Closing the Cold Case of Robin Lawrence

Speaker 1 If you ever worry about how safe your home really is, you need to hear about Simply Safe's early access Black Friday sale.

Speaker 1 Old school security systems typically only react after someone breaks in, but SimplySafe is different.

Speaker 1 Simply Safe's Active Guard Outdoor Protection uses AI-powered cameras that detect threats outside your home and alert real security agents.

Speaker 1 Those agents take action while the intruder is still outside, talking to them through the camera, triggering a siren or spotlight, and letting them know police are on the way.

Speaker 1 That's how you stop a crime before it starts. There are no long-term contracts or hidden fees, plus a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Simply Safe's been named best home security system by U.S.

Speaker 1 News and World Report five years running. Don't miss out on SimplySafe's biggest sale of the year, 60% off.

Speaker 1 Right now, our listeners can save 60% off a Simply Safe home security system at simply safe.com/slash 48 hours. That's simply safe.com/slash 48 hours.
There's no safe like Simply Safe.

Speaker 2 Cold mornings, holiday hustle. You just want your wardrobe to be simple, sharp pieces that feel good and that you'll actually wear.
That's where Quince comes in.

Speaker 2 This season, Quince can make gifting so easy with $50 Mongolian cashmere sweaters that feel like a treat every day and wool coats that are stylish, durable, and made to last.

Speaker 2 Their denim, classic fit, all-day comfort, and way more affordable than you'd expect. Quince says they partner directly with ethical factories and top artisans, eliminating middlemen.

Speaker 2 And it's not just clothes. Quince has thoughtful gifts for the home, bath, kitchen, and travel.
Grab a few favorites for yourself and a few to wrap for friends.

Speaker 2 Give and get timeless holiday staples that last this season with Quince. Go to quince.com/slash 48 hours for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.
Now available in Canada, too.

Speaker 2 That's q-u-in-ce.com/slash 48 hours. Free shipping and 365-day returns.
Quince.com/slash 48 hours.

Speaker 3 When you're dealing with a 30-year-old coal case,

Speaker 3 it seems like there's not a lot of hope.

Speaker 3 It's a great photo, Robin.

Speaker 5 But look what happened in the Robin Lawrence case.

Speaker 7 Something sparked it that nobody ever expected that just caught everybody off guard.

Speaker 7 Her husband, Ollie, had been trying to reach Robin all weekend.

Speaker 7 Ollie was out of the country.

Speaker 1 Who else was in the house?

Speaker 4 Nicole.

Speaker 3 Her baby.

Speaker 9 Well, Ollie contacted me. He said, Would you mind going over to the house and checking on her?

Speaker 5 And I was like, Yeah, sure.

Speaker 9 There's no answer at the front door. So went around to the back.

Speaker 1 So when you go around to the back deck, what do you notice?

Speaker 9 That the window screen is cut.

Speaker 9 That was the first time I thought, oh my god, something is wrong here.

Speaker 9 I had to climb in through the window, and Nicole comes down the hall. Her eyes were just so big, and her little face was just, there's no expression on it.

Speaker 9 I'm going down the hall, and I can see into the master bedroom, and I can see

Speaker 9 on the wall these large splatters and swaths of blood.

Speaker 9 I was terrified and I went and I called the police.

Speaker 3 There was a very, very violent attack on Robin. She was stepped 49 times.

Speaker 3 It looks like a personal attack.

Speaker 3 It looked like Nicole had been kind of roaming around the house. Clearly, she had been in that room with her mom.

Speaker 3 It's hard to think about.

Speaker 12 It's like a horror movie, but it's not a movie.

Speaker 14 This is our family.

Speaker 10 This is our lives.

Speaker 13 This was Robin's life.

Speaker 10 I did think that maybe it was someone she knew. That always kind of sat with my mind.
Like, who did she know that could have done this?

Speaker 7 Here's the photo of the washcloth where the key piece of evidence is a washcloth that they find in the bathroom, and it has blood on both sides.

Speaker 7 I knew that we had a really strong DNA profile which obviously stood out.

Speaker 7 So detectives just kept waiting to get that phone call from the lab saying that we have a match

Speaker 7 and unfortunately that call never came.

Speaker 7 And then just another year would go by and another year would go by.

Speaker 7 So you will switch tracks and try what we call genetic genealogy. And that was becoming really big at that time.

