A jogger finds a Honda Civic pushed off an embankment, with two women inside and their throats slashed.
1. Cold Cases examines the Colonial Parkway murders, a Virginia series linked to a 23-mile road between Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown.
2. Carter Roy hosts the episode, and Bill Thomas is central because his sister Kathy Thomas was one of the first victims.
3. The episode asks whether six deaths and two disappearances from 1986 to 1989 were caused by one attacker or several.
4. On October 12, 1986, a jogger finds a Honda Civic pushed off an embankment at an overlook and calls police.
5. Officers discover Kathy Thomas and Rebecca Doweski inside the car, both with their throats slashed and diesel fuel on the vehicle.
6. Kathy Thomas is identified as a 27-year-old former U.S. Navy service member who was working as a stockbroker.
7. Rebecca Doweski is described as a 21-year-old College of William and Mary student who worked in the English department and at a nearby daycare.
8. The episode says Kathy and Rebecca were dating and had kept the relationship secret in 1986.
9. FBI Special Assistant Irvin Wells treats the deaths as overkill, because the throats were cut after the women were killed.
10. Wells notices rope burns, an open glove box, and a rolled-down driver's window, which leads to the theory that the killer may have posed as a police officer.
11. The narrator says investigators immediately assume the killer is male and cite a 2019 Penn State study about male serial killers and female serial killers.
12. In September 1987, 20-year-old David Knobling and 14-year-old Robin Edwards disappear after a date-related night out.
13. A sheriff's deputy finds David Knobling's pickup truck near the James River with the door open, the keys in the ignition, the radio on, and the wipers running.
14. Robin Edwards' shoes in the trunk are recognized by her mother, and after a three-day search the pair's bodies are found with gunshot wounds to the back of the head.
15. In April 1988, Keith Call and Cassandra Haley leave a college party and are never heard from again.
16. Park rangers find Keith Call's car near the York River, but the evidence is later compromised because the first search was done without gloves and clothing was moved.
17. In September 1989, Daniel Lauer and Anna Maria Phelps disappear on a trip to Virginia Beach, and their car is found on a westbound exit ramp pointing the wrong direction.
18. Hunters later find their bodies near a logging trail, and investigators conclude Anna Maria likely died of a stab wound while Daniel's cause of death remains undetermined.
19. The episode's tone is methodical and investigative, with long case-by-case narration, FBI theories, and family advocacy from Bill Thomas and the other siblings.
20. Listeners who follow cold-case investigations, family-led advocacy, and forensic theory will want this episode, while listeners seeking a single resolved mystery may skip it.
