ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SPOTSYLVANIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
State police say there is no reason to believe that a man who tried to open a woman's car door when she stopped on a dark back road is tied to the slaying of Alicia Showalter Reynolds.
Reynolds, 25, disappeared March 2 after witnesses said they saw her getting into a dark pickup truck alongside Route 29 south of Culpeper. Her badly decomposed body was found more than two months later in Culpeper.
``The Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office did pass on the report to our investigators, and we're investigating. But, at the time, they do not have anything linking him to the Reynolds case,'' said state police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell.
The woman, who lives in neighboring Stafford County, told police she had stopped at an intersection just before midnight Tuesday when a man knocked on her passenger-side window and tried to open the door.
The woman drove away, but the man got into his truck and chased her until she was able to lose him.
Police believe Reynolds was abducted along U.S. 29 after stopping for a man who probably signaled that her car was malfunctioning. The same man may have stopped or tried to stop more than 20 women on that stretch of road.
Police have cleared more than 450 suspects and followed nearly 5,000 leads in the case, Caldwell said. Tips to state police have dwindled from hundreds a day to a trickle, but a special team remains on the case.
``We do still get calls from the people about black pickup trucks,'' Caldwell said. ``They've got several good leads they're pursuing, and they'll continue to work every day on it.''
LENGTH: Short : 42 linesby CNB