88. Then the last couple or the fourth
00:40:37
couple in '89. So, everybody thought that's when it stopped, but there's another case that
00:40:43
happened in 1996 that is very similar to the first murders in in '86. Well, and this connection is made from a man by
00:40:53
the name of Steve Spingola. Okay, so Steve Spingola is a retired detective and he is an investigative journalist.
00:41:00
At some point, some of the victims' families got together and started asking him for help. And he came to some
00:41:07
interesting conclusions. He wrote a magazine article titled Predators on the Parkway summarizing his findings in his
00:41:13
investigation. Among these things, he revealed that cigarette butts were found at the first murder scene and that the
00:41:20
rope used in the first murders the rope that was found on the victim's neck tested positive for brine or for
00:41:27
seawater. He also revealed that they had found a note in Anna Maria Phelps' handwriting indicating that she had
00:41:34
planned to meet someone in a blue van at the rest stop. And this is the fourth fourth couple. Correct. Now, probably
00:41:41
the most surprising of Spingola's conclusions was that he believed that the cases were likely not all related.
00:41:48
He did, however, link Kathy and Becky's, the first murder, case to a 1996 murder
00:41:55
of a lesbian couple elsewhere in Virginia. So, as if things weren't complicated enough,
00:42:01
this was the double murder of Julian Williams and Laura Winans which took place in Virginia's Shenandoah National
00:42:08
Park in June of '96. Do you know how far away this was? It's a 3 to 4-hour drive
00:42:14
from the Colonial Parkway area. Laura was a college student and Julianne had just graduated with a degree in uh
00:42:23
geology. They were in a same-sex relationship. They were on a camping trip. Both were
00:42:29
considered to be experienced hikers. They were found at their campsite just off of a scenic trail on Skyline Drive,
00:42:38
bound and gagged with their own clothing, naked and their throats were cut. The killer had used duct tape and
00:42:45
it is believed that he brought the duct tape with them with him. Laura's golden retriever, Taj, was found
00:42:52
unharmed and nearby. This case remains unsolved and the The FBI has said publicly that they believe
00:43:00
there are substantial similarities between this case and that of the first murders back in 1986. And you wonder if
00:43:08
it's some kind of anniversary killing. So, you asked earlier if I thought that they are related, if they were
00:43:15
connected. I think we approach it in this manner here, Captain, that we do have a lot of investigators that buy
00:43:22
into the serial killer theory. And the ones that have, they haven't established a profile of their likely
00:43:30
killer. And they state that he would be a Caucasian male. He was likely in his 20s or early 30s in the mid to late 80s.
00:43:39
He is of average or above-average intelligence. He has good social skills, lived with a partner, owned a vehicle,
00:43:48
and possibly had begun undergoing some kind of stress that inspired the crimes. He probably committed the crimes in his
00:43:57
uh probably committed other crimes in his youth such as setting fires, killing animals, and so on. And the pattern
00:44:05
escalated as he got old. He be- he's becoming more violent as he gets older. They also state that he is very
00:44:12
organized, that he brought his weapons along with him. He controlled his victims before killing them, never
00:44:18
mutilated or molested the bodies, concealed the corpses, or at least attempted to, and waited for long
00:44:26
periods of time before striking again. Finally, this killer exhibited great self-control, refraining from taunting
00:44:33
law enforcement with letters or clues like the Son of Sam or the Zodiac Killer. He his killings showed that he has or
00:44:43
was refining his craft and evolving. He got more efficient and less messy with each of these murders. It was even
00:44:50
possible that he was deliberately changing up his MO to keep investigators guessing. Several of the investigators
00:44:58
believe that there is a strong possibility that the killer was actually two people operating as a team. Now for
00:45:04
the fun part, Captain. We get to throw some individuals under the bus. People that have been considered suspects
00:45:11
throughout the course of these investigations. Now, I do want to keep in mind, everybody keep in mind, there's
00:45:15
been like 130 to 150 suspects, depending on which report you read. Obviously, we're not going to go through all of
00:45:23
them, but we will go through some of the more noteworthy ones, right? So, first we have and this is in no particular
00:45:30
order, all right? This is kind of random order. First, we have Fred Atwell, okay?
