Speaker 1: You're listening to the Mind over Murder podcast.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 3: 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 of a Murder. I'm Kristin Dilly and
I'm Bill Thomas. We are reporting a live ahead of
winter snowstorm number two here in Virginia. We are expecting
snow to start in mere moments.
Speaker 2: Something's backwards here. I live in the Great Northeast. You
live in Virginia. For some reason, Virginia is getting the
snow and New England is getting bitter cold. We'll talk
about that in a second, but no snow. The storms
keep cracking through the del Marva Peninsula.
Speaker 3: Yeah, your weather's down here, drunk in my yard. Please
come get it.
Speaker 2: Come get this snowstorm and take it home with you.
Speaker 3: It belongs where you are. It doesn't belong where I am.
They are projecting. I think the last look was four
to six inches.
Speaker 2: Oh my, that's a lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which is a lot for us. It is not
as much as Snowmageddon from twenty eighteen. That was quite
a lot. We haven't had a big storm here for
a while. I think it's been Our school division did
a nice little count for us ahead of last week
and said it had been one thousand x number of
days since we'd had a snow day. That's so weak.
Speaker 2: That's three years.
Speaker 3: It's three full years. Yeah, so it has been a
while since we've had a snowstorm of any significance. We
did not count on having two within a week, But
I didn't hate the fact that we only had a
three day week after winter break. I'm tired enough after
a three day week. We didn't need a five day
or It's okay.
Speaker 2: Now we have listeners all over the country and all
over the world. For those Virginians and they are a
fair number of them because of our coverage of the
Colonial Parkray murders and other issues. And Kristen, of course
lives in Virginia. Understand what I'm about to say. I'm
only teasing, which is to say that last time I checked,
the Commonwealth of Virginia only had three snowplows. Is that
really true?
Speaker 3: It feels that way sometimes. I will say. The folks
at v DOT have done a superlative job here pre
treating the roads before every single event that we've had,
and you can always like it looks very distinctive on
the roadway when they've pre treated the roads.
Speaker 2: What is retreat mean.
Speaker 3: I think it is supposed to help the I think
it's supposed to help the snow melt off the road
faster or something. I'm not sure. I just know that
they go through with a brine and they pre treat
the roadway so that it won't stick nearly as badly.
It's honestly not a snowplow problem. I think it's just
that melts and then it freezes again and you get
that whole black eye situation and nothing good comes of it.
Speaker 2: Years ago, I was visiting my older brother Richard. He
was in med school at Georgetown after he graduated from
the Naval Academy, and I had some time off from
the University of Massachusetts, so I was I'm visiting with him,
and I remember driving along in DC, like near the
Jefferson Memorial and there's no cars on the road. And
he had this really great little blue Fiat named Fiarello,
a front wheel drive, great in the snow, and I
remember driving along, just bombing along on what to me
felt like a light snowstorm. Being from New England. I'm
listening on the radio and they're talking about Washington, DC
is paralyzed by a major snowstorm, and I'm like bopping
along in the Fiat, going, this is a major snowstorm,
two or three inches of snow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty much anything above an inch is going to
paralyze most of the Commonwealth just because we're not used
to it. We don't really know how to drive in it.
We do have about three snowplows. You're exactly right, and
it's just we have a lot of side roads that
get all nasty and black, icy and congested, and it's
not good. So, yeah, we were Actually we have the
same discussion that every teacher has right before a snowstorm,
which is how long is this going to get us
out of school if any And it doesn't matter that
you've just come back from Christmas break, it doesn't matter.
You still want your snow day if you know that
there's going to be a snowstorm. So we were all
having the discussion today.
Speaker 2: And for you younger listeners, listen carefully. This means that
teachers actually look forward to snow days.
Speaker 3: We do, We totally do. There was some discussion about
maybe we were going to no longer have snow days
now that we have virtual learning as an option, and
I'm sorry, give people a snow day every once in
a while. Nobody wants to go to school via zoom.
