For 37 years, the murder of 18-year-old Laurie Ann Powell haunted Virginia’s Gloucester County and the investigators who refused to let her name fade into another cold case file.
Thursday, Virginia State Police delivered the answer Powell’s family has spent nearly four decades waiting for: advanced DNA testing identified Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. as the man responsible for her 1988 killing.
“We express our sincere condolences for your loss and the pain you had experienced these past 37 years. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding as our agencies worked toward solving this case,” Robin Lawson, the public relations director for Virginia State Police, said during a Friday news conference.
Wilmer, a commercial waterman who drifted between marinas in Gloucester, Middlesex, the Northern Neck and Hampton Roads, died in 2017. But, investigators said, if he were alive today, he would be facing homicide charges.
Powell vanished on March 8, 1988, after being dropped off by her boyfriend and beginning a walk along Route 614 toward Route 17. Her body was found nearly a month later in the Elizabeth River near Craney Island. She had been stabbed multiple times. Biological evidence from the crime scene included DNA tied to a sexual assault.
A multiagency effort and modern forensic tools funded through the state’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative helped change that. When investigators obtained Wilmer’s DNA postmortem, the match was found.
Authorities said Wilmer would have also been charged in the 1987 killings of David Nobling and Robin Edwards in Isle of Wight County, as well as the 1989 killing of Teresa Lynn Spaw-Howe in Hampton. The deaths of Nobling and Edwards became known as being a part of the Colonial Parkway murders.
Powell becomes the fourth confirmed victim linked to Wilmer.
Wilmer had no felony record during his lifetime, which meant his DNA never landed in CODIS, a DNA indexing system. State Police hinted that loopholes like this — where a suspected serial killer’s profile can’t be uploaded because he was never convicted — may require a legislative fix.
Investigators are now reconstructing Wilmer’s movements throughout the 1980s and early ’90s, asking the public for any memories, sightings, or interactions, however small. Officials highlighted Wilmer’s distinctive blue 1966 Dodge Fargo pickup, his wooden fishing boat Denny Wade, and his tree service business that ran under the name, Better Tree Services.
But, the day belonged to Powell’s family.
Powell’s sister, Cindy Kirchner, spoke through tears, describing her as a “fearless, bold, unforgettable firecracker” whose laughter and spirit still echo through the people who loved her.
“It’s not justice,” Virginia State Police Cpt. Timothy Reibel said. “But it is resolution.”
Anyone with further information is urged to contact Virginia State Police at questions@vsp.virginia.gov.
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