CHESAPEAKE, Va. — The FBI has officially linked the disappearances of Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey along the Colonial Parkway in 1987 to Alan Wade Wilmer Sr.
In 2024, Wilmer was first connected to the Colonial Parkway killings, as investigators found him responsible for the killings of David Knobling and Robin Edwards in 1987 and the 1989 strangulation death of Teresa Lynn Howell. Earlier this year, the FBI announced Wade was responsible for killing Cathy Thomas and Rebecca Dowski in 1986.
Annamaria Phelps and Daniel Lauer were found dead at a rest area in New Kent County in 1989. The case remains unsolved.
Wilmer died in 2017.
Earlier this year, the True Crime 757 podcast took a look at the Colonial Parkway Murders investigation and what answers family members are still looking to get.
WATCH: Colonial Parkway double murder tied to Alan Wade Wilmer 40 years later: True Crime 757
Call, 20, and Hailey, 18, both students at Christopher Newport University, attended a party in the University Square area of Newport News on April 10, 1988. They left in the early morning hours and were never seen again.
Later that day, Call’s vehicle was found abandoned near the York River Overlook along the Colonial Parkway.
For nearly 40 years, their disappearance remained unsolved. Friday, the FBI officially linked their case to Wilmer after what the agency called an "exhaustive review of evidence and a convergence of investigative findings."
"The determination is based on the totality of circumstances, highlighting significant similarities between the disappearances of Call and Hailey and other regional killings connected to Wilmer Sr.," an FBI news release says. "This includes matching patterns in timing, location, and the manner in which the victims disappeared. While direct forensic evidence from the scene remains unavailable, the evidence establishes that the circumstances match Wilmer Sr.’s known pattern of offending."
The FBI said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia confirmed that if Wilmer Sr. were alive today, the evidence developed through this investigation would have supported federal prosecution.
“Our commitment has always been to the victims and to the families who have carried this loss for nearly four decades,” said FBI Norfolk Special Agent in Charge Dominique Evans. “Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey were young people with families, friends, futures and lives that mattered. They deserved to come home. While we cannot change what happened to them or return them to their families, we hope this determination offers meaningful answers and allows their loved ones to finally know who was responsible.”
The families were told that Wilmer was officially linked to Call and Hailey's disappearance Friday.
Hailey's brother-in-law, Jim Meehan, Keith Call's brother Doug and Cathy Thomas' brother Bill, offered a press conference Friday afternoon in the wake of the update, where they addressed their disappointment in the FBI.
"They just told us what we already knew, that Wade Wilmer was most likely the culprit of the crimes." Doug Call said. "I already knew that. They didn't give us anything else. They didn't base this on anything solid, it's all circumstantial. Am I satisfied with it? Not really."
When asked if the families felt closure after the FBI deemed Wilmer responsible, Meehan and Doug Call had different responses.
"It's difficult for me. I've been married to my wife for 30 years, her sister is Cassandra Hailey. Been married to her for 30 years, and I've never met my sister-in-law. My sister-in-law is a frozen picture on a mantle," Meehan said. "That's what I mean by you'll never get any kind of closure. Even if all had gone through and they had found this gentleman and tried him and convicted him."
"If they would have done their job 40 years ago and closed this out within months after it happened, maybe we could have found some closure and wouldn't have had to carry this with us our whole life," Doug Call said.
Stay with News 3 for updates on this developing story.
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