DNA tests in Colonial Parkway killings inconclusive

The tips show up regularly in e-mail inboxes. They come by phone and in visits from reluctant or insistent strangers.

They have turned up in dusty memory banks and old boxes - fragments that could settle into insignificance or shake loose a more than two-decade-old mystery.

Bill Thomas is betting on the latter.

The 1986 deaths of his sister, Cathy, and her friend, Rebecca Dowski, were the first of four double slayings on or near the Colonial Parkway in four years' time. Tips to law enforcement eventually stopped, and so did a dogged hunt for an unknown serial killer until authorities pledged a year ago to look again.

Results from recent DNA testing so far are inconclusive, the victims' families say. More results are expected by the end of the year.

"It doesn't steer them back toward any particular suspect, yet," Thomas said from his Los Angeles office.

But there are more complicated forensic tests to finish and the new tips to follow up on.

A convicted murderer sent a postcard from a Virginia prison.

A Colonial Parkway victims' poster at the Amelia County fair this year sparked the memory of a man who recognized the pretty face of Cassandra Hailey, suspected to have disappeared with Richard "Keith" Call in 1988. He insisted he found a wallet containing her driver's license and Christopher Newport University ID while fishing not far from where Call's abandoned car turned up.

The woman's wallet had, in fact, been missing. She also was a CNU student. The man claimed he had turned it over to authorities all those years ago, said Fred Atwell, a close friend of the Call family. But there is no record of it.

The victims' families credit Atwell with renewed interest in the cases; after more than a decade of silence, authorities promised a new look when Atwell went to the media about leaked photos from each of the crime scenes.

Both the FBI and the State Police agreed to DNA testing, which had not been done despite advances in technology. The FBI devoted a full-time special agent: cold-case specialist and former homicide detective Crosby Brackett.

"People are reaching out to me in Los Angeles from Virginia because no one is listening to them," Thomas said. "At least one or two credible tips have come out of it. If anything, it is sounding this steady drumbeat."

Many of the callers and writers thought the infamous Colonial Parkway killings had been solved because they hadn't heard about them in so long, Thomas said. "Some came forward 20 -something years ago."

And the FBI, charged with two of the four double-murder investigations, has followed up, he said. "They call back. Nights, weekends, holidays."

The FBI has declined to comment on specifics in the investigation. But Thomas said Brackett, the special agent, is transferring to an out-of-state office this spring after a year of familiarization with inches-thick files and rapport-building with frustrated families.

"None of us are happy about that," he said.

But for every setback, there is a step forward: A behavioral analysis unit is set to examine the cases for the first time in more than 20 years, Thomas said.

The families continue to write letters and hold fundraisers. They made T-shirts and hosted a fish fry and a car show. They are raffling off a donated car.

"Whenever we do something, people come forward with tips," Thomas said. "I'm hoping some of these will lead somewhere. I'm just hoping we can catch a break."

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5131, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com