RELATIVES of a woman murdered by the Route 29 Stalker say they don’t want a trial when the elusive suspect is finally caught to spare them any additional trauma – with her brother insisting he’s already forgiven the killer.

Alicia Showalter Reynolds, 25, vanished on March 2, 1996, as she was driving from Baltimore, Maryland, to Charlottesville, Virginia, to meet her mom and go shopping at a mall.

Alicia’s car would later be found abandoned on the shoulder of Route 29 near Culpeper, some 50 miles from Charlottesville, with a white napkin placed under the windscreen wiper, indicating the vehicle had suffered a mishap.

A subsequent investigation would find that nothing was wrong with the car, but the mystery of where Alicia had gone wouldn’t be answered for almost nine weeks.

Some passersby reported seeing the newlywed talking with a white male – described as clean-cut, aged between 35-45, with brown hair, and standing at roughly six feet – in the moments preceding her disappearance.

All the while, friends and family of Alicia desperately appealed for information, offered reward money for her return, and conducted their own independent searches, hopeful she was still alive.

But, tragically, on May 7, Alicia’s decomposed remains were discovered in a wooded area, roughly 15 miles east of where her car was abandoned, after someone noticed vultures circling over a field.

How she was killed has never been revealed; who she was talking to on the shoulder of Route 29 has never been determined.

More than 27 years on from Alicia’s murder, The U.S. Sun spoke with her twin brother, Patrick Showalter, and her younger sister, Barbara Josenhans, in separate interviews about the lack of progress in the case.

The two siblings were divided on how likely they believed finding the killer was after all these years.

However, they were in agreement on one thing: if the culprit is found neither of them wants to be put through the emotional torture of a trial.

“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.”

Barbara, who was less optimistic about a breakthrough, shared the same opinions as her brother regarding a potential trial.

“I want to believe the guy is dead, quite frankly,” said Barbara during an interview a few weeks prior.

“That would make everything easier […] one of the hardest parts of all this has been watching my parents deal with their grief, while also dealing with my own.

“At this point, 27 years later, although I would love for the case to be solved, I would hate for there to be a court trial.

“Dealing with the trial, seeing this person in the flesh, and reliving it all would be more disturbing than helpful, for me, at least.

“I don’t know if the rest of my family feel the same way, but that’s definitely where I stand.”

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.

Patrick Showalter

TO KILLER: ‘I FORGIVE YOU’

Above all else, Patrick said he wants a number of the questions that have been lingering in his mind over the last two-and-a-half decades to be answered.

Chief among them is why his sister was targeted, why the individual felt the need to kill her, what was going on in the killer’s life that led them to do something so awful to someone so innocent, and if the culprit feels remorse.

But speaking directly to the individual in question, he also shared an unexpected message of forgiveness.

“If they are alive, I think in a lot of ways I have forgiven them,” he confessed.

“I think you have to be a pretty disturbed person to do what they did, and my hope would be that they’ve found peace, some kind of forgiveness, some kind of healing in their own lives.

“I think that would be a redemptive part of the story, but I think there’s still that fear in me that if you find someone capable of doing something like this, they’re not going to be repentant, that they’re going to be a nasty human being laughing at our misery.

“You never really know, and I’d be prepared for it either way, but I hope they get caught, or come forward.

“My message would be forgiveness,” if they did, added Patrick.

“I hope they haven’t done anything to anyone else, but I think for my own peace I need to be able to forgive them.”

ROUTE 29 STALKER

In the weeks after Alicia’s death, dozens of women would come forward to investigators, claiming to have been harassed by a male motorist 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, as 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 went missing, one woman informed police 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 the passenger side door, breaking her ankle in the process.

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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 the individual may have been performing “test runs” while working up the courage to kill.

LISK LINK?

Alicia’s younger sister told The U.S. Sun she gave up hope of finding her killer long ago.

However, Barbara has asked Virginia State Police (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.”

PUSHING FOR TRANSPARENCY

Virginia State Police refused to discuss whether Rex 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 remained confident of one day solving the murder and urged 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.

He also wants VSP to apply modern technology to the case and allow an external organization, such as the FBI, to come in and apply fresh eyes to the probe.

“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.”

At this point, 27 years later, although I would love for the case to be solved, I would hate for there to be a court trial. Dealing with the trial, seeing this person in the flesh, and reliving it all would be more disturbing than helpful, for me, at least.

Barbara Josenhans

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 back 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.”

‘F**KING HELLACIOUS’

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 vital 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 would be 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.

Reflecting on where he believed 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 e-mail bci-culpeper@vsp.virginia.gov.