Robin Lawrence

Warning This episode contains graphic crime scene detail. Please listen with discretion. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we're going to work on. Warming up some poled cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to this week's episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We are going to get into a little right now in true crime catchup. So one case I haven't talked about is that of wife Lynette Hooker, who is missing in the Bahamas. So her and her husband, Brian, went out on this little dinghy boat on April fourth. According to what Brian said, his wife Lynette went overboard with the boat's key attached to her, and then he was then forced to paddle away back to shore, where he alerted police. And of course, there have been a lot of people who have questioned his story about what happened his account of what happened. Allegedly, Lynnette's daughter has come forward and said that they had a. Not so great relationship. There is a lot of talk about domestic abuse allegedly on Brian's part towards his wife. He was arrested and placed in custody. They did question him at length, but they did release him just the other day, and he apparently has traveled back to the United States because his mother is ill, so he is having to tend to that situation. But he is still, according to the authorities, considered a suspect in this weird disappearance. Of his wife. I'll continue to keep you updated on this one. There is a lot coming out. Obviously, Lynett's daughter has spoken out. I believe her mom has also spoken out, and Brian has maintained his innocence in all of this. He said he would never harm her. So we are to see what comes of this. I'm sure there is going to be more to come. I didn't really have a ton to talk about this week. They are still in the penalty phase in the Tanner Horner situation. I have not been watching live streams at all, but I have been listening to Pretty Lies and Alibi. She's been doing daily recaps, and as always, she keeps it real and keeps it very respectful, very victim focused and centered, and I super super appreciate that because this is a really really hard to fathom and digest case. It is very triggering for a lot of people. I find myself. Sometimes I can't listen to it. Sometimes I'm not in the right headspace, or sometimes I just flat out can't listen to it. But this guy is a actual monster, and I'm so curious to see what is going to happen as far as what they're going to do as far as his sentence goes. I didn't think it was going to be going on so long, but I'm actually glad it is, because I think everyone needs to realize that this guy is horrible and evil and a true monster, and he can hide behind his crazy alter ego all he wants, but at the end of the day, he is the true monster that he is, and that's Tanner Horner. It's not Zero, it is Tanner Horner. I did want to talk about some upcoming trials and different sentencings that are coming up, just so we can all kind of have dates for all of this stuff. So Corey Richins is set to be sentenced on May thirteenth. Lindsey Clancy's trial is set for July twentieth of twenty twenty six. She is the mom who was suffering from some postpartum issues and she took the lives of her children and then attempted to take her own life. That one is going to be really really interesting, I think to listen to. And the poor father of those children left to pick up the pieces when his whole world has just been crumbled. The sentencing for Gerhart Koenig, who is the doctor in Hawaii that allegedly not allegedly anymore because he was convicted, killed his wife. His sentencing will be August thirteenth. We have Courtney Clenny, who is the only Fans model who allegedly murdered her boyfriend. Her trial has been delayed, but they're hoping that it's going to be in late August of twenty twenty six. That one is going to be very very interesting. We have Shanna Gardner who is accused of setting everything up to have her husband Jared Bright again murdered, and her trial is set for September eighth. And then we also have the person that she allegedly hire to murder him, Mario Sodanna. He is supposed to be going to trial on August seventeenth. So there's a lot going on. A lot of these people who are up on trial to are women, and what the heck is going on? We have Barry Moore a. Few, who is supposed to. Go to trial October thirteenth for the alleged murder of his wife, Suzanne Moore a Few, and my arch nemesis in life, Letitia Stout. I don't even want to talk about her conviction being overturned for the murder of her step. Son Gannon Stout. I just cannot even get over the fact that her conviction was overturned. She was arrested, she was charged, she went through trial. And she was sentenced, and now that conviction has been overturned, so her new trial date is going to be happening at some point in time, and I hate that the family has to rego through all of the stuff that happened. It's a horrible story. I do not like that woman at all, and I need for her to be behind bars for the rest of time. So I will be sure to keep you updated on all of these things. But that's five. Cases where women are going to be on trial that we are seeing play out in front of our eyes, and I just don't. Know what is going on lately. Last thing I want to talk about is authorities have executed a search warrant for the man who they arrested in the Texas Killing Fields murders an accomplice to the Texas Killing Fields murders, James Elmore Junior. They have executed a search warrant on a property that belonged to him, and they are using ground penetrating radar to look for possible human remains. This search warrant is stemming from statements that he made in conversations he had with law enforcement, saying that his accomplice, Clyde Hedrick, had buried bodies on the property years ago when Hedrick previously owned the land. So they have not disclosed if they have found anything yet during the search, but I imagine it's going to be ongoing, and this property is in Baycliffe, Texas, so we shall see what comes of this. If there is anything more that happens in the next week, I will be sure to let you guys know. But this one, it's been incredible this last couple of months. There has been so many new developments, and I think these families are getting closer and closer to justice, and hopefully more questions are being answered as the days go by. So if there's any updates. On the search, I will be sure to let you know, but we are going to go ahead and get into today's episode, which is one of my favorite types of episodes because it was a cold case. For many, many, many years, and now we. Can officially say it is solved and I can't wait to tell you how they solved it. That's always my favorite part of these cases that were cold for so many years is getting to the point where they're able to come up with a suspect and officially solve the case. So we are going to go ahead and get into that episode. Now. Okay, guys, we are jumping in to a brand new case today. In today's episode, I'm going to be sharing about the now solved case of thirty seven year old Robin Lawrence. Robin was murdered in her home in Springfield, Virginia, in November nineteen ninety four. After nearly thirty years, her killer has been caught and he is finally behind bars where he belongs. This case haunted many four years, including Robin's husband, Allie, who was away on a business trip in nineteen ninety four when somebody broke into the Lawrence family home, brutally killed Robin and left their young two year old daughter, Nicole unharmed to fend for herself. Let's go ahead and go back to nineteen ninety four and talk about Robin's case. My main source for this episode was a forty eight hours episode called Closing the Cold Case of Robin Lawrence. I will link that below in the show notes. I highly suggest that you give it a watch. Robin Eileen war Lawrence was born on November twenty third of nineteen fifty six in Ithaca, New York, to her parents, Jesse and Robert Warre Senior. She was raised in Syracuse, New York with her brother Robert and sister Mary. Robin had a lot of talents, but one of the more notable ones was she was a very gifted and talented artist. She had a degree in Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University and was actually selected to mold the first medal for the mar Martin Luther King Junior Non Violent Peace Prize, which ended up being awarded to Rosa Parks. This was a huge honor. Robin's parents were so proud of her for this and all of her other accomplishments. Robin is described by her friends and family as personable, fun loving, and down to earth. Robin eventually left New York and moved to Washington, d C. Where she met her future husband, Ollie Lawrence Junior. They began dating and eventually would marry on New Year's Eve of nineteen eighty nine. Nicole, their daughter, would be born three years later. They settled into life in Springfield, Virginia, and they bought a house that was located at eight six four six Racina Lane, which was a cute little cul de sac on a quiet street in Springfield. At the time of her death, Robin was thirty seven years old and she was working in advertising. Ollie was an executive for an airline. Now. Allie was out of. The country on business at the time of Robin's death, and he had been trying to reach Robin all weekend. With no success. He started to become concerned because she was home with her two year old daughter, Nicole. Ollie was able to get a hold of a neighbor and friend of theirs named Lorii, and Ollie asked Laurie if she would go over and check on Robin. Laurie went over and tried to knock on the front door, got no answer, so she decided to go around the back of the Laurence home and noticed that the windows screen was cut, and at that point she instantly knew something was wrong. She took it upon herself to try to make way into the house and she was able to get in through the window, and what she saw terrified her because she saw baby Nicole coming down the hall and what she could see from where she was standing was the entry to the master bedroom, and all she could see was there was large spatters of blood on the wall. She immediately called nine to one one. When law enforcement arrived, they discovered the most horrific scene. Robin was stabbed forty nine times. This was a violent attack and one that investigators believed felt very personal. Nicole had been in the house when her mom was attacked and killed, and obviously had been in the room at some point in time, and it was apparent that she had been walking around the house. Nicole was not injured and appeared to be fine, but they did bring her to the hospital to get checked out. There was some concern about Nicole, however, because she had at some point in time received a liver transplant after her birth and she was medically compromised. There was certain medicines she had to take so her body didn't reject her new liver, and there really wasn't any way to tell how long Robin had been deceased and how long to Cole had been left to fend for herself without her medicine. Nicole was okay, though luckily and thankfully no valuables were taken from the scene. Investigators didn't believe. That robbery was the motive, and that likely the person that did this was somebody that was familiar with Robin. In the course of the police's