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[Music] home [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
00:02:29
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that knows that when
00:02:33
California tumbles into the sea that'll be the day that he goes back to an Andale here is the captain that's a day
00:02:40
we're all free free of our sins my friends it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for
00:02:47
telling a [Music] friend today we're still sipping on this double orange starfish a delicious New
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England Style Pale Ale one of my favorite styles of pale ale is the New England style this is by the good folks
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over at Asen beer company located in Alexandria Virginia this is a double India Pale Ale double dry ho delicious
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and I love when we have something that is this good and it's in the ABV world of 8% this is
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88.3% garage grade 4 and A2 bottle caps out of five how about some thanks and praise who are friends for helping us
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out with this week's show first up we got Jana banana from Sacramento California who says she's buying around
00:03:38
for the people in the back so shout out to Janna banana and last but certainly not least we have Jenny go who said that
00:03:45
she has moved to Seaford Delaware but is a lifelong Clevelander I know we talk about Cleveland a lot on the show
00:03:53
Captain but people Cleveland rocks anybody from Cleveland that ever emails a show or buys us around for the beer
00:04:00
fun always points out like hey I I live here but no mistake I was born in Cleveland so shout out to all the
00:04:08
clevelanders shout out to Janna banana and Jenny go for helping us out with this week's Beer Run yeah BW R in beer
00:04:16
run if you need more True Crime garage for your earballs and you know you do if you're listening right now on Apple
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device and pull out your phone push the little subscribe button and you can get off the Record
00:04:30
that's right do it right now go ahead you know you want to and Colonel that's enough of the business I have a question
00:04:37
for you real quick Captain nope do you know why people listen to off the Record cuz they're sexy because they like it in
00:04:44
their ears dirty banana all right yeah that's enough of the dirty business everybody gather around grab a chair
00:04:50
grab a beer let's talk some true crime we talked about on the first episode here
00:05:08
Captain the four Colonial Parkway murders and we now know in 2024 the Allan Wade Wilmer senior is
00:05:19
responsible for what is the third set of these double homicides the the one that
00:05:25
falls third on that timeline again there's been debate over the years are these four cases connected or not now
00:05:35
one thing I want to point out here that makes me believe that at least two of these four are absolutely connected is
00:05:43
because it's not until the third case 1988 April 10th Keith call cassandre Haley the two that have never been
00:05:53
found it's my understanding captain that that is when this man falls on onto police radar with Witnesses coming
00:06:03
forward saying I've been approached or we've been approached by a man that looks like this who has a vehicle that
00:06:08
looks like this and they use those descriptions and that vanity plate to lead them to Allan Wade Wilmer senior
00:06:17
now fast forward all those years later we know that he killed David nobling and Robin
00:06:23
Edwards about six months prior so if he was active and he killed David nobling and Robin Edwards and he doesn't come
00:06:31
onto the police radar until the investigation of Keith call and Cassandra Haley six months later to me
00:06:38
it stands to reason that he's very likely responsible for both right of these cases that's four of the eight
00:06:47
victims and then unfortunately we have the sad fact and this is what will prevent I believe prevent them from
00:06:57
ever saying 100% that he did kill Keith Cole and Cassandra Haley we've still not
00:07:02
found their bodies all of these years later right so you wouldn't be able to link his DNA to the victims and I don't
00:07:09
think that that's going to be possible who knows let's let's stay glass half full here let's stay fluid in the
00:07:15
situation we don't know what new evidence could be uncovered I'm just glad to have a cup that's right tomorrow
00:07:21
next week who knows what police will find and these cold cases are heating up I think that it's no mistake
00:07:30
that they're telling us we figured out a lot of this information last June we are
00:07:39
doing a lot of work behind the scenes and did not feel it was necessary to present this to the public until January
00:07:46
so to me that that tells me a couple things one they're doing a lot of work behind the scenes what is that work well
00:07:53
I think that they have said what they're not saying to us is that we're probably
00:07:59
they've probably been trying to tie him to these cases and maybe some others and
00:08:04
just have not been able to do so yet but I'm guessing captain that in a lot of these
00:08:10
scenarios they have a situation where they're looking at it under the microscope and they're going you know
00:08:15
what we can't rule him out we're not we're not going to go to the public and Rule him out on anything because of the
00:08:23
nature of this Beast right that he could have been hunting and killing in this area in these we're already up to
00:08:34
multiple counties that we can tie him to and he got away with it until he was deceased
00:08:41
even when he was on the radar he gets away with it if he is responsible for all the Colonial Parkway murders that's
00:08:48
eight victims plus the other victim that they connected him to that's nine Teresa
00:08:53
howo yeah right I mean so is that just the beginning well and here's the other thing too I think that there's been a
00:09:03
bit of a misconception over the years at large for for the the masses anyway okay
00:09:09
explain with these eight victims of the Colonial Parkway murders I think that it's just kind of thought that all eight
00:09:19
of these victims they fell prey to the Predator because they were on the parkway that night when in fact in a
00:09:27
couple of these cases there's evidence to suggest that two of the couples would not have been on the
00:09:33
parkway that night meaning what this to me expands the Killer's M Mo we don't have
00:09:42
