The Colonial Parkway Murders /// Part 1 /// 226 | Forensic Files

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grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] our story has a beautiful start to it
because of the setting this week's case takes place in historic Virginia on a Scenic Parkway
an area treasured by all Americans for its Colonial history natural beauty this is a gorgeous 23 Mile stretch of
road that belongs to the National Park Service a desirable Drive linking the three
points of Virginia's historic triangle Jamestown Williamsburg and Yorktown a roadway shielded from commercial
development that does not allow semi trucks it is toll-free and has speed limits of just 35 to 45
miles per hour it is also popular with tourists due to the James River and York River
ends of the parkway an area that many have and will go out of their way to see and travel
but then starting in 1986 there was great cause to avoid this area especially after Dark
because during the course of four years not one not two not even three but four brutal and senseless double murders of
young couples terrorized the Colonial Parkway region and then one day just as suddenly as it
all had began the killings stopped now thirty years later the investigation into Virginia's oldest serial murder
case continues and the murderer remains at Large this is the case of the Colonial Parkway
murders [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] I've received a lot of great emails over
the past few weeks sending us High Praise for some of our cases that we've covered lately several people saying
that early 90s mid 90s cold cases is the bread and butter of True Crime garage and I appreciate beer and butter
everyone's saying that our case today one that I'm very excited to cover this is a case that has always fascinated and
intrigued me takes place in the mid to late 80s so we will see if we can receive such high praise for this
coverage of this case of what I would call a cold case and there's some debate on to how cold this
case and these cases actually are and we'll certainly get into that before we're through but there's what's great
about this case there's been a lot of renewed interest in this case and I think it's because of the 30-year
anniversary we have four double homicides the first that took place in 1986 the second in 87 then 88 and 89 and
so what we've seen the last few years is a renewed interest in each one of these
cases and the Colonial Parkway murders as a whole and we will continue to see that this year and next year as well now
before we get into these cases that make up the Colonial Parkway murders we need
to get a little background on the parkway itself understanding the environment of the Colonial Parkway is
crucial to the cases we are going to discuss construction began on the Colonial Parkway in 1930 and it was completed in
portions and would be a project that would take over 25 years the parkway was designed to follow the York and James
Rivers which feed into the Atlantic Ocean on April 27 1957 the Colonial Parkway opened for traffic along the
entire route between Yorktown and Jamestown the scenic 23 Mile parkway connects three of the most historic
spots in our great country Yorktown on the York River where George Washington beat the Redcoats also Williamsburg
which is Virginia's Colonial capital and Jamestown on the James River where the English settlers first founded colonies
way back in 1607 it is part of the national park services Colonial National Historic Park which is a 10 000 acre
Federal Park the parkway is windy and curvy with low overpasses no commercial vehicles or structures are on the
parkway it is a three-lane road the center lane is for passing only the tree shaded passage is punctuated with Scenic
pull-offs and picnic areas and both tourists and locals enjoy these recreational areas during the day to
read picnic exercise or just enjoy the Virginia's historic culture deer and other Wildlife are often visible on the
parkway's fringes but at night we have overhanging trees that cover the road and this makes it extremely dark out
there as it was described in one article there are no street lights no call boxes
no fast food restaurants or convenience stores where a driver might find refuge in case of a breakdown
so once it's dark the pull-offs along the parkway attract a different crowd kids go there to party lovers meet for a
nighttime tryst or who knows what else goes on there after dark a lot of sucking in the 1980s these areas had a
reputation among authorities as being sites for hookups illegal drugs and underage drinking at any given time in
the park two Patrol Rangers are on duty the Rangers Drive the parkway until midnight most nights and other nights
all night long how many Park Rangers two at night time it's patrolled by two because there's this is a pretty big
Park well it's a 23 Mile stretch of road and the other thing here though there's not
a lot of access points to get on or off of this 23 Mile Stretch and what my thought is here is that you probably
have you have two guys patrolling it throughout the night but you probably have a dispatcher that's on on call as
well or or Manning the phones let's say right who if there were a call could then dispatch a ranger to your location
now keep in mind though there's no call boxes and this is the 1980s we're not we're not calling people on cell phones
if we break down yeah unless you're Doc Brown or Marty McFly well technically the park itself closes at Sunset but the
parkway obviously stays open to traffic overnight some of the picnic areas are closed in the winter months and some
pool offs have a 20-minute parking limit between the hours of 6 a.m and 10 p.m but are actually closed after 10 pm so
you're not supposed to be on those things after dark the parkway falls under the Rangers jurisdiction because
it is federal land owned by the National Park Service so when a serious crime is committed the
York County Sheriff's Department is called in with police from neighboring locales assisting but the FBI may also
become involved in investigations the most common offenses in the park are violations of driving and liquor laws as
one would expect to give you a better idea the combined 1988 and 1989 statistics show that there were just
over 2 400 traffic offenses 39 drunken driving charges 92 vehicle accidents where there was damage to
Vehicles 11 with personal injuries one fatality and five hit and runs there were also two alcohol-related accidents
during the course of those two years one additional aspect of the parkway that is intriguing surrounding it are
the the Cheatham Annex Naval base and we also have the Yorktown Naval weapons station also nearby is Camp Perry which
is a compound owned by the defense department where the CIA operates secret training missions
now let's get to 1986 Captain so back in 1986 Rebecca and dorski is 21 years old
she's from Poughkeepsie New York and a senior at William and Mary a prestigious liberal arts college located in
Williamsburg Virginia yeah she transferred there from another school after two years and was majoring in
business management she went by the nickname of Becky and was the youngest of five
she was very athletic excelling at softball among other sports and had studied abroad in high school
Kathleen Thomas age 27 was from Lowell Massachusetts well Kathy as she was known had attended the United States
Naval Academy in Annapolis she was actually one of the first women to graduate from the academy in fact Kathy