Speaker 5 That's when we turned to the help of a volunteer.

Speaker 7 And she said, genealogy is a hobby of mine. I dabble in it on the side.
I'd be willing to do this case for free when I have spare time.

Speaker 17 I knew it was going to be a needle in the haystack, but I thought it was worth trying. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten generations away from even these people.

Speaker 7 And I think it's August of 2023. She sends me an email.

Speaker 5 She says, I think I found someone of interest.

Speaker 1 What happens as you start looking into them?

Speaker 7 Well, we find out: computer programmer up in New York, married to a defense attorney, two kids in high school, nice house in the suburbs, not so much as a speeding ticket on his background.

Speaker 18 I am a serial killer who's only killed once.

Speaker 19 Anne-Marie Green reports closing the cold case of Robin Lawrence.

Speaker 15 So here's the crime scene pictures. There's a bunch of contact sheets in here.
You can tell it starts from the pictures from the outside of the house and then moves in to the scene.

Speaker 1 Cold case detectives Melissa Wallace and John Long of the Fairfax County Police Department began reviewing Robin Lawrence's murder case in April of 2021.

Speaker 3 That's like your worst nightmare.

Speaker 15 Here's the bedroom. Obviously, her body's here, but you can see.

Speaker 1 They were struck by the sheer violence of the attack on the 37-year-old mother.

Speaker 10 It looked brutal.

Speaker 8 Is that blood in the book?

Speaker 3 That's the reason why you tell your loved ones to make sure that your doors are locked at night. He is the boogeyman.

Speaker 1 On November 20th, 1994, Robin's friend Lori Lindbergh had entered her home to check on her and saw blood on the bedroom walls and Robin's two-year-old daughter, Nicole, wandering around.

Speaker 1 Alarmed, Lori called 911 and then rushed the little girl to the hospital. Although Nicole did not appear hurt, she had undergone a liver transplant after she was born and her health was fragile.

Speaker 9 Because of course she's taking immunosuppressive medications. I mean, this is life-saving medication.
She needs to have it.

Speaker 1 Because you don't know how long she's been in that house by herself. right lead crime scene detective mark garmin was one of the first on site

Speaker 1 this is what we determined to be the entry point to the home according to detective garmin who photographed the evidence the intruder came through that window off the back deck the one lori had used to get inside He entered the house the same way.

Speaker 21 I had no idea what the scene looked like until I walked around the corner and into the master bed.

Speaker 1 Tell me the state that Robin was in when you saw her.

Speaker 4 Very damaged. A lot of knife wounds.

Speaker 4 Severe gaping knife wound in her neck.

Speaker 4 Unbelievable number of defensive wounds on her hands, knife wounds in her back, on her legs.

Speaker 1 He says signs of a struggle were obvious in the room.

Speaker 4 This is the phone that was on the floor near near Mrs.

Speaker 20 Lawrence.

Speaker 4 The phone cord was cut.

Speaker 20 She was assaulted in the bed and then fought her way out of the bed and continued to fight and struggle.

Speaker 1 Garmin says one of the first things that stood out were bloody tissues scattered around the house and near Robin's body.

Speaker 1 He believes it was Robin's daughter, Nicole, who left them behind, trying to help her mother.

Speaker 21 Even at that age, kids know what blood is and bloods come from wounds and cuts and they know that that mom puts tissues on them or band-aids.

Speaker 3 I think she was trying to stop the blood.

Speaker 1 And there was another heart-wrenching discovery. Empty baby bottles had been left around her mother's body.

Speaker 20 Having kids, when they got hungry, they brought you your baby bottle. And that's what I'm thinking.
Nicole would have taken it to mom.

Speaker 1 While investigators processed the scene, officers at the hospital asked Lori to call Robin's parents.

Speaker 9 Robin's dad answered.

Speaker 9 I think I said, Robin is dead.

Speaker 3 But

Speaker 9 what I remember is

Speaker 9 Jesse, her mom, must have just been in the overheard because she was just

Speaker 9 wailing just a sort of primal

Speaker 9 anguish.

Speaker 9 That was really horrible.

Speaker 7 That's probably the most horrible thing that's ever happened to me.

Speaker 8 This calling.

Speaker 1 Robin's father, Robert War Sr., a World War II veteran and now 101 years old, says he tried to forget that call. But one memory has never left him.

