New questions raised in Colonial Parkway murders
YORKTOWN, Va. (WAVY) — New questions have been raised by loved ones of those who died in what is known as the Colonial Parkway murders.
The killings began almost 38 years ago, but new revelations about a possible suspect, and closure for some families, are opening doors for others.
Monday night, an expected audience of 100 people turned out at the Yorktown Library to hear all things Colonial Parkway murders — old history, the investigations, mistakes made and new developments, questions and answers on the sad mysteries of the Colonial Parkway murders
Joyce Call-Canada last saw her brother in 1988, stunned by new developments.
“And then when we found out,” Call-Canada said, “it was like, ‘Oh my God, Oh, my God. All this time.’”
That was Call-Canada’s response when she found out, as we all did, that Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. was the first solid suspect in the disappearance of her brother Keith Call and his friend Cassandra Hailey, but the FBI let him go after he passed a polygraph (lie detector) test.
“I was so upset because they had him from the very, very beginning,” she told us at the site where her brother’s car was found on the Colonial Parkway. “They had him from the very beginning, and my parents were still alive. And they could have known, you know.”
Call-Canada said her parents died broken-hearted.
And Bill Thomas was left to wonder, also.
“And they told us they were looking for a waterman,” Thomas said. “So he checks a lot of boxes.”
Wilmer was a waterman. Now that he’s been identified, Thomas is thinking about Wilmer’s possible connections to his own sister’s murder. Did he kill Cathy Thomas and her friend Rebecca Dowski in October 1986?
“We had unconfirmed reports that Cathy and Becky were seen at the Yorktown pub,” Thomas said. “Now, we understand that Wilmer was a regular at the Yorktown Pub. It’s a possibility that if they stopped there, they might have been followed from the Yorktown Pub to a location along the Colonial Parkway.”
Wilmer Sr. died in December 2017, and the FBI confirms there were additional searches conducted in the York River following logical leads.
“I mean, I think they got to be searching for something,” Thomas said. “It could be something. It’s got to be a short list of a weapon or bones or some other piece of evidence.
Thomas is in town recording his regular “Mind Over Murder Podcast,” to be aired on Monday,
“We’re also going to point out where we think there have been missed opportunities,” Thomas said, “and so, we sometimes joke that we appreciate our listeners from the FBI and the Virginia State Police.”
The Mind Over Murder podcast can be heard on any podcast platform.
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