her brother and father were the first father-daughter-son family to graduate from Annapolis that's cool yeah Kathy
followed in the footsteps of her father who was a career naval officer her family describes her as a Trailblazer
obviously she's one of the first women to graduate from the Naval Academy but they describe her as loving life and
excelled at whatever she wanted to do after graduation Kathy had served five years in the Navy as a protocol officer
at Atlantic Fleet headquarters in Norfolk Virginia she had been discharged from the Navy earlier 1986 and was now
working as a stockbroker at Brokers Securities Incorporated this is in Virginia Beach she was athletic and
trained in martial arts Thursday night October 9 1986 was the start of the five-day Columbus Day holiday weekend
for the College of William and Mary and Kathy was at the college visiting Becky as she did each Thursday evening what
was not known to everyone at the school was that Kathy and Becky were in a romantic relationship and had been
dating for about six months this was Virginia in the 80s and a lesbian couple this is not generally considered
socially acceptable at this time Becky was Kathy's second steady girlfriend and the two actually had been introduced by
Kathy's ex now but I think they were dating at the time what's that I think they were dating at the time and that's
how they met okay most of Kathy's family knew about her sexuality and her relationship with Becky in fact Kathy's
brothers and parents were expecting to meet Becky for the first time over Thanksgiving Becky's family however did
not know that she was a lesbian Becky was scheduled to return home to Poughkeepsie for the holiday break her
car was packed up and ready to go she had told her parents that she planned to stop and visit friends on the way home
to New York so she might not arrive until Sunday now Kathy was visiting Becky at the college on that Thursday
night October 9th her apartment was an hour's Drive Away Becky and Kathy were seen in the computer lab at William and
Mary they left the lab around 9pm and left the campus at this time as well driving Kathy's car because the two were
pretty much forced because of the times to keep their relationship on the down low they often would take a drive you
know they would go off campus find somewhere that they could be alone now friends of theirs said that they would
on occasion find a secluded spot along the Colonial Parkway on Saturday October 11th Becky's friends
whom she had intended to visit on Friday and Saturday became alarmed when she never arrived and so they called the
police in Virginia Maryland and Pennsylvania but nothing came of these calls so these calls they're not really
calling to report her as missing but more so of an inquiry you know more of a where is she call than we know she is
missing call we don't know whether anyone at Kathy's job reported that she did not show up
for work on that Friday what we do know is that neither woman was reported missing then on Sunday October 12 1986
around 5 30 p.m a jogger was running on the banks of the York River along the Colonial Parkway near Yorktown
this part of the parkway is on the grounds of the United States Naval Supply Center it's just 10 miles east of
the William and Mary campus this is federal property right this jogger spotted Kathy's 1980 White Honda Civic
in the bushes the car was found perched at a 45 degree angle front and down in the Bramble
covered embankment between a pull-off spot and the York River about 35 feet from the roadway
the Honda wasn't visible from the road but the jogger was running on the river embankment and could see areas where
passing cars could not the jogger assuming that the Honda had been in an accident alerted the park
rangers who patrolled the parkway Rescuers arrived and broke the rear hatchback window of the car to gain
access to the two people that they could see inside the car hoping that they were
still alive so we have Rangers showing up to the scene they find this car in the Bush's nose down practically
one of the Rangers for some reason believes that these individuals could still be alive it's not reported which
Ranger decided to break the hatchback window right it's a little bit unclear and that might be important later and
we'll get into that but that will be of some significance regardless the responders worked extremely hard to get
into that car sadly what they found inside was gruesome not only were the two passengers inside dead but they
could tell immediately that they were looking at a double homicide Park Rangers called the local field office of
the FBI and waited for the feds to arrive a short time later the FBI investigators climbed down the
embankment to the car once they saw the scene inside they photographed the car's location and
positioning and then they had a wrecker tow the car back up to to the pull-off area near the road there was some debate
whether they should do this because it's going to disturb their crime scene but the thought was that they thought by
this point it had been Disturbed enough and that they weren't going to be able to examine the car in the manner that
they wanted to so they had to kind of roll the dice and say yep let's have the tow truck pull this thing up and out of
the bushes so we can look at it take a good look at it so what evidence was found by the FBI well they found Kathy's
body crumbled in the hatchback section of the car Becky's body was in the back seat with her legs diagonally pointing
to the front seats with one foot wedge between the door and the front seat both women were fully clothed and there was
no immediate sign of any sexual assault investigators looked for driver's licenses to try to identify the victims
right both Becky and Kathy's purses were found under the seats but Kathy's wallet
was on the floor and out of her purse both women's wallets contained money a ring was still on Kathy's finger and
investigators noted that it did not look like they had been robbed the bodies were taken to the State
medical examiner's office the car was a mess with broken glass from the shattered back window there were leaves
and there were there were blood inside the vehicle but a strange thing there was not enough blood according to
investigators there should have been more meaning it didn't look like the women had been killed inside the car
right they've been killed elsewhere and then placed inside the car well because they you know their throats were slit
yes the the FBI shipped the Honda to the FBI lab in Washington where it was examined using the latest technology at
the time according to Bill Thomas this is Kathy's brother who has become a victims
advocate in this case and in my opinion a 100 expert in this case he says the Honda's driver side window was found in
the rolled down position um I guess a approximately 150 partial fingerprints were found inside the car
unfortunately though the breaking of the hatchback's rear window by Rescuers destroyed any fingerprints the killer or
Killers could have left when closing the hatch on Kathy's you know after placing
Kathy's body in that section of the car so the driver's side windows completely rolled down according to the brother
according to her brother there are other reports that that state that the window
was up and and her ID is the one that's found outside of her purse uh that's a good question Captain I have in my notes
that her her wallet was found on the floor outside of her purse I do not know the the specifics regarding her ID okay
