ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605080081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CULPEPER
SOURCE: Associated Press
A body believed to be that of a woman was found Tuesday in a remote clearcut near Culpeper, and dozens of investigators looking into a woman's disappearance in March swarmed the scene for clues.
State police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell declined to say whether the decomposed remains found eight miles east of Culpeper are those of Alicia Showalter Reynolds.
``Of course there is that possibility. This is 15 or 20 miles from where she was last seen,'' Caldwell said.
Col. M. Wayne Huggins, state police superintendent, said the body was fairly intact, lying in a depression. He said it was covered with limbs and not visible from a road that runs through the clearcut, which had been logged in the past several months.
He said there was evidence of clothing around the body but declined to say whether any jewelry or personal items were found.
Witnesses told police they saw Reynolds the morning of March 2 along U.S. 29 south of Culpeper with the hood of her car raised and in the company of a young man who appeared to be helping her. At least one witness saw her get into the man's black pickup truck. Her car had no mechanical problems when it was found.
A credit card belonging to Reynolds was discovered in Culpeper, and a parka she wore that day was found in Madison County, south of Culpeper.
At least 24 investigators from the FBI and the Virginia State Police rushed to the site between Culpeper and Fredericksburg where a worker found the body about 3 p.m. Caldwell said the man went to check out what he thought was a dead animal after seeing buzzards circling.
``We have contacted the Showalter family because we knew they would be concerned upon hearing the news,'' Caldwell said.
The body would not be moved until today, when it would be taken to the state medical examiner's office in Fairfax for an autopsy and identification, Caldwell said.
Investigators are looking for any clues about who put the body in the clearcut bounded by farm fields, and when it was done. ``We don't want to ignore the possibility that it might be a homicide or ignore the possibility of who it might be,'' she said.
``You have a body partially covered over; it obviously isn't a suicide,'' Huggins said. ``I don't know what else it would be'' other than a homicide.
The scene is downhill from where two narrow, unpaved country roads come to a fork about two miles from Virginia 3. A haze of blue lights from police cars was all that was visible after dark from the road.
State police were preparing Monday to release a new composite sketch of the suspect in Reynolds' disappearance. Caldwell said the sketch was revised after more detailed interviews with women who reported being stopped by a man in a dark truck as they drove along U.S. 29 in recent months. The new sketch would be more lifelike, Caldwell said.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines KEYWORDS: FATATLITYby CNB