to limit him to the parkway meaning we also don't have to limit him to Parkway victims and we know that based off of
00:09:52
the Teresa Howell case she was nowhere near the parkway she was at this zodiac club that was a popular nightclub
00:10:00
she vanishes her body's found hours later so right just We Know by the timeline with with that victim not much
00:10:11
could have occurred in her life or events in her life between the time she goes missing from leaving the club to
00:10:18
when her body is found she's found relatively quickly it's a good thing because that was an easy way for them to
00:10:26
collect evidence at the time so that's 1989 the Teresa case and that actually the the date that
00:10:38
she is murdered I believe would fall within the 4 case timeline so it falls somewhere
00:10:47
between the third case of Keith call cassandre Haley and then the fourth case the anamarie Phelps and Daniel low case
00:10:57
September 5th 1989 yeah Teresa how was killed in July according to my notes of that same year
00:11:05
so she falls within that timeline but the other thing is the m mo one has to look at this and go he
00:11:16
probably I I wish that we knew more about this case and I'm going to and I look I understand that we're not perfect
00:11:22
we get things wrong we we don't always nail it in the garage we do our best attemp to nail it in the garage but one
00:11:32
thing that was very disappointing in looking back on some of these cases not the not the ones that fall into the
00:11:38
Colonial Parkway murders category but Teresa's case there was very little media coverage of the case I
00:11:48
think that is partly because she was not from the area she had moved to the area
00:11:52
I don't think she had family she had family living states away right that were probably not there to to pound the
00:12:00
table and shout it from the mountain tops and it sounds like police had very little leads to go on other than the
00:12:07
fact that they knew that she left that nightclub but one has to sit here and go okay how did the killer intercept her
00:12:16
it's always kind of been just generally thought that all of these eight victims were caught in some kind of net on the
00:12:25
parkway the night that they were traveling again two of these may have never been on the parkway that night at
00:12:31
all and so then you look at the how case could he have been in the nightclub himself right spots a young attractive
00:12:40
woman leaving on her own and decides to follow her into the parking lot could he
00:12:45
have been in the nightclub earlier positioned himself in the parking lot and thought you know what I'll wait till
00:12:51
I see someone come out by themselves and she she just happened to be the one that
00:12:55
he spots does he pull into the parking lot knowing I could find a young single person a
00:13:03
young single victim here he could sit there and wait or like you said he could go inside the bar and if he did this at
00:13:11
this club he probably did it at several other clubs sometimes being successful sometimes not being successful that's
00:13:19
the part that involves when you go back to David nobling and Robin Edwards as well
00:13:25
they're out at this isle of White County Wildlife Refuge ragged Island the way that that crime scene looks to me so you
00:13:35
have David nobling who is found shot near the shoreline and then you find Robin Edwards the other victim who's
00:13:43
found not terribly far from him killed shot and killed as well it's almost like this guy wanted to hunt every type of
00:13:52
animal and he decided that well I'll just throw humans into that category as well I don't think that he drove David
00:14:00
nobling and Robin Edwards to ragged Island Wildlife Refuge in fact David nobling was known to go to this area to
00:14:09
hang out kind of like a party spot right and this is not the Colonial Parkway I think he found them there and
00:14:19
then moved the vehicle later right moved that nobling pickup to that small parking lot which would makees sense and
00:14:28
would throw law enforcement off the scent which is off of the Colonial Parkway so yeah now people are like oh
00:14:36
they he he caught them on the Parkway and then moved the B no look at those crime scenes nobody would come to the
00:14:42
conclusion that they were transported to where they were killed I think they were
00:14:46
killed and then after the fact the vehicle was transported to where it was found in an attempt to throw the cops
00:14:53
off and in ways it kind of worked because they weren't found for a couple couple of days and it also
00:15:00
makes you wonder and and and tell me if this is a dumb thought because if he has
00:15:05
a boat is he traveling by car on some of these cases and maybe traveling by boat
00:15:12
on other cases you're right I think there's a chance that in the nobling Edwards case that he stumbled onto those
00:15:19
victims via boat that he was out there with the boat that night we as you pointed out captain in episode one he
00:15:27
was an avid Hunter both Bow Hunter and with a gun and usually some of those types are
00:15:35
keeping a bow and or gun and if you're a fisherman knives with you most of the time you're going to have those items on
00:15:44
your boat you're going to have them in your truck it's also not that hard to get people onto your boat you strike up
00:15:49
a conversation with people at a bar hey oh yeah well you know I I walked here well I actually took my boat would you
00:15:57
guys like to go for a ride I've seen too many movies to get onto a stranger's boat well see I'm the captain so
00:16:03
whatever boat I go on I own I'm pointing out how these murders could have taken place and in fact the three that he's
00:16:11
responsible for may not have involved the parkway at all other than he moved the pickup truck to off of that
00:16:21
Parkway again it's a lot easier to move a vehicle than it would be to move victims well and this is return in us
00:16:29
now to let's take that information that we've just discussed and revisit the Keith call Cassandra Haley case the two
00:16:36
that have never been found the two that were together at a college party leaving
00:16:39
that college party Keith call was going to drive Cassandra Haley home and in fact all the evidence points to that
00:16:47
because she had a curfew and they left the party with roughly the right amount of time to drive straight from the party
00:16:56
to her home to return her to her parents home in time for the curfew that route the fastest route from point A to point
00:17:04
B did not involve the parkway at all right I'm pointing out the situation with Teresa Howell's case
00:17:11
because if the killer if Wilmer intercepted her before she could get to her vehicle in the parking lot that night
00:17:20
we're talking it's like 2 or 3 in the morning right could we have another scenario where in 1988 where he's parked
00:17:29
somewhere around this college party wherever this college party took place and saw the two of them well he would
00:17:34
have been what late 20s early 30 so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that he could just go into a
00:17:42
party yeah I don't know that he I'm not saying that he would I'm just saying that like he he wouldn't it wasn't like
00:17:48
he was in his 60s when these crimes were committed so it wouldn't if he's at a bar if he's hanging around to college
00:17:55
he's not going to stick out like a sore thumb right he he he is younger looking I would say so I have
00:18:04
also he's shorter so sometimes when individuals shorter sometimes you just kind of assume their age as being
00:18:10
younger could be every short so you're like hey that guy's short he must be in college now so I the problem I'm just
00:18:18
saying that if you saw him from a distance maybe you would you wouldn't even think college student you might
00:18:23
think high school student if you saw him from a distance I'm gonna have to push back because I don't think he would have
00:18:29
fit into the college party at all I mean we're talking he would have been 34 years old right and he's he's an
00:18:38
Outdoorsman like I'm not saying it's it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility but I don't think he was
00:18:44
hanging out with these college kids you're not factoring in another part of this equation the other part of this
00:18:49
equation is the police are very the P persons that attended this party this wasn't uh this wasn't a four-person five
00:18:58
person 10 person party this was a a larger party they interviewed these individuals if they if they talk to
00:19:06
multiple people and they're like yeah there was there was this short old guy that was here which seemed kind of odd
00:19:13
that's going to stand out to them in their notes again not out of the realm of possibility but I'm also speculating as
00:19:21
well so I can't fault you for that I'm my speculation is is it a possibility that he saw them leaving right
00:19:28
intercepts them in the parking lot or somehow figures out I can fake pull these people over which that was always
00:19:36
one thought to be considered in the parkway cases but again pointing out that the parkway does not involve these
00:19:45
two individuals who he is the prime was the Prime Suspect of their Disappearance
00:19:50
in 1988 okay question for you if we're trying to profile this individual this penis dick
00:20:00
balls right is he the type of killer do you think he's the type of killer that he's in stealth
00:20:08
mode where he's I'm going to sit in the parking lot I'm going to stalk I'm going
00:20:13
to hunt my prey that way or is he I'm going to go into the bar I'm going to make
00:20:20
conversation I'm going to find my individual that way then I'll follow them out of the bar cuz to me because of
00:20:28
his hunting background fishing background he's a stealth mode lie away and weight type of killer yeah but I
00:20:39
don't think he's a stalker right I don't think that any of these victims fell prey to him because he had been watching
00:20:46
them for a considerable amount of time no I meant stalking in the moment is what I me yeah so I I think what we have
00:20:54
here is an opportunistic killer he goes out out looking for a victim and he some
00:21:01
nights he finds them and some nights he does not and he'd be patient I mean you have to have patience if you're into the
00:21:09
sport of hunting or fishing so that makes him very lethal because he he's he can lie and
00:21:20
wait and wait for the perfect opportunity well and the opportunity is going to not just be when the victim
00:21:28
presents themselves but also when the situation pres presents itself as being the right situation right I'm not going
00:21:37
to be seen by somebody else or when I gain control of these victims there's not going to be ey Witnesses or ear
00:21:45
Witnesses well no and and we almost have proof of that and maybe you can back me
00:21:50
up on this we have individuals that say well this guy pulled us over or this guy
00:21:55
approached us on the park scenarios it's approached and which is I think key because the one of the theories over the
00:22:05
years was that maybe this person had a law enforcement background or was pretending to be law enforcement because
00:22:13
in some scenarios it looked like these individuals had been pulled over I think that's exaggerated a little bit I think
00:22:21
what we have here most of these scenarios is they're either the victims are intercepted before they can get to
00:22:27
their cars or outside of their cars like we know in like I believe in the nobbling Edwards case that we're saying
00:22:33
he absolutely did do but these other scenarios I mean when he's approaching these people they obviously didn't get
00:22:41
killed so there was something that he didn't think was right about the situation or the opportunity if you can
00:22:50
connect the eight Parkway murders and this other victim this could just be the beginning
00:22:59
or the end or the middle and that's that's what I want to talk about here today the the potential for other cases
00:23:08
and expanding potentially expanding the timeline of this killer and and who who are the other victims that he's
00:23:17
responsible for he would have been 32 years of age roughly when the First Colonial Parkway murder took place and
00:23:24
we've talked about this plenty of times that the the average age of a serial killer the an active serial killer is
00:23:30
their late 20s your expertise lends you to believe that this is not the start of
00:23:35
his murders I would wager a Franklin that he killed before the parkway murder started in ' 86 and I would wager
00:23:43
another Franklin that he killed after he killed Teresa Howell in 1989 right so some other cases to be
00:23:53
considered one that stands out is the murder of Belinda an Ashburn who would have been about 33 years of age when she
00:24:04
was killed her body was found in North Carolina and so immediately some people are going to go well all these other
00:24:10
cases you've talked about took place in Virginia yes that's true they took place
00:24:15
on the Eastern the east coast of Virginia but if you look at the Isle of white case that we know that he would be
00:24:27
tried with they would take him to trial arrest him for and try him for the double murder in the Isle of white case
00:24:36
right that is a southern County in Virginia and then you have North Carolina of course that is just south of
00:24:44
the state of Virginia in the Ashburn case in the Belinda Ashburn case she is found in the
00:24:54
water in curry tuck County which is East Coast very the most northern County on that East Coast so we're talking it's
00:25:05
it's right on the Virginia North Carolina border there's not a whole lot of information about her case out there and
00:25:14
sadly I found what information I did find sounds like there was not a great investigation that took place with her
00:25:22
murder one piece of information that we found was saying that her father was was
00:25:28
conducting his own investigation and in our experience Captain when does that take place we see that when either the
00:25:36
family doesn't think that the police are doing a good enough job or if their inves in their investigation is not
00:25:43
really taking place right so here's what we do know Belinda an Ashburn 33 she was
00:25:49
from Chesapeake Virginia that is this man's general hunting area that is where he was looking for victims and we have
00:25:59
proof of that by the three known victims that we have correct Chesapeake Virginia
00:26:03
she was found floating in a canal in curry tuck County and I apologize if I'm not saying that correctly that's how I
00:26:10
believe it to be said but I didn't have the time to ask around been wrong before
00:26:16
yeah so you can stick that in your hat and smoke it well yeah it's right on the Virginia North Carolina line this was in
00:26:24
1988 listen to this detail though this is a detail that very much mirrors some of the details of the previous cases
00:26:33
that we've discussed her car was found earlier the day that she was found abandon at the
00:26:40
south end of Blackwater Road with the keys in the ignition okay two of the other cases both had keys in the
00:26:48
ignition it's almost like a calling card the front door open yeah another calling
00:26:54
card a purse containing $300 we found found in all these other cases or most of these other cases I
00:27:01
should say right money on the persons money in the vehicles we've also found valuables on the victims that that were
00:27:10
left that the killer could have taken jewelry could have taken money could have taken items of
00:27:18
value but did not that was not a part of what he wanted to do or wanted to bother
00:27:24
to do her clothing and other personal items were found on on the seat of her vehicle so she's found either nude or
00:27:32
partially clad sexually assaulted and floating in a canal and in fact I'll read the
00:27:39
information about her father and sadly her her parents are no longer with us this is but I still have hope that this
00:27:46
case could be solved and I just wish that her parents would have gotten answers before they had grown too old so
00:27:51
her father's name is Robert zerel he lives lived at Virginia Beach this article says the murder of his daughter
00:27:59
Belinda Ashburn has been an all consuming for the last 6 months he has been investigating her death and
00:28:05
interviewing anyone who might know something quote you never get over this type of thing zern held said I never
00:28:13
sleep anymore unless it's with a sedative I spend three to four hours a day running leads so her family gets
00:28:22
together with some of the other families of the Colonial Parkway murders and they
00:28:27
were trying trying to raise money and petition the state of Virginia to create a task force to look into these unsolved
00:28:34
murders this also includes murders that were not linked to the Colonial Parkway right there was a task force that was
00:28:42
assembled at some point but one problem that we discussed back in 2018 was that a lot of these cases took
00:28:49
place in different jurisdictions yes so the left hand didn't know what the right
00:28:53
hand was doing or would bother to even tell the the other hand what we were doing two is some of this land is
00:28:59
federal land so you have you have state law enforcement you have local law enforcement and you have federal law
00:29:07
enforcement all either involved or not involved and in some cases I believe pointing the finger saying no that's not
00:29:15
our case that's their case this show was sponsored by better help what's the first thing that you do if
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garage and cheers to you all cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain cheers to the people in the back of course yeah
00:34:01
get you some Amber lungren is one that has been mentioned with the recent development of Allan Wade Wilmer senior
00:34:15
being properly referred to as a serial killer by Virginia State Police this is one that that the police have not lumped
00:34:25
her in with the other victims but we we have very smart podcasters and and people on social media saying wait a
00:34:32
second this Amber lungren case feels very familiar in fact it feels a lot like the Teresa how case so Amber
00:34:40
lungren very similar situation she's down in Asheville so that puts her a considerable distance from some of these
00:34:51
other cases that we've discussed keep in mind at this time in our timeline when she goes missing and then later is found
00:35:01
we believe and the authorities believe that Allan Wade Wilmer senior had moved on from the Waterman business and was
00:35:09
now doing the tree service business and there were storms severe storms in this area prior to her death so he could have
00:35:19
been down there chasing work like we talked about I'll point out one problem that I find with linking him to this
00:35:28
case but before I get to that here's the things that that are similarities okay Amber lungren is 20
00:35:35
years of age at the time she reportedly by her friends somehow they're out together she's out with a group of
00:35:42
friends and she gets separated from these friends she's leaving a downtown nightclub around it's believed this I
00:35:52
wrote 2:30 a.m. in my notes I've seen as early as 2 a.m. I've seen as late is 3:00
00:35:59
a.m. most reports are saying 2:30 a.m. this is on June 7th 1997 so this would be 8 years after the
00:36:10
believed last Parkway murders and it would be eight years after the killing of Teresa how but he'd still be in his
00:36:19
40s here's the victim who's leaving a nightclub late 2:30 a.m. that's roughly about the same time that would have been
00:36:28
leaving the Zodiac Club years prior it's believed that she was last seen on Lexington Avenue I'm not familiar with
00:36:35
this area her body was eventually found on aelia road this is near a recreation park in East Asheville there was a
00:36:47
description from a potential eyewitness or possible eyewitnesses who said that they spotted
00:36:55
