After nearly four decades, Virginia State Police say they've found a culprit behind two of the infamous Colonial Parkway murders.

Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. of Lancaster, Va. killed David Lee Knobling and Robin Margaret Edwards in 1987, the agency announced Monday.

Wilmer, who died in 2017, is also linked to a July 1989 Hampton homicide.

DNA evidence collected from the victims confirmed Wilmer’s involvement, police said at a news conference in Suffolk.

Knobling, 20, and Edwards, 14, were found by a beachcomber on Sept. 23, 1987 on the shoreline of Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge in Isle of Wight County. The two had last been seen together four days earlier.

Theirs were the third and fourth murders in a series of cases on the Peninsula spanning the Colonial National Historical Parkway — for which they were named. The other victims — killed in pairs — were Cathy Thomas and Rebecca Dowski, Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey, and Daniel Lauer and Annamaria Phelps. Those cases remain unsolved.

In 1987 and 1989, DNA testing was in its infancy. State police said the technology that confirmed Wilmer’s involvement didn’t exist when the murders occurred.

Geller said they owe a debt to officers who collected the evidence back then.

“They preserved it enough to enable us, 36 years later, to be here today,” she said.

Teresa Spaw Howell’s body was found by construction workers on July 1, 1989 on Butler Farm Road in Hampton. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Wilmer’s DNA was also present in the evidence from her case, connecting him to her murder.

State Police representative Corinne Geller said Wilmer died at 63 at his home in Lancaster in 2017. If he were alive today, she said, he would be charged with the three deaths.

"Nothing will bring (her) back,” Howell’s family said in a statement. “The void left by her absence over the years is inexpressible.”

Geller said Wilmer Sr. had several pickup trucks and a custom wooden boat on which he often lived and sailed. In the 1980s, he made a living as a fisherman harvesting oysters and clams, and ran a tree trimming service. He was also an avid hunter and had no criminal record.

Wilmer's DNA wasn’t obtained until 2023, investigators said. Geller declined to say why or how it was obtained last year, or how long Wilmer had been under investigation.

The new findings don’t conclude the investigation. Norfolk FBI agent Brian Dugan said he’s still seeking the public’s help.

“Take a good look at the suspect's photos,” Dugan said. “If you had any encounters with him or his vehicle or watercraft, hunted with him, farmed oysters or clams, docked next to marinas, spent time with him on a personal basis or at work … we want to hear from you.”

“We’re not ruling anything out,” Geller said.

• 
•