Alan Wilmer Sr. biography: 13 things about Lancaster County, Virginia fisherman

Alan Wade “Pokey” Wilmer Sr. was an American fisherman from Lancaster County, Virginia, United States. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. An avid hunter, he belonged to at least one hunt club in Virginia.
2. He owned a tree service called Better Tree Service.
3. He had no felonies on his criminal record, according to the Virginia State Police.
4. He was 5’5″ tall. He was muscular and he weighed around 165 pounds.
5. He owned a small wooden commercial fishing boat named the Denni Wade, a 1976 custom-built wooden boat, which he often docked around Gloucester County, Virginia and Middlesex County, Virginia and the stage’s Northern Neck and Hampton Roads region.
6. In the 1980s, he worked as a fisherman farming clams and oysters.
7. From the 1980s to the 1990s, he drove a van, a white pickup truck, a blue 1966 Dodge Fargo with a Virginia license plate, a silver 1989 Ford F-150 and several other pickup trucks.
8. He allegedly fatally shot David L. Knobling, 20, and Robin M. Edwards, 14, who both went missing on September 19, 1987, and sexually assaulted Edwards. The two victims’ bodies along the bank of the James River at Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge at Colonial Parkway in Isle of Wight County, Virginia on September 23, 1987. 
9. He allegedly fatally strangled Teresa Lynn Spaw Howell, 29, who was last seen alive at around 2:30 a.m. on July 1, 1989 outside of the Zodiac Club in Hampton, Virginia. At around 10:10 a.m., he body was found. On July 4, 1989, she was identified after she was reported missing in York County.
10. In 2009, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced trace evidence from the murders of Knobling, Edwards and Howell had been sent for advanced scientific testing at its laboratory in Quantico, Prince William County, Virginia. He was not immediately identified as a suspect.  
11. On December 15, 2017, he died at his residence in Lancaster County at age 63.
12. In 2023, the Virginia Department of Forensic Science issued a certificate of analysis, which confirmed that his deoxyribonucleic acid matched evidence collected at the scene of the murders of Knobling, Edwards and Howell.
13. On January 8, 2024, the Virginia State Police officially named him the suspect responsible for the homicides of Knobling, Edwards and Howell.