Bill Thomas stood at a pull off on the Colonial Parkway one sunny morning in September and quietly let his eyes gaze up and down the picturesque, tree-lined road.
For the moment, the only sound was of the occasional vehicle approaching, passing by and then disappearing around one of the roadway’s curves.
This is where his sister’s dead body was found 30 years ago. The pull off was grassy back then, but it has since been paved. It has taken him three decades to come and stand at this spot.
Cathleen Thomas, and her girlfriend, Rebecca Dowski, were murdered in October 1986. They were found — throats slashed ear-to-ear, doused with diesel fuel — in Thomas’ white Honda Civic hatchback, which was caught in the brambles at this pull off east of Cheatham Annex. It was the first of four double homicides in the span of three years that would come to be known as the Colonial Parkway Murders.
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