Speaker 8 My granddaughter

Speaker 12 was right next to where she was murdered. I'll never forget that.

Speaker 8 Never.

Speaker 1 He had to break the news to his surviving children, including his daughter, Mary Ward Collins, and his son, Robert Ward Jr. After the words, Robin is dead, it was like

Speaker 8 a nightmare.

Speaker 22 Yeah, you're just like your world shattered.

Speaker 1 Mary says, in those first few days, they didn't have a clear picture of what had happened to their sister.

Speaker 22 The details were very sketchy and slow to come.

Speaker 23 And the police asked, well, do you know anybody who had a grudge or something against Robin?

Speaker 14 And of course, the answer is no.

Speaker 1 Robin was a gifted artist with a fine arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University. After college, she was selected to mold the first medal for the Martin Luther King Jr.

Speaker 1 Nonviolent Peace Prize, which was awarded to Rosa Parks.

Speaker 13 That was a big deal.

Speaker 23 And for my parents, who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, during Jim Crow, and they could not ride in the front of the bus. They could not go to the zoo except on Tuesdays.
That was a big deal.

Speaker 1 Robin's father, Robert Sr., says his daughter's accomplishments were his greatest source of pride.

Speaker 12 She was a powerful lady in this world.

Speaker 12 Her drawings are not just paintings, they are powerful.

Speaker 1 Lori first met Robin in ballet class.

Speaker 9 I was like, oh my God, this woman's beautiful. But what was really fun about Robin was she's very personable, very fun-loving, just very down-to-earth.

Speaker 1 Lori and Robin shared an apartment in Washington, D.C. around the time Robin was dating her future husband, Ollie.
Lori says they were a great match.

Speaker 9 Ollie is a very calm and kind demeanor, and you kind of feel very confident around him, very at ease with him.

Speaker 1 The couple were married on New Year's Eve, 1989. Three years later, they welcomed their daughter, Nicole.
At the time of her death, Robin was working in advertising.

Speaker 1 Ollie, who was away on a business trip in the Bahamas, was an executive at an airline.

Speaker 8 I think they had a

Speaker 14 relatively, what I call normal

Speaker 14 family life.

Speaker 22 They were working on doing home improvements, getting the yard fixed up.

Speaker 1 Now that home with so much promise was an active crime scene.

Speaker 3 There were valuables that were in the bedroom. There was cash.
There was jewelry. There wasn't anything stolen.

Speaker 1 Investigators suspected Robin was killed by someone she knew.

Speaker 3 They started looking at the family dynamic. They started looking at the marriage.

Speaker 1 Was Ollie cooperative?

Speaker 3 He was.

Speaker 1 But as authorities dug further, they learned something. Ollie had been having an affair with a colleague.

Speaker 5 Then what does that mean?

Speaker 7 You think, oh, how convenient. The weekend you go out of town for three days.
Your wife is brutally murdered.

Speaker 1 You know, one of the things that always used to stress me out, even when I was trying to be mindful about my money, was the little financial headaches, overdraft fees, when the timing of a bill and a paycheck didn't quite match up, or feeling like I just couldn't get ahead no matter how much I tried to save.

Speaker 1 If this sounds familiar to you, you might want to hear about QIIME. They understand that every single dollar counts.

Speaker 1 With QIIME, when you set up direct deposit, you get access to features designed to actually help you breathe a little easier.

Speaker 1 You can get paid up to two days early, and and with qualifying direct deposits, you're eligible for free overdraft coverage, up to $200 on debit card purchases and cash withdrawals.

Speaker 1 Plus, there are no monthly or maintenance fees and you can access over 47,000 fee-free ATMs nationwide. QIIME users often say that the biggest game changer has been seeing their paycheck arrive early.

Speaker 1 We all know how much that little buffer can make such a difference in staying grounded and avoiding stress. My My younger self could have benefited from this.

Speaker 1 Work on your financial goals through Chime today. Open an account in two minutes at chime.com/slash 48 hours.
That's chime.com/slash 48 hours. Chime feels like progress.

Speaker 24 Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bankwork Bank NA or Stripe Bank NA, members of FDIC.

Speaker 24 Spot me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Timing depends on submission of payment file.
Fees apply at out of network ATMs, bank ranking, and number of ATMs according to U.S.

Speaker 24 News and World Report 2023. Chime checking account required.

Speaker 25 Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless. And if you haven't made the Switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should.
One, it's $15 a month.

