For 33 years, Amy carried the trauma of being raped on Valentine’s Day in 1992. The Virginia cold case was finally solved last year when DNA evidence connected the attack to a convicted rapist.
Anthony Favors, now 57, initially faced six charges, including abduction and burglary. In September 2025, he reached a plea agreement covering two counts of rape and received a 24-year sentence. Norfolk Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. ordered the two 12-year terms to be served consecutively.
Several months later, Amy received an automated VINE alert stating that Virginia’s parole board intended to review Favors’ case and consider whether he could be released.
“I finally get some sort of closure and justice. And then I get a text,” Amy told News Media. “Nobody yet has told me how he’s even eligible for parole.”
Amy was sexually assaulted by Anthony Favors while she was in the Navy. (Courtesy of Amy)
Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi confirmed to News Media that Favors will probably receive a “discretionary parole hearing” within the next several months.
According to Fatehi, the review stems from an overlap in Virginia’s parole process. The board previously evaluated Favors for release in connection with an earlier rape conviction but declined to grant parole. Under the law, that earlier review made him eligible for another hearing.
“It’s discretionary because he had been locked up for so long. He is theoretically eligible,” Fatehi said.
Separate rape case
Favors was serving a 60-year sentence for a separate rape committed in March 1992 when a DNA match in 2024 tied him to Amy’s case. Because both offenses occurred before Jan. 1, 1995, Virginia’s former sentencing laws allow the state Parole Board to consider him for release.
Anthony Favors was sentenced to 24 years in prison for raping a woman in 1992. (Virginia State Police)
Fatehi said the odds of Favors actually being released are “slim chance to zero.” Even so, news of a possible hearing left Amy shaken.
“The only word I can think of right now, honestly, is disgusting,” she said. “It’s wrong. How can you do that? Where is my justice?”
The assault permanently changed Amy’s life. Favors beat and raped the active-duty Navy sailor for hours inside her Norfolk apartment. Despite what had happened, she reported for duty on a Navy ship immediately afterward.
More than three decades later, the psychological effects still shape her daily life. She struggles with severe PTSD, chronic lack of sleep and constant hypervigilance, including repeatedly checking whether her doors are locked.
Amy was raped in Virginia while she was in the Navy. (Courtesy of Amy)
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“Some of the things that I did that I thought were normal, were not normal. And I still do,” Amy said. “Check the locks, recheck the locks, check the locks, recheck the locks. I’m not sleeping again because… it’s the unknown.”
“If you took the Amy before my rape and the Amy after my rape, I am two different people.”
Heather Keeley, director of the nonprofit advocacy group Stand Tall, said sexual-assault survivors already live with the lasting effects of their abuse. She said scheduling another parole review for Favors compounds that harm by requiring victims to revisit the experience again and again.
“He was sentenced to 24 years in prison, which wouldn’t even put him up for parole 12 years later,” Keeley told News Media.
“And here it is less than six months later, and she’s calling us all that she just received a text message that he’s going before a parole board… how is that even possible?”
Reliving a nightmare
The potential hearing would require Amy to recount the attack to the parole board while arguing that Favors remains a threat to her safety. She worries the process could undermine the progress she made through months of intensive trauma therapy.
Amy intends to request a three-year delay, hoping to avoid being compelled to revisit the assault every year.
Amy with her father. (Courtesy of Amy)
“I now have to explain myself again as to why he shouldn’t get out… It’s too much. But I gotta speak for me, and I gotta speak for these other victims who can’t speak for themselves. So, I gotta do it.”
Amy also worries that the board’s decision-making could weaken public confidence in the justice system.
“If you’re paroling these people, what incentives does that give somebody else?” she asked. “If they’ve been raped or sexually assaulted, what gives them the incentive to go and report it?”
The Virginia Parole Board does not publish its complete hearing calendar. However, monthly parole decisions are posted on the agency’s official website.
Favors’ defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. News Media also contacted Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s office for a response.