HAYES, Va. — So far no one has been able to answer what happened to Richard Keith Call and Cassandra Lee Hailey. The two Christopher Newport University students vanished 35 years ago.
Family members have kept looking for answers.
"It's always been wanting to get this solved. You know, it's been over top of us, I think it killed our parents young," said Douglas Call, Keith's younger brother.
The case is circumstantially grouped with several other unsolved cases from the 1980s called the Colonial Parkway Murders.
In 1988 Keith Call was in college.
"Keith loved life. He had plans," Keith's older sister Joyce Call-Canada told News 3 Saturday.
On April 9 that year, everything changed.
"He was going out with a friend. He walked out the door and we have never, ever seen him again," said Call-Canada.
20-year-old Keith Call and 18-year-old Cassandra Hailey went out together that day, first to the movies then out near Christopher Newport University. Police said that's the last place they were spotted.
The next day Keith's car was found along Colonial Parkway.
"It's almost like a fingerprint to each one of [the Colonial Parkway] cases. The keys were left in the car, the door was left ajar, the radio was on. They were all set up so someone would see that car and steal the car and muddy the case even more," said Blaine Pardoe, author of A Special Kind of Evil: The Colonial Parkway Serial Killings.
Foul play is suspected, but the couple's bodies were never found. None of the Colonial Parkway murder cases have been solved.
"A lot of this is the passage of time and the changing of the guard in terms of the officers. I think they're on their fourth generation of officers who have handled this. I will say we get tips all the time as the writers. Our goal is we want to see the case solved but we aren't the ones to solve it. We do turn those over to the FBI and Virginia State Police and they do follow up with them," said Pardoe.
It's been a heavy burden for those who knew the pair.
"Horrifying, tragic and mind blowing," said Call-Canada.
But Saturday in the Rosewell Memorial Garden Cemetery, there's hope. Amid pouring rain, a group of people gathered, speaking of the love and strength Keith Call inspired in them. The Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization placed a memorial for Keith Call. The plaque features his prom picture and rests just under the Call family headstone.
"It means a lot. I wouldn't say it's closure, but it's getting closer. It's a place for us to go," said Chris Call, Keith's older brother.
"I hope it will bring some attention out to people if nothing else. It needs to be a solved case," said Lou Call, Keith's aunt.
A blank space has been left at the bottom of the memorial to inscribe after Keith Call is brought home.