00:45:35
As you might recall, Fred Atwell was the deputy who discovered that the FBI's crime scene photos had been released.
00:45:42
He has a checkered history. He had two burglary convictions and had bounced around from one local law enforcement
00:45:49
role to another. Apparently, background checks weren't a thing when they were hiring these officers. In any
00:45:56
event, Atwell was a deputy at the Gloucester County Sheriff's Department, which was apparently known to have
00:46:04
employed some questionable characters at the time of the murders. After the crime scene photo photo
00:46:10
debacle, Atwell inserted himself into the Parkway cases, befriending the families and
00:46:17
trying to act as a go-between with his supposed law enforcement connections. Eventually, Atwell's true
00:46:25
character emerged, and he was arrested in 2011 for fraud, for stealing money that he had raised in a phony car raffle
00:46:35
on the pretense of contributing the money to the Colonial Parkway Victims Fund. Later that year, he was arrested again
00:46:42
for robbing a woman at gunpoint. Atwell admitted that he had been looked at as a
00:46:48
suspect, possible suspect, in the crimes, but he has vehemently denied any involvement. He claims that the FBI
00:46:55
labeled him a suspect as retaliation for his public disclosure of the leaked crime scene photos. Yeah, or the fact
00:47:03
that you're a piece of [ __ ] for trying to raise money for dead people, and then
00:47:07
you steal the money. That's pretty shady. I'm going to kind of look into you after that. Fred Atwell, well, you
00:47:14
can feel safe and feel good somewhat to know that Fred Atwell remains He remains
00:47:20
in prison for the fraud charges and the robbery convictions. He is scheduled to be released in 2020.
00:47:27
Then we have Ronald Little. The whole The The problem with Fred is the fact that he would have They would have had
00:47:34
They would have collected his DNA. And I think if the FBI really thought Fred was a a suspect, they would be
00:47:40
testing the DNA they found on the hair in the first murders. Ronald Little was a 32-year-old
00:47:48
convicted felon from New Zealand who somehow managed to hide his criminal record and gain entry into the United
00:47:55
States. He ended up in the Newport News area and worked as a private investigator.
00:48:01
He had owned and operated a security company that provided security for local businesses.
00:48:08
He had permits to carry guns. Liberty Security employed law enforcement officers as security guards.
00:48:15
So, Liberty Security is his company, all right? And they're employing law enforcement officers as some of their
00:48:21
security guards. This is not an uncommon practice. This included a Fred Atwell for one.
00:48:29
Furthermore, Liberty has some strange connections to the Parkway cases. And that being Rob- Robin Edwards' mother,
00:48:37
Bonnie. She was part of the second murder case. Right. She worked at Liberty Security at one
00:48:44
point. And I believe she worked there at the time of the murders. Terry Haley, this is Sandy's sister, dated a man
00:48:52
named Steve Blackman who worked at Liberty Security. We will talk more about Steve in a
00:48:58
little bit. But in 1988, Ron Little sent out letters to congressmen and local politicians and the media
00:49:07
saying that he had been he was being railroaded by the FBI for the Parkway cases. Specifically, he stated that he
00:49:13
was being targeted as a suspect in the killings of Robin Edwards and David Nobling.
00:49:18
He also said that the FBI had looked at him for the Keith and Sandy disappearance. Now, the weird thing
00:49:25
about this is he's sending out all these letters. According to law enforcement and
00:49:30
according to the FBI, they never had looked at this guy. Huh. They didn't know what he was talking about.
00:49:36
Maybe he wanted to be looked at. Take a peek. Well, Take a peek behind the curtain.
00:49:43
He The officials denied that he was a suspect in any of the crimes, but Little was taken into custody in May of 1989.
00:49:51
Um so, he Or you you also wonder Wait, okay. Hold on before you get to the next one.
00:49:56
You also wonder Was somebody just messing with him? Like calling him? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:50:01
like, "This is the FBI. Where were you, you son of a bitch?" Well, that's interesting that you bring that up. I
00:50:06
never thought about that, but knowing what I know about this individual, it's likely that he had enemies.
