FBI connects 2 cold case homicides to the Colonial Parkway serial killer
01/23/2026 12:59 pm PST
NORFOLK, Va. (TCN) -- Two of the notorious 1986 Colonial Parkway cold case homicides have now been solved, according to the FBI.
On Jan. 20, the FBI Norfolk Field Office announced Cathleen Thomas and Rebecca Dowski were victims in the Colonial Parkway killings, a series of violent crimes on and near Virginia’s Colonial Parkway from 1986 to 1989. At least eight young people were killed or went missing.
A lengthy investigation and breakthroughs in forensic science and DNA technology connected Thomas and Dowski’s killings to Alan Wade Wilmer Sr., who died in 2017 at age 63, the FBI said.
At the time of their deaths, Thomas was 27 and Dowski was 21. KMSP reports they were last seen at the computer lab at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, on Oct. 9, 1986. They were found stabbed and strangled inside a vehicle along the Colonial Parkway. It is unclear if they had been sexually assaulted.
Wilmer was a fisherman and hunter who lived in Lancaster, Virginia. KMSP reports he was also responsible for the deaths of David Knobling, 20, and Robin M. Edwards, 14, in the Isle of Wight in 1987 and the 1989 death of Teresa Howell, 29, in Hampton, Virginia. Edwards was reportedly sexually assaulted.
The families of Thomas and Dowski attended the FBI’s announcement of the closure of the case, and Thomas’ brother Bill said he believes Wilmer was likely responsible for more unsolved murders linked to the Colonial Parkway killings, WKTR reports.
He and other family members are working to have laws amended to close other unsolved cases. WKTR reports Bill Thomas said, “Right now, the way the laws are set up, even though Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. is a serial killer and has killed at least six people … we do not have the capability to upload his DNA into CODIS, because he was never convicted of a crime before he died in 2017.”
Wilmer was a suspect in the disappearances of Colonial Parkway victims Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey, last seen in 1988. According to Blaine Pardoe, an author of a book about the murders, Wilmer was cleared when he passed a polygraph test, WKTR reports. There had reportedly been 150 persons of interest in the case.
According to the FBI, Thomas was vibrant, compassionate, and intelligent, and Dowski loved music and had a promising future. In their statement, the FBI said, “Their lives were tragically cut short, but they were never forgotten by the investigators who continued to pursue justice on their behalf.”
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