In the late summer of 1987, the life of 20-year-old David Lee Knobling was tragically cut short in a mystery that would haunt Isle of Wight County, Virginia, for decades. On September 19, the young man, a salesman and automotive enthusiast, was with 14-year-old Robin Margaret Edwards. They were last seen that night, having met earlier when Knobling gave his younger cousin and Edwards a ride. After dropping the others off, it is believed he met up with Edwards again later that evening.
A few days later, on September 21, concern grew as neither Knobling nor Edwards had been heard from. A deputy discovered Knobling's black Ford Ranger pickup truck in the parking lot of the Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge. The scene was unsettling; the keys were in the ignition, the radio was playing, and the wipers were on. Knobling, known for being meticulous with his truck, had uncharacteristically left it unlocked and parked head-in. His wallet was found inside the vehicle, but he and Robin were nowhere to be found.
The search came to a grim end on September 23, 1987, when a person walking along the beach found their bodies washed ashore on the bank of the James River, about a mile from where the truck had been abandoned. Both had been shot. Knobling had been shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the head, in a manner suggesting he may have tried to flee. Edwards had been shot execution-style in the back of the head. Their clothing was in disarray, leading investigators to suspect an assault had occurred. The case was quickly linked to a series of unsolved double homicides in the area, which became known as the 'Colonial Parkway Murders.'
For more than three decades, the families of David Knobling and Robin Edwards were left without answers, and the case grew cold. The investigation saw few leads over the years, leaving a cloud of suspicion and fear over the community. Then, in a major breakthrough in January 2024, the Virginia State Police announced that advances in forensic technology had finally identified a suspect. Through DNA evidence, investigators named Alan Wade Wilmer Sr., a local fisherman, as the man responsible for the murders. Wilmer, who had died in 2017 at the age of 63, was also linked through DNA to the separate 1989 murder of Teresa Lynn Howell. With this announcement, a resolution was finally brought to a case that had remained a painful, open wound for nearly 37 years.