00:50:15
Mhm. You know, somebody might want to wanted to have messed with him. We do have to keep in mind though, he was
00:50:20
eventually arrested and this was in May of 1989. So, he could not be responsible
00:50:26
for Anna Maria and and Daniel's killing, okay? He was not out walking around by the time the fourth case went down.
00:50:34
Again, I assume that if the FBI thinks that you're a suspect in this case, they're testing your DNA.
00:50:41
Yeah, it Well, this thing came about I don't know if his DNA ever would have been tested.
00:50:46
Mhm. Because he wasn't arrested in the traditional sense. Remember, he was from New Zealand and he checked in and got
00:50:54
into the United States by lying that he did not have a criminal background. Cheers, mates. Right. So, they figure
00:51:00
out that he's actually a criminal who got into our country, so they deported him.
00:51:05
Mhm. So, they shipped him back, so to speak. And then the killing stopped. Okay, I said that we would talk about
00:51:11
Steve Blackman. Steve Blackman is a disgraced ex-police officer Okay. who kept getting into trouble and
00:51:18
moved around from branch to branch of various local law enforcement entities in this area of Virginia, including the
00:51:26
Newport News PD, where he was held a position for nine years. so many dis disgraced bankers that have been
00:51:34
uh transferred from one branch to another branch. Well, he was also later employed by the Gloucester County
00:51:41
Sheriff's Department. Mhm. And according to sources who have knowledge of the situation, uh I I I
00:51:48
found this quote very interesting, okay? Mhm. They say Blackman was a bad guy involved in drugs, underage girls, and
00:51:56
general thuggery. Thuggery? Yeah. Mhm. Blackman moonlighted as a security guard for
00:52:03
Liberty Security. Remember they have some ties to a couple of these murders. Right, right.
00:52:08
And his buddy was Ron Little. He also dated Terry Haley. This was one of the victim's sisters. Mhm. Okay? Reports are
00:52:16
also out there that his his family owned property along the James River near the Parkway, meaning he
00:52:22
was familiar with the area and had access to a home base near two of the killings.
00:52:28
Yeah, maybe we should search his property. Blackman moved away from the area in 1989 and the Parkway killings had
00:52:36
stopped. Mhm. He ended up getting hired as a sheriff's deputy in Florence County, South Carolina in 1990. This is
00:52:44
where he he shot two men and killed them who broke into uh some reports say his home, some
00:52:51
reports say his father's home. What year was that? 1990. Um he shot them 11 times. Now, he was fired
00:53:01
after the incident because they figured out that cocaine was found in his system
00:53:06
during the course of the shootings. Hell of a drug. He was indicted for double murder and underwent a psychiatric uh
00:53:15
evaluation. He did serve some time. I don't have that right in front of me. I believe it he only served a few years
00:53:22
because it's possible they were able to prove that these individuals actually broke into the home. Mhm. Um from what I
00:53:29
could find, I was trying Think about this, so you're you're at home, right? Mhm. You're high as a kite.
00:53:36
Right. Minding your own damn business. Mhm. Two son sons of [ __ ] break into your
00:53:42
house. You shoot them. They test you for drugs and then they send you to jail. Like, "Hey, I'm protecting myself and
00:53:51
I'm protecting my home. It doesn't matter if I'm drunk or not, officer." I think this is one of those guys that had
00:53:58
a always had a suspicion of him that he was using his badge and using his power to help get him drugs and girls and some
00:54:07
of them might have been underage and he was involved in trading guns, stealing guns, dealing with briberies, all kinds
00:54:15
of stuff. Mhm. And I think when this goes down, this is something legit that they could
00:54:19
probably nail him on and let's Okay, let's get him let's fire him and let's get him behind
00:54:25
bars even if it is for a short period of time. I tried to locate where this guy was. Now, I'm sure somebody better than
00:54:32
me could do it. Like I said, I think he only served a few years and I believe that he would be out of prison now.
00:54:40
Well, and he would have been out of prison in time to if the 1996 murder is connected to
00:54:46
these, he would have been out in time to commit those as well. Well, here's Yes, and here's the
00:54:52
thought, too, I think surrounding Steve Blackman and also possibly Ronald Little. They were very close.
