Colonial Parkway murders

The Colonial Parkway murders were the serial murders of at least eight people in the U.S. state of Virginia between 1986 and 1989. The killings mostly took place along the Colonial Parkway, a 22-mile long thoroughfare that cuts through the Colonial National Historical Park and connects Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown. Long stretches of the road are devoid of any streetlights and are extremely isolated, making it a popular lovers' lane location frequented by young adults.

In each incident, a young couple sitting in a vehicle was targeted and both were killed. Three pairs of victims were recovered, and another couple remains missing and presumed dead. Several additional homicides have also been tentatively linked to the four confirmed cases. The causes of death included strangulation, gunshot and stabbing. There was no evidence of burglary or sexual assault in any of the cases. The killer drove his victims’ vehicles away from the murder sites. The linking of the four crimes is circumstantial.

In January 2024, authorities announced that at least two of the murders (David Knobling and Robin Edwards) had been conclusively linked to an official suspect, Alan W. Wilmer Sr., a local fisherman who died in 2017. Wilmer was also identified as a suspect in an unrelated third murder that of Teresa Lynn Spaw Howell.