investigation, it was discovered that Ollie had been having an affair with a colleague. However, from the very beginning of the investigation, Ollie was cooperative and they even questioned the woman he was having an affair with, and they didn't believe that either party had anything to do with Robin's murder. They checked Ali's alibi forward and backward, and they were able to to determine that he was exactly where he said he was at the time he said he was there. They checked hotel logs, plane tickets, they checked everything. Robin's family, although surprised he was having an affair, never thought that he was involved because he was just not that type of person. Robin was laid to rest on November twenty sixth, just days after her thirty eighth birthday. Investigators were able to figure out that the last confirmed interaction and sighting of Robin was about six pm on Friday, November eighteenth. They do believe that she was killed in the evening around nine thirty PM, and she would be discovered two days later on November twentieth. That means that poor little baby Nicole wandered around that house for two days while her mother laid there deceased. The crime scene is described as brutal. Investigators saw that the screen to the home had been cut in the back of the house, and they realized that the intruder had in fact entered the home that way through this cut window screen. Robin had many stab wounds, like I said, and she had a lot of. Defensive wounds as well. The home phone cord was cut and it appeared that the attack had started on Robin's bed and would transition onto the floor. There were also a lot of bloody tissues around Robin's body, and investigators believed that Nicole had likely tried to help her mom and clean up the blood. There was also a few empty baby bottles around Robin as well, meaning Nicole was probably hungry, and when a baby is hungry, they typically give their bottle to their mom so the mom can refill it. That absolutely completely broke my heart when I heard about that. When they talked about it in the forty eight Hours episode, in the bathroom, investigators noticed a wash cloth hanging on the outside of a sliding shower door. It did, in fact turn out that there was blood on this towel, and it was tested, but did not show any immediate matches to anybody close to the investigation, it wasn't Olie's blood, it wasn't Robin's blood, and it didn't belong to the woman who Allie was having an affair with, So this leaves that the most likely person whose blood this is. Is probably the suspect. But with this, even though they did have this DNA evidence, the investigation very much stalled because they didn't have a whole lot more to go off of. Robin's family said the details that came following Robin's murder were very sketchy and slow to come. The family didn't know of anyone off the top of their heads that would want to harm Robin. She had no enemies, Everybody loved her. She was well liked in the community, and unfortunately years passed without any answers or leads. Robin's family eventually just thought the case would never be solved. Robin's mom passed away in twenty eighteen, and the remainder of her family just kind of resigned themselves to the fact that they would never get answers. But everything changed in twenty nineteen when cold case investigators for Fairfax County Police Department, Melissa Wallace and John Long, got involved. They reached out to Parabond Nano Labs in hopes that genetic genealogy could help assist in finding Robin's killer. So their results came back that Robin's killer likely had European ancestry, but it was really, really hard to trace this person because all of his database matches in the family tree were super distant. They said that this case had a zero probability of being solved and if they did want to invest in it, it was going to take a lot of time and a lot of money to move forward with it. At this point, their Fairfax County Police Department could have given up the zero percent solvability statistic was obviously discouraging, but a volunteer with the police department who kind of dabbled in genealogy on the side, said that she would take on the case for free and got herself involved. She got all of the info from Parabon and she dug into this family tree. Now, like I said, in this family tree, there was a lot of distant relatives, and she found a lot of distant cousins, about fifteen hundred of them. In the midst of this. In twenty twenty one, they had Parabon complete a DNA phenotype of Robin's killer. So basically, what this phenotype does is it takes the DNA of the suspect and they make a composite sketch of what the suspect could look like. And this process to me is so fascinating. They start off with skin color and then they go to facial structure, down to eye color, hair color, eye shape. It is really truly fascinating. Now, since the DNA cannot show age, they typically will make these renderings to young adult age, typically around twenty five years old. They are able to come up with the composite and they set up a video call with Ollie and showed him the photo and he did not recognize this person. With this, the investigation stalled again, but the volunteer genealogist kept working and she was able to trace some ancestors back to Canada. Now she did have two. Groups of people, and although they were both related to the suspect, they were not related to one another. But she knew if she could figure out the link between the two, she could zero in on a possible suspect. So she found a woman on one tree who in fact married a man on another tree, and realized the suspect was a descendant of that couple, which got them to a single name, a