David Lee Knobling was 20 when he disappeared after a late-summer night out on September 19, 1987. A salesman and automotive enthusiast, he was last seen that evening with 14-year-old Robin Margaret Edwards after giving his younger cousin and Edwards a ride. Knobling’s black Ford Ranger was found on September 21 in the Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge parking lot with the keys in the ignition, the radio playing, the wipers on, unlocked and parked head-in; his wallet remained inside.

Both Knobling and Edwards were found dead on September 23, 1987, washed ashore on the James River about a mile from where the truck had been abandoned. Both had been shot — Knobling twice, once in the shoulder and once in the head in a way suggesting he may have tried to flee; Edwards was shot execution-style in the back of the head. Their clothing was in disarray, and investigators linked the killings to other unsolved double homicides later called the Colonial Parkway Murders.

Decades of few leads left the case cold and the families without answers.