a man between three and 4 a.m. on that day on aelia road standing near an older dark colored pickup truck
00:37:06
with a utility bed okay so right there the older colored pickup truck MH similar to
00:37:14
something that we've already discussed it we do know that he painted his truck I can't speak to what colors win but we
00:37:22
do know the pictures that are circulating today of that 1966 Dodge truck they BL it's a blue
00:37:30
truck which may even appear to be even darker right at in a low light middle of the night situation the man was
00:37:40
described as between 20 and 45 years of age that doesn't help us a whole lot because that's a wide age range but he
00:37:50
would fall somewhere into that category I believe I'd have to check my math here
00:37:55
closer to the end of that 45 46 years old the thing though that stands out as being possible connection dark reddish
00:38:03
brown hair and a beard and we're going to put out some pictures and this would this would make
00:38:10
some sense a stocky build that makes sense Wilmer was but built was always described as very short and muscular so
00:38:21
maybe even a stocky appearance the problem here is the next piece of the description medium height well some
00:38:29
would say he had a athletic George castanza build maybe maybe and it's a stretch pun intended maybe if he's
00:38:39
wearing boots as you know tree trimmer Outdoorsman would suggest is is likely or a possibility maybe he's a looking a
00:38:51
little bit taller I don't know if I got 100 people in a room if if any of them would describe
00:38:58
5'5 in tall for a male full grown male to as medium height I certainly wouldn't describe that as medium height lungren
00:39:07
was 5'4 in tall so keep in mind if they see this man near her or they don't have
00:39:14
much of a point of reference of how tall he could be maybe medium height was just
00:39:19
playing it safe with the the description it's also tough too because sometimes shorter people look taller
00:39:28
when they sit down it all depends on how like I I'm a pretty tall guy but I can sit next to people because I have very
00:39:37
long legs and we look like we're similar in height but once I stand up I Tower over them well and I think you will see
00:39:45
police did have a a sketch of the person that was seen standing near this dark pickup truck as well as a sketch of
00:39:56
the pickup truck itself the I don't love the the written description of that truck where it says a utility bed and
00:40:06
maybe I have a different understanding of a utility bed for some reason I when my the first picture that I get captain
00:40:11
is like more of a flat bed but I guess utility bed would also maybe they have like buckets on the side buckets on the
00:40:18
side or those those big lock tool boxes in the back right which his truck certainly had that and we will post
00:40:26
those pictures and this sketch on our social media and I believe that we're going to get a lot of people that will
00:40:33
go yeah I can see the connection here now back in 2018 may or may not be related to the
00:40:40
Colonial Parkways but murders but we did discuss the case of David Lee metzer age
00:40:46
19 of Lynchberg and Heidi lynchs 18 of forest they were both Virginia Tech students in 2009 a man walking his dog
00:40:56
found their bodies in a parking lot of a wildlife and Campground area in the Jefferson National Forest this was a
00:41:04
popular hangout spot for Virginia Tech students both had been shot with a 3030 caliber hunting rifle David's body was
00:41:13
found in his vehicle and Heidi's body was found outside of the vehicle and the campground is about 15 miles from
00:41:21
Virginia Tech campus in blackburg which is a little it's about a a little more than a three-hour drive to the Colonial
00:41:29
Parkway so this one is kind of well off the way there but again the the gun used
00:41:35
is a similarity the vehicle situation and yeah and we have even the victims that are not found near the parkway or
00:41:44
ties to the parkway what is a constant that we are hearing victim found in wooded area or Forest type area Wildlife
00:41:54
Preserve Wildlife Refuge all places that we could imagine someone with the lifestyle of Allan Wilmer being out
00:42:05
hunting and maybe it's not humans that he's hunting that night but he comes across somebody else in the process
00:42:11
right but he's also familiar with those areas and we know serial killers like to
00:42:18
kill people or take their victims to places that they're familiar with it feels safer there I think the other
00:42:26
thing too is like do you find something strange about the age of the victims it all seems like they're of a younger like
00:42:35
student age and maybe it's just because those would be the people that would be out later and maybe he's that's the time
00:42:44
of night that he is comfortable with looking for victims but I'd also want to know did
00:42:52
something happen in his past around that age where he's targeting people of a younger age does that make any sense at
00:43:02
all both makes sense and I think what what you're hitting on here that I would really lean toward is what you said at
00:43:09
the start of that that I believe him to be a very opportunistic type of killer and as you
00:43:16
said younger people tend to be out later and it just may be happen stance that those are the persons that he's finding
00:43:23
when he's out looking yeah that's why it's disappointing to not have more information in the Belinda Ashburn case
00:43:32
because while it shares so many similarities again the water the water is the key here with this perpetrator I
00:43:40
believe she's found in the water in a canal and we don't know the situation of well when was she last seen or where do
00:43:49
we believe she was traveling too uhhuh and at what time of day would that have been and why I would want to know that
00:43:57
is because she is older than most of the victims that we've discussed like I believe the
00:44:04
oldest of the victims that we've discussed so far is 27 years old Kathleen Thomas Kathy
00:44:11
Thomas and she's Belinda is 33 she's a youngl looking 33 from the pictures I've seen but again it we don't
00:44:23
know enough about her case other than the similarities that we've all already covered some other ones that are are
00:44:29
potential this is this would be rather early in our timeline so this would put us in
00:44:35
1979 Alice ASU or Alice escu who was killed in September of 1979 her body was found in a densely wooded area of
00:44:47
Seashore State Park um other than the manner and where she was found and her age she was 18 petite white female those
00:44:59
are really the only simil similarities one case here that stands out to me which I would love to know some more
00:45:05
