YORKTOWN, Va. (WAVY) – Virginia State Police (VSP) announced their Unsolved Violent Crimes Analytic team was awarded for their work on three cold case homicides from over 30 years ago.
According to a Facebook post from VSP, the team was awarded the Team Analyst Award for their work on the 1987 Colonial Parkway murders of David Knobling and Robin Edwards, as well as the 1989 murder of Teresa Howell in Hampton.
In January of 2024, DNA evidence was able to link Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. to all three murders. However, Wilmer died in Lancaster County on Dec. 15, 2017 at the age of 63.
The bodies of Knobling, 20, and Edwards, 14, were found on Sept. 23, 1987, just two days after Knobling’s truck was found on Ragged Island. Both were shot in the back of the head, and Edwards was found to have been sexually assaulted.
On July 1, 1989, Howell’s body was discovered near a work site on Butler Farm Road. Autopsy results revealed she died from strangulation and was also sexually assaulted.
State police said a DNA profile for Wilmer was only able to be legally obtained after his death in 2017, as he had never been convicted of a felony.
