FBI meets with Colonial Pkwy families

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - For three hours on Friday, the FBI told family members of the Colonial Parkway Murders as much as they could about the murders dating back 23 years. The extra-ordinary meeting took place in Newport News, Va. after the new Special Agent in Charge promised family members the unsolved murders remain active investigations and there would be a bottom-up review.

WAVY.com first reported on the murders back in October 1986. The families have always been frustrated because the premier investigative agency in this country has been unable to crack the cases. It's been frustrating for the FBI too. They want to solve the crimes. Today the two sides met. From all reports we have received, the meeting was positive with great hope and optimism that these long unsolved murders will one day be solved.

"They were a lot more organized than I thought," says Chris Call whose brother Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey disappeared from the Colonial Parkway in 1988. Never found. Cathy Thomas and Rebecca Anne Dowski killed two years earlier. The bodies left in Thomas's car. Cathy's brother Bill impressed with the FBI's status report on the investigations, "We were surprised by the evidence. They have a lot of it and they are testing everything from the top."

The three hour meeting organized by the FBI's Special Agent in Charge of the Norfolk Office Alex Turner. The families give Turner high marks and said they think he genuinely cares, "He is giving this a fresh approach. Mr. Turner had a lot of outside experts, and he did a terrific job," Thomas says.

Turner told the families the old evidence to be retested will take six months, "That's a little long, but we have to accept that and we do. He is using 2010 technology and it will take months," Thomas says.

The Call family also pleased with the meeting, "Special Agent Turner brought up the words serial killer. They are working in that direction," says Chris Call. Turner also confirmed fingerprints found in Keith Call's car do not belong to him or to Cassandra Hailey, "They have them, yes. They do not belong to Keith or Cassandra."

The FBi is also reaching out to America's Most Wanted, and the Thomas family met with the show's producer. "I met with them in December. Mr. Turner says he has reached out, but it is up to the show to decide whether to proceed," he said.

The resources now involved with the investigation are increasing. As for the 130 suspects known to the FBI, there has been no meaningful developments that lead to anyone in particular.