00:55:00
And I think the thought is that there is suspicion surrounding both of them. I think the thought here is that these
00:55:08
two may have committed these crimes together. And that even though Ronald Little was
00:55:13
locked up was deported in 1989 before the '89 killings, that potentially the two of them could
00:55:21
could have committed the earlier ones together and then maybe Steve Blackman committed the last one without
00:55:28
the help of Ronald Little. Clyde Yee is an interesting character. He was a ranger patrolling the Colonial
00:55:38
Parkway during the time of the murders. Parkway victims family sources have learned that Yee had violent
00:55:47
tendencies and had sexually harassed women by pulling them over on the Parkway. A number of women had filed
00:55:55
complaints against him for harassment involving inappropriate comments. What makes Yee interesting is that he was
00:56:02
transferred out of the Parkway area to the Shenandoah National Park where he was stationed in 1996. This is
00:56:10
Mhm. for the '96 killings. So, after that, he was transferred out again uh and he was involved in a very
00:56:17
controversial case where he manufactured evidence and acted inappropriately in an
00:56:23
investigation of Indian trade trading post maintained by the National Park Service.
00:56:29
Yee Yee reportedly passed a polygraph about whether he had any involvement in the Parkway murders, but he has never
00:56:37
been ruled out as a possible suspect. He's weird because I've seen reports that say he's been ruled out because of
00:56:44
this polygraph. Mhm. The thing I want to point out here is there are a lot of stories that include
00:56:51
Clyde Yee as being one of the first responders to the first murder scene. And remember where we said it it's
00:56:57
unclear which ranger broke the window on the hatchback to gain access to the vehicle. Mhm. There are some people that
00:57:04
think that Clyde Yee was that individual. Right. And that maybe it is on the surface it
00:57:10
looks like, "Hey, I'm trying to help the situation." But boom, I'm also contaminating the crime scene at the
00:57:17
same time for something that I may have been involved in. Right. So, he's weird because you can place him in
00:57:25
the area of the Parkway at the time of the two Parkway murders and And you could place him as working
00:57:31
in the area of the Shenandoah murders that took place in '96. So, And he's a Caucasian. He Yes, and he is um
00:57:39
furthermore, a ranger. Right. You know, he would have that ability to ability to
00:57:43
pull people over, to approach cars. He would have a He would have a gun on him. So,
00:57:48
Right, but again, if you're moving these vehicles, why not just take the time to
00:57:52
shut the glove box. Uh-huh. Why not roll up the window? Why not take the time to do that?
00:57:59
Right. Right, I see what you're saying. He would only technically be connected to three
00:58:05
of these potentially five double homicides, in my opinion. Then we have another interesting guy.
00:58:12
This is Darrell David Rice. Darrell Strawberry. He's a former computer programmer who pled guilty in 1998 to an
00:58:20
abduction charge, in which he was accused of verbally and physically assaulting a female bicyclist in the
00:58:26
Shenandoah National Park. Mhm. She avoided being forced into his truck. She states, "He was going to try to kill
00:58:33
me." Uh when she flees him, he tries to run her over with his truck. Investigators later
00:58:41
discovered hand and leg restraints inside Rice's vehicle. He was sentenced to 136 months in prison on that
00:58:49
conviction. While in prison, he made comments that could be seen as implicating himself in the 1996 double
00:58:56
murder of Julianne and Laura in the National Park. He was known to frequent the park as a biker and hiker. And in
00:59:05
fact, this is interesting about David uh Darrell David Rice. Mhm. Okay? He may be guilty of one of these crimes.