details is Joan Zigman and Christine pilac uh this is August of 1983 these two women were from out of
00:45:15
town they were had traveled to the area together to Virginia Beach to attend a convention related to their employment
00:45:24
they were last seen at night at approximately 700 p.m. on August 18th 1983 Unfortunately they were found by
00:45:35
the Coast Guard a pilot boat operator had notified the Coast Guard of two bodies floating in the water these
00:45:43
victims were both 26 years of age again the water is important to me in this case here uh and it's only a few years
00:45:54
prior to the coloni Parkway murders raphaela Bryant July 1985 this was a carire so she had been
00:46:06
killed and the vehicle was set on fire which we know in one of the other cases they tried to do it was an attempt yes
00:46:14
right so her case is interesting as well those those three cases that we've just
00:46:19
discussed those are all considered to be cold cases the investigating Agency on that one on all three are the Virginia
00:46:28
Beach police well I know this goes without saying we have a lot of intelligent individuals that listen to
00:46:35
this podcast a lot of sleuther out there and if you're a sleuther and you're going hey this is kind of interesting
00:46:43
and I'm going to dive into some cases in this area if you see a similarity look reach out to law enforcement let them
00:46:51
know it might it might be something that they a case that they're not aware of that has similarities anybody looking
00:46:59
for information to solve these cases it's a good thing the more people that can we can connect more crimes to this
00:47:08
individual I I don't think these three will be the only cases that he's found guilty of correct if if they have the
00:47:19
evidence then becomes right right what what do they have and what can they prove when when we Elevate him to what
00:47:26
the state is saying serial killer now you have to look at it and I'm not trying to pull one of these situations
00:47:33
where it's like oh we've identified a new serial killer so he must be responsible for the murders of every
00:47:38
unsolved murder that took place during his lifetime in the state of Virginia we're not trying to do that here because
00:47:45
there were other cases that we looked at and we said no this doesn't make sense like some of these other cases may make
00:47:54
sense now we haven't got to the one that makes the most sense and this is probably this is a case with a lot of
00:48:05
twist and turns and a case that maybe some of the listeners out there may be familiar with so this case takes place
00:48:13
in Virginia so right now right away we've checked a box this is the still unsolved murder of Mary keer or Kaiser
00:48:25
Mary Harding her last name's Harding her middle name I'm not sure how to say that
00:48:29
Mary Harding was a young mother of two she was married to a man named Emerson Harding they live in Lancaster County
00:48:39
Virginia Which at the time back in 1985 when she was killed had a population of roughly
00:48:46
10,000 people still has that small population to this day flags were raised Captain when she is found missing from
00:48:57
their home so her husband Emerson he is like many people he works the waters okay so in Lancaster County most men
00:49:08
pretty broad statement here but most men back then worked the waters most of them
00:49:13
work big corporate ships in Chesapeake Bay either crab or oysters off of the rapaic I believe is how you say it River
00:49:21
her husband works the waters and the way that his schedule Works he's gone a lot
00:49:27
due to the trade this is a very low extremely low crime area extremely low violent crime area so when this murder
00:49:36
took place it freaked everybody out of course so what we have here is Mary Harding is she works part-time at the
00:49:46
bank of Lancaster as said her husband is gone often times for days and many times
00:49:53
overnight and for days working on the waters because of their careers with the two small kids she would often drop them
00:50:05
off with a relative to be watched when she would go work her bank of Lancaster shift she was scheduled to drop them off
00:50:12
it I believe it was her the her grandmother's or either her husband's grandmother or her grandmother's house
00:50:20
on Friday August 23rd 1985 she didn't drop him off as scheduled grandmother makes a phone call nobody answers so
00:50:28
Grandma decides to drive out when she gets to the house the kids are fine in fact the little boy he's like four or
00:50:34
five he opens up the door and he's like mom's gone right and dad's out working on the boats he's been gone for a couple
00:50:43
days not good no Grandma knows that this is not a situation that the parents would have at all so she calls the
00:50:51
police police arrive on the scene and here's what they find they find the kids food
00:50:57
from the night before still out on the table they find Comet or Ajax in the sink you know like the cleaning yeah
00:51:05
it's like cleaning scrub they find the kitty litter box outside of the back door and it
00:51:13
looks like it had been like like dropped they they find one of her flip-flops near the kitty litter box and
00:51:22
then out on the driveway they find her second flip-flop this is painting a picture for detectives here what it
00:51:29
looks like is that she had put the kids to bed they're they're both very young kids the boy's the oldest he's only four
00:51:36
or five fed him dinner put him to bed and was in the process of like cleaning the house once she got some time to
00:51:45
herself and somebody grabbed her startled her something startled her when she was
00:51:52
outside dealing with the kitty litter box she hadn't cleaned up the dinner for the night before she hadn't scrubbed out
00:51:58
the sink as it would appear was her intention and then these flip-flops are found outside so they very quickly
00:52:05
figure out she's been abducted but this is also a different a very different way
00:52:10
of finding a victim compared to the cases that we've discussed 100% right on August 27th her body is found floating
00:52:19
face down in that rapaic River okay so she is has been strangled and this is just off
00:52:29
of a location called Bell Isle the body's naked bloated no clothing cuts and slashes are on her back rope is
00:52:40
around her neck a large cinder block with a heavy chain was connecting the right leg to that same rope that was
00:52:50
connected to the cinder block so somebody abducted her killed her and ATT to conceal the body by throwing her in
00:52:58
the water and waiting her down police do point out at the time look this is all things that we would expect a boat
00:53:07
