THE twin brother of a woman murdered by the Route 29 Stalker has called for fresh eyes and modern technology to be applied to the case as he seeks to finally solve her mysterious killing after 27 long years.

Patrick Showalter, now 53, was just 25 years old when his twin sister, Alicia Showalter Reynolds, vanished while driving from her home in Baltimore, Maryland, to Charlottesville, Virginia, in March 1996.

The purpose of the 300-mile round trip was to meet up with her mother at a mall to shop for dresses for Patrick’s wedding that was set to take place that June.

Tragically, Alicia would never make it to her destination.

Her mother waited for her for hours at the mall, believing bad weather or some other unforeseen inconvenience must’ve delayed her, but Alicia never showed.

At 6 pm on March 2, 1996, eight hours after she was scheduled to meet her mom, Alicia’s car was found abandoned along the shoulder of Route 29 near Culpeper, Virginia, some 50 miles from the mall.

A white napkin had been placed under the windscreen wiper, indicating the vehicle had suffered some sort of mishap, but there was nothing wrong with the car.

Witnesses reported seeing Alicia speaking with a clean-cut white male, between 35 to 45 years old and standing at roughly six feet, in the moments before her disappearance.

Weeks passed without any concrete updates before her remains were discovered on May 7 in a wooded area 15 miles east of where her car was abandoned.

Alicia’s family has never been told by investigators how she was killed and the man she was seen speaking to along the shoulder of Route 29 has never been identified.

With more than 27 years having now passed since his sister’s murder, Patrick told The U.S. Sun that he’s more determined than ever to close the case once and for all.

To do so, he’s calling on Virginia State Police (VSP) to give any evidence they have in the case to a state-of-the-art DNA lab to swab for prints.

Patrick noted the success genealogy has had in solving other cold cases in recent years, including the Golden State Killer.

He’s also asking VSP to share with federal authorities the more than 10,000 tips they’ve received over the last two decades, and any other leads they have, so they can be re-examined with fresh eyes.

“I was listening to Megyn Kelly, who did a series on those sort of [DNA] advances and things, so that was kind of one of those areas where I went, ‘Man, if they can do this with those kinds of cold cases, why can’t they do that with my sisters?’

“There’s been thousands of leads over the years […] But I don’t know if anyone has ever taken a fresh glance, going back through everything, to look at it differently or not.

“My message to [investigators] is: Nothing you’ve done has solved this case so far, let’s do something different.

“Let’s start thinking outside of the box, let’s look at different technology or try different techniques to get fresh eyes on it.

“They might be able to dig in there and find something that’s been overlooked,” he added.

“I want to find out who did this and why […] it would finally bring a little bit of closure for me and my family.”

THE ROUTE 29 STALKER

In the weeks after Alicia’s death, dozens of women came forward to investigators claiming to have been harassed by a male driver in a dark-colored pick-up truck while driving on or near Route 29 between February and March of 1996.

The unidentified man – believed to be the same man seen talking with Alicia – would attempt to pull the women over by informing them there was something wrong with their car.

All of the women were petite, brunette, and in their twenties.

To get their attention, the man would apparently honk his horn, flash his lights, and wave his arms at the women.

If they ignored him, which many did, he apparently became enraged, smacking his hands against his steering wheel, mouthing obscenities, and driving closely behind them, before eventually driving away.

Three women who did stop said he took them to a nearby payphone without any issues. Some women reported seeing a toolbox and green tarp in the back of the man’s truck.

Others said he introduced himself as Larry Breeden – a believed alias – and wore a wedding ring.

A week before Alicia vanished, one woman informed police that she had been driving home when a man in a small blue truck stopped her along Virginia 234 to report something was wrong with her car.

He offered to give her a ride, which she accepted, but after driving a short distance, the man attacked her and threatened her with a screwdriver.

The woman escaped by jumping out of the passenger side door, breaking her ankle in the process.

If [Rex Heuermann] was a little bit thinner, he could very easily look like one of the composites. Yeah, that’s really interesting.

Patrick Showalter

The elusive attacker became known as the Route 29 Stalker and has been tentatively linked to other unsolved murders and missing persons cases in the region.

In the encounters prior to Alicia’s disappearance, Virginia State Police previously theorized that the individual may have been performing “test runs” to pluck up the courage to kill.

Alicia and Patrick’s younger sister, Barbara Josenhans, told The U.S. Sun in an earlier interview that she had given up hope years ago of ever finding her sister’s killer.

However, she has asked VSP to investigate the accused Gilgo Beach serial murderer Rex Heuermann in connection with the case after noticing a distinctive likeness between him and a sketch of the Route 29 Stalker.

Perceived parallels between Heuermann and the Route 29 Stalker were first reported by the investigative true crime blog, Murder Incorporated.

Heuermann had ties to Virginia at the time of Alicia’s disappearance through his mother, Dolores Heuermann, who lived in Palmyra, roughly 50 miles from where she was last seen.

Patrick shared Barbara’s observations and called Heuermann a compelling potential suspect.

“That’s something,” said Patrick, looking at a side-by-side comparison of Heuermann, 60, and a sketch of the Route 29 Stalker.

“It’s got the part [of his hair] on the right, the correct side of the forehead, and they both appear to have a kind of similar shaped face.