00:59:14
And here's why. Because there was videotape There was videotape evidence of him having entered
00:59:22
the park on the days that the murders were committed in 1996. Mhm. A grand jury indicted him for those
00:59:30
murders, but he was eventually freed because unknown male DNA on hairs found on the
00:59:37
duct tape binding the victims did not match Rice's DNA. Well, so now if we have this hair, can we please
00:59:46
test it against the the first crime scene from 10 years prior? Well, and here's the thing that I want to be clear on on
00:59:53
this 1996 double homicide. In my opinion, this this evidence, this hair found on the duct tape does not
01:00:00
exclude him. It just It just causes It causes problems with getting him convicted. So,
01:00:08
he does remain remain a strong suspect in that case. Rice was cleared for the Colonial
01:00:14
Parkway murders, although investigators would not disclose why or how he was ruled out, but
01:00:21
they may have his DNA, like you said. And if they have DNA from one or more of the crime scenes, maybe this is how they
01:00:28
were able to rule him out. All right, one more suspect. Michael Nicholaou. So, he's a strong suspect. He lived in
01:00:36
Charlottesville, Virginia around the time of the crimes, where he was an undercover
01:00:42
officer. Mhm. This is for the Charlottesville PD for for a period of time. Nicholaou is the main suspect in the
01:00:50
Connecticut River Valley killings, as well, and suspected in the disappearance of his first wife. He killed himself in
01:00:57
Florida after having murdered his second wife and his stepdaughter. There's not a lot of information tying
01:01:05
this guy to these actual cases, other than the fact that he's a known murderer that lived in the area at the time, and
01:01:12
he's also suspected in another string of murders that took place not too far away.
01:01:17
So, how many suspects do we have in this thing? Different reports that the reports vary, but I've seen as little as
01:01:23
130 to as many as 150. So, just meaning that there's freaks everywhere. So, lock your doors. Be
01:01:30
safe. Don't get murdered. Couple of theories though here, Captain. We've talked about, you know, kind of been all
01:01:37
over the shop with the theories throughout the coverage of these cases, but one that I want to mention is
01:01:44
there is one so-called theory that I find extremely interesting. And this is the waterman theory.
01:01:50
This theory developed largely because of one, the locations of the murders were all near waterways, and two, the diesel
01:01:58
fuel that was found at the first murder scene. Diesel fuel not being super common. So, some experts
01:02:05
have been led to believe that the diesel fuel, which is used primarily to used in
01:02:11
a lot of cases to power boats, was something that the killer had happened to have with him when he committed that
01:02:18
first set of murders. And traveling by boat would also explain how the killer would manage to escape without being
01:02:25
seen on walking on the on the parkway or risk leaving his car somewhere else while he killed his victims and then
01:02:34
return to it. This too could mean that it were it was two men working together traveling by boat to and from these
01:02:42
different crime scenes. And one thing to back that up is in the first set of murders, they were
01:02:49
strongly looking at this waterman theory. And we know that law enforcement and FBI, they surveyed watermen in the
01:02:57
area. They were looking for what they said were two men fitting what they thought they were looking for. Okay? One
01:03:05
thing that they found at the first crime scene was they state that nautical line
01:03:10
was found in the hair of one of the victims. Right, one of the victims was in the Navy, right?
01:03:18
Well, she didn't She had been discharged from the Navy at that point. She was a stockbroker.
01:03:24
So, there's a couple of other theories and this kind of revolves around the the time frame of these murders, okay? And
01:03:32
when these the times of when these crimes took place. And the thought being that it could be a federal employee
01:03:40
because we have murders that took place two on the weekend and two right before or just after a long holiday weekend.
01:03:49
Somebody that would have been working in the area and would not have had to have
01:03:52
had their time accounted for during the course of those four murders. For you to
01:03:57
believe this theory, then you have to believe that the '96 double homicide in the park was not related or linked to
01:04:04
the first four double homicide cases. And why do you have to believe that? Well, I guess that you don't have to
01:04:11
believe it. Um I'm just going off of the theory here is that it was a federal employee based off of the the dates
01:04:19
the likely dates of when these first four homicides double homicides were committed.
01:04:24
Right. And that person could be on The one in '96 Mhm. we don't know exactly what day they were killed on. The this
01:04:32
camping trip was quite extensive one uh and and two like I said, I guess you don't have to
01:04:39
say that they weren't involved in the '96. Where this theory originates based off
01:04:44
of the first four double homicides. Still basing the idea of this theory around the murders having taken place on
01:04:53
a weekend or just before or just after a weekend. Mhm. There's some thought and a theory
01:04:59
out there that this the perpetrator may have been a William and Mary college student
01:05:05
because all of these dates line up with the college calendar. The William and Mary college calendar. Meaning the
01:05:12
person wouldn't have been in class or wouldn't have had class the following day.
