CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – It’s been 30 years since Harrisonburg native Alicia Showalter Reynolds disappeared. The Virginia State Police haven’t given up the search her killer.
Monday, on the anniversary of her disappearance, the agency put out a public plea for information.
“We continue to work this case very actively, and we do follow up with individuals that have come in from tips from even 30 years ago,” State Police Senior Special Agent Heather Marshall from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation Culpeper Field Office said Monday.
The 26-year-old Reynolds was attending Johns Hopkins, working toward her PhD.
“Ms. Reynolds was living in Baltimore and had left that morning and was driving to Charlottesville to meet her mom and they were going to do some shopping,” Marshall said. “And then, of course, when she didn’t arrive at a certain time that her mom thought there was plenty of time for her to be traveling, that when she started making some phone calls and realized something was wrong.”
During the investigation, witnesses reported to State Police observing a vehicle identified as Reynolds’ parked on a southbound shoulder of Route 29 in Culpeper County.
Several weeks later, State Police put together composite sketch from witness reports of a man they saw with her at some point on the side of the road.
According to State Police in a release, witnesses described “a white male, approximately 35-45 years old with a medium build and light to medium brown hair was stopped outside with her vehicle. The man, described as between 5’10’ to 6’0 tall, was driving a dark-colored pickup truck, possibly a green Nissan.”
“As news spread about Reynolds’ abduction, several other women came forward advising that a white male had either stopped them or attempted to stop them while they were traveling along Route 29 in Culpeper County,” according to the VSP release.
The suspect soon started to be called “The Route 29 Stalker” by area residents.
Marshall said Reynolds’s remains were found more than two months later, May 7, 1996.
“She was located in a field that was actually being cut for timber in Lignum, so that would have been north of her abduction location,” Marshall said.
Lignum is a Culpeper County community along Route 3 (Germanna Highway) about halfway between the Town of Culpeper and the Lake of the Woods neighborhood.
“We always welcome tips,” Marshall said. “I know I get routine tips that people call in or email through the division, and we follow up on all of those. I would tell people if they have any information, even if it’s someone that back in the ’90s, even if it’s someone they already called in, or have a memory jarred from the poster, or something they suddenly remember hearing or seeing, call it in.”
Virginia State Police have received over 10,000 tips in the case in the decades that have followed. Anyone who has additional information or tips is asked to contact Virginia State Police Division 2 Dispatch at (804) 750-8778 or email questions@vsp.virginia.gov.
