ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606090066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Investigators have found latent fingerprints that may help identify who killed Alicia Showalter Reynolds, an official at the Virginia Medical Examiner's office said today.
Dr. Paul Ferrara, director of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, said latent fingerprints, invisible to the naked eye, were found. Chemically enhanced, they can be checked by computer with those on file in Virginia and other states.
Ferrara said he thinks fingerprints, DNA, and trace evidence found in the murder case could identify the killer.
``We've got our fingers crossed,'' Ferrara said.
He said reports that fingerprints were found on Reynolds' body are incorrect, ``Recovering fingerprints on a body is rare; the fingerprints were elsewhere.''
He would not say where the fingerprints were found.
Reynolds disappeared while driving on U.S.29 near Culpeper March2. Her body was found May7.
The 25-year-old Johns Hopkins University pharmacology student was on a trip 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 believe the same man responsible for Reynolds' abduction and killing may have stalked and stopped more than 20 other women along U.S.29 in Virginia.
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