so what it seems to me is that they pull over off the parkway into a spot that we're going to call a Lover's Lane
right yeah and they're gonna do a little hanky-panky yeah and at some point what it seems like is that somebody
approached them uh doesn't look like there's any like wreckage to the vehicle so they weren't
hit doesn't look like anybody hit the car so it seems very that whoever approached them was friendly at the time
of their approachment yeah that makes any sense and then at some point the driver's side window gets rolled down
maybe it was rolled down before the person approached them maybe it wasn't but now we have these two it's almost
like they got out their information to show somebody like a police officer or um park ranger or somebody pretending to
be a a law enforcement well and that has always been one of the huge questions regarding this double homicide were the
two ladies parked and then approached by a vehicle or were they followed to that
location now were they pulled over yeah well the autopsy reports estimate that Becky and Kathy had likely been killed
sometime between 9 30 pm on October 9th and midnight on October 10th so that's that's a big window and I think
the other thing here that makes this tricky is the large window of the time that they were last known to have been
seen on the William and Mary campus to when their bodies are found on that Sunday I mean we're talking days later
so there is some question as to where was the actual last sighting of these two individuals and one being that there
was a a sighting of two women at the York Pub this is an area that would be near you know they would have went past
the York Pub to have gone from William and Mary to where they were eventually found the York Pub would be a place that
it was more of a restaurant than a bar but people would go there to get something to eat maybe have a beer or
two while they're there there was thought that the last meal that they ate contained hamburger and that would go
along with having been at the York Pub however of those site of those sightings those are kind of unconfirmed sightings
of the two ladies so if we go by the coroner's estimation of as early as 9 30 PM keep in mind this area that they were
found is about 10 miles away from the campus that they left around nine o'clock you know so this could have been
a very short time period And as you mentioned they could have been pulled over by somebody that was following them
or they parked there to talk or whatever for a while and somebody approaches the
vehicle and there is a possibility a small possibility that they went out there to meet somebody we have no
evidence of that but there that is a possibility so more evidence Captain the medical examiner found that Kathy and
Becky's hands had been bound and they had both been strangled with nylon rope their hands had been untied at some
point and the Rope had been taken away by the killer since it was not found at the scene later but rope Burns had been
left on the victim's wrist and necks and later investigators would find a three inch piece of rope that was
embedded in the back of Kathy's neck although both women were strangled their throats had been slit as well beyond the
ear to ear Kathy so severely that when her body was removed from the car Law Enforcement
Officers could see down her windpipe she was nearly decapitated now the webbed area between Kathy's right hand at the
the thumb and pointer finger area was ripped and there was also bruising to this hand as if she had put up a bit of
a struggle or had been clawing at the Rope around her neck she had a clump of hair in her hand but
otherwise the women showed few defensive wounds which both families you know we gave it a fair description of both of
these ladies both being tough one having completed the Navy Academy right both being
athletic both families found it extremely strange that the two didn't put up a bigger fight right which makes
you wonder did they meet somebody out there that they knew or did the person that approached them if it was you know
law enforcement or somebody pretending to be in law enforcement it'd be a lot easier for this killer to control his
victims foreign [Music] we're back Cheers Cheers captain and I apologize for going through the
brutality of this crime but there's no way around it there there are things and I believe Clues within what had happened
to these ladies and what was done by the perpetrator or perpetrators at this crime scene yeah this is not a podcast
about soccer right so we have we have some issues here Captain because like I said the investigators were shocked at
the brutality of this crime they say that it was a classic example of Overkill maybe suggesting that it was
somebody that knew them and had hatred for one at least one of these victims but both women were tied up
and this is a tricky thing because this might indicate the possibility of two perpetrators and the families of both of
these women have always wondered this because they had wondered why would the other
sit there and wait as the single perpetrator tied up The Other Woman move and do something and I'm gonna slit her
throat right I get it again you're not moving I get it I love that person you're not
moving I no I get that but there's there's a likelihood that both hands on the perpetrator would be busy at some
point and the thought the the thing that the families keep shouting out is how tough these two individuals were right
and their belief that they would fight now Kathy's car and the women's bodies they
had been doused in diesel fuel now some earlier reports state that it was kerosene and and this was very tricky to
try to decipher most reports State diesel fuel some report kerosene I even heard an
interview with one of the investigators that investigated this crime and he kind
of flip-flops back and forth during the course of this interview and he even mentions diesel fuel but he also
mentions kerosene so I was hoping to get some clarification from him regarding this and I don't think we have that like
I said most reports State diesel fuel so we will roll with that apparently the perpetrator the killer or Killers had
attempted to light the car on fire several matches were found at the top of the embankment the car had been put into
neutral and pushed down the hill toward the river where it became lodged in the bushes diesel fuel apparently does not
ignite you know it burns hotter than gasoline does but it has a much higher ignition point than gasoline does so
whoever tried to light this car on fire either didn't know that or at the very least they were unsuccessful
they're out there out in the woods using matches trying to light this vehicle on
fire so the investigators found it very puzzling that the murderer had access to
diesel fuel meaning that he must have brought it to the scene with him because diesel fuel is not extremely common it's
not something that you know regular motorists drive around within the trunk of their vehicle or in the bed of their
truck so just so I'm following this correctly he he takes these two individuals out of the car
ties them up strangles them with the Rope maybe they're dead maybe they're not dead maybe the maybe the suspect doesn't
know if they are so then Cuts their throat puts them back in the car that's why there would be less blood in
the car because they were cut outside of the vehicle correct put back into the car
and then dalston diesel fuel it doesn't light because it doesn't it has a higher
lighting ignition point pushes the car down so almost like the fire I couldn't get it to you know the evidence would be
