SUFFOLK, Va. (WWBT) - Authorities have identified Alan W. Wilmer Sr., a man linked to two Colonial Parkway murders, as the suspect in the 1988 murder of 18-year-old Laurie Ann Powell.

Virginia State Police and the Isle of Wight Commonwealth Attorney announced Friday that DNA technology led to the identification.

Wilmer died in 2017 at the age of 63 in Lancaster County, Va.

In 2024, he was linked to three other murders: David Knobling and Robin Edwards in Isle of Wight in 1987, and Teresa Lynn Spaw Howell in Hampton in 1989.

Knobling and Edwards’ deaths are part of what is commonly known as the Colonial Parkway Murders.

In March 1988, Powell was last seen walking along Route 614 towards Route 17 in Gloucester County.

Her body was found a few weeks later in the Elizabeth River.

She ha

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