ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996 TAG: 9605140031
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER
DATELINE: CULPEPER
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEMO: shorter version ran in metro
In a bid to find the man suspected of abducting and killing Alicia Showalter Reynolds, police released a new composite sketch of the suspect Monday.
The sketch shows a square-faced man with reddish hair wearing a green flannel shirt.
The man, who police estimate is 35-45 years old, also is suspected of stalking and stopping more than 20 other women along U.S. 29 in Virginia, the highway where Reynolds disappeared March 2.
State police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said that the new sketch was put together with the assistance of the women stopped by the suspect.
Caldwell said that when the women saw the likeness, they felt it was ``dead on.''
``They feel it is very accurate,'' she said.
Caldwell said Reynolds' body was still being examined by investigators. She would not release the time or cause of death. She said FBI specialists were preparing a psychological profile of the killer.
Caldwell said police have received more than 3,200 leads since Reynolds' disappearance. Police also have checked and cleared 450 people in the case, she said.
``We continue to feel there are people out there with information who have not contacted us,'' Caldwell said. ``We're very hopeful that someone may see this and give state police a call.''
Reynolds' partly decomposed body was found May 7 about 15 miles from where she had been abducted.
The 25-year-old Johns Hopkins University pharmacology student was on her way from Baltimore to meet her mother in Charlottesville. Police said she was stopped on U.S. 29 near Culpeper by a clean-cut man in a pickup truck who convinced her she was having engine trouble.
The last time she was seen alive was when witnesses saw her climbing into the man's truck.
Some investigators say that the same man responsible for Reynolds' abduction and murder may have assaulted a Prince William County woman Feb. 24.
``There are sufficient similarities between the cases to consider them to be probably linked,'' said a state police statement.
The woman said a polite man stopped her along Virginia 234 and convinced her that sparks were flying out from under her car.
He offered to give her a lift and then tried to force her to have sex with him. The woman resisted and escaped from the truck, breaking her leg.
Police said the suspect may have used more than one vehicle when he stalked his victims. Previous reports spoke only of a dark-colored pickup truck.
Despite the large number of leads, the many women who claim to have been stopped in similar circumstances, and a reward of more than $25,000, police said they are not even sure whether the man is local or not.
The road where Reynolds disappeared does not look dangerous.
U.S. 29 winds through western Virginia along the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The road is lined with farms, small towns and signs commemorating Civil War battles. It is a reminder of a simpler and safer America - even the radio catches only country music stations.
But it was on that peaceful road that Reynolds was kidnapped.
Investigators ``are still working on the notion that he is out there,'' Caldwell said. ``It may or may not happen again.''
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC:(drawing) Police are seeking a man about 6 feet tallby CNBwith a meduim build. color.