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Man sentenced for scamming Colonial Parkway murder victims' families

Prosecutors say Fred Atwell held a car raffle to raise money for a fund started for the parkway victims' families.
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YORK (AP) -- A man will spend more than two years in prison for faking a fundraiser for the families of the Colonial Parkway slaying victims.

The Daily Press reports that Fred Atwell Jr. received a two-year and eight-month sentence Thursday in York-Poquoson Circuit Court. Judge Richard AtLee Jr. suspended another seven years and four months.

The 63-year-old Atwell pleaded guilty in March to obtaining money under false pretenses.

Prosecutors say Atwell held a car raffle to raise money for a fund started for the parkway victims' families. The families gave Atwell money for fees associated with the raffle. An investigation found that the cars didn't exist.

The fund supports investigations of the unsolved slayings of six people and the disappearances of two others along the parkway in the 1980s.

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Information from: Daily Press, http://www.dailypress.com

AP-WF-06-22-12 1058GMT

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