person or Waterman type of equipment used to waight her down now we should also say it's not terribly uncommon for
00:53:15
people to have rope heavy chain or cinder blocks that don't own a boat or don't work in that line of work yeah
00:53:23
Scott peeterson there was a $20,000 reward W offered and eventually this leads to an arrest so
00:53:34
she's reported missing on Friday August 23rd body found August 27th waited down in the river
00:53:43
she the the problem was where they attempted to conceal the body it wasn't very deep so even though they weighed her
00:53:53
down at some point somebody passing by she's kind of visible to somebody floating face down in the
00:54:01
river and that's how they find the body now the an arrest was made that Halloween so roughly two months
00:54:12
later the person that is arrested his name is Emerson Stevens he's a waterman at the time he owned a 32- foot boat
00:54:20
named the Miss Sandra he lived nearby and it was the reward money that kind of LED some tipsters to come forward and
00:54:33
the tips that they were getting was that a pickup truck had been spotted near her
00:54:41
home late on the night that it's believed that she was abducted he owned a pickup truck was it
00:54:47
an old style pickup truck there's some problems with this case okay so um the the problems are going to be the
00:54:55
description of the pickup truck you get multiple persons saying that they saw a pickup truck there that night you're
00:55:00
going to get one person that's going to say not only did I see a pickup truck there that night but here's the
00:55:05
description and oh by the way I know somebody that owns a pickup truck exactly like that and by the way I know
00:55:12
whose truck that was yeah so this guy comes this guy comes forward and says this truck belongs to Emerson Stevens
00:55:19
he's my cousin that's the truck that I saw out there that night I need I want everybody to please
00:55:27
understand this there's other witnesses that gave a slightly different versions of the description of that pickup truck
00:55:35
right I'm pointing that out because Emerson Stevens is arrested as said on Halloween he's later tried for this
00:55:47
murder the first trial gets a hung jury they take it back to trial again he gets
00:55:52
convicted he's going to be sentenced to life he's going to spend the rest of his
00:55:56
life in prison that should be the end of the case correct well it's not he spends several decades in
00:56:07
prison wow he always ad he's always sticks to saying that he's innocent he was married with Children of his own at
00:56:16
the time and in fact he tells his wife hey divorce me move on with your life I'm stuck here forever you need to go
00:56:23
out and live your life I'd say honey you got to wait for me I don't care what you
00:56:28
have to do you got to wait for me some of the other information that helped to convict him was he owned a wild cat
00:56:38
what's called a wild cat Skinner knife which okay might seem damning in some cases but he's he's a fisherman he's a
00:56:46
waterman like most people in that area most of these types will carry knives or or at least have them on their boats
00:56:55
yeah and he owned a boat what what happens is once they hone in on Stevenson given the or sorry Stevens
00:57:05
because of the the cousin coming forward saying that oh that was my my cousin Stevens's truck that I saw out there
00:57:12
that night once they hone in on Emerson Stevens one of the persons close to him that they talk to says yeah he he had
00:57:19
this Wildcat Skinner knife and then all of a sudden he didn't have it anymore he
00:57:24
had this nice knife that he carried in a leather sheath and all of a sudden he didn't have it anymore and that was
00:57:28
roughly around the time that that that woman disappeared so now the detectives are
00:57:34
like okay we know what caused the slashes the cuts to This Woman's back and he knew to wait her down because he
00:57:41
was a he was a fisherman he was a waterman waited her down in the water he gets convicted spends several decades in
00:57:48
prison and then he finds someone to take his case he's he's spending his time writing to the governor writing to
00:57:54
judges writing to lawyers eventually finds somebody to take his case and his case gets he gets released from prison
00:58:03
they find that the evidence is completely bunk some of the evidence they found was hair they found a hair
00:58:09
sample in his truck that an expert had said matched that of the victims not so fast one of the persons yeah one of the
00:58:19
persons that helped to get him released was that same expert who reviewed the hair later with advaned technology and
00:58:28
and requested bringing in other experts to consult with and they came to the determination that the hair did not come
00:58:36
from the victim so now you got to toss out that evidence the truck I saw my cousin's
00:58:42
truck out there that night they figured out that that cousin lied he well I shouldn't say that they
00:58:49
figured out that he lied it's suspected now today that he lied because after the
00:58:54
conviction he keeps calling the police going hey what about that re reward money hey what about that reward money
00:59:01
when can I get that $20,000 that you guys were offering for uh conviction here so not only does
00:59:09
Emerson Stevens get released from prison but listen to this I'm listening he was convicted in
00:59:21
1986 many years later I think it's 2016 or 17 he gets released let's take this step further a
00:59:31
very necessary step further in August of 2021 he receives a full pardon an absolute
00:59:41
pardon meaning this is not a situation where we've reviewed it and gone oh we question all the evidence we got to let
00:59:47
this guy out no this is now a situation we've reviewed all the evidence and we can say that he did not kill this woman
00:59:57
this case is still unsolved well why is this one that we want to point to very strongly for
01:00:04
somebody like Allan Wade Wilmer Senor when you go back and review the other suspects in This Woman's murder
01:00:14
there's one that stands out from the handful that they were looking at a man by the name of Keith
01:00:22
Wilmer a waterman and he's a husband of one of Mary's co-workers so let's do the full reveal here Captain
01:00:37
Keith Wilmer is Allan Wilmer brother who he lived with off and on during the 80s
01:00:45
and 90s so it's possible that he fancied her and knew that the husband was going
01:00:52
to be out of town the husband was going to be working so show up at her house Keith Wilmer was
01:01:03
one of a very few suspects in this murder Keith Wilmer housed his brother who turns out to be
01:01:13