man named Steven Smirk. Three and a half years later, they finally had a name. She contacted the detectives and they started to look into him. He was still living, he was a computer programmer, married to a defense attorney. He had no. Priors, and they really were a little leary and didn't really think that this was their guy. But they ended up tracking down his yearbook photo at the age of sixteen, and he sure enough did look a lot like the phenotype photo that Parabon had come up with. And it's really crazy to see the side by side. I'll be posting it on my social media, so you guys be sure to check that out. So they thought, well, maybe this does make sense now. Steven Smirk at the time was living in upstate New York, and on September seventh of twenty twenty three, investigators made their way to New York and they made their way to his house unannounced. When they got there, he was there alone, his family was not home, and they introduced themselves and basically said that they were there investigating a cold case murder in Virginia, following up on some leads, and he really didn't have any reaction to them being there. He let them in and once they asked for his DNA, he willingly gave it. He didn't ask questions, he didn't appear confused, and the detective said this process typically takes about forty five minutes because you go to somebody's house and you bring up something from decades ago that they are collecting DNA on, and the person that is there questioned is typically going to be asking questions and maybe. Expressing a little concern. They were in and out of that house in five minutes, and that very much did strike them as odd because he didn't ask any questions. He just willingly gave them the d NA and then they left. Shortly after the investigators left Steven's house, he called Detective Wallace and he said he was at the police station to turn himself. In for the murder. But he said for some reason or another, he wasn't able to get into the station, that the police station was locked. So Detective Wallace told him, you need to hang up this phone call right now. You need to call nine one one. You need to tell them. That you were at the police station and that you were there to turn yourself in, and that call was recorded. It is very short, and I am going to play that for you now. I'm actually here to turn my heloping or a time. You're here to turn yourself in. Collected DNA, so I'm here to turn myself in for a cold case. And when the nine one one operator says you're here to turn yourself in, he said, well, they collected DNA, so it's just a matter of time. Once they got him into the police station, the investigators came down to the police station as well, and he was willing to sit down with them and talk and they knew that in this conversation they had with him, that they had to do it the right way. They knew that they had to have a good conversation and interview with him, one that would hold up in the court system if needed. He said that this murder was one hundred percent intentional, and he is a serial killer who's only killed once. Now, they did have to be careful because they didn't have the DNA back yet that definitively tied him to the crime, and they wanted to make sure that this wasn't a case of false confession because he was scared because they took DNA. They wanted him to bring. Up details of the case without them leading him to it. He was able to recall that the victim was an African American woman, which Robin was, and he says at the time of the murder, he wasn't in the right frame of mind. At the time of the murder, he was only twenty two years old and a soldier stationed at Fort Meyer in Arlington, Virginia. He said he had been drinking and taking a fterine pills. He said something inside of him told him that he was going to kill someone, but he didn't know who. He said it was this overbearing thought in his brain that he just couldn't control. He drove to the. Neighborhood in which Robin and Olie's house was because it was a air that he was familiar with. And he said he didn't know who lived at the house that he broke into, but he did provide the details that he cut the window screen to enter the home. He said he was wearing a sche mask and leather gloves. He said he saw a baby in one of the rooms and he went down the hall to Robin's room, and he said she was startled and basically got out of bed on her knees and was pleading for her life. He said he used all of the skills that he. Had learned in the military and that is what he used basically to help carry out the murder. He said that he was highly influenced by demons and that was the reason he enlisted into the military, because he wanted to kill. He swore that Robin was. The only person that he has ever killed, and said that if it wasn't for his wife and kids, that he would be a serial killer. He said that Robin had clawed at his face, and the detective asked him if at any point he had gone into the bathroom. He says he doesn't. Remember, but if he had, it would have been to look in the mirror to see what she had done to his face. In the struggle, and in that the detectives knew that he was likely leading from his face. He grabbed a washrag that was hanging on the shower door, wiped his face, put it back, and that is where the blood and the DNA on that washcloth came from. It's so weird to watch this guy's interview because he is very matter of fact in the telling of the details of the murder. It's basically like he is telling you what he did on his vacation. He then expressed that he has no remorse. He says he doesn't feel anything for the family. He says that he feels bad that he did it, but only because quote I knew someday my personal freedom would be affected end quote. And I'm just going to go out on a limb here, guys, this guy is a Grade A jackass because he left a two year old baby to fend for herself in a house where her mother had just been brutally murdered. And this guy is a parrot himself. He has two children, and he doesn't feel any remorse or feel bad that he did this. He is a piece of shit. He didn't turn himself in because he felt bad. He wanted very much to remain in control until his version of the story versus being caught and arrested because of the DNA. Former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole reviewed this case for forty eight hours and she doesn't believe that Robin's murder was random. She said it was a mission presented homicide. He brought the weapon with him with a mask and gloves. Although it was random, it was targeted. She said it was also interesting to her that he identified himself as a serial killer who's only killed once, almost like he idolized that type of behavior. Now, like I said, this guy did not have any type of rap sheet, not so much as a traffic ticket. She very much. Believes that he might have engaged in other behavior, something like stalking that although isn't murder, it still kind of satisfied his need for that control and kind of scratching the itch that he had because in his own words, that's who he is and said very much. Although he doesn't have a criminal history, the absence of a rap sheet does not mean criminal behavior is absent, and she's a thousand percent right. This basically just means that he could have been engaging in not so great things. Not to say that he committed an any other murders, but he could have done some things in his past and was never charged for hence why they didn't show up in his criminal history. Stephen Smirk was officially arrested and charged for Robin's murder. The first phone call was to Robin's daughter Nicole. Robin's family very much wanted a trial. They wanted to come face to face with the man that ruined their lives. They wanted everyone to know what he did. The DNA did in fact come back, and he was the guy. His DNA was on the washcloth. April fourth of twenty twenty four, the case was presented at a preliminary hearing. Robin's family got to see Steven Smirk for the first time and heard the details of his confession. The judge did find probable cause that he had killed Robin, and the case went to the grand jury. On April fifteenth, the grand jury accepted a plea deal to first degree murder. Robin's family was disappointed by this because they wanted him to be put on trial and have him face what he did. I truly hate a plea deal. I understand the reason for it, but I do hate it, especially for the families who are so eagerly awaiting their day in court. On March seventh of twenty twenty five, the sentencing for Steve Smurk happened. His attorney said that he was very troubled in the early nineties at the time of Robin's murder, and he struggled with alcohol abuse. He had joined the military to get his life on track. His attorney said he was struggling also with an undiagnosed mental illness which was eventually diagnosed as bipolar disorder, and this, combined with alcohol and a fteran could have led to his actions. I don't entirely know about this narrative, because he's the one that said he joined the military because he wanted to kill, so I honestly just think. That he did not have the greatest intentions. In general, he likely was struggling with alcohol, and he did have an undiagnosed mental illness, and he was drinking, he was taking a veteran and all of this couple together turned into him killing Robin. But he himself said he was influenced by demons and he joined the military so he could kill Steve was sentenced to the mac sentence of the Police seventy years with possibility of parole. Ollie Lawrence, Robin's husband, gave a statement to the press. Robin's family was there by his side. They said, it's still very hard because they have to live with what happened to Robin. It'll never go away, but she lives on through her family and through her art. Her art tells a story about who she was. Robin is remembered so fondly by her family. Now, I did say that Robin's mom had passed away, but Robin's death as of the forty eight hour Special, was a one hundred and one years old and lived long enough to see his daughter's killer arrested and put behind bars. And I think that is the ultimate justice for a parent that loses their child in such a horrific way. For them to live long enough to see justice, I think is so so important, and I'm so glad that Robert wor Senr. Got to see this play out. Steve will be eligible for parole in twenty thirty seven, when he is sixty five years old. I know that Robin's family will do everything in their power to keep this deranged human behind bars, and I hope and pray that he never gets out. Thank you guys so much for tuning in for Robin's story. Her case is important, Her story is important. Robin was stunning. I am going to be post pictures of her on my social media. You can tell just by looking at her and the photos of her and her daughter, the relationship that they had. She was obviously a great person, she was a great mother, and her life was cut short by this horrible human. And I'm so glad that there has been resolution and the family can start trying to heal themselves a little bit at least knowing that this person will never do this to anyone else and that they are behind. Bars, hopefully for the rest of time. I hope you guys have a great weekend ahead, and I will see you next week for a brand new unsolved case. Have a good one, stay safe, and I'll see you then. Bye.