Speaker 2: And then in the meantime up here, it's been like
in the single digits at night. And so the other
morning I got up and it was eleven degrees but
with a fifty mile an hour wind. The feels like temperature,
which is a very big thing now, was like minus
fourteen or something crazy like that. It's been really cold.
Speaker 3: I will, honestly, I will take the cold over the
firestorm that is raging through Los Angeles right now. And
we want to extend our heartfelt sympathies and love to
those of our true crime colleagues who are in the
Los Angeles area. And we do have many of them, Yeah,
a lot, an alarming number actually, And so for the
last couple of days, I've been reaching out and trying
to keep tabs on people who evacuated, who's still there,
who's okay? Who is not? My life partner's sister lives
in Calabasas, and so we're trying to make sure she evacuating,
is she okay? What's going on? So for our listeners
and our true crime colleagues who were in Los Angeles,
we love you, we support you. Stay safe, let us
know if we can do anything to help you. And
as much as we're complaining about our snow, we will
take it over. What is happening out there in La
Bill and you lived out there, Was there ever a
really terrible wildfire event that you can remember?
Speaker 2: There was several times, And as a matter of fact,
when we left West Hollywood in twenty eighteen, I remember
we were selling our condo and we had an open
house where people come by to check out your place.
I remember there was smoke throughout Los Angeles from these
major wildfires, but nothing like what we're seeing in these storms,
these firestorms with one hundred mile an hour winds. It's
just crazy and are I'm not big on thoughts and prayers,
but I think this is one of those times where
our thoughts and prayers really are with the people of
southern California. Some of those neighborhoods, like in the Pacific
palis Ages, just looked like a bomb has gone off
and every home in the street is burned to the ground.
It's just awful.
Speaker 3: My life partner because he's been checking on his sister,
he's been keeping up with the updated fire map, and
he was looking through and looking at some of the
areas where he lived because he grew up in Los Angeles,
or he would have me correct that statement and say
he grew up in the valley. I'm told that there's.
Speaker 2: A difference on the other side of the hill. But
we know a number of people, and Pamela's art gallery
where she knew a whole bunch of women. It's called
Ten Women. It's actually last time I checked, I think
there were twenty three women, but it was started by
ten women. Several of those people have been evacuated. I
don't know that anyone's property has been destroyed, but we
do know other people people whose property has been destroyed.
A lot of people are displaced, and man, the whole
thing is just terrifying. And we know some people that
have left, not necessarily permanently, but they have families, and
particularly if you have young kids or pets, you've got
to really be careful. One shocking video clip I saw
the other day there were dozens and dozens of cars
that had gotten stuck in traffic. The firefighters came through
and said, you have to get out of your car
and you have to abandon your vehicle, and so these
people were forced to flee on foot. Dozens and dozens
of cars were just sitting in the road. Firefighters have
to get through with their equipment, so these massive bulldozers
were just pushing these cars, some of which were beautiful cars.
They just had to push them out of the way
so that the fire trucks and other equipment could get through.
The whole thing is really frightening, and I think we're
far from seeing the end of it, and I just
want to let everyone know we're thinking of them.
Speaker 3: Boy, we've got a lot coming up in the next
few weeks for us, and so we wanted to fill
you guys in on some of what is going on here.
In terms of live events, we do have a couple
of them this year, and we hope to have more.
So the first of those is going to be a
wonderful event that's being put on by the Prince William
Public Libraries. This is going to be held at the
Montclair Library in Montclair, Virginia. This is a wonderful idea
that was presented to us August, which feels like forever ago,
suddenly somehow it is here. And so this is called
by the book a true Crime mini con, rather than
being largely crime con. It's very intimate gathering at the
Montclair Library. It is for people who love true crime.
Speaker 2: Saturday, January twenty fifth. It's a day long event. It
runs from ten am to three pm. I think this
is going to be very interesting. It's no charge, no
RSVP is required. It's in this beautiful library in Montclair, Virginia.
