Wilmer connected to two more murders —  total now six

Often stayed on his workboat; sometimes docked in Middlesex

On Tuesday, Jan. 20, the FBI announced it has closed another double homicide connected to the Colonial Parkway Murders of the 1980s.

According to FBI public affairs officer Cassandra Temple, deceased Lancaster County man Alan W. Wilmer Sr. has been named as the person responsible for the deaths of Cathleen Thomas, 27, and Rebecca Dowski, 21, in October 1986. Wilmer, who died in 2017 at his residence in Mollusk, has now been connected to at least six murders in eastern Virginia and four in the group ofv murders collectively known as the Colonial Parkway Murders from 1986-1989. During the 1980s, Wilmer often stayed on his workboat, which he sometimes docked at various locations in Middlesex County.

Thomas and Dowski werev the first in the series of murders that terrorized Virginians at the time. Their bodies were found inside their vehicles on the historic parkway in 1986.

According to Temple, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia confirmed that, had Wilmer been alive today, the evidence developed through this investigation would have supported federal prosecution.

This was the sixth death connected to Wilmer…