
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 9, 1990                   TAG: 9007090037
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium

SERIAL KILLER SUSPECTED IN EASTERN VA. SLAYINGS

The slayings of six young people and the disappearance of another young couple in Eastern Virginia over the last four years may have been the work of a serial killer, police said.

The killer may have dressed as an authority figure, such as a police officer, to win the victims' cooperation and lure them to their deaths, a newspaper reported Sunday.

All four unsolved cases involve the slaying or disappearance of young couples who were traveling in vehicles in isolated areas. One crime has occurred annually between April and October since 1986, but none has occurred this year. One couple was slain and another disappeared near the Colonial Parkway, a scenic drive that connects historic sites at Jamestown and Yorktown.

Police plan to announce their latest findings at a July 23 news conference, said Cpl. Bob Haynes, a Norfolk police officer who is spokesman for a joint FBI-Virginia State Police task force investigating the crimes with local police.

Police "have been working together for some years now, and they have come to some possible conclusions," Haynes said.

"They're pretty much convinced it's a serial killer," said Mark Johnson, a College of William and Mary police detective who has investigated the 1986 slayings of a college student and her friend.

"We're just waiting for September or October because we all agree that's when it will happen again," Johnson said.

"Basically, they think it's a serial killer," agreed Margie Lauer, mother of one of the slaying victims. Lauer said FBI and state police agents have told her in recent weeks "they felt it was all connected."

"We were expecting something like this," Kathy Knobling, stepmother of another slaying victim, said Sunday. She is a spokeswoman for a group of the victims' relatives and friends.

The killer "could even be someone disguised as a police officer," an unidentified source close to the task force told The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star. When asked whether the murderer might be an officer, the source said, "We cannot rule that out."

Irvin B. Wells III, special agent in charge of the FBI's Norfolk office, said the randomness of the crimes and certain similarities lend credence to the serial-killer theory. But he also noted the crimes lack a definite "signature" because different types of weapons were used.

by CNB