Katharina Buczek
In 1996, Alicia Showalter Reynolds was a twenty-five-year-old graduate student attending the prestigious John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Friends and family knew her as a brilliant young woman.
“Talented, kind, gentle soul,” added Sadie Showalter, her mother.
But, on March 2, Alicia set out to visit her mother in Charlottesville, Virginia, when tragedy struck.
She had gotten up early that day to prepare for the one hundred and fifty-mile drive. And once in Charlottesville, Alicia was supposed to meet up with Sadie for a shopping day.
So, at about 7:30 a.m., she kissed her husband, Mark, goodbye and got on the road. Alicia was not set to meet up with her mother until 10:30 a.m., so she left herself plenty of time for the trip.
Unfortunately, though, Alicia never made it to the mall. Instead, Sadie sat there for over an hour, awaiting her daughter’s arrival. And, when she did not show, she phoned Mark.
Mark suspected that inclement weather might have delayed his wife and told Sadie to hold tight. But, after several more hours of waiting at the mall, Sadie eventually went home– still puzzled about her daughter not showing up.
Then, later that evening, at 6:00 p.m., Alicia’s car, a Mercury Tracer, was discovered abandoned on a highway in Culpeper County, Virginia– just fifty miles away from the mall. A napkin was also left on the windshield describing how Alicia had suffered car troubles. However, an inspection later determined that the car was in good shape.
Virginia State Police; pictured above is Alicia
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