Alison (40:47)
So in one instance, in the one instance I'm talking about, the young man in question had long hair. So Wilmer thought that it was two girls in the car and he's banging on the glass like sneering at them, are you girls having fun? And when he realized that it was actually a man and a woman in the car, they said that he backed off a little bit. So after Wilmer was placed on surveillance, he was doing very highly concerning things. Officers noted him cleaning and spray painting his truck. And after the FBI obtained a warrant to search his trailer, they found handcuffs, a gun and pornography. But then an FBI polygraph examiner, he completely cleared him from the case after he passed the exam with flying colors. They basically just completely forgot about this guy. So In May of 1988, the FBI offered a ten thousand dollar reward which in 26 or 2026, excuse me, would be equivalent to about $28,000. And then by June of 1988, the spree of three double homicides were officially dubbed the Colonial Parkway murders. So nearly a year and a half later, on Labor Day, this is Monday, September 4, 1989, 18 year old Anna Maria, who went by Anna, this is Anna Phelps. She and her boyfriend's older Brother, this is 21 year old Daniel or Danny Lauer. They disappeared while they were on their way back to Virginia beach from Amelia County. So Danny's gold 1972 Chevy Nova was later found abandoned along Interstate 64 at a rest stop in New Kent County. So Anna and Danny were not in a romantic relationship. And that's why I was saying in the beginning they may have resembled one. But because she and Danny's brother, this is Clint, they live together, they were young and they were struggling financially, Danny agreed to move in with them to start helping with their monthly payments. So since Danny needed to go back home to Amelia county to get his belongings, Anna decided to accompany him on the trip because this would give her time to see her family. So while he was gathering his things and getting them ready to officially move to Virginia beach, she was visiting with her family. This is a drive that would have taken about two and a half hours. So he picked Anna up at about 11pm and on their way back to Virginia beach, they vanished. So the next morning, obviously, they expected to be home somewhere around, I don't know, maybe 1:32am they weren't there by the next morning. So this is when their family members contacted the Virginia State Police to report them missing. And then at about 5:30pm that day, now it's Tuesday, September 5th. A Virginia State Police officer found Danny's car at a rest stop along the westbound side of Interstate 64 in New Kent County. This is despite the fact that it didn't make sense, because to get to Virginia beach, they would have been traveling eastbound on I 64. So the car was also parked at an odd angle on the merge acceleration ramp, where no one parks unless they're having car trouble. So both the driver and the passenger side's door doors were unlocked. The driver's side window was also rolled halfway down. The keys were in the ignition, and there was a roach clip with feathers that were dangling from the window that Danny always kept attached to the rear view mirror. So the founder of the Virginia State Police's behavioral science unit, this is Larry McCann. He felt that the person who did this had put the roach clip there just to taunt authorities. So since Anna's purse was found in the car, once again, robbery was excluded as a motive. So the Virginia State Police, as well as the new count, or, excuse me, New Kent County Sheriff's office, they were searching for Dana, Danny, and Anna, but they could find no trace of that them. Much of the area was searched using helicopters, but because there was a lot of surrounding dense woods, it was nearly impossible to visualize anything on the ground. So meanwhile, their families were just holding out hope that they would come home safely. And it wasn't until 44 days later when their skeletonized bodies were found on October 19 out by Turkey hunters. And this was off of a logging trail in a wooded area along I 64 between Williamsburg and Richmond. And this was about a mile from the rest stop where Danny's car was found. Their remains were lying side by side. They had been wrapped in an Electric blanket from Danny's car. Because they were so badly decomposed, their causes of death couldn't even be determined. Nor could it be determined if a sexual assault had occurred. So there was a knife wound that was found to one of Anna's finger bones. So we do know that a knife. Knife was involved in some capacity, and it had proved that she had fought with her killer. So 50ft from her body, investigators found Anna's locket. In this locket. It's just so tragic. It held photos of her little nephews, but the chain was never recovered. So Anna was known to be someone who liked to go barefoot. And oddly enough, she was found wearing Danny's socks and shoes, which just didn't make sense. Sense. So since the area where the remains had been recovered was very difficult to navigate, especially in the darkness of night, when we know this happened, it's likely the killer either knew the area very well or had previously scoped it out with the intention of doing something terrible like this. So, because it had been raining a lot during the six weeks that Dana, Danny, and Anna had been missing, a lot of the evidence that may have been involved had likely been washed away. So since there was no mud on Danny's tires, it's likely the killer picked Danny and Anna up from the eastbound rest area. That's the area they would have been heading. They drove it in. They drove in his car to the wooded area where the remains were ultimately found. They. This person murdered them and then left their bodies before going back to the rest area and moving Danny's car to the opposite side of the interstate state. Why they would do that? Maybe just to cause some confusion.