01:05:17
The other thing too that's interesting about that is the first four murders take place within a four-year time span,
01:05:24
which would be you know, considered by many to be the average the average stay of an out of town
01:05:30
college student. Mhm. So, the thought here being that a college student moves into the area for whatever reason kills
01:05:38
during the course of their time at William and Mary and then after the final killing graduates and moves away
01:05:46
and either starts killing in another city at some point or it was a pair of college students that once their time
01:05:54
away from you know, was done with one another that they stopped killing altogether. So, what's your final
01:06:00
thoughts on the Colonial Parkway murders? Super fascinating case. This is one that has always intrigued me and I
01:06:06
I've I look at it a little different each time uh as to whether they're connected or not. I
01:06:14
think the problem here is that they're not connected. Mhm. I actually think that that might be more
01:06:21
of the issue and I think that they're I don't want to say they're they're all separate cases. I think there's a chance
01:06:28
that one or two or three of them might be somehow linked. Mhm. But I think that there are cases in
01:06:34
here that are different. And the ones that that look different to me, the second double homicide
01:06:41
where we have the possible motive of rape of the female victim. Mhm. I think that that presents a whole
01:06:48
new variable that we don't Different weapon as well. Yeah, that we didn't see in the other crimes. I think
01:06:55
that the local police theory there might be somewhat correct. And their thought is that somebody they knew got them out
01:07:03
of the the vehicle and shot them. Meaning they might have been there to meet somebody. And we have David's
01:07:09
father who has said time and time again, look, this Ragged Island, this was a place known for
01:07:16
teenagers to hang out and do drugs, to purchase drugs. There is some thought that maybe the two of them, hey, I pick
01:07:23
up this girl that I barely know. Let's go out to this island, let's party, let's have a really good time, right?
01:07:28
And the thought here is that maybe they made a phone call to somebody to purchase some drugs. Hey, meet me out
01:07:35
on Ragged Island. And for whatever reason that thing turned wrong. The And there's one individual in particular
01:07:43
and the police haven't really released a lot of information on this individual because this is speculation. But there
01:07:51
is a guy that they refer to as drug dealer and rapist Washington. Okay, they think that he is a possible
01:08:00
very strong suspect in that second double homicide. He somehow knew the female victim.
01:08:08
And there was rumor that he had told somebody that he wanted to that he wanted to rape her.
01:08:14
And he might wanted to rape and kill her. There was a witness that led law enforcement to this guy that we only
01:08:21
know as {quote} drug dealer and rapist Washington. But the local police theory is that this
01:08:28
Washington guy shows up on Ragged Island to sell them drugs. And when he's there,
01:08:34
he decides he's going to rape the victim and it turns into a situation where he has to shoot the female victim and the
01:08:41
male victim execution style. Okay, so it's interesting that there is a strong suspect there. Now, the witness
01:08:47
that led local police to this guy conveniently for this Washington guy, this eyewitness is no longer around.
01:08:56
He's dead. And then we have a situation where with the fourth homicide, the fourth double
01:09:05
homicide, there was a suspect in this case and his name is Joseph Gadsy. Joseph Gadsy knew the male victim and
01:09:14
may have known the female victim, but it's believed that Gadsy knew that the male victim would have $800 cash on him
01:09:21
at that time and that Gadsy had somehow either intercepted these two individuals
01:09:27
that were traveling or had met up with them at the rest stop, took them out into the woods and killed them there and
01:09:35
then dumped the car near the rest stop. So, I think we have a situation here where a
01:09:41
couple of these cases might not in fact be linked and I think that the the the argument and the squabble of them having
01:09:47
been linked or not being linked back and forth, back and forth, I think that that
01:09:52
has been a major stumbling block in in in these cases. Yeah, and the I think the interesting thing in all these cases
01:09:59
that that the reason why people link them so much and it's hard to not want to link them is cuz it
01:10:06
always seemed like it's like a traffic stop. Their cars are always left in some disarray of a traffic stop.
