VA VA- Joan Zwingman, 26,& Christine Pilczak, 26, traveled from NJ to VA Beach for a convention, found floating in Chesapeake Bay, 19/8/83, *Homicide*

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https://coldcase.vsp.virginia.gov/virginia-beach-police-department/case/virginia-beach-police-department-case-1983-097301-joan-zwingman-and-christine-pilczak/

''Virginia Beach Police Department – Case: 1983-097301 – Joan Zwingman and Christine Pilczak​

''On Friday, August 19, 1983, the bodies of Joan Zwingman and Christine Pilczak were recovered from the Chesapeake Bay by the Coast Guard and transported to the Coast Guard Station on Ferry Road. Pilot Boat operators had notified the Coast Guard of two bodies floating in the water. Investigators were able to discover both victims traveled from New Jersey to Virginia Beach to attend a convention related to their employment. The victims had been seen the night before, August 18, 1983 at 7:00 pm. Both women were not wearing clothing made for swimming. They had sustained injuries prior to their death. Joan and Christine died from drowning and the case ruled a homicide.''

Joan Zwingman​

Gender:FemaleHeight:5’6"Hair Color:BrownAge:26Race:WhiteWeight:141Eye Color:Green

Christine Pilczak​

Gender:FemaleHeight:5’4’’Hair Color:BlondeAge:26Race:WhiteWeight:133Eye Color:Blue

 

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Lengthy article.. Feb 1 '24 rbbm

A local serial killer's DNA will not be entered into the CODIS database, 13News Now investigates why

Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. is the suspect in decades-old homicide cases in Hampton and IOW. Is a legal loophole leaving a potential trail of unsolved crimes unexplored?

www.13newsnow.com

''The Virginia Beach Police Department’s Cold Case Unit responded to the news of Alan Wilmer Sr. by spending part of January reviewing dozens of cold cases from the 1970s and 80s.
In 1983, two young women were found dead in the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia Beach. The autopsies for Joan Zwingman and Christine Pilczak showed they had been run over by a boat propeller.
Detectives at the time theorized that the two 26-year-old women were killed by a local boater who knew his way around the Hampton Roads waterways.
“Have you ever tried to take a boat out here at night? Whoever those girls got on the boat with, was local and is still local,” an investigator said in a 1983 article published in the Daily Press.
VBPD Lt. Rachel Wigand said her detectives recently looked at that case and the unsolved murders of 11 other women around the same time as the Colonial Parkway killings.
“At this time, Alan Wilmer Sr. is not a suspect in these cold cases,” said Lt. Wigand.''

 

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2012 rbbm

Searching for a serial killer in Virginia Beach, Part 3

Like a lot of people, Nancy Safford keeps a family scrapbook. But this book doesn’t mark milestones. It is a scrapbook of sorrow. “I call it the black book,” she says, “because it is all the people that passed away in my life.” When Nancy Safford was living in New Jersey, a series of tragedies tore

www.wtkr.com

''Years ago, cold-case detectives quietly reopened the investigation. Now, working with NewsChannel 3, they're digging deeper into the files hoping to find out who killed the women, and why.

"They couldn't get what they wanted, so they ran them over," said Det. Tucker.

That's the police theory. The women met up with a local boater. And somewhere offshore there was a sexual advance. Either the women jumped overboard, or were shoved. And then the boater ran them down, their bodies chopped by a propeller.

The ensuing media mix-up hurt police. It robbed them of the valuable tips that often flood in after a high-profile murder. No one tattled on a nervous boater because no one thought there was reason to.

Even so, police revealed to NewsChannel 3 they do have a suspect. But, maybe because they never got those tips, detectives don't have enough to make an arrest.''