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The original was posted on /r/unresolvedmysteries by /u/amador9 on 2024-01-14 20:10:25+00:00.
Original Title: One of the Colonial Parkway Murders has been Solved and the Known Perpetrator is a Strong Suspect in the Others. It Turns out that He Had a Brother Who Is now a Prime Suspect in a Similar Murder that Occurred Nearby a Year Earlier.
Alan Wilmer has been identified as the Perpetrator of one of the 4 Colonial Parkway murders that occurred between 1986 and 1989 in the Virginia Beach area of Virginia. He has also been positively linked to a different murder in the area. It turns out that he was a “person of interest” on one of the others Colonial Parkway Murders but was ruled out because he passed a polygraph. Wilmer died in 2017 and there is apparently no forensic evidence available in the other murders that could rule anyone definitively in or out but Wilmer seems like a good suspect for all of the murders.
Now a very interesting connection to a different murder in the region has been made. On August 23, 1985 Mary Harding was abducted from her home in Lancaster County Virginia, about 65 miles north of the Colonial Parkway. Her body was found weighted down in the nearby Rappahannock River. A local fisherman named Emerson Stevens was arrested, tried and convicted of the murder. Years later, his conviction was reviewed by the Virginia Innocence Project and after 31 years in prison, he was released with full vindication and a substantial cash settlement. His case turned out to be a shocking example of how an innocent man could be railroaded by unethical Law Enforcement determined to get a conviction. A review of the case record came up with the names of three men who lived near where the body was found. One of these men had a bit of a history with the victim and didn’t have much of an alibi but the investigation focused on Stevens. Years later, an FBI report turned up that suggested that this guy, and not Stevens, was the the strongest suspect. Local investigators disregarded this report and Prosecutors withheld it from Stevens’ defense (an obvious Brady violation). The guy the FBI identified just happens to be Alan Wilmers brother.
I am not naming him because he has not officially been identified as a suspect in the Colonial Parkway Murder but it is available for anyone who does a little digging. I find him particularly interesting because there has been speculation that two perpetrators were involved in at least one of the murders. My understanding is that the brother is alive and still living in the region.