In the late 1980s, a tranquil stretch of highway known as the Colonial Parkway in South-East Virginia became the haunting backdrop for a series of gruesome murders that would baffle investigators for decades. The victims, couples who met tragic ends, included Cathy Thomas (27) and Rebecca Dowski (21), David Knobling (20) and Robin Edwards (14), Cassandra Hailey (18) and Richard Call (20), and Daniel Lauer (21) and Annamaria Phelps (18).
The first chilling discovery was made on October 12, 1986, when a highway patrolman stumbled upon the bodies of Cathy Thomas and Rebecca Dowski in a car down an embankment. The two women, aged 27 and 21 respectively, had been bound, strangled, and had their throats slit. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the case went cold.
A year later, the bodies of David Knobling (20) and Robin Edwards (14) were found near the James River in Virginia. Shot execution-style, the couple, aged 20 and 14, had met at an arcade, and their deaths were linked to the previous case due to similarities. Again, the investigation hit a dead end.