By all accounts Alicia Showalter Reynolds was an exemplary person, described as:

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• A good citizen with a delightfully infectious giggle.

• Someone who personified what we do at our best.

• A woman on a mission to find where her own great joy and work and service could somehow intersect with the world’s needs.

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Beyond character, her accomplishments were mighty.

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• She graduated at the top of her high school class with a long list of accomplishments, among them: drum major; competitive gymnast; class Vice President; and, completion of a college-level program for young woman interested in science.  

• Following high school graduation, she matriculated at Goshen College in Indiana. In 1992 she was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree with distinction, double majoring in biology and chemistry.

• By March 1996, she had honed her scientific expertise considerably at Johns Hopkins University, working towards a Ph.D. in pharmacology pursuit of her dream of becoming a professor and a role model for women. ​​​

• In November 1996, a journal article she co-authored was published posthumously in the peer-reviewed Journal of Immunology.

"IL-12 enhances vaccine-induced immunity to schistosomes by augmenting both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses against the parasite.”

• Technically complex, it explored the chemistry of immune responses in mice to support testing of a potential vaccine for bilharzia, a neglected African disease. 

 

​​​​​​​​One cannot help but wonder what this exemplary woman might have accomplished had she not somehow become entangled with the Route 29 stalker.

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References:

Hood, John. “The Family of Alicia Showalter Reynolds Still Looking for Answers 25 Years After Her Death.” 29 News (WHSV), 7 May 2021, https://www.29news.com/2021/05/07/family-alicia-showalter-reynolds-still-looking-answers-years-after-her-death/

Murphey, Pat. “City Native Disappears Near Culpeper.” Daily News Record (Harrisonburg, Va.), 4 Mar 1996, pp. 1+.

"Alicia Showalter Reynolds Scholarship." Goshen College. 15 Mar. 2022. https://www.goshen.edu/give/2022/03/15/alicia-showalter-reynolds-scholarship/ Accessed 12 Nov. 2024.

Folkenflik, David. "Hopkins Student's Disappearance, Other Cases Linked." Baltimore Sun, 7 Mar. 1996, p. 1.

Wynn, T A et al. “IL-12 Enhances Vaccine-induced Immunity to Schistosomes by Augmenting both Humoral and Cell-mediated Immune Responses against the Parasite.” Journal of Immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) vol. 157,9 (1996): 4068-78.