burned away fingerprints all that stuff would be burned away but now that it's not going
to be burned away I'm going to push the car closer to the water well and thank you for saying that
because the thing here is one thing I always wondered about this case so before I get in into this whole thing
here just to touch upon something yes the detective surprised that the actual murders happened outside of the car for
several reasons one there should have been more blood inside of the car and two a Honda Civic hatchback is a very
small car so it would have been very difficult for these murders to take place inside of that small confined
space so moving on to the burning of the vehicle and then trying to push it down
into the river you know years ago when I looked into this case I'd always questioned their
findings of the statement that the car was put into neutral lit on fire and then pushed down the embankment I always
thought that maybe there was a chance that the vehicle was pushed down the embankment and when it got caught in the
bushes the killer then goes oh crap my attempt at concealing this vehicle by pushing it down into the river didn't
work out so now I'm going to burn it because the burning of the vehicle seems strange to me we described how dark this
place would have been and we do know that it is being patrolled but it's not heavily patrolled
right right doesn't a fire just like call screaming attention to your crime scene to the the murders that actually
the victims having sat there in the car having sat there for the possibility of two or three days well it might cause
attention oh it's going to cause a lot of attention at night right not so much attention during the day the thing here
is after having studied this further I think that they were right and not necessarily just because the matches the
matches that were attempted to have been used were found up by the roadway I think they're right because one thing
I didn't know before was that the interior of the car as well as the bodies of the two victims had been
doused in the same fuel in that diesel fuel and what I mean by that is we saw how
much the Rangers struggled to get into the vehicle after it was lodged in the bushes
the killer would have had the same problem and therefore it would have been extremely difficult for him to douse the
female victims as well as the interior of the vehicle with this diesel fuel after having become a lodged in the
bushes so I think the detectives are spot on with their speculation of yes these murders occurred outside of the
vehicle the victims were then placed inside the vehicle the vehicle set on fire and then
the attempt of pushing it down the embankment well it's weird too because it seems like the manner in which they
were killed and then the manner in which somebody tried to cover the sub it seems
very amateurish it does and it's weird in a way that like you had mentioned if if you're tying up two people and you're
a lone perpetrator and your way of controlling the victims and keeping them together is by threatening the lives of
one of them well then that means you have some means of threatening them we know that a knife was brought to the
scene because the throats were slit right and one could guess maybe a gun was used because as you had mentioned
maybe they thought a person of authority was approaching their vehicle that night
or had pulled them over this being a park ranger or a police officer but as any investigator will explain
once we're face to face if I have a gun and you don't I'm somebody of authority whether I have a badge or not and so if
in fact this killer we know that we brought the knife at some point they they have diesel fuel there they have
rope there with them and possibly a gun as well I mean how many weapons this seems like a somebody goes out in the
middle of the night and brings everything they can think of to bring with them to make sure hey I'm gonna
kill somebody tonight and there's nothing that's going to stop me yeah it's like a Fisher Price my first murder
kit well the murders were so vicious that at the time the investigators they had to assume that it was personal so
they started looking into everyone in Kathy and Becky's lives talking to their friends and families and and pursuing
multiple leads well and yeah and X relationships well initially the entire 50 agent Norfolk FBI office worked this
case and park rangers even stopped drivers on the Parkway and asked them if they had seen anyone or anything that
could be related to this investigation the York River near the scene was dragged similar cases in other regions
were searched for Kathy's ex her name is Jolene was thoroughly investigated and none of this panned out none of it
really LED anywhere there were so many unanswered questions and she was highly suspect for a while because she was seen
with them on the last day that they were seen and that she also had a class with
her ex so they really kind of narrowed in on her and try to try to shake her you know and and just nothing came out
well you know what was was interesting was I I read a bunch of interviews with Kathy circle of friends including her ex
that were conducted years and years later and one thing that they all kind of pointed out was they believe that Jolene
was considered a suspect because one as you stated that there seemed to be it seemed to be that this new relationship
started right after that old relationship had ended and what all of her friends would later say in these
interviews is that they don't think that in the 1980s that the FBI really understood a lesbian relationship and
that they couldn't kind of wrap their heads around it and therefore they they really honed in on this Jolene person
where all of the Kathy's friends all along had always said there was nothing there that that
relationship was over and in in what was even uh more interesting was that Jolene
had introduced Kathy to Becky yeah but see that's where the story is crisscross and some people say that after the
relationship ended is when she said hey you might like Kathy and then the other side of the story is that during why
they're dating is when she met Kathy and so it's almost like she took her away and so I just think it's just um rumors
well no I'm going off of the people that knew the three of these the most right I'm just saying for years that was one
of the rumors was that it had to be the X because uh she took her away from her yeah
well like I said so many unanswered questions in this um the things that here's some things
that I try to wrap my head around when talking about this one this is a long drawn out double killing so how did the
suspect have time to do this this is outside of the car in a public spot and seemingly without the fear of detection
so that's one question and then if he had planned to burn the car why did he remove the bindings holding the girls
you know and and he cut the rope from Kathy's neck but he left a three inch piece of this that was one question I
had going into it and I think some of the research I did explained that answer to me once in a while we get some
answers the investigator one of the investigators pointed out that it's his opinion that the three-inch piece of
rope was left there on accident that the killer had slit the throat while the neck was still tied right so that makes
some clarification there and then you also have to wonder was there a chance that the killer killed
them somewhere else entirely and then drove the car with the bodies in the back of the car to the abandoned to
abandon it along the parkway it's very possible as well the other strange thing here kind of the tough thing here is
because it's outside because it's in you know there's a grassy area and stuff and
so many days later do we find the vehicle in the bodies that evidence could you know if it rains
you know a lot of the evidence can leave the scene well and what's the motive and
I think this is another reason why they look at the inner circles because what's
the motive there was no robbery and there was no sexual assault now let's move forward in our timeline
to almost a year later we have David nobling he is 20 years old and lives in Hampton Virginia David's family say he
is someone who would do anything to help out his friends and family he is plain and simple just a nice guy
he and Robin Robin is only 14 years old they had met earlier that day this is Saturday September 19
1987. and just put this out there I've seen this case covered by several things and and nobody ever points out that
that's a little odd we have a 20 year old hanging out with a 14 year old I know it's in the 80s but the times were
not that much different I find it a little strange they met when a group of friends including David's brother
Michael and their younger cousin went to an arcade in Newport Robin liked older boys uh she was smart and even wise for
her young age she was involved in peer counseling and David had just learned that his girlfriend at the time was
pregnant there's some talk if it was his ex-girlfriend or his current girlfriend
but the two of them spent some time that evening talking later David drove home he drove the whole group home after
dropping Robin off at her house around 11 pm David and his brother went home they ordered pizza and they watched TV
we don't know for sure what transpired between David and Robin during that short time that they had met but later
investigators and both families guessed that the two had planned to meet up so Robin took off to meet him David left
his family's home around midnight not telling Michael where he was going David was known to drive out to a place called
ragged Island this is a ragged Island Wildlife Refuge in his black Ford pickup ragged Island
was a secluded marshy Wildlife Refuge which was known as a teen hangout and a party spot Robin and David's families
noticed that they were missing the next day and apparently they must have had some kind of discussion between the two
families because after they pieced This Together the families decided that the two must have gone off together Robin
had run away before apparently her mother worked nights so I don't know if she was just waiting for her mother to
leave for work and then she was free to leave the house and go do whatever she wanted to do hang out with with uh David
or whatever you know but both families acknowledge that the two possibly could have quote hooked up despite the age
difference early Monday morning a sheriff's deputy spotted David's Ford Ranger pickup in
the parking lot at the Wildlife Refuge at the southern foot of the James River Bridge this is not a location on the
Colonial Parkway but this is the opposite side of the James River now the driver's side door was open the keys
were in the ignition the engine was not running but the wipers were still on and
the trucks radio was blaring some sources indicate that the driver's side window was partially open
the deputy saw close strewn about the cab of the truck which turned out to be Robin and David's underwear and some
shoes they also found a wallet on the dashboard despite this ominous scene though the deputy figured the driver had
just stepped away and he turned the ignition to off right Robin's family reported her absence later that day and
the connection was made to the truck that had been found on ragged Island which was towed Away by County officials
family members noted that Robin's purse was not found in the truck organized searches began with both officials and
family members searching in two days of heavy rain David's family says they knew
as soon as the truck was found that something was terribly wrong his truck was his pride and joy and he would never
have left it with the keys still in it for anyone to steal there was some thought that the truck
had been driven by somebody else for one thing David always parked the truck in reverse so it was facing out of the
parking spot the truck was found nose in and David and his brother had rigged the
truck so that the keys did not to need to be in the ignition to have the radio on but in this case the radio was on and
the keys were found in the ignition right so two days later on September 22nd David's stepfather
he was searching on ragged Island's Shores a mile into the reserve for any sign of his stepson when a nearby jogger
named Lewis Ford spotted what he thought was just a pile of clothes instead it turned out to be the body of
Robin Edwards who had been shot in the back of the head several Reports say that her genes were
undone and her bra was pushed up although it wasn't clear if this was done by water the killer or weather or
whatever right you know maybe she could have been interrupted during the state of some kind of state of undress yeah
maybe in a state of pre-coitus soon afterwards Carl found David shirtless a few dozen yards away at the base of an
embankment David had also been shot once in the shoulder and once in the back of
the head the caliber of gun used has never been released to the public although I did hear one investigator
many years later going off of memory saying it might have been a 38. investigators guessed that David had
tried to make a run for it toward the woods and had been brought down with the shoulder shot and then executed it
looked to authorities as though the young pair had died between 12 30 a.m and 5 30 a.m on on Sunday morning a
group of teens who had been partying at the parking lot told police that when they left at 2 am David's truck was not
there yet now we know from reports Right comes out years later that it's believed that Robin had had
sex before she died but in those days DNA testing was not available to determine who she had sex with what was
strange was that David and Robin were found about a mile from the truck you know so did they walk the mile in
the Pitch Black in the middle of the night to The River's Edge or had someone possibly driven them to within 200 yards
of the shore where you could pull over shoot them and then drive the truck back to where it was later found yeah well
let's go into detail this again so the one somebody comes up on them they're in the
truck they get them out of the truck take them about a mile away kill them leave the scene yeah
there's also the possibility that they're out of the truck for whatever reason we maybe the truck wasn't in that spot
trucks in a different location maybe they're not that far away from the truck but they're outside of the truck for
whatever reason this murderer comes up on him kills them there the murderer moves the truck
right right so that would be option two yep and then the other option is what you said is that
the murderer took them out a mile in the truck killed them and then moved the truck
possibility yeah yeah the thing here though that the families have questioned regarding them being outside of the
truck uh one being that the families both seem to think that the two of them would have went there for
one of two reasons either to party you know to do to do drugs and drink or to hook up
