ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 11, 1996 TAG: 9605130087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WOODBRIDGE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEMO: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.
The kidnapper and killer of Alicia Showalter Reynolds is likely very nervous right now, obsessed with media coverage of Tuesday's discovery of her body, a former FBI behavioral scientist said.
The killer is probably glued to television news reports about the case and reading every newspaper account of it available, retired FBI profiler Pete Smerick said. ``He's at home, switching channels to see who has what on the investigation. His family will notice he seems concerned.''
``I'd think right now he's rather uptight,'' Smerick said Thursday. ``You might find him taking the day off work.''
State police and the FBI received at least 100 calls Thursday, some from people with information and others from people who are scared.
``Some of them are helpful, and some are just frightened women who need reassurance,'' state police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said.
Investigators received several calls from people who remember seeing a dark pickup in Lignum, where Reynolds' body was found, in late April. At least one was from a woman who said she saw a man and woman April 24 in a truck at the end of Virginia 681, about 10 feet from the spot where a Culpeper man discovered the graduate student's remains.
A memorial service is set for Sunday at the Harrisonburg church where Reynolds was baptized as a baby and was married 14 months ago.
The 25-year-old Johns Hopkins University pharmacology student disappeared March 2 along U.S. 29 near Culpeper. State police say she was on her way to meet her mother in Charlottesville when a clean-cut man in a dark-colored pickup somehow stopped her, then convinced her that her 1993 Mercury Tracer had engine trouble.
Witnesses reported seeing her climbing into the truck. That was the last time she was seen alive. Investigators later learned that her car had no mechanical problems.
After Reynolds' disappearance, at least 20 women came forward, saying they had been followed by the stalker. Two Culpeper County women accepted rides from him, but he took them where he said he would. They also later learned that nothing was wrong with their cars.
A Prince William County woman escaped what could have been a similar fate after a polite man in a dark pickup stopped her along Virginia 234 near Montclair. She believed him when he told her sparks were flying from beneath her car and accepted a ride.
After a few miles he stopped, threatened her with a screwdriver and attempted to force her to have sex. When she resisted, he shoved her out of the truck, breaking her leg.
The killer could be married, or carrying on a successful relationship with a woman, Smerick said. ``He's capable of having a relationship with a woman. He's confident and comfortable enough with women that they don't feel threatened by him.''
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB