My name is Bill Thomas. I'm a writer, consulting, producer, and
now podcaster. I am now trying to use my experience as the brother of
a murder victim to help other victims of violent crime. I'm working on a
book on the unsolved Colonial Parkway murders, and I'm the co administrator of the
Colonial Parkway Murders Facebook group together with Kristin Dilly. My name is Kristin Dilly.
I'm a writer, a researcher, a teacher, and a victim's advocate,
as well as the social media manager and co administrator for the Colonial Parkway
Murders Facebook page with my partner in crime, Bill Thomas. Welcome to Mind
Ever Murder. I'm Kristin Dilly and I'm Bill Thomas. We're talking today about
two of our Perkway adjacent cases. I know you love that terminology, Bell,
you coin that phrase, so perhaps you can explain to our listeners what
parkway adjacent means. Sure, we've got parkway adjacent cases, which basically means
cases that may possibly be connected to the Colonial Parkway murders. We're not entirely
sure they happened in and around the same time period of the murders, and
there are victims that do have connections to other colonial parkway murders victims, but
we cannot prove one way or the other that they are linked into the four
official cases, if you can really actually even use that term official anymore.
So we just tend to call them parkway adjacent, or at least I call
them parkway adjacent, and then Bill liked it and started calling them that too,
so they parkway adjacent cases. And these do tie in, I think
potentially to the four double homicides and the colonial parkway murders, and it's an
interesting conversation regardless, and these cases certainly deserve more exploration, absolutely, so
we're going to dig into. We have three cases that we consider parkway adjacent.
We're going to dig into two of those today, and that is the
murder of Lori M. Powell, the murder of Brian Craig Pettinger. And
there is one other case that we consider parkway adjacent, and that is the
double homicide of Julie Williams and Lolly Winan's in the Shenandoah National Park in nineteen
ninety six. But we're not getting into that one today because we're going to
let our very good friend Kate Miles get into that for us when her book
comes out in a month May third, twenty twenty two. It's coming up
fast, it is, And of course that is more than a month.
I'm on teacher time, which means basically, I don't know what time or
day it is anymore. I'm just counting down the days till spring break.
When is spring break? Spring break is the first week of April. Our
sent out a little countdown yesterday, very nicely that said, it's twenty three
school days till spring break. Just in case you had lost count. Yeah,
there was no way I was losing count of that. I still have
standardized testing to get through before then. So it's not just young people that
count the days until spring break. No, it's their tired, exhausted,
frazzled ready for break teachers that counted as well. Okay, So on a
more serious note, where do you want to start with the Lori and Powell
and Brian Pettinger cases. I think it's important to establish that the murders of
Brian Pettinger and Lorii Ann Powell took place right in the middle of the Colonial
Parkway murders series. In fact, if you take a look at the handy
dandy timeline that I compiled that we will again be posting on all of our
social media pages for the murders of Brian Pettinger and Lori Ann Powell took place
before the disappearance of Keith Colin Cassandra Haley, but to the murders of Robin
Edwards and David Nobling. The exact dates on those are as follows. Robin
Edwards and David Nobling were found on September twenty third, nineteen eighty seven at
the Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge. Brian Craig Pettinger, We're going to get more
into him in a couple of minutes, was reported missing on December fourth,
nineteen eighty seven. His car was recovered at December sixth, nineteen eighty seven,
and his body was found February first, nineteen eighty eight. Next up
missing was Laurie En Powell. She disappeared in March eighth, nineteen eighty eight.
Her body was found April fifth, nineteen eighty eight, and only five
days later, Richard Keith call and Cassandra Lee Hayley disappeared, never to be
seen again. On April tenth, nineteen eighty eight. So we've got a
very close timeline here, and Laurie and Brian's murders fall right in the middle
between Edwards, Nobling and Call Haley. The timing is very striking. You've
got all of these homicides happening very close in time, one on top of
another. And this group of individuals also all have ties to Liberty Security as
well. Yes they do, and I think that is really going to be
the crux around which our conversation is going to circle today. For those of
you that are unfamiliar with Liberty Security and its owner, Ron Little, we
would encourage you to go back and listen to our episode about mister Little and
his connections to this case. Nothing has been proven in our back catalog,
and that is episode for Ron Little and Liberty Security. So we have two
episodes on Liberty Security and on Ron Little. Those are episodes seventy three and
seventy four, and those are right after our excellent episodes with Chris Call and
Joyce Call. There is one on Liberty Security and then one on Ron daw
Little is seventy three and seventy four. The Mystery of Liberty Security and the
Colonial Parkway murders ran May twenty fourth, twenty twenty one. May twenty fourth,
twenty twenty one. Of that and the Ron Little episode, Ron Little
outs himself as a suspect in the Colonial Parkway murders ran the following week May
thirty first, twenty twenty one. So Brian Craig Pettinger of Newport News was
last reported to have been seen alive around nine thirty pm on December fourth,
nineteen eighty seven. He was last seen at a dance studio in Hampton.
He was his working as a dance instructor as a part time job at that
point. Is that correct? Yes. Brian's pickup truck was found two days
later, on December sixth, nineteen eighty seven, behind the Legates department store.
I don't know how many of our locals remember Legates. They're not around
anymore. And that was found at the Newmarket North shopping Mall, a shopping
mall which is no more. It went out of business. Newmarket North actually
closed down in January of twenty nineteen, so it is not there. And
after his car was found, his body was not found with the car.
No one really knew what happened to him fifth. Days after Brian Pettenger disappeared,
his body was pulled from Chuckatuck Creek on February first, nineteen eighty eight,
and that is that is the Lower James River area now. The medical
examiner ultimately determined that Brian's cause of death was drowning, although interestingly, he
did have a gash on the back of his head that police could not account
for. They didn't know where he had gotten it or how he had gotten
it. His wrists and ankles were bound with cord or rope. The reporting
didn't actually get specific on which one it was. It just said cord or
rope. He was wearing only socks and a shirt when he was pulled out
of the creek. We've had numerous discussions with people that knew Brian Pettinger,
including his ex wife, and Pettinger seems to have had kind of a checkered
and unhappy young marriage. His former wife described their relationship as an unhappy one,
an abusive relationship, and one where there were significant infidelities on Brian's part.
One of the working theories regarding Brian Pettinger's untimely demise is that there may
have been a jealous spouse or something like that that may have led to Pettinger's
murder. It's very clear that he was brutally murdered and his body was dumped
in the river. There are odd rumors that have surrounded Pettinger's murder for years,
but most of them are pretty unsubstantiated. There was talk that he was
involved in some sort of drug dealing or being a runner for drug deals.
They've been taught that there was somehow involvement from the mob in Brian Pettinger's murder,
but these things appear to be completely unsubstantiated. There's no question that Pettinger's
behavior and the things that he was into may have led to this homicide.
But there's not a lot to go on here in terms of a firm working
theory of what led to Brian Pettinger's murder. And interestingly enough, Brian Pettinger
does have ties to liberty security and that is something we're going to go into
in a little bit more detail in just a couple of minutes. The next
person, as part of our Parkway adjacent cases, is the case of Luri
and Powell. We do not have any indication that she knew Brian Pettinger,
but they did work in and around Liberty Security around the same time time period.
Let's get into Lorienne Powell a little bit here. We know a little
bit more about Lorienne Powell and what happened to her. And interestingly, when
I was reading back over some of the reporting that had been done about Laurie's
case, every single news article about Laurie's murder also mentioned Brian Pettenger. So
the media really tied the two cases together in terms of mentioning, Oh,
look at these two disappearances, these two murders that have happened, and look
at the fact that they happen to have worked for the same mysterious security company.
Laurien Powell was eighteen years old and she lived in Wacomaco, which is
over in Gloucester. She went missing on March eighth. Some of the reporting
said March ninth, but I'm going to go with March eighth here. Laurie
Ann disappeared when she was walking down Route six fourteen, which is Chulane Road
in Gloucester. She had a fight with her boyfriend, Chris Cutler. She
had climbed out of his car allegedly after they had fought and stormed off into
the darkness. This was about midnight when this happened. She climbed out of
his car, she left, and then Color returned for her about forty minutes
later. Maybe he gave her some time to cool off. We're not entirely
sure, but by the time he returned to the side of the road for
her forty minutes later, she was gone. And that was the last time
that she was seen alive. There was an extensive search for Lorianne, with
dogs, helicopters, local community members all searching for her, but of course
nothing ever came of that. Within those first couple of days. There was
some discussion maybe she ran away. She had at one point several years prior,
run away from home and stayed with a friend for a couple of weeks,
but her family insisted that she would not have run away without her clothes
or without the uncashed paycheck from her job at the family video store that her
family on Joeann's video, so her family did not think that she had run
away. Laurian Powell's body was found also in the James River, and we're
going to call this the Lower James River as well. On April fifth,
nineteen eighty eight, and she disappeared on March eight. Her body was found
in the river about six miles from Brian Pettinger's recovery site. We don't know
if there's a meaning to that or if that's coincidence. The James River is
a pretty big river. There may be some significance to it. We are
not sure. But because of where her body was discovered, the Portsmouth Police
Department ran point on that investigation rather than Gloucester, which is where she disappeared.
Found nude, but she was not bound. Brian Pettinger was. Laurie
was not cause of death for Laurie was listed as multiple stab wounds to the
back. It was unable to be determined whether or not she was sexually assaulted
prior to her murder because she had been in the water for so long,
it couldn't be determined when she died or how long her body had been in
the water. Both Lorianne and Brian had worked for Liberty Security. Lorianne acted
as a receptionist, is how it was phrased in some of the reporting.
Others said assistant secretary, I don't really know which one tends to work best,
but She did work for Liberty Security for a bit, as did Brian
Pettinger. He worked as a security guard for them, and there apparently was
some overlap with their work times, but we don't have exact dates on when
each worked for Liberty at this point. It's probably worth mentioning that we also
have connections with two of the Colonial Parkway murders and Liberty Security in that Bonnie
Dodson Edwards, mother of Robin Edwards, had also worked as a receptionist and
office manager at Liberty Security. Cassandra Sandy Hayley's sister, Terry Haley, was
a former Newport News police officer and someone that we're in touch with pretty regularly.
Terry had dated Steve Blackman, who is a former Gloucester County Deputy sheriff
and also a former member of the Newport News Police Department. She had dated
Steve Blackman for a time, and Blackman is associated with Liberty Security in that
he was good friends with Ron Little and may have worked moonlighting shifts or just
run with Ron Little during the time frame when Ron Little was working at Liberty
Security and then ultimately purchasing Liberty Security from John Knight Hawthorne its original owner and
changing the name of Liberty Security to Advance Security. There was also some speculation
that Keith call was being headhunted by Ron Little to do some work for Liberty
as well. So we have multiple connections by way of Liberty Advance. I
think we just tend to use Liberty because it's easier. You've got multiple connections
here between victims. But here's probably what is for me the most interesting thing.
The reporting says Ron Little was hired to investigate Brian Pettinger's disappearance. I
don't know if he was hired or if he just appointed himself. I'm going
to look into my missing employee's disappearance. I think it's more the latter here.
This seems self appointed to me from reading the press at the time.
He basically, yeah, hired himself to look into Brian Pettinger's murder. Once
Laurian Powell's body turned up. He also volunteered to look for Lori Anne,
and he said he investigated it alongside the Gloucester County Sheriff's Department, and he
even acted in at least one of the reports that I read. He said
that he was acting as family spokesman and again, that feels a little bit
like a self appointed role to me. I've spoken with Lori Anne Powell's parents.
When I first spoke to them about a decade ago, they reported to
me that they felt very strongly at that time that Lori Anne had worked at
Liberty Security, had worked with Ron Little, and they felt that her murder
was directly as a result of her employment there. They told me that she
had discovered something that was not right about what was going on at Liberty Security
in terms of their business practices, and they theorized that it had something to
do with bookkeeping. Because she was doing this receptionist, office manager and bookkeeper
role. They suspected that she had discovered something that had to do with them
cheating on their taxes, possibly cheating their customers in later years, and this
isn't Within the last year or so, we've received new information that Liberty Security
may have been cheating on a war workers comp claim workers compensation claim someone was
injured on the job and filed a claim, And we have heard unconfirmed reports
that one of the reasons why John Knight Hawthorne sold the business to his employee,
Ron Little, and Ron Little then changed the name to Advanced Security may
have been to get out from under some of this financial wrongdoing. We think
that it's even possible, based on the new information that we've received, that
the sale of Liberty Security from John Knight Hawthorne to Ron Little and Partners,
there were some people in the background here, which may have included Steve Blackman
and others. The intention there was to avoid some sort of financial responsibility,
and this may have been what is referred to as a straw man sale.
In other words, it wasn't really a sale. There was a possibility that
mister Hawthorne retained some sort of ownership share in partnership with Ron Little. So
when I spoke to Lorianne Powell's parents, they were pretty firmly convinced that their
daughter's murder was directly as a result of her employment at Liberty Security in more
recent years. And I would say this is within the last six months or
a year, when I had an opportunity to circle back with lorien Powell's parents,
their thinking had shifted a little bit, and I think this is fine.
I'm not criticizing it at all. At this point, they were more
thinking that Chris Cutler, who died of an overdose in twenty sixteen was involved
in Lorienne Powell's murder. He was among the last people to see her.
By all accounts, they had a very volatile relationship and abusive relationship that often
became physical. Lorienne Powell carried a knife with her at all times and was
considered very feisty and willing to physically confront Chris Cutler, her boyfriend of three
years, and that they would sometimes actually get into physical altercations. The night
that she disappeared. Our understanding is that they were out partying and drinking and
drugs are involved here, and that they had some sort of argument and that
she insisted on being let out of the car. She supposedly was left as
Kristin as you mentioned, on this two lane road in Gloucester, and then
was never seen again. The fact that the reporting mentioned that she carried a
knife, and then the fact that she was stabbed in the back, the
first thing that came to my mind was did this poor girl get stabbed with
her own knife? Yeah? And I don't think the weapon was ever found,
And of course her body was found in the James River, so very
little evidence was available. As you mentioned before, you're listening to Mind over
Murder. We'll be right back after this word from our sponsors. We're back
care it mind over Murder. We've talked about Ron Little a number of times
as related to this case. Every time that I read more about this guy,
or every time that I read the reporting which mentions him, the more
that I just have to take a step back and shake my head and go,
Wow, you really inserted yourself here in a way that you didn't need
to, mister Little. In the reporting from the Daily Press on the Laurie
and Powell Brian Pettinger cases from April of nineteen eighty eight, Mike Fabe offered
some pretty substantial quotes from Ron Little. This one I think was of particular
interest to me. Ron Little went on the record as saying he's convinced there
is a link between Powell's death and the death of Brian C. Pettinger,
whose body was found in the James River. There has to be some direct
association with the security firm. He said. The person would have had to
have known Laurie and Brian, and they would have had to trust them enough
to get into a vehicle. Very interesting that he would make these observations and
yes, by all accounts from Lorian's parents, this idea that Ron Little was
a family spokesperson is beyond absurd. They clearly did not like or trust Ron
Little. We should be referring to mister Little in the past tense. Ron
Little died December twenty fifth, twenty twenty one, just a couple of months
ago. I also found it very interesting that, again from that same Daily
Press article quote Little said he has taken precautions for himself and his family.
He also said he's been contacting anyone who has contact with the security company to
put them on guard. It's all very curious, it really is that that
part smacks of paranoia right there. But it's also was there a reason for
him to feel like everyone working for him may be in danger? I don't
know the Chris Cutler angle, since his from an overdose in twenty sixteen,
seems to have also moved to the four. It's amazing how it's only when
people pass on that other friends and family feel more comfortable perhaps in speaking up.
Which is sad in that if any of these people are directly involved in
these unsolved murders, it would be certainly a bit more satisfying if we were
to find this out while suspects were still alive. But I know that on
social media, including websites where these cases are discussed, and I participate in
some of the discussion, I had mentioned, as had others, that Chris
Cutler was potentially involved in Laurent Powell's murder. I received pretty significant pushback from
Chris Cutler's sister, which I understand. It cannot be fun to read on
social media, even closed sites that are invitation only, as some of these
sites discussing these cases are. She pushed back on the idea that I was
discussing, and I had not originated the thought that Chris Cutler was involved in
Lorient Powell's murder. He was certainly questioned at the time and was certainly looked
at on a short list of suspects. She pushed back pretty significantly. While
I understand her frustration, she has to look through this murder through the prism
of Lorianne's family who still have no answers some thirty three years later and are
still looking for answers, and the idea that Chris Cutler could have been involved,
or Ron Little could have been involved in the murder of Lorient Powell cannot
come as a shock. We call these cases Parkway adjacent precisely for this reason.
There are links to some of the Parkway murder's victims. But can we
prove definitively that Brian and Laurie are a part of the Colonial Parkway Murders series.
We can't, and there are some striking dissimilarities. Laurie and Brian are
not a couple. They are two distinct individuals. If we take as fact
that all of the four double homicides in the Colonial Parkway Murders series are related,
and again, Bill and I do not necessarily think that at this point
that does make a significant departure from the double homicide series that we've seen thus
far. It is a very interesting question to consider, Bill, because you
have lived with this case a whole lot longer than I have. Do you
remember when the first time was that you heard Pettinger and Powell as names related
to possible Parkway cases. Do you recall that at all? I remember hearing
about the murders around the same time. I don't think I knew a lot
of detail about the murder of Brian Pettinger and Laurient Powell. I certainly remember
hearing that there were other murders around the time of the disappearance of Keith Colin
Cassandra Haley. I think it's not until many years later, when I plugged
back into the case, that I really began to see the potential connections.
Andy Fox, longtime reporter for WAVY TV ten news, did a very good
story about this approximately a year ago March thirtieth, twenty twenty one. He
put out a story could these two cold cases be part of the Colonial Parkway
murders? He was asking the question if Brian Pettinger and Laurian Powell's murders could
be related. We'll link to that story in our show notes. But he
raises a number of very interesting connections, some of which we've explored here today.
And there's more on the Brian Pettinger case that's worth talking about as well,
and we might want to jump into that. Did Andy come to a
conclusion one way or the other for himself? We know that Andy has been
reporting on this case since the very beginning. He knows a ton about this
case, maybe more than any other of our media sources. Did Andy come
to wick conclusion for him. He asks a lot of great questions. There's
a very striking quote here from Suffolk Police Department Lieutenant Gary Myrik, who says,
if it were me, given that period of time, I think sometimes
are not just coincidence. Suffolk Lieutenant Gary Myrick told us recently while sitting in
front of an evidence box Mark Pettinger, and he continues, we ask Myrek
wed that that Pettinger and Powell cases could be connected to the Colonial Parkway murders.
Based on this timeline quote, anything is possible. That is a tight
timeframe for homicides in a close particular area. So I'm not going to tell
you it's not connected. Following our investigation, Myrick agreed to review the Pettinger
physical evidence for DNA retesting in the lab, and he said that will likely
happen in the next quarter. Myrick told us, and now it's my intention
to reach out to Lieutenant Myrek and see if we can get any sort of
update. Now, keep in mind, we don't have an official role in
the murder of Brian Pettinger or Lorient Powell, but we can ask questions.
Also based on the new information we're receiving from Ron Little's family in New Zealand.
We think that we may have information which could be helpful to Lieutenant Myrick
and the team at the Suffolk Police Department, so we're going to offer to
convey that information to them. That information has been sent to the FBI regarding
the Colonial Parkway murders, and there obviously is a different status. For instance,
for me, as the brother of a murder victim, I have an
official role in the murder of Kathy Thomas and Rebeccadowski I don't have, and
we don't have an official role in these other potentially related murders, as Kristin
says, the Colonial Parkway adjacent murders. And of course we've mentioned before how
difficult it can be considering that almost all of these cases have different jurisdictions that
are dealing with them. You've got two FBI cases, two VSP cases,
but each of them is from a different jurisdiction. And Powell's case was being
overseen by Portsmouth and it sounds like Suffolk was looking into Brian Pettinger. So
you've got different jurisdictions who are trying to run point on these investigations, which
can make it very hard to establish commonalities and to get people to work together.
Quite frankly, our friends in law enforcement have talked about what a nightmare
multi jurisdictional cases can be, and I would imagine this is no different.
In talking to Brian Pettinger's former wife, who has since remarried, she had
said one of the areas of confusion was, of course, he disappeared from
one location, the dance studio where he was teaching part time, and then
Brian Pettinger's pickup truck was found at the shopping center the second location. And
then it's not until I believe it's fifty nine days later, yep, that
his body is found in the river, and that's a third location. So
she said that even at the time, the investigation and even the agencies respond
consible for that investigation kept shifting. In this recent article from Andy Fox,
he mentions the Virginia State Police also investigated Lorin Powell's murder, and of course
we have the Suffolk Police Departments spokesperson indicating that they were the lead agency in
the Brian Pattinger case. There's a bit more detail in terms of Brian Pettinger's
murder that's worth exploring. One is that Brian Pattinger's former wife told me something
very strange recently, which is that when Brian had gone missing, but before
his body had been found once again, Ron Little inserted himself into that investigation
and insisted that he was going to lead the investigation as a private investigator looking
for his coworker's murderer. And yet Little behaved completely inappropriately towards her during the
time frame that Brian was missing. She told me that Little actually hit on
her in a very crude and unmistakable way during the timeframe of her husband at
this point only being a missing person. She said that Little was a complete
sleeze bag, and that he was actually trying to take advantage of the fact
that she was this grief stricken wife whose husband was missing at that point,
and Little is trying to take advantage of the situation from a sexual standpoint,
and you just find yourself shaking your head. This guy is just the sleeze
just oozes out of him. There's also a very strange connection to another person
who has since passed on. This is a friend of Pattengers named Wayne Elliot
Mack. And Wayne Mack committed suicide in June nineteen eighty eight, a few
months after after Pettinger's disappearance. He was a twenty one year old former Air
Force airman who was also a dance instructor and worked at the same dance studio
where Brian Pettinger worked part time. The two men were seen together the night
that Pettinger disappeared. Wayne Mack was questioned about the disappearance of Brian Pettinger,
and the investigators said that they felt that there was a very good chance that
Mack knew more about Brian's disappearance. Let me read a little bit from Andy
Fox's coverage. The original Pettinger case investigator, Sergeant Carter Hicks, has since
died. He told us the only known suspect died by suicide. He the
suspect denied being at the dance studio or seeing Brian that night, Hicks said
at the time. However, the suspect later admitted leaving with Brian, also
failed a lie detector test, and then in June nineteen eighty eight, as
I mentioned, Wayne Mack died by suicide, and Hicks said in nineteen eighty
nine, I feel the suspect, Wayne Mack, held most of the answers
because if he did not know who did it, we feel he was there
when whatever happened did happen, it, told Wavy News in nineteen eighty nine,
and then, very curiously, in his suicide note, Wayne Mack wrote,
quote, I didn't leave any clues, so don't feel guilty. Unquote.
He never explained that line, Andy Fox wrote, and Hicks told us
they were at a dead end. Andy writes, after thirty three years,
that apparently hasn't changed. The investigation into death of Pettinger remains at a dead
end. Very curious. I didn't leave any clues, so don't feel guilty.
And Kristin, as you and I have talked about, I'm not sure
if Wayne Mack is saying I didn't leave any clues that I was intending to
commit suicide, so don't feel guilty. Is he referring to his family that
they shouldn't feel guilty they didn't see this coming. Or is he saying I
didn't leave any clues about Brian Pettinger's murder and don't feel guilty? Does he
mean himself here? So both parts of I didn't leave any clues, so
don't feel guilty can be earned a bit and it's a little hard to figure
out exactly what Wayne Mack means here. Ye Mac was from West Virginia.