or both and what the families have often said regarding this is given the weather that
night and given how cold it was that evening it had rained quite a bit that day as well both families believe that
whatever they went there to do especially if it was one of those two reasons or both that they would have
done that inside the truck so we have a situation where it seems like the family
believes that if they were approached by somebody they were probably sitting in the truck when approached well it's so
strange to me the door was found open yeah so this is strange well you know what I actually think went down and I
and I don't I'm not going to sit here and pretend to know where they were killed or or how they were approached by
their eventual killer but I think what took place is this I actually think they were killed elsewhere out away from the
truck and away from where they were eventually found I think that whoever shot them killed them and then attempted
to dump their bodies in the river where they were later washed ashore and I think that the killer after having
dumped the bodies left the truck with the keys in it in the parking lot with the door open and the radio on as a
way to maybe entice somebody to steal the truck could you imagine if you are out in the middle of this wildlife
refuge and you shoot two people you're able to successfully Place their bodies in the river which the water takes them
away and then you place their truck in a place where it gets stolen and then maybe moved even states away
you're likely are not going to get caught for that double homicide yeah I see what you're saying but I don't think
that this killer is that sophisticated when Robin and David were found no one connected the
case to the murders of Kathy and Becky for one thing Dave and Robin were not found along the parkway ragged island is
nearly 30 miles South of the Parkway and the Mo's were not the same and the manner of death was completely different
we have strangulation in the throat slitting in the first one and then gunshots in the second the sheriff
investigating along with the state police stated that they had two suspects in this particular case but were having
difficulty Gathering evidence to bring them to justice we do know that the sheriff had a theory that a man named
Sammy reader may have been involved apparently he had failed a polygraph and had admitted to taking money
from David's wallet that was found inside of his truck the thing here is Sammy reader would give multiple stories
to the Sheriff's Department regarding what went down that evening and one story he states that he saw the two exit
the truck and they walked down to the beach and that's when he approached the truck and
kind of went through it to see what he could find while they were away and another story he says that they went off
into the bushes and same thing occurred he went into the truck to see what he could find and took money from the
wallet so so we know he's a thief and we know he's a liar well and by his own accord he was inside the vehicle at some
point you wonder is he the person that left the door open well if you need to explain away fingerprints you just did
if you can convince law enforcement that you didn't kill these two but just in fact stole money from them given the
opportunity yes so you're you're a liar you're a thief and you were born in a barn well the third story and forgive me
Captain because I don't know the order in which these stories were delivered I do know that there were three different
stories given to police during the course of questioning and they all varied slightly well one of the stories
is that there were other people in this area hanging out and partying I don't know if these were I imagine it would be
people similar in age to Robin and to David you know teens early 20s hanging out and partying the problem with that
though is investigators sought that angle and they couldn't find anybody else that would admit to having been in
the area that night so the first murders take place in 1986 the second the double
homicide the second double homicide happens in 87 but now that's 30 some miles away from the parkway but now
we're gonna have another murder in 88 Keith call and Sandy Haley were on a first date on sept
a and Sandy Haley were on a first date on Saturday April 9th 1988 they both were students at Christopher Newport
University in Newport News where they were classmates Sandy was an 18 year old freshman who modeled and taught High
School gymnastics as she entered College Keith was 20 years old and his friends and family describe him as a quote
computer geek in a Time way before computers were popular while he was going to school for computer science
something you know a lot about Keith had borrowed a shirt from his brother that day so he could look good for his date I
guess they attended a party at the University Square Apartments although they had told Sandy's mom that they were
going to go to a movie of course well they're you know that's typical teenager crap right 20 and 18 yeah yeah you go
and you have a few drinks and you tell everybody else you're going to the movies we're going to the library both
Sandy and Keith were seen at the party uh they were seen talking to other people though and it actually didn't
look like the date was going well to other people the two seem to be getting along but
they weren't really they didn't seem to be any romantic Spark all right but he's
a computer geek so he might have some social flaws uh I think that they were both of them
actually were out of recent relationships and I think both of them at some point had told people at the
party that uh you know hey Keith's a nice guy but I kind of miss so and so and I think you
know Keith probably said the same thing you know Sandy's really nice girl super cool but you know I'd rather kind of be
back in my relationship yeah I went on a date like that one time we went to a coffee shop and we just got coffee and
we decided to walk down the main street of Ohio State campus and after two hours
I'm talking about my ex and her talking about her ex it was like okay well this is more of a therapy session than it was
a date right right and and this it doesn't look like anything bad was going on just like I said no romantic Sparks
seemed to be happening it seemed like the two of them were more interested in hanging out separately at this party and
talking to their different clicks or their different friends there so friends say that the two left the party before 2
A.M and this is roughly about 1 30. yeah because well Sandy lived at home and her curfew
was 2 A.M so they would have left there with enough time to get her home to meet
her curfew and this is pretty late when you consider the time frame you know being 88. on Sunday morning around 7 A.M
Keith's father was driving to work and saw his son's red 1982 Toyota Celica parked at the small York River Overlook
along the Colonial Parkway the vehicle was unoccupied this was between one and three miles from the location of Kathy
and Becky the first victims that were found 18 months earlier so his father stopped looked inside nothing seemed to
be out of place he shouted several times for his son but you know no Keith so he
decided to continue along his way he was driving to work at 9 A.M a park ranger reported the vehicle as abandoned a
Rangers waited until Monday to call the FBI who had jurisdiction because of the parkway's federal designation the car
was impounded by then Sandy and Keith had been reported missing okay so I know that seems a little confusing but