Speaker 27 Two, seriously, it's $15 a month.

Speaker 28 Three, no big contracts. Four, I use it.

Speaker 25 Five, my mom uses it. Are you playing me off? That's what's happening, right? Okay, give it a try at mintmobile.com/slash switch.

Speaker 29 Upfront payment of $45 for three months plan, $15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available.
Taxes and fees extra.

Speaker 29 See mintmobile.com.

Speaker 22 It just was surreal.

Speaker 22 It really was like, for me, walking in a, through a dream state, because you just can't make sense of it.

Speaker 1 Just three days after what would have been Robin's 38th birthday, On November 26, 1994, her family and friends gathered for her funeral.

Speaker 14 We were still very much just

Speaker 1 bewildered

Speaker 8 and lost.

Speaker 1 Mary says Robin's injuries were so severe, the family had a closed casket.

Speaker 23 And that was hard for me because I never got a chance to see her one last time.

Speaker 1 I always wanted to be able to say goodbye and see her.

Speaker 1 As Robin's family mourned her death, investigators pieced together a timeline and determined that the last time anyone had heard from Robin was around 6 p.m. on Friday, November 18th.

Speaker 7 We believe Robin was killed around 9.30-ish.

Speaker 1 Her body was discovered two days later. Investigators zeroed in on her husband, Ollie, who they had discovered was having an affair.
They followed up on his alibi.

Speaker 7 The detectives flew flew down in the Bahamas, confirmed that he was on the flight he was supposed to be on. He was at the hotel he was supposed to be at.

Speaker 1 Detectives also interviewed Ollie's lover,

Speaker 1 but found no evidence she was involved. Robin's sister and brother were surprised to learn about the affair, but they say they never believed Ollie had anything to do with Robin's murder.

Speaker 1 I never thought that though that he

Speaker 8 harmed her.

Speaker 1 And how about you? Did it ever cross your mind? Maybe he's involved in this somehow?

Speaker 19 No, I didn't think that. He's not that type of person.

Speaker 1 Ollie chose not to talk to 48 Hours about his experience. Investigators didn't have much else to go on.

Speaker 1 The killer left no fingerprints, but something had caught crime scene detective Mark Garmin's eye while he was documenting the bathroom.

Speaker 8 On the towel rod to the sliding cub door, there's a washcloth.

Speaker 20 I do notice a small stain on this towel right here, a small brownish stain.

Speaker 1 That brown stain turned out to be blood, and authorities extracted DNA from it, but it didn't match anyone close to the case, including Ollie or the woman he had had a relationship with.

Speaker 1 Detectives believed it belonged to Robin's killer and uploaded it to the FBI's national database. The suspect's DNA is uploaded to COTIS.

Speaker 8 Yes.

Speaker 1 But COTIS also returned no matches. And with no new leads, the investigation stalled.

Speaker 1 How much did the adults tell you?

Speaker 10 Nothing.

Speaker 1 Mary's daughter, Lauren Ovens, was just eight years old when her aunt Robin was killed.

Speaker 10 I remember her being

Speaker 10 angelic.

Speaker 1 She says even though her family avoided the topic, She could feel the void Robin's murder left behind.

Speaker 10 Out of all of my family members, she was the most like me. So everybody always called me Robin.
It just knew that they were still thinking of her.

Speaker 1 Can you describe what you lost when you lost Robin?

Speaker 10 I think I lost an extension of myself.

Speaker 10 Because she was the one who just taught me to be comfortable. with who I was.
So

Speaker 10 you, you, I lost a piece of me.

Speaker 1 Lauren says she stayed close with her cousin Nicole, who rarely spoke about her mother.

Speaker 10 I think she didn't know much about her mother. So there wasn't really much to share.
And I didn't want to ever bring it up because I didn't want to make her anxious or make her nervous.

Speaker 10 It was better just left unsaid.

Speaker 1 The family eventually resigned themselves to the idea that the case may never be solved.

Speaker 14 When my mother died, that was kind of like, well, she went to her grave not knowing what happened to her child.

Speaker 13 And at that point, I said, well, I have to just kind of let it go.

Speaker 1 I have to let it go.

Speaker 1 Then decades later, in 2019, investigators turned to Parabon Nanolabs, a DNA technology company. hoping genetic genealogy could identify Robin's killer.

Speaker 1 Ellen Greytack is the director of bioinformatics at Parabon.