01:10:14
Yeah, and I think with this one maybe if one of these are solved soon, I wouldn't be surprised. Don't don't
01:10:22
jump to the conclusion that if one case out of this series is solved soon, that the rest are going to follow right
01:10:28
behind. Can't thank you guys enough for sharing on social media and telling friends and
01:10:39
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and use promo code garage. Until next time, be good, be kind, and don't litter.

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most heartbreaking
  • 75
    Most intense
  • 70
    Most shocking
  • 70
    Most controversial

Episode Highlights

  • The Disappearance of Anna Marie Phelps
    Anna Marie and Daniel Lower went missing on Labor Day 1989 after visiting family.
    “Anna Maria and Daniel never showed up at their apartment in Virginia Beach.”
    @ 04m 14s
    November 25, 2022
  • Discovery of the Bodies
    The bodies of Anna Marie and Daniel were found by hunters weeks later, raising suspicions of a serial killer.
    “The bodies lay side by side and were covered by a blanket.”
    @ 08m 35s
    November 25, 2022
  • Investigation Insights
    Investigators noted similarities between multiple cases, suggesting a possible serial killer at work.
    “Virginia had a serial killer on the loose.”
    @ 12m 56s
    November 25, 2022
  • Families Unite for Justice
    In 1989, families of victims formed FACT to push for renewed investigations into the murders.
    “They formed a group called FACT, Family and Friends Against Crime Today.”
    @ 28m 37s
    November 25, 2022
  • Compromised Crime Scenes
    Evidence in the Colonial Parkway murders was often lost or damaged, complicating investigations.
    “The biggest factor that has contributed to the failure to solve any or all of these crimes is that the crime scenes were compromised.”
    @ 35m 12s
    November 25, 2022
  • Possible Connections to Other Cases
    Investigators noted similarities between the Colonial Parkway murders and a 1996 double murder of a lesbian couple.
    “The FBI has said publicly that they believe there are substantial similarities between this case and that of the first murders back in 1986.”
    @ 43m 00s
    November 25, 2022
  • Fred Atwell's Checkered Past
    Fred Atwell, a deputy with a troubled history, inserted himself into the investigation but was later arrested for fraud.
    “You can feel safe to know that Fred Atwell remains in prison for the fraud charges.”
    @ 47m 20s
    November 25, 2022
  • Clyde Yee's Controversial History
    Clyde Yee, a ranger during the murders, had a history of harassment and was involved in a controversial case.
    “He has never been ruled out as a possible suspect.”
    @ 56m 37s
    November 25, 2022
  • The Waterman Theory
    This theory suggests the killer may have used waterways for escape, supported by diesel fuel found at the crime scene.
    “Some experts believe the diesel fuel was something the killer had when committing the murders.”
    @ 01h 01m 50s
    November 25, 2022
  • The Colonial Parkway Murders
    A deep dive into a series of intriguing and mysterious double homicides.
    “Super fascinating case. This is one that has always intrigued me.”
    @ 01h 06m 04s
    November 25, 2022
  • Speculation on Suspects
    Discussion of potential suspects and their connections to the victims.
    “There's a guy they refer to as drug dealer and rapist Washington.”
    @ 01h 07m 56s
    November 25, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • Crazy how these things come full circle.
    The Colonial Parkway Murders /// Part 2 /// 227
  • We think that we found your two loved ones.
    The Colonial Parkway Murders /// Part 2 /// 227
  • If you think about it, which is worse? A serial killer or four separate killers?
    The Colonial Parkway Murders /// Part 2 /// 227
  • That's pretty shady.
    The Colonial Parkway Murders /// Part 2 /// 227
  • There are freaks everywhere. So, lock your doors. Be safe. Don't get murdered.
    The Colonial Parkway Murders /// Part 2 /// 227
  • This is one that has always intrigued me.
    The Colonial Parkway Murders /// Part 2 /// 227

Key Moments

  • Shout-outs01:39
  • Missing Persons04:14
  • Investigator's Assumption23:18
  • Families Demand Action28:34
  • Suspect Overview45:04
  • Ronald Little's Background47:48
  • Clyde Yee's Violent Tendencies55:42
  • College Student Suspect1:05:03

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown