For 33 years, Amy has lived with the trauma of a 1992 Valentine’s Day rape in Virginia, a cold case that finally cracked last year when DNA evidence linked the crime to a convicted rapist.
In September 2025, Anthony Favors, 57, who initially faced six indictments, including abduction and burglary, took a plea deal for two counts of rape to secure a 24-year prison sentence. Norfolk Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. ordered 12 years for each count to run consecutively.
Months later, Amy received an automated VINE text that Virginia’s parole board planned to review Favors’ case for possible release.
“I finally get some sort of closure and justice. And then I get a text,” Amy told Fox News Digital. “Nobody yet has told me how he’s even eligible for parole.”
SUSAN SMITH ELIGIBLE FOR PAROLE AGAIN AFTER BEING DENIED RELEASE FOR DROWNING HER 2 SONS IN 1994
Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi confirmed to Fox News Digital that Favors will likely have a “discretionary parole hearing” within the next few months.
Fatehi explained that a bureaucratic overlap triggered the hearing: the parole board previously considered Favors for release on a previous rape conviction but never granted it, legally opening the door for the upcoming review.
“It’s discretionary because he had been locked up for so long. He is theoretically eligible,” Fatehi said.
FORENSIC GENEALOGY UNMASKS COLD CASE SUSPECT AS STRANGLER, SEXUAL PREDATOR DECADES LATER: OFFICIALS
Separate rape case
Favors was serving a 60-year sentence for a separate March 1992 rape when a 2024 DNA hit linked him to Amy’s case. Since he committed his offenses before Jan. 1, 1995, Virginia’s old sentencing laws authorized the Virginia Parole Board to consider him for release.
Fatehi said that there is a “slim chance to zero” of actually releasing Favors, but the possibility of an impending hearing left Amy reeling.
MAX FACTOR HEIR’S FORMER LAWYER DETAILS JUDGE’S ERROR THAT WIPED OUT 124-YEAR RAPE SENTENCE
“The only word I can think of right now, honestly, is disgusting,” she said. “It’s wrong. How can you do that? Where is my justice?”
The attack altered the course of Amy’s life. Favors beat and assaulted the active-duty Navy sailor for hours at her Norfolk apartment. Despite the trauma, she reported directly to her shift on a Navy ship immediately after the attack.
SERIAL KILLER SURVIVOR WHO ESCAPED 18-HOUR CAPTIVITY REVEALS INSTINCT SHE WISHES SHE NEVER IGNORED
Decades later, the psychological scars have dictated her daily routine. She battles severe PTSD, chronic sleep deprivation, and hypervigilance that forces her to constantly check and recheck her door locks.
“Some of the things that I did that I thought were normal, were not normal. And I still do,” Amy said. “Check the locks, recheck the locks, check the locks, recheck the locks. I’m not sleeping again because… it’s the unknown.”
CONVICTED PREDATORS FACE LIFETIME BARRIER UNDER GOP LAWMAKER’S SWEEPING VICTIM PROTECTION BILL
“If you took the Amy before my rape and the Amy after my rape, I am two different people.”
FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X
Heather Keeley, director of the nonprofit advocacy group Stand Tall, said survivors already carry the weight of their past assaults. By granting Favors a future parole hearing, she argued, the justice system actively expands that trauma by forcing victims to endlessly relive it.
CALIFORNIA SUED OVER POLICY THAT COULD FREE SERIAL KILLERS AS LACI PETERSON’S FRIEND SOUNDS ALARM
“He was sentenced to 24 years in prison, which wouldn’t even put him up for parole 12 years later,” Keeley told Fox News Digital.
“And here it is less than six months later, and she’s calling us all that she just received a text message that he’s going before a parole board… how is that even possible?”
SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS
Reliving a nightmare
A new hearing means Amy will detail her nightmare to the parole board to justify her own safety, risking the progress she made during months of intensive trauma therapy.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE FOX TRUE CRIME HUB
She plans to ask the parole board for a three-year deferral so the state does not force her to relive the attack annually.
“I now have to explain myself again as to why he shouldn’t get out… It’s too much. But I gotta speak for me, and I gotta speak for these other victims who can’t speak for themselves. So, I gotta do it.”
Amy also fears the board’s actions will destroy the public’s trust in the system.
LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST
“If you’re paroling these people, what incentives does that give somebody else?” she asked. “If they’ve been raped or sexually assaulted, what gives them the incentive to go and report it?”
The Virginia Parole Board does not publicly list its full hearing schedule, but it posts monthly parole decisions on its official website.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Favors’ defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Fox News Digital reached out to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s office for comment.
