ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610100109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MADISON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Two female motorists have told police that another driver tried to flag them down along area roads in circumstances similar to the slaying of a woman earlier this year.
Madison County Chief Deputy Randy Jenkins said the two reports were turned over to state police, who are investigating the death of Alicia Showalter Reynolds.
However, Lucy Caldwell, a state police spokeswoman, said Wednesday night that investigators still had not received the reports.
In one incident last week, a woman driving along a county road just off U.S. 29 reported that the driver of another vehicle tried to flag her down just before daylight.
When she stopped to call for help on her cellular phone, Jenkins said, the vehicle continued past her.
The second incident, which occurred Monday night, involved a woman who was approached by a vehicle with flashing headlights. She did not stop.
Both women were unable to get a description of the other vehicle because of darkness, said Jenkins.
The incidents have raised concern because of the unsolved slaying of Reynolds, a graduate student from Baltimore who was found dead in May.
Reynolds was last seen March 2 on U.S. 29 just north of Culpeper. She was seen getting into a pickup truck driven by an unidentified man.
After her disappearance was publicized, more than 20 women told police a man in a dark-colored pickup truck had flagged them down along U.S. 29, offering to help them with car trouble. Some of the women accepted rides from the man and were not harmed.
Neither Reynolds' car nor any of the other women's cars were found to have mechanical problems.
Jenkins said it was difficult to tell whether the incidents were connected to the slaying.
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