I think this is going to be a phenomenal event.
And if you've seen one of our other live events,
we will not be repeating the presentations that we've made
at some of our previous live events. They've asked us
to focus on advocacy.
Speaker 3: Obviously, like part of the information that you need to
know for anybody who gets to know us is our
involvement with the Colonial Parkway murders case, so we will
be covering that a little bit, but we are going
to be talking a lot about advocacy and what people
can do to move their cases forward if they have
been affected by crime, but also what you can do
if so many of our listeners you've never been affected
by crime, but you still want to help. We're going
to talk a lot about advocacy. We are running our
session from one thirty to two thirty pm in the
community room, and we're going to be doing a live podcast.
We are very excited to be doing this, which will
be our third live event at a library. We're certainly
hoping that there will be others. So if you live
somewhere in Virginia and you would like your library to
have us come and do a live podcasting session, please
suggest it to them and tell them to reach out
to us. We are happy to do a little bit
of traveling across the lovely Commonwealth of Virginia here and
visit people where they would like us to visit.
Speaker 2: Heck, we don't have to do it only in Virginia either,
even though they only have three snowplows. I think we
could travel even further.
Speaker 3: You live next to a beautiful library, mister Thomas, in
the gorgeous village of Norfolk, Connecticut. I feel like we
probably ought to come to a live event at your
library before we do anything else.
Speaker 2: That's true. If you're willing to travel, we'd love to
have you. You can stay here at the Maple House.
Speaker 3: So the other sessions at this true Crime Mini in
addition to ours, there is going to be a presentation
from the Prince William Police Department from ten oh five
to ten fifty. From eleven to one, they're doing the
very important Ident to Child with the Prince William County
Sheriff's Department, and that is where they will produce a
plastic ID card with your child's photo and measurements, which
of course could be very helpful to law enforcement if
anything God forbid ever happens to your child then they
go missing. So this is a really excellent way to
ensure the safety of your children. From eleven to eleven
forty five. I'm looking forward to this session very much.
There's going to be an ATF Canine Training Facility demonstration.
I was about to call it a performance, but I
don't think these dogs are performative. They're actually working. They're
doing good things.
Speaker 2: And I love the work of the ATF. But the
thing I was most excited about when I was reading
about this is reading the description, I was like, are
the dogs going to be there? Are the dogs going
to be there? And they are going to be.
Speaker 3: There, Yes, they're going to be There's going to be
a canine dog name Annie, and Annie is going to
uppear with their handler and they're going to talk all
about their work at the ATF, which I love. So
if you not only love true crime but you also
love dogs, come hang out for a little bit. I'm
sure you'll get to do some photo ops with.
Speaker 2: Annie and you and I have been to other events
where they've had police dogs, and then I've also been
to event since spoken where they have search dogs and
these dogs are so amazing. I'm a big dog person.
To see these dogs go through their paces is just
so cool and the dogs are just amazing. And of
course you can't bother them when they're working, but they
usually then will allow people to interact with the dogs,
and I just think it's the coolest thing. Most of
the time you're talking about German shepherds and other breeds
like that. One of the events I went to had bloodhounds,
who are the funniest looking dogs, but man, they are
so unbelievably talented, and they use them to search for
missing people. Sometimes that can be hard work for handlers
and dogs. I so admire both the handlers and their
canine companions. I am just crazy about this stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's going to be a lot of fun. And then,
just ahead of our event from twelve to one in
the community room, our guest Bruce Goldfarbe is going to
be speaking about his award winning books eighteen Tiny Deaths
and OCM. And Bruce does have a book coming out
a little bit later this year, and I'm hoping that
he'll give us a little maybe sneak peak of that,
a chapter two, something along those lines. But if you
enjoyed Bruce's appearance with us last year on the podcast,
please do show up and show him some support. His
session runs from twelve to one, and then stay for
our session from one thirty to two thirty.