Speaker 30 We take DNA from a crime scene, we upload it to JEDMatch and to Family Tree DNA, which are two databases. And what they give us back is people in our database who share DNA with your unknown person.

Speaker 1 Graytak says that while their analysis showed Robin's killer likely had European ancestry, tracing him through his relatives proved nearly impossible.

Speaker 30 So in this case,

Speaker 30 database matches were just really distant. They only shared little tiny pieces of DNA, which means that their shared ancestor with our unknown person was pretty far back in time.

Speaker 30 And that means that those people had a lot of descendants today.

Speaker 7 Parabon gave us a solvability rate of zero on the case and essentially said, you do not have the time nor the money to get it moving forward.

Speaker 1 Investigators say they could have walked away, but Liz, an amateur genealogist and volunteer with the police department, who asked that her last name not be used, offered to take on the case in her spare time for free.

Speaker 17 I just felt I wanted to give something back to the community and I believed that I could actually be helpful in solving some of these cases.

Speaker 1 Investigators gave Liz everything Parabon had uncovered about the suspect's ethnicity.

Speaker 17 It was about half Eastern European, about 25% Irish, another 25% was a combination of I think English and Italian and Scandinavian.

Speaker 1 Along with a list of cousins who shared his DNA.

Speaker 17 So what I got was approximately 1,500 cousins. I was not certain that I could crack it.
There were no first cousins or second cousins. It was really more fourth to sixth.

Speaker 1 As Liz worked to trace the suspect through his family tree, Detective Wallace turned to another DNA tool and asked Parabon to produce a phenotyping sketch of Robin's killer.

Speaker 30 DNA phenotyping, it means actually predicting what that person looked like from their DNA.

Speaker 1 But would anyone recognize him?

Speaker 19 Tonight's 48 hours will continue.

Speaker 1 In 2021, nearly 30 years after Robin Lawrence's murder, Parabon Nanolabs was tasked with producing a composite of the man investigators believe was her killer.

Speaker 32 So, I get a report from our bioinformatics scientists, and it lays out all the predictions from the DNA.

Speaker 1 Scientists created this facial model based on the DNA predictions.

Speaker 32 It starts off with his skin color, which he's predicted to have very fair or fair skin color.

Speaker 32 He's most likely going to have a larger chin than average, wider jaw or cheeks than average, kind of a narrower nose than average.

Speaker 1 Tom Shaw, a forensic artist at Parabon, says his job was to refine the model by applying other details like hair and eye color.

Speaker 32 I've kind of outlined where his eyes are because I'm going to be putting new ones in. So here's one, kind of that dark blue, that are predicted.
I'll do eyebrows.

Speaker 32 We're looking at kind of much like a lighter brownish hair. And so I gave him a little bit lighter eyebrows to match what his hair color is going to be.

Speaker 32 I'll go and find a hairstyle, something generic.

Speaker 1 Shaw says DNA doesn't reveal a person's age. So the composites are generated as a young adult, typically around 25 years old.

Speaker 32 So this is him.

Speaker 7 Did this look like their mailman?

Speaker 16 Was this the neighbor's kid?

Speaker 7 Was it somebody from work?

Speaker 1 Detective Melissa Wallace set up a video call with Robin's husband, Ollie, to see if he recognized the man in the composite.

Speaker 7 I was really hoping that when Ollie saw that, that he would go, oh my gosh, that looks exactly like so-and-so. And did he? He did not.
He said, that...

Speaker 7 doesn't spark my memory at all. Looks like nobody I know.

Speaker 1 The investigation stalled again. But behind the scenes, volunteer genealogist Liz kept working with that list of 1,500 cousins distantly related to the suspect.

Speaker 1 Liz had eventually traced some of the suspect's ancestors to Canada where they had settled. That's where she found two cousins that were not related to each other.

Speaker 17 And so I ended up with two trees that were highly reliable and they were the people

Speaker 17 that were truly cousins to the suspect. Where did their two trees come together?

Speaker 1 Liz says if she could figure out where those two trees were linked through a marriage, the suspect would be a descendant of that couple.

Speaker 17 And what I found was this woman on this tree married this man on this tree.

Speaker 17 That was it. That was the aha moment.
That was when I realized that he is a descendant of this couple right here.

Speaker 1 After three and a half years, Liz finally had a lead and it pointed her to to