The Skeleton Key Chronicles

19 hours ago

Last week, authorities announced a major development in the Colonial Parkway cases that has remained unanswered for nearly 40 years. Investigators say they have now determined that Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. was responsible for what happened to Richard “Keith” Call and Cassandra Hailey after the young couple headed out on their first date in April 1988. But one enormous piece of the mystery remains—where are they? Because to this day, Keith and Cassandra have never been found.

Wilmer's name is already familiar in connection with the Colonial Parkway investigation. Before this latest announcement, forensic evidence had tied him to four people. Robin Edwards, David Knobling, Teresa Lynn Spaw Howell and Laurie Ann Powell. David and Robin were among the original eight people traditionally associated with the Colonial Parkway cases, while Laurie’s case had long been considered to be potentially connected.

If you've followed the Colonial Parkway cases through the years, you know Keith and Cassandra's has always been a little different. Keith's Toyota Celica was found at the York River Overlook in Virginia just hours after the couple left a party in Newport News. Inside were his keys, watch and eyeglasses. Keith and Cassandra, however, were nowhere to be found, and nearly four decades of searching have never brought them home.

They're also the couple I told you about earlier this summer when another search was being planned in connection with their disappearance. At the time, there was information suggesting there might still be something worth looking for in the water, so Chaos Divers was preparing to take another look using modern sonar technology. I promised I'd come back to that search when there was more to tell, and now there is.
The search did happen, and it was considerably more extensive than just checking the water near the overlook where Keith's car was found. Sonar scans were conducted at multiple locations near the Colonial Parkway, including the Indian Creek boat launch, Newport News Park and several boat ramps between the area where Keith and Cassandra were last seen and where the Celica was eventually discovered.

Drones were also used to examine areas that were difficult to access another way. And there was a reason for taking another look at the water, even though extensive searches had been conducted before. A newer tip had surfaced from someone who said they once overheard Wilmer talking about sinking a vehicle using concrete. That certainly doesn't establish that he did it or that such a vehicle had anything to do with Keith and Cassandra, but it gave searchers another possibility worth checking with today's technology.

The sonar searches ultimately didn't turn up anything significant, which brings this story back to where things stand following the FBI's announcement. Investigators say they have finally determined that Wilmer was responsible for what happened to Keith and Cassandra, but because Wilmer passed away in 2017, the families will never have their day in court.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

1 day ago

Okay, this is one way to get a documentary made about a cold case. Apparently a Kansas housewife became so convinced that something wasn’t right about a woman’s conviction that she started emailing investigative journalist Joe Sexton, trying to get him to look into it.

At first, he wasn’t interested, but she kept at it and apparently 2,714 emails later Eileen Umbehr finally got his attention. The message that did it was the one telling him that the Kansas Supreme Court had thrown out the case against Dana Chandler. You see, Chandler had been convicted in connection with the 2002 deaths of her ex-husband, Mike Sisco, and his girlfriend, Karen Harkness, after the case had remained unsolved for years.

So with that news, Sexton finally went to Kansas to see what Eileen had been trying so hard to get him to look at, and what began with one incredibly persistent woman and several thousand emails eventually turned into six years of reporting.

Now it’s a three-part HBO documentary on the case. I’m not going any further into what Sexton found because I haven’t watched it yet either, and I don’t want to know.

The final episode drops tonight, so all three will be there waiting for anyone else who wants to go down this rabbit hole. This one is definitely on my list. … See MoreSee Less

The Skeleton Key Chronicles

2 days ago

Nearly six years after 21-year-old Jason Landry vanished on his way home for Christmas, his remains have been found only a few miles from where his car was discovered on a rural Texas road.

And if you don’t remember Jason’s case, this one has puzzled people since the night he went missing.
Jason was a student at Texas State University in San Marcos. On the night of December 13th, 2020, he packed up and started the roughly three-hour drive home to Missouri City, outside Houston, where his family was expecting him for Christmas break, but Jason never arrived.

Sometime after midnight, his Nissan Altima left Salt Flat Road near Luling, about 30 miles southeast of Austin. This wasn’t an interstate or a busy road through town. Salt Flat Road runs through rural Caldwell County, surrounded by fields, brush and large stretches of open land, and when Jason’s car was discovered, he wasn’t there.

His cell phone, wallet, backpack, clothing and other belongings were found in and around the area. Investigators believed Jason had survived whatever happened on the road, gotten out of the car and continued on foot into a cold December night, which left search teams trying to figure out where he could possibly have gone from there.

Over the years, they searched the countryside surrounding Salt Flat Road using dogs, drones, helicopters, infrared technology and repeated searches on foot. Investigators examined his phone and digital information, followed tips and even had oil tanks in the area checked.

The Texas Attorney General’s Cold Case Unit joined the investigation in 2022. The following year, specialists in digital forensics, geospatial science, data mapping and criminal intelligence were brought together with other investigators to go back through the case and see whether anything had been missed, but Jason still wasn’t found.

Then, on September 8th, 2026, a local resident came across skeletal remains east of Salt Flat Road, between Soda Springs and Biggs Road. It was close to where Jason had vanished nearly six years earlier and, according to current reporting, just outside the established area that had previously been searched.

DNA testing was needed to know whether the remains belonged to him, and earlier today, the Texas Attorney General’s Office announced that testing through the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification had confirmed they did. After nearly six years, Jason had finally been found.

And after everything that went into looking for him, the location is difficult to get past. Current reports differ slightly on the measurement, but Jason was only about three-and-a-half to five miles from where his car had been discovered in 2020. After years of searches involving dogs, aircraft, technology, volunteers and investigators, he had remained in the same general area all along.

There are still questions about what happened during those final hours. Officials say the condition of Jason’s remains has not provided additional information about his cause or manner of death, and investigators say they have found no indication of foul play.

His family may never have every answer about what happened after Jason left that road in December 2020, but after nearly six years of searching, they finally know where he is and that he's coming home.

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