For decades, Bob Dowski carried a silent ache, a locked-away grief for his sister, Rebecca. Her life, and that of her friend Cathy Thomas, were brutally stolen in 1986, their bodies discovered in Cathy’s car, throats slashed. The horror became part of a chilling pattern – the Colonial Parkway Murders – a series of unsolved crimes that haunted southeastern Virginia.
The memory, Dowski confessed, was a constant companion. Attempts to bury the pain within “little rooms” of the mind proved futile. Then, a summons from the FBI. A flicker of hope, decades dimmed, began to glow. They were told the unthinkable: Alan Wade Wilmer Sr., a man who died in 2017, was believed to be responsible for Rebecca and Cathy’s deaths.
The FBI’s announcement, though offering a name, brought no true solace. Wilmer, linked to four other Virginia murders, would never face justice. “This guy snuffed out two young people…and went on to have a life,” Dowski lamented, the injustice a fresh wound. He yearned for a conviction, for retribution, but it would never come.
Bill Thomas, Cathy’s brother, channeled his grief into action. He created a website and launched the “Mind Over Murder” podcast, determined to keep the Colonial Parkway cases alive, to connect with other families touched by tragedy. The podcast blossomed, expanding to cover other unsolved crimes, forging a community of shared sorrow and relentless pursuit of answers.
The FBI estimates at least eight murders and disappearances occurred between 1986 and 1989, a dark chapter in Virginia’s history. The cases, complex and interwoven, remain a haunting puzzle. Despite the passage of time, the agency vows to continue investigating, to relentlessly pursue any remaining leads.
It was an October night in 1986 when Rebecca Dowski and Cathy Thomas left a college computer lab. Days later, Cathy’s white Honda was found abandoned, hidden amongst the brambles near the York River. The scene was horrific: the women had been choked with rope, their throats brutally cut. Their purses remained in the car, a failed attempt to set it ablaze.
Initially, the attack seemed isolated, perhaps a crime of passion. But the following year, the bodies of David Knobling and Robin Edwards were discovered at Ragged Island Wildlife Management Area, both shot in the head. Then, in 1989, Annamaria Phelps and Daniel Lauer vanished while traveling to Virginia Beach. Their remains were found a month later, stabbed in the woods, a chilling echo of the earlier crimes.
The breakthrough came with advances in forensic science. FBI agents reanalyzed DNA evidence collected from Rebecca Dowski’s clothing, a tiny fragment holding the key to unlocking the decades-old mystery. The DNA matched that of Alan Wade Wilmer Sr.
Wilmer, known as “Pokey,” was a local fisherman, a hunter, and a man who moved through the waterways and marinas of Virginia’s Northern Neck and Hampton Roads. His distinctive blue pickup truck, with its personalized license plate, had been spotted near several crime scenes over the years. But it wasn’t until after his death that investigators could obtain and analyze his DNA.
In 2024, investigators officially linked Wilmer to the murders of Knobling and Edwards. Further analysis connected him to the slayings of Laurie Ann Powell and Teresa Lynn Spaw Howell, adding to the growing list of victims. Bill Thomas believes Wilmer’s profile, if available sooner, could have solved even more cases.
The Colonial Parkway Murders remain a stark reminder of the enduring pain of unsolved crimes. For families like Dowski’s and Thomas’, the search for closure continues, fueled by a desperate hope that justice, even delayed, might one day prevail.