Speaker 2: And one of the cool things about having Bruce Goldfarb
there to talk about his writing for The Baltimore Sun,
the Washington Post, USA Today, and many other magazines and
then his books as well, is like a lot of
people that we know, we have an electronic relationship with
these people because we are in different parts of the country.
We do these interviews on Mind over Murder, which I
think we both really enjoy and our listeners seem to
as well. But you actually don't physically meet the person
all that often, so we've never met Bruce Goldfarb in person.
This will be really fun to hear him speak about
his writing career and all amazing projects he's been involved
in and get a chance to meet him in person.
Speaker 3: Yeah, very excited. So this is going to be a
wonderful event. We encourage you to show up support all
of the people who are going to be there, whether
that is in canine form or human form. That We
will have plenty of handouts, we'll have plenty of stickers,
we will take selfies, we'll do autographs, we'll do whatever,
but please do come hang out with us for a
little bit. We would love to meet you, whether you
are a listener who's shown up to our other live events,
or whether this is your first time. So please do
come hang out with us on January twenty fifth at
the Montclair Library. No RSVP is needed, no registration, no cost,
Just come hang out with us for a couple of hours.
We will love to see you.
Speaker 2: Will include all of the information about the January twenty
fifth event in our show notes. And one of the
references you just made indicates you've gotten a little more
comfortable with being asked for your autograph.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm okay with it. That's fine. I've actually never
had a problem with that. I really don't like taking selfies.
That's my biggest issue is photos. I hate having my
photo taken. So I'm fine with autographs. I'll do autographs
all day long, but I hate having my photo done.
It's just the worst.
Speaker 2: I don't like having my picture taken either. But a
lot of times, particularly at crime Con and other events,
people will say can they take a picture with us?
So you have to say yes, and.
Speaker 3: I'm fine with I'm fine with doing a selfie if
I can control how I look in the selfie. It's
when other people are like, can I stand back and
take your photo now? Because I don't look the same
in a regular photo as I look at a selfie.
I know how to make myself look good in a
selfie a regular photo, can't chance it?
Speaker 2: Don't now I'm hearing the C word. Control seems to
be a bit of an issue, buddy.
Speaker 3: You know I'm a control freak, have been for years
type a personality. I too have a diagnosis of obsessive
compulsive disorder.
Speaker 2: Do you get an ID card with that too? Or
is that not part of the mix?
Speaker 3: I feel like I need a badge just to wear.
I don't mean to be this way. I just am
like it's and it's helpful in some cases, but honestly,
it's such a hindrance in others. But yes, I want
a badge.
Speaker 2: Maybe we should talk to the nice people from the
Prince William County Sheriff's Department. They're going to be doing
ID cards for kids. Maybe they can do one for you.
Speaker 3: I think that would be great. Interestingly, though, I do
know because I grew up in I grew up in
the eighties and that was when the rise of the
identic head movement was. I know that I have my
fingerprints on file, not just as an educator, but also
as a kid through my school. I know that's something
that happened. Have you ever had your fingerprints taken?
Speaker 2: No, I don't think so. The FBI actually talk to
us at one point. Now, I have had my DNA
taken via oral swab in the Colonial Parkway murders, and
the FBI did talk to us about fingerprinting us at
one point because they had one hundred and fifty plus
latent prints in the Colonial Parkway murders crime scene. But
they never went down that road. So I'm hesitating because
I feel like I have done it, but I don't
remember what for. It wasn't for this case or anything
like that.
Speaker 3: So Bill, I'm curious, And actually some listeners have asked
this too. Does the military fingerprint its active members.
Speaker 2: I'll bet my father was. And this is pre DNA
from what we've read in twenty twenty five, military personnel's
DNA is taken. Heaven forbid, you're ever killed in action,
they want to make sure that they can identify your remains.
I don't know if people realize this. When you hear
about dog tags, which are the small metal tags that
military personnel where the reason those dog tags were created.
And again this is way before DNA was to identify remains.
Speaker 3: My fingerprints are on file in both Virginia where I
teach now and Arizona, where I taught previously.
Speaker 2: That was before you were asked to leave the state.
Speaker 3: Correct, I'm right as to leave the state.
Speaker 2: You said, you get kicked out of Arizona.
Speaker 3: Yes, I got kicked out of Arizona entirely. They said,
you know what, You're too Southern, get the heck out
of here. Yeah, that's exactly what it was.
Speaker 2: I reckonize this is a podcast and there isn't a
visual component to it, but I wish I could share
the shocked look that crossed your phone.
Speaker 3: You're going to make people think things about me, Oh
why not? That are completely and entirely baseless. Yeah. I
love the idea of getting kicked out of the entire
state of Arizona.
Speaker 2: And with Arizona being as colorful as it is, you'd
really have to try hard to get kicked out of Arizona.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, Arizona is a wonderful place, but I'm glad
I'm not there anymore. It's fun to go visit, and
I haven't visited in quite a while. So my golf
for spring break this year is actually to get to
go to Arizona. Have not been back for quite a while.
I missed the heat. I really missed the heat. When
we're about to get four to six inches of snow,
I really missed the heat.
Speaker 2: Are you allowed to go back?
Speaker 3: I am allowed to go back. Yes, will grant me
visitation privileges?
Speaker 2: Sure you haven't been blackballed by that? Stated?
Speaker 3: Interestingly enough, though, because of a person that I knew
in Phoenix and my association with them, I have actually
been to visit a prison, and I bet you can't
add that to your resume, can you. No?
Speaker 2: Actually, years ago when Fred at Well, the now deceased
and I would say colorful character from the Colonial Parker murders,
to say the least, when he was in prison in
Virginia actually blame Pardo and I had talked seriously about
going out to visit him in prison. We didn't end
up doing that because my work schedule with sag After
and Los Angeles was just too crazy busy, and I
was in LA of course, so we never had that opportunity,
much to our regret because sure Fred unexpectedly passed a
couple of years later. Joyce Call Canada and I have
talked about this many times. She knew Fred at Will
very well. We always thought he had something more to
tell us about the Colonial Parkray murders.
Speaker 3: Now it's so interesting Now I actually want to know
how many people who listen to the pod have ever
either been fingerprinted, given their DNA or have gone to
visit a prison. I bet, I bet the answers would
be interesting.
Speaker 2: And of course now we have to modify your answer
a little bit. I have also done ancestry dot com,
where you do the oral swab and send it in,
and of course you're not doing that for law enforcement purposes,
although we do urge people if they're participating in the
DNA collection sites that do allow for law enforcement search,
we do urge them to check that box and allow
for that, because that's certainly helped solve a number of cases.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have held off on doing the ancestry thing.
Both you and I have had family members who have
had rather unexpected surprises as a result of their ancestry
DNA testing. So as a result of that, I have
just decided, you know, what I'm not going to do that.
I'm not in the mood for any bombshells that may
or may not be lurking in my family's closet. I
have too much else on my plate. I am willfully
deciding I will be ignoring ancestry for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 2: We found out fascinating things about our family too.
Speaker 3: Yes, I know you did, because I was there for
that whole saga, so I remember. But yeah, I think
it's a wonderful tool. But I think don't do it
unless you're prepared for the fact that there might be
skeletons in your family's closet that you don't want to
get into. And that has happened to people that we
both know. I have not done ancestry, but I have
had my DNA taken, I've had my fingerprints taken, and
I have been to visit a prison. We're just checking
things off on the law enforcement Bingo game here. Actually,
that would be great to have at our booth at
Crime con Law Enforcement Bingo or like True Crime and
Justice Bingo. I think I'm going to whip up a
Bingo card.
Speaker 2: Okay, I will do it.
Speaker 3: I think it'll be great fun.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Mind over Murder. We'll be right back
after this word from our sponsors, We're back here at
mindover Murder. Among the sites that allow for DNA search
by law enforcement include family Tweet, DNA, and jedmatch, and
our friends at Athram have a smaller DNA searching device
as well. But that is something that we do encourage
people to do, and I have done that as well
so that my DNA is available for helping to solve crime.
Speaker 3: I know you had a big story out of my
neck of the woods, but I've been busy grading student essays,
so I wasn't able to follow it as well as
you can can that. I know you wanted to report
out to us. I will let you get into the
specifics of it, but I've just been calling it the
Big Explosives Guy story, and clearly that title doesn't do
it justice. So why don't you fill us in on
Big Explosives Guy? Yeah, because it is rather alarming. I
just haven't had a chance to come up to speed
on it.
Speaker 2: This got a little bit lost with the holidays, with
Christmas and Hanukkah and New Year's and all that kind
of stuff. A man named Brad Stafford. I guess you'd
say it Spofford. Spaford from Smithfield, Virginia, was arrested on
December seventeenth, twenty twenty four. The Smithfield Times and will
include some links in our show notes, has been covering
this case. It's been covered in a variety of different publications,
but I actually thought the Smithfield Times local reporting was
quite good. It's a very strange case. Mister Spafford was
arrested and so far, officially he's only been charged with
one offense, which is having a sawt off shotgun, which
is illegal in Virginia. Much more importantly than the shotgun
is the FBI says that he had more explosives in
his possession. This is of one individual than anyone else
they've ever arrested. He had at least one hundred and
fifty pipe bombs and high explosives in his freezer, oh
my lord, next to food, clearly marked as high explosives.
But one of the things I read about was this
particular homemade brew that he had created is highly volatile
and actually changes in temperature can set it off. This man,
mister Stafford's thirty six years old, currently being held at
the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Suffolk, Virginia. His lawyers
are petitioning to get him released. I don't think that's
really a great idea, because apparently this guy holds very
extremist views. He actually blew off three of the fingers
on his right hand several years ago. On July fourth, Wow,
they found high explosives in his home as well as
in an outlying building which sounds like a garage or
a barn of some sort. This is all on a
twenty acre property in Isle of Wight County. Now this
guy sounds extremely dangerous. They said some of the devices
were non lethal training devices, but many were live explosives. Apparently,
he had some interaction with a neighbor over a several
year period. As they got to know each other better,
they had a friendly relationship. That neighbor, who ended up
being a source for this investigation, began to understand that
this guy had extreme right wing political views. He was
using photographs of President Joe Biden for target practice. He
made really unfortunate remarks about the president and vice president. Eventually,
this neighbor contacted authorities and said, you've got to find
out what's going on with this guy. Of course, he'd
blown off three fingers of his hand on July fourth,
twenty twenty one. They began to suspect that over the
last several years he was much more into the creation
of homemade explosives. He apparently was working with a goal
of making his own ammunition. He was trying to get
up to ten thousand rounds of high powered ammunition. It's
a very strange story, and I understand that the FEDS
are very resistant to letting this guy out of jail.
Speaker 3: They should be. Yeah, he sounds like the next Timothy McVeigh.
Speaker 2: He's I think this guy's extremely dangerous, and I think
the charges are going to be ramped up significantly in
the coming weeks based on the the just the sheer
volume of explosives. Neighbors reported. There were a number of
explosions after the bomb squad, and this would have involved Smithfield,
the FBI, and a number of other agencies. They detonated
most of the explosives except for nine bombs that they
kept for evidence, but obviously they didn't want to hang
on to at least one hundred and fifty pipe bombs
and other high explosives because it's just too dangerous to
hang on to that kind of volume. The DOJ and
the FBI are fighting the release of mister Spafford and
trying to prevent him from being released. It's funny his
attorneys and doing their job, but they try to minimize
all of this. Is not just somebody having fun on
the fourth of July. This is really pretty outrageous and
extremely dangerous.
Speaker 3: Judge Lawrence Leonard agreed on December thirtieth to release thirty
six year old Brad Kenneth Stafford, who'd been held at
the Western Tidewater Regional Jail sinceays December seventeenth. The rest
into the custody of his mother conditioned on his wearing
an electronic monitoring device and surrendering his passport. He will
be restricted to his mother's house when not traveling to
and from work, medical services, meeting to his attorneys, or
religious services. I'm sorry, this guy shouldn't be out at all.
I this guy should not be out at What in
the world was this judge thinking.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I was shocked initially when there was
talk about releasing him, and this informant was not named
in the articles that we've read. The informant said that
he had become friendly with Stafford in October twenty twenty four.
He said that he had many one hundred pound boxes
of explosives, and he was making his own ammunition and
had a goal of creating ten thousand rounds of ammunition.
And in an interesting side note, he was also doing
target practice at a shooting range where he was pursuing
his three to four hundred yard sniper qualification. And this
is a guy that's talking about assassinating political figures. And
of course we know we've had some close calls this
past year in that regard. He even had a homemade
recipe for C four, again a military, great high explosive
not to be manufactured without a proper license. The whole
thing is very curious, and the idea of just releasing
this guy to his mother just seems absurd to me.
Speaker 3: It says. Leonard cited among his reasons for granting Stafford
box that the only offense charged to date was his
alleged possession of the short barrel rifle. Okay, but he
also had a whole ton of explosives and homemade C four.
I'm sorry, I would think you would have to take
that into consideration. But I'm not a lawyer or a
judge or a legal expert of any kind. Perhaps you
don't have to take that into consideration. I would think
that you would, but that's just me.
Speaker 2: I think the holidays and that sort of thing may
have held things up because I think the FBI and
the ATF and the other agencies need to upgrade these
charges to cover all of these other explosives, because I
cannot see letting this guy out of jail pre trial.
This is really a dangerous individual.
Speaker 3: You're right, it really did just get swallowed up in
the news cycle as a result of the holidays, because
I honestly, I hadn't even heard about it until you
mentioned to me, do you hear about this guy in
Isle of Wight? I was like no, and you were
like the guy with the explosive. Nope, hadn't heard about
big explosions guy.
Speaker 2: Now that I've on back and look for more stories,
I found a bunch of additional coverage, But just before Christmas,
on December seventeenth, I couldn't find very much at all
except for the Smithfield Times. Now there's been a number
of other articles, many of which reference back to the
Smithfield Times article, which we appreciate. A reporter named Stephen
Feleski was the initial guy who covered this case for
the Smithfield Times. Very interesting story and very disturbing.
Speaker 3: To wrap up our episode, why don't you tell us
about your recent press hit that you did with some
of our local media, because that is something that I
know you're particularly pleased to have been a part of.
Speaker 2: I was asked the other day to do a story
which will link in the show notes for WTKR. You
may remember the WTKR, which is CBS News three in
the Hampton Roads area. They had wanted to do a
story about the one year anniversary of the January eighth,
twenty twenty four press conference that announced the solve in
the Robin Edwards David Nobling case, which then also linked
Teresa Lynn Spa Howell, who was murdered in nineteen eighty nine.
In being interviewed by the reporter Brendan Ponton, I've expressed
some of the family's frustration. A year has gone by,
we're getting more foot dragging with the FBI and the
Virginia State Police, and we find ourselves at a very
frustrating crossroad. We were promised advanced forensic testing results in
the Call Hailey disappearance, that's Keith Colling Cassandra Haley, who
disappeared in April nineteen eighty eight. We would due advance
forensic results in October. We did get some preliminary and
positive signs there might be some forward motion in identifying
sources of DNA, which could include Alan Wade Wilmer Senior
and other suspects. And then we were promised that they
were going to be doing an amplification technique on this
DNA that they had discovered. This is all newly discovered
DNA evidence. We're told that six more weeks would be
required to do this amplification technique and that should have
resulted in test results on or about December sixth, twenty
twenty four. And here we find ourselves it's a month
later and we still haven't heard anything. To further compound
our frustration, we were promised additional results in the Thomas
Dowski matter, that's the murder of my sister Kathy Thomas
and her girlfriend Rebecca Dowski in November twenty twenty four.
We have received no word whatsoever, and we just find
ourselves really frustrated we feel like the FBI and the
Virginia State Police have gone radio silent on us again,
where we're just not hearing any news. We're not receiving
updates which we were promised earlier this past fall, and
it's just an incredibly frustrating experience. And now our longtime
case agent has just retired, we're receiving no information whatsoever
about who's taking over what's happening. After thirty eight years,
it just gets old to constantly having to be badgering
the FBI for more information. In Thomas Dawski, Cal Haley
and I know the Virginia State Police families feel somewhat
the same. We're thrilled that we had results in Robin Edwards,
David Nobling, and Terry Howell, but to be promised additional
potential revelations from DNA testing and to receive nothing, it's
just incredibly frustrating.
Speaker 3: It must be, and I wish I knew the right
words to say to empathize the way that you all
deserve hearing that you're I'm so sorry for me and
other people. I'm sure that doesn't help matters. I wish
that they would do their due diligence. And treat you
all with the kind of respect that you deserve as
the family members of murder victims. We can only hope
that something new and positive maybe on the horizon. That's
the only thing that we can hope for. I think
I'm going to try to be optimistic and hope that
something is coming. But as I've learned from I think
we'd established last episode that we've been working together ten
years now, as I've learned within that very short span
of time, it can be hard to be optimistic about
this case.
Speaker 2: We're going to be demanding a meeting with the FBI
in the first quarter of twenty twenty five. The last
time the Colonial Parkway murders families met as a group
with the FBI and the Virginia State Police is fifteen
years ago. We met in January twenty ten. My father
was still alive back then, and we just find ourselves
very frustrating crossroads, and we're just going to have to
keep pushing. The families are incredibly unhappy with the lack
of communication and what feels like the lack of forward momentum.
It's hard to tell there could be something happening that
we might hear about this coming week, but right now
we're hearing nothing, and that just it's just maddening. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, As always, if we hear something, we will well
keep quiet about it until we can tell you. But
just keep hoping and praying for good outcomes for twenty
twenty five, that's really all that we can hope for.
But we do look forward to seeing everybody at our
live event on January twenty fifth at the Montclair Library.
Please show up for however much time you would like
to spend with us. We are happy to see you.
We're happy to hang out with you. We'll even take
selfies with you if that's what you'd like. Just make
sure we all look good in the process, and we
do welcome your thoughts, your ideas for future cases. You'd
like us to cover anything that you want to throw
out there. Please do engage with us on social media.
Please make sure you buy our merch and subscribe on
all of the appropriate podcast platforms. Leave us positive five
star reviews. You guys know what to do. You've been
doing it with us for five years now. Six I'm
losing track.
Speaker 2: I think we just started our sixth year Mind Over Murder.
Speaker 3: Feels like we really only just started this mere minutes ago.
That is going to do it for this episode of
mind Over Murder. Thank you so much for listening. We'll
see you next time.
Speaker 1: Mind Over Murder is a production of Absolute Zero and
Another Dog Productions.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Bill Thomas and Kristin Dilley.
Speaker 1: Our logo a It is by Pamela Arnois.
Speaker 2: Our theme music is by Kevin mcleoud.
Speaker 1: Mind Over Murder is distributed in partnership with crawl Space Media.
Speaker 2: You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Speaker 1: You can also follow our page on the Colonial Parkway
Murders on Facebook.
Speaker 2: And finally, you can follow Bill Thomas on Twitter at
Bill Thomas five six.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to mind Over Murder.