He moved back to his hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia a couple of months
after Brian Pattinger had been found dead, and then he committed suicide and he's
buried in the Parkersburg Cemetery. I don't think I'd be comfortable reaching out to
his family about all of this. I think they've suffered significantly. But at
the same time, you just have to wonder if there's something to this.
Could Wayne Elliot Matt have known something about his friend Brian Craig Pettinger's untimely death.
Just one of the many abundance mysteries and questions that we still have with
relation to the Colonial Parkway murders. Let me give you a little bit more.
I recently had conversations with a man who worked with Brian Pettinger at the
Roses Department store. This guy worked with Pettinger in the spring and summer of
nineteen eighty six, and he contacted us to offer some observations about Brian Pettinger,
and he said some very curious things. This guy was an employee at
the Roses store, where Liberty Security provided security assistance. Brian Pettinger worked there
almost full time because Roses was having a lot of problems with theft. But
he said some very interesting things to me. Let me quote a couple of
these things. So this is a guy who worked with Pettinger. He said,
here's where I speak ill of the departed quote. I got a viscerally
bad vibe from the guy that I was never interested in getting. He seemed
extremely sleazy, even by Newport News standards, in a way that seemed sexually
aggressive and transgressive and boundary crashing with less than a fully formed brain. This
guy's referring to himself. He was about eighteen years old at the time,
so he was pretty young. I thought he was a creepy pervert whom I
would have thought of as a potential rapist. I think Brian would engage in
high risk behavior to get his wants and needs met. I mentioned in my
long email on tone and setting and little on content in my previous email that
he engaged in sexual behaviors that were odd even for a young man with a
high libido. Told me a story about walking into a back room at Rose's
department store where Brian Pettinger was a sign and finding Brian Pettinger and a young,
probably underage girl, whom he knew from Menhville High School, engaged in
sexual behavior in the back room of the department store. He's pretty confident that
Pettinger had done this repeatedly. He adds, the answer to your question is
that in the cells of my body. When I heard about Brian Pettinger's homicide,
I thought that Brian had played an active role in his own death,
something like he messed with the wrong guy's wife or daughter. Interesting first hand
accounts of Pettinger's transgressive I thought that was an interesting choice of phrase. His
behavior and his willingness to exploit his position as the head of security for Liberty
Security at this Roses department store, he said. In another situation, he
found that Brian had once manhandled a male child, accusing him of shoplifting,
to the anger and dismay of his mother. I had to vouch for the
young man as having paid for his items, he actually had not stolen them.
Still, this was the period, he writes, It was dirty and
gritty and very Bible Belt Southern. I do not want to antagonize or hurt
people's feelings. This was just a world of difference between the quaint microcosms of
William and Mary and Colonial Williamsburg, Ganton, Norfolk, or the Fan in
Richmond and places like that scuzzy bar under the bridge. At the time,
and even in the aforementioned neighborhoods, people were often different and needed to watch
their backs. This guy was shall we say, less than impressed with Brian
Pettinger and felt that Pettinger may have even actually played a role in his own
murder. It's hard to know what to believe or whether these cases are even
linked to the rest of the Colonial Parkway murders. But as you and I
have said before, we're not even entirely sure all of the official Colonial Parkway
murders cases are linked to each other. So this is just another one of
those continuing questions. In this case, so our Brian Pettenger and Lauren Powell's
murders linked to the rest of the Colonial Parkway murder series, That, dear
listeners, is for you to decide, but we hope that you'll let us
know in our comments on our social media feeds what you think. Thank you
so much, for listening to this episode of mind Over Murder. We'll see
you next time. Mind Over Murder is a production of Absolute Zero and Another
Dog Productions. Our executive producers are Bill Thomas and Kristin Dilley. Our logo
art is by Pamela Arnois. Our theme music is by Kevin McLoud. Mind
Over Murder is distributed in partnership with crawl Space Media. You can follow us
on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. You can also follow our page on
the Colonial Parkway Murders on Facebook, and finally, you can follow Bill Thomas
on Twitter at Bill Thomas five six. Thank you for listening to mind Over Murder.