basically what we have is these two individuals leave the party they've were not spotted all of the next
day they're unheard from first his father finds the vehicle abandoned then later the Rangers reported as abandoned
they have it impounded but at some point authorities are going to make the connection between this abandoned
vehicle and then the two that had been reported missing so Rangers reported that when they found
the Celica the driver's door was open the windows were down and Keith's car keys were in the ignition some Reports
say that the keys were on the seat but most in the ignition one this is so strange too because the father finds it
before the park rangers find it and he doesn't shut the door or maybe he does shut the door and then
it's opened by somebody else later um you're getting into an area that's that's very
interesting regarding this case because the description that Keith's father gives of the vehicle is vastly different
than the description that the Rangers give and this is one of those sad moments in
a case that and it's not realized until many many years later so myself was in this group as well but
but mainly Keith's father is the one that I want to talk about here when Keith's father found the car he
said that the way that the thing looked to him was that the two had went there parked and were hanging out and just had
gotten out of the car at some point and went off somewhere and when he shouted and called for his
son's name and his son never showed up he just assumed that the two were off let's say having a good time okay and he
heading to work decided to continue on when he found the vehicle like I said it was described completely different the
way that the Rangers would later describe it and the thought that that had been shared by Keith's family and
the general public for many many years was that holy crap did did his father stumble stumble upon this vehicle and
then at some point the killer returned to return items belonging to the two to the vehicle because when he found the
vehicle it seemed to be practically empty and um I can't remember if he saw the keys
or not I think he did see the keys but there apparently there were no clothing there was no clothing found in the car
he didn't see any or claims he didn't see any when the park rangers come to find it they find a lot of them clothing
almost all of each person's clothing well we would learn the truth of that and what I mean by this is like I said
for many many years a lot of people believe there was a chance the killer had returned to the vehicle in that
short window of time between when Keith's father had found it and then later the Rangers find it what we would
learn the the Rangers would later come out and admit to this and this is quite embarrassing on their end
what had happened was they had found the vehicle before Keith's father made it to
the car right they collected items that were found inside the vehicle and took them with them
later they realized that this car was not just abandoned it was connected to these missing persons so what they ended
up doing is the put in the items back they put them back in and and returned the vehicle to how going off of memory
as to how they had originally found it yeah awkward well the sad thing here is Keith's father you know this information
didn't come out until many many years later and I don't have it here in my notes Captain but I believe it wasn't
until 2007 or 2009 so we're talking 18 maybe 20 years later that this information
comes out and Keith's father passes away never having known the truth and never understanding why he found the vehicle
in one state and very shortly after the Rangers claimed that it was in a different state right so but so when
they do find this and they know that these individuals are missing they start searching right and then they once they
can't find these individuals they start thinking that they they might be in the water
correct yeah there was a thought and I kind of you hear the the tone that I changed to there
the the running theory that the Rangers had was that the two decided to take off
their clothes leave the clothes in the vehicle and then go down to the water to go skinny dipping yeah because when
you're on a bad date that's something you do that's usually where that leads hey you want to see my
twig and berries and go for a dip sure well there's a lot of problems with that and and we got too much to cover for me
to go through all of the issues with that but let's talk about what was found in the vehicle okay so we said that the
keys were found in the ignition or on the seat now we also have Keith's wallet that was
found in the back seat with 12 dollars inside of it and a watch and Eyeglasses were on the dashboard all of Keith's
clothing and shoes were found scattered inside of the car and most of Sandy's clothing including one shoe and her bra
were found inside the car Sandy's purse was in the car but her wallet was missing two empty beer cans were in the
back some reports indicate that the glove box was open the clothes in the car LED Rangers to believe that for some
reason the couple had decided to go skinny dipping okay let's touch on this just for a second never mind that it's 2
A.M the temperature that night in April was was 40 some degrees and who goes swimming in Polar Bear Club
right shrinkage um and the Overlook was up high on the embankment Okay so here's the big problem that the family
had initially with this Theory they said look it's too cold and second of all it
doesn't make any sense that the two would strip down to nothing and then walk over a half a mile down the road to
go skinny dipping in the middle of the night so furthermore is Sandy naked except for one shoe you know what
I mean is she walking down the street in one shoe half a mile to get to this location
uh this Theory by the Rangers was was abandoned fairly quickly um once the FBI stepped in and once the
family imagine the the FBI shows up and goes this is what you came up with guys this is what you came up with and you
know that the two Rangers that are on duty they failed the FBI test you know that right so they wanted to be FBI
because the FBI and the cias are right around the corner training their training facilities are right around the
corner and these flunkies come across a vehicle they take stuff out of it they have to put it back in
based off memory and then they come up with these goofy ideas you know that the FBI was giving them [ __ ] about this well
the the funny thing here is like so the the Rangers come out with this Theory and they kind of announce it publicly
right away and there and we would learn that that's kind of why they confiscated the items that they had
originally found they thought that the two had just walked away from the vehicle
um the families publicly said look this story makes no sense this Theory makes no sense we're all for theories and
trying to figure out what happened to our loved ones but this story makes no sense this is not a great Theory well
and if you thought they went skinny dipping why would you steal their clothes so they then when they come back to the
car that they have to drive naked well and then then the FBI finally steps in and the FBI says look we discredited
this Theory through things we found in the investigation and by using common sense
was their statement that they gave so and and look we're knocking these Park Rangers but hey we've we've talked to
several Park Rangers that have brilliant brains the I'm just saying that these these ones did not yeah