known now in 2024 as a serial killer and Keith's Wife worked at the same bank with Mary Harding what I'm getting at
01:01:25
here is do we live in a world where both of these brothers who live together individually were killing
01:01:33
people without the other knowing or or even more so did they do any of these things together it's a sick world so
01:01:44
Keith Wilmer becomes on the police radar for the Mary Harding case back in 1985 because one he's married to one of her
01:01:53
co-workers it became known to the police that he was calling people he was doing
01:01:59
these obscene phone calls okay and this was with more than one person not with the victim but with more than one woman
01:02:07
who he was calling and he was saying things like he wanted to have sex with them in the woods and very kind of gross
01:02:14
stuff so he ends up on police radar but keep in mind the guy that they convicted it's it's very strange to me
01:02:24
that that Keith Wilmer has the same occupation as the guy they convict he's a waterman his brother's a
01:02:31
waterman the the body is found floating in the river weighed down with things that one might expect to find on a boat
01:02:39
and the and these also seem to be sexually motivated crimes yes she was raped and murdered right so you have a
01:02:48
guy making sick phone calls to to women that's a red flag that's something you shouldn't do
01:02:56
that's something you don't talk about at parties they were able to determine that
01:03:00
the slashes on Mary Harding's back did not come from a knife remember she was found in shallow water they figured out
01:03:09
that those occurred postmortem after she was weighed down that the propellers of
01:03:15
a boat or two had gone over top of her her body was found trying to find the exact description here I believe it was
01:03:27
like her body was found 600 ft from where Keith Wilmer kept his boat where he docked his
01:03:39
boat now to be fair to Keith Wilmer yeah other people dock their boat in the same area this is very close this
01:03:49
is this is really starting to shrink the degrees of separation between a now known IAL killer and a
01:03:59
victim of an unsolved homicide at the time we should point out that Keith Wilmer home was searched uh he did allow
01:04:06
police to search his house his boat and his truck note that he's driving a truck
01:04:10
at the time uh he did submit to a polygraph exam which the results are listed as
01:04:21
inconclusive yeah results May Vary Allan Wade Wilmer we know he was looked at home searched boat searched truck
01:04:31
searched after the third of the four Colonial Parkway murders and they give him a polygraph
01:04:40
exam and he passes and so that's why he was listed as cleared great suspect we cleared him because he passed the
01:04:47
polygraph which we know you don't do that you should not do that and when they search his home they find
01:04:53
everything you would expect to find guns knives handcuffs pornography those are all things that
01:04:58
you would expect to find from somebody that you later learn has killed three people now he's a hunter and a fisherman
01:05:05
so you expect to find guns and knives and of course they found those in Keith Wilmer but what I'm getting at here
01:05:12
Captain is did the two live together at this time did they go and carry this out
01:05:17
together I I have a hard time believing that serial killer brother Allan Wilmer went out and did this and Keith
01:05:26
had was totally oblivious to it I have a hard time believing that and then you have to go a step further when you look
01:05:33
at some of the other homicides right we talked about this back when we did our 2018 coverage of at the time what was
01:05:44
eight unsolved homicides we went through some one k or two the offender profile exactly that
01:05:51
the offender was organized because he brought there there are things that are suggest suggestive of being an organized
01:05:56
killer he bought weapons along with him was able to control victims before killing them never mutilated or molested
01:06:04
their bodies well molested appears after the fact concealed the corpses or at least attempted to waited periods of
01:06:12
time before striking again yeah and there was the self-control of refraining from publicly
01:06:21
taunting police law enforcement with letters to the media or to law enforcement and in a couple of the cases
01:06:32
I would say that it's suggestive that the the modus operandi was changing so like we're kind of dancing around
01:06:44
here and as you just said Captain how could one perpetrator manage to kill two victims and in some cases by hand
01:06:52
without the other victim escaping that's when you have to go well are we looking
01:06:57
at a situation where we have one killer or two killer to be perfectly clear here
01:07:02
the forensic evidence in the three cases that have been solved only suggest one killer a one killer
01:07:10
scenario however we've just discussed multiple unsolved cases where we don't have the answers to and until we have
01:07:18
those answers we just don't know was it one or was it two want to thank everybody for joining us
01:07:36
here in the garage each and every week make sure you call your mother call your father call your best friend text them
01:07:42
right now if you have to and say listen to True Crime garage Keeps the Lights On
01:07:48
people it keeps the lights on Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the
01:07:52
beautiful listeners yes we do Captain I'm very happy to be recommending a special kind of evil the Colonial
01:07:59
Parkway serial killings this was released back in 2018 and we recommended it back then I
01:08:06
love this book this is one of this is the best book regarding the Colonial Parkway serial killings and one of the
01:08:15
best writing Duos for True Crime today so we have father daughter True Crime authors Blaine parau and Victoria Hester
01:08:25
for this book a special kind of evil for their writing and research they blew the dust off of these old cases
01:08:34
before they heat it up again they interviewed family members friends and members of law enforcement and they
01:08:42
provide the first and most complete in-depth look at this string of horrific murders and disappearances the author
01:08:50
investigators peel back the rumors and myths surrounding these crimes and provide new information never before
01:08:57
revealed about the investigations you will want to check out a special kind of evil and you will
01:09:03
also want to check out our other recommendations that we have listed for you on our recommended page on our
01:09:08
website true Crim garage.com and make sure you sign up on the mailing list until next week be good be kind and
01:09:16
don't litter [Music]