ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996                 TAG: 9605200046
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK AND DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITERS
NOTE: Below 


ROANOKE POLICE FOLLOW LEAD IN STALKER INQUIRY

AFTER SEARCHING a man's truck, officers filed no charges relating to an abduction and murder case.

A man who followed women in downtown Roanoke raised the suspicions of police, who searched his pickup truck for clues to the abduction and slaying of a woman on U.S. 29 near Culpeper.

No charges resulted from this week's search, which police described as just one of many leads in their investigation into the death of Alicia Showalter Reynolds.

The 36-year-old Covington man "fits in with a bunch of others with similar activity around the state," said state police investigator Jon Perry. "He's a lead at this point.

"We have to look at the totality of it. More times than not, we can rule them out. But those times we can't, we have to go through other measures to eliminate them."

The man, who is not being identified because he has not been charged, was named in a search warrant Perry filed Friday in Roanoke Circuit Court.

The warrant states that the man's dark blue pickup truck matches the description of the one believed to be involved in Reynolds' abduction. The 25-year-old woman disappeared March 2 while driving from Maryland, where she was a pharmacology student, to Charlottesville.

Witnesses said they saw Reynolds talking to a young man who appeared to be helping her look under her car's hood on U.S. 29 near Culpeper. Police believe she got into the man's pickup truck.

Her partially decomposed body was found May 7 in a remote section of Culpeper County, about 15 miles from where she was last seen.

Authorities believe the suspect in Reynolds' death has a history of following women motorists on the same stretch of highway, trying to make them think something is wrong with their cars by flashing his headlights at them.

That behavior is consistent with the actions of the man whose truck was searched in Roanoke, according to the warrant.

In early May, Roanoke police charged the man with five counts of reckless driving during a seven-day period after he was seen following women walking in the downtown area. The man would often drive slowly beside the women as they walked on sidewalks, and in one case made a U-turn in the street to follow a woman who was walking in the opposite direction, the warrant states.

The suspect also followed a lone female driver north on I-581 in a suspicious manner. The man first passed the woman on the left, sped up and pulled in front of her car. He moved into the right lane, let her pass him, then followed her, the warrant states.

The suspect - who, according to the warrant, has been convicted of sexual offenses that include peeping into an occupied building and breaking into a home to steal women's underwear - has also been charged with five counts of driving on a restricted license.

He appeared briefly in Roanoke General District Court on Friday, telling a judge that he planned to hire an attorney to represent him on the traffic charges when he goes to trial July 19.

Eric Branscom, an assistant commonwealth's attorney who was in the courtroom, said later that the man did not resemble the one pictured in a composite sketch released by state police earlier this week. But Branscom added that he had only caught a glimpse of the man.

Because the man was charged with driving on a restricted license, police impounded his truck after charging him on May 7.

In the warrant, police said they planned to search the truck for fingerprints, hairs and fibers, body fluids, video and audio tapes, any writings or publications, articles of women's clothing and weapons.

Perry said investigators recovered a number of hairs and some trash, which will be sent for forensic testing.

State police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said she could not comment on the number of search warrants that have been filed by investigators looking into Reynolds' death. There have been more than 3,000 leads, with tips coming in every day. More than 450 people have been checked out and cleared, she said.

"We have to follow up all leads," she said. "Whatever means it takes to follow this up."


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