The Colonial Parkway murders were the murders of at least eight people along the Colonial Parkway in South-East Virginia between 1986 and 1989. Who killed Rebecca Dowski and Cathleen Thomas near the York River in 1986? In the autumn of 1986, Rebecca Ann 'Becky' Dowski, a 21-year-old senior at the College of William & Mary, was focused on her business management studies. On the evening of October 9th, she and her girlfriend, 27-year-old Cathleen 'Cathy' Thomas, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, were last seen leaving a campus computer lab together. Three days later, on October 12th, their lives were discovered to have been brutally cut short.
A jogger running along the scenic Colonial Parkway in
York County, Virginia, spotted a white 1980 Honda Civic that had gone down an embankment near the Cheatham Annex Overlook, just feet from a steep drop into the York River. Inside the vehicle, authorities made a gruesome discovery. The bodies of both Rebecca and Cathleen were found. They had been strangled, and their throats had been slashed so severely that they were nearly decapitated. Rope burns were also found on their necks and wrists. The interior of the car and the victims' bodies had been doused with diesel fuel in an apparent attempt to set the vehicle ablaze, but the fire was never lit. Robbery was ruled out as a motive, as their purses and valuables were left untouched.
The double homicide marked the beginning of a series of slayings that would terrorize the Hampton Roads area for years, becoming known as the 'Colonial Parkway Murders.' For decades, the case of Rebecca Dowski and Cathy Thomas remained cold, leaving their families and the community without answers. The investigation involved local and state police, as well as the FBI, but no arrests were made for many years.
In a major breakthrough in January 2024, authorities announced a significant development in the broader Colonial Parkway Murders investigation. DNA evidence identified a local fisherman and waterman named Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. as the killer in another of the double homicides linked to the series—the 1987 deaths of David Knobling and Robin Edwards—as well as the 1989 murder of Teresa Howell. Wilmer had died in 2017. While DNA has not conclusively linked Wilmer to the murders of Rebecca Dowski and Cathy Thomas, authorities have noted a suspected connection between their case and the ones definitively attributed to him. The investigation into who was responsible for the deaths of Rebecca and Cathy remains officially open.