and who knows who knows what's going on in this situation but the feds did set up a makeshift headquarters and they
were assigned to follow up on All Leads now a Tides expert indicated to investigators that if the bodies had
been thrown into the York River it would take at least three days for them to surface this is based off of the depth
of the river now on Thursday one of the search boats radioed that it had found a
body in the river but the body was of a middle-aged African-American man it turns out that this man had fell off of
a boat a few days my notes say a few days earlier but I believe that they think that this man
could have been in the river for as long as a week or two yeah I believe so despite multiple searches using scent
dogs Nets to drag the York River and helicopters the bodies of Keith and Sandy have never been found they are
presumed however to be dead now I do want to bring this up because one thing that I think really hindered this
investigation was when they brought in these scent dogs now these were cadaver dogs they were hitting on the water
indicating that they were hitting that a body was in the water we've seen this before in other cases though well the
dogs were right I mean eventually a body was found in the river it just wasn't you know the dogs aren't able to tell
you look there's a body in the river it's just not the one you're looking for for the first time after their
disappearance people began to wonder if this could be related to what happened to the others yeah the possibility of
connections among the cases was raised in the media for the first time in April of 1988. in May the FBI offered a ten
thousand dollar reward for information on the 1986 Kathy and Becky case special agent Irwin Wells acknowledged
to the press the possibility that a serial killer was at work but cautioned that quote nothing other than
speculation and geography linked the cases the families wondered how did Keith and Sandy end up so far
from the party and from their homes the parkway was totally out of their way it was not necessary for them to travel on
the parkway well it's possible that this murderer Picks Them Up anywhere yes yeah you know I mean and then sees
them at the party goes hey there's two awkward people leaving together I'm gonna take them over takes
both of them over murders them takes um Keith's vehicle and and Parks it well that's to make it look like they were
approached at the Parkway because if you're the parkway serial killer then you know finding his truck somewhere
else doesn't go with your MO well and you bring up something interesting there so if in fact the
parkway murders are all connected my thought is if if we're going to include this double homicide of Keith
and Sandy along in this and say they're all linked then the issue here is there these two would not have been on the
parkway I couldn't find any reason to suggest that they would have been on the parkway other than
let's say things suddenly were going well on the date and they decided they wanted to park somewhere this doesn't
really make any sense though when we review what was going on that night we know that she had a limited
amount of time to get home for curfew they left the party with basically just enough time to get her home for a curfew
they would not have traveled the Colonial Parkway to return Sandy to her home and furthermore both of them told
several people at the party when they were getting ready to leave I'm taking Sandy home oh he's taking me
home it it almost seems like something happened to the two of them after they left the party and between the party and
Sandy's home something happened to them maybe they were killed elsewhere and then the vehicle as you said taken to
the parkway maybe this indicates that the parkway is more important to the killer than the actual victim right and
you wonder so in 86 we have a lesbian couple they're murdered outside the vehicle put back in the vehicle they're
found 87 we have a heterosexual couple that didn't well they're not a couple but they didn't didn't really know each
other but possibly Lover's Lane type thing they're murdered roughly about a mile and a half away from the vehicle
they're found now we have another heterosexual couple we don't even think that they were driving on the parkway
somehow this vehicle was found but we don't have any bodies found and not really a couple and the other thing to
back up the statement that the two might not have been on the Colonial Parkway they both of these individuals had been
rumored that at times in their life they had told family and friends in in recent
times to these murders or disappearance anyway that they wouldn't go to the parkway now keep in mind there there was
a murder that took place in 1986 a double homicide on there Sandy had told her sister and other family members she
didn't like to travel on the parkway would never drive on the parkway it seems like a strange place for them to
go willingly you know what I mean even if they were going to park and hang out for a little bit the other issue here is
that we have two individuals because this one feels a little different but it's like we have two individuals that
are just got out of relationships right so Sandy's boyfriend Sandy's ex-boyfriend might not know that she's
having a not a horrible time she's just she misses him right so they go to this party for all
we know that their murder has nothing to do with the Parkway and whoever killed them
says well if I put the truck out there they'll start trying to connect that to these other double homicides
well the interesting thing here Captain and the sad thing here the two of them to this very day have never been found
foreign make sure you check out True Crime garage.com go to the store Page where
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The Colonial Parkway Murders /// Part 1 /// 226

Part 1 of 2

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The Colonial National Historic Parkway, Virginia - From 1986 to 1989, four young couples died at the hands of what the FBI long ago concluded was most likely a serial killer or killers. For years investigators actively and exhaustively worked the case, compiling a list of 150 possible suspects. But no one was ever arrested. This week we discuss the details of these unsolved cases and examine if the cases are in fact linked. Beer of the Week - Good Life by Billsburg BreweryGarage Grade - 4 bottle caps

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Brief Summary

The episode examines the Colonial Parkway murders, detailing three brutal double homicides from 1986 to 1988 and their unresolved investigations.

Key points

A Beautiful Setting Turns Dark. The Colonial Parkway, a scenic route, became the site of horrific crimes.
A Hidden Relationship. Kathy and Becky were in a romantic relationship, hidden from many.
Brutal Crime Scene Details. Investigators found Kathy and Becky's hands bound and evidence of strangulation.
Mysterious Diesel Fuel. The killer attempted to burn the vehicle using diesel fuel, which is puzzling.
Discovery of Bodies. The bodies of Robin and David were found, revealing shocking details about their deaths.
The Mysterious Deaths of David and Robin. David and Robin were found a mile from their truck, raising questions about their last moments.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The murderer remains at large.

Summary of the case's current status.

4:12WatchNov 25, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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