Colonial Parkway Murders re-examined

NEW KENT COUNTY, Va. - The cases of eight unsolved killings on the Colonial Parkway in York County that started 23 years ago Monday will be revisited by federal investigators. In all there were four incidents with two victims each time. One a year between 1986 and 1989.

Former State Police profiler and Special Agent Larry McCann, who is now retired, was at the center of the Parkway Murder investigations and the first to call it serial killings. "I subscribe to the belief that there are two people," McCann said in New Kent County at the site where in 1989 the remains of Annamaria Phelps and Daniel Lauer were found.

McCann thinks the couple stopped at the east bound rest area on I-64, were abducted, taken to the next exit, shot, killed, and left in some woods. The assailants then drove the couple's car to the west bound rest area and left the car. McCann thinks the two killers then ran across 64 to the east bound rest area, got in their car and left.

"You have a leader and a follower. The follower does everything he's told. Sometimes he wants to and sometimes he doesn't," says McCann, who thinks the two men first killed in 1986. Cathleen Thomas and Rebecca Dowski were the first to die 23 years ago Monday. The killers used knives in a grisly scene that was left behind.

The two victims were found in Thomas' car down a ravine along the Colonial Parkway. "We used the moniker 'Colonial Parkway Killers' to describe these eight incidents because this is where it all began," says McCann. "I think someone posing as law enforcement took the couple by surprise, took control of them, and did whatever they wanted to do with Thomas and Dowski."

The bloody scene left behind may have even affected the killers who after this attack started using guns. McCann concluded the killers used guns, which were quicker and cleaner. McCann thinks the two posed as law enforcement and shot David Knobling and Robin Edwards at the Ragged Island Wildlife refuge in 1987. The couple was likely taken by surprise in the parking lot, taken to the James River, shot, and thrown in the water. The couple was found on the shore a few days later.

McCann asks, "Why does someone get firearms? To gain control quickly in these cases, then sneak up on the victims, overtaking them quickly. All eight victims were young, fit, and strong, and would fight back better against one killer rather than two with guns."

McCann doesn't know what happened to the bodies of Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey who disappeared in April 1988 from the Colonial Parkway. He thinks the two serial killers are involved in that, and agrees the FBI is correct in its bottom-up review. McCann says, "These killers may not be associated with the same girls they were with. Maybe the girls or family will come forward. People die, go to prison. May be someone who knows what happened, and someone does, would come forward at some point knowing there would be no retribution. Every five years the world changes and one day someone will come forward."

Using new technology the FBI continues investigating the murder cases, and the agency says contrary to what some believe the cases were never closed, and remain open today. Special Agent Alex J. Turner of the Norfolk Division of the FBI says, "Even with DNA the technology is constantly changing....evidence from each case is being re-examined in an effort to use this new technology and methods, not previously available to the investigators to develop new leads and move the investigation forward."

"It's very frustrating because the worst thought of all is that these two men killed other people we may not know about," McCann says. McCann thinks the two who killed are dead themselves or in prison for other crimes, "They are like lions. The lion tastes the blood and he keeps going for the blood. These guys would have done the same thing. They haven't, best of our knowledge, killed since 1989, so they are either dead or in prison. "

McCann hopes his participation in this report will get someone who knows something to come forward and help solve the mystery. He is convinced the killers will be caught.