“If [Heuermann] was a little bit thinner, he could very easily look like one of the composites. Yeah, that’s really interesting.

“I wonder if Virginia State Police have looked at him. I don’t know if they’ve looked at him, or if they’ve ruled him out.

“They’ve always been very, very tight-lipped about that, all those kinds of leads, or if you ask about evidence.”

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‘STOP THE SECRECY’

Virginia State Police refused to discuss whether Heuermann was being probed in connection with Alicia’s death in a statement last month, writing: “State police does not comment on potential suspects, confirmed or unconfirmed.”

The department also declined to release any reports associated with their investigation, adding only that they remain confident of one day solving the murder while urging the public to continue submitting tips.

But Patrick said, in his opinion, it’s time for VSP to end their vow of silence and be transparent about the leads they have, if any.

“I don’t think there’s any good reason [for secrecy], it makes us suspicious that maybe they’re covering their mistakes in the investigation, but personally I don’t care […] we just want this solved,” he said.

“I feel like we haven’t really been told any new information in a couple of decades now.

“And it gets old hearing the same thing, just like it did back then.”

Patrick remembered the day his sister disappeared, March 2, 1996, as just an ordinary Saturday – until it wasn’t.

He was in medical school in Nashville at the time and spent the morning and much of the afternoon studying, before going to his sister-in-law’s home for dinner with his wife.

When they returned home that night, Patrick received a troubling phone call, informing him that Alicia was missing and, by that point, hadn’t been seen for more than 12 hours.

Suspended in an immediate state of shock, Patrick delayed tests he had scheduled for the following week and flew home to Virginia the next morning.

“There’s that initial disbelief, like, ‘What do you mean she’s missing? How could this possibly be?'” reflected Patrick of the moment a relative rang to deliver the news.

“And then your mind goes to all the worst things that could happen. And, quite honestly, to me, death was not the worst thing that could happen to her.

“That’s the way we kind of lived until we found her, wondering what kind of state she was in, was she alive? Was she dead? Is she being abused? How much is she suffering?

“Those kinds of things just eat away at you constantly, so when her body was found, it was actually a great relief, in a way.”

A TRAGIC DISCOVERY, AN ENDURING MYSTERY

For two months, Patrick’s parents kept a candle burning inside their home in Harrisonburg as a symbol of their enduring faith that Alicia was out there somewhere and would soon return home.

The local community was hopeful too; they appealed for clues, conducted searches of rural areas, and posted rewards seeking information.

Contrastingly, Patrick and Barbara said they both immediately believed something grave had happened to their sibling, but they kept those reservations to themselves before the tragic truth was realized.

On May 7, the mystery of Alicia’s whereabouts were solved. But there would be no happy ending, and her parents’ symbolic candle would be permitted to burn out on the mantle piece.

The 25-year-old’s decomposed remains were found in a wooded area 15 miles from her car. It was her boots, a dress, and rings that were initially used to identify her before an autopsy would eventually ratify the family’s worst fears.

Alicia, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, was working on a vaccine for a parasitic infection at the time of her death and had recently married.

Patrick was due to follow in his twin’s footsteps; he was weeks away from graduating from medical school and due to be married that June.

He described the emotional freefall he and his family all experienced in the aftermath of Alicia’s death as “f**king hellacious.”

For years, he tried to put his sister’s death to the back of his mind, resigning himself to the fact that her killer would likely never be caught.

But now a father-of-six and an empty-nester, Patrick said in more recent years, particularly in the last year as his life has grown quieter, his interest in solving the case has been re-piqued.

“In this past year, I sort of realized my parents are getting older and there’s really been no movement in the case,” said Patrick.

“I think with DNA technology, and how that’s evolved, that’s really piqued my interest, and if we can find something from that.

“It would just be nice to know who did this and why.

“I think there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to go through all the emotion of a trial or anything, I just want to know what happened.

“I want some of our questions answered: Why did you target my sister? Why did you feel you had to kill her? What was it about your life that would put you in a position to do something like this to someone totally innocent?

“Maybe then we could get some closure.”

10,000 TIPS, LITTLE PROGRESS

Reflecting on where he believes his sister would be today had she never stopped along Route 29, Patrick envisioned she’d be teaching on a small college campus somewhere, with two or three children at home, relishing every moment of her life.

Today, he remembers her as a hard-working, loving sister who nobody ever had an unkind word to say about.

In the 27 years since she passed, Virginia State Police have received in excess of 10,000 tips, but so far appear to be no closer to catching her killer.

In a statement to The U.S. Sun, VSP Public Relations Director Corinne Geller said: “State police remain hopeful that this case will come to a successful resolution and continue to encourage the public to come forward with any information related to the investigation.”

The department is asking anyone with any information related to the abduction and murder to call the Virginia State Police Culpeper Division at 1-800-572-2260, or the Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 1-888-300-0156. You can also email bci-culpeper@vsp.virginia.gov.

Rex Heuermann, meanwhile, remains in custody in New York.

In July, he was charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello, three petite sex workers who were found bound and wrapped in burlap along a desolate beachfront parkway in 2010.

He is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and charges in that case are expected to be forthcoming soon.

Like the women in the Route 29 investigation, all of the victims in the Gilgo Beach probe were petite women in their 20s.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.