Who is the Route 29 Stalker, and is there a connection to the Gilgo Beach murders?

From around 1996, several women disappeared along U.S. Route 29 in Virginia, and many cases remain unsolved today. The pattern caused some to speculate a serial killer called the Route 29 Stalker could be responsible, and one victim’s family now thinks accused LISK, Rex Heuermann, might be to blame.

In 1996, Alicia Showalter Reynolds, the first possible Route 29 Stalker victim, disappeared while driving from Maryland to Virginia on Route 29. Her body was found two months later, and her murder remains unsolved.

The witness description

According to the Daily Mail, witnesses reported seeing Alicia Showalter Reynolds, then 25, speaking with a clean-cut white man driving a truck. Her car was later found with a white napkin under the windshield wiper, a signal often used to indicate mechanical problems with the vehicle. In Reynold’s case, however, there were none.

Based on witness descriptions, a police sketch artist created a rendering of what the Route 29 Stalker might look like. In July 2023, Rex Heuermann of Long Island was arrested in connection with a series of murders in the Gilgo Beach area, near where Heuermann lived, possibly the work of a serial killer dubbed the Long Island Serial Killer, or LISK.

With Heuermann’s image in the press, Reynolds’ family noticed a similarity between Heuermann and the Route 29 Stalker police sketch and have called for an investigation into whether Heuermann could also be responsible for Reynolds’ death.

Other Heuermann Route 29 connections

As well as possible similarities noticed between Rex Heuermann and the Route 29 stalker police sketch, Heuermann’s mother lives near where Alicia Showalter Reynolds’ body was found, offering further evidence he might have been in the area. Heuermann has admitted he traveled to Virginia.

In addition to the women who disappeared, around two dozen others reported they were approached by a man along Route 29 in 1996 or that a man aggressively tried to get them to stop and pull over in the Route 29 area while driving a truck.

That man was reportedly between 35 and 45 years old and wore a wedding ring. Heuermann was 59 when he was arrested in 2023, making him about 32 years old in 1996.

Could Heuermann and Route 29 be connected?

On the likeness between Heuermann and the Route 29 police sketch, Reynolds’ sister, Barbara Josenhan, told The U.S. Sun, “It’s the cheeks, there’s something about the cheeks … I wonder if [Heuermann’s] ever been questioned about it. If he hasn’t, he should be.”

Another possible Route 29 Stalker suspect and known serial killer, Richard Evonitz (pictured above), died by suicide in 2002. The investigation into the 1996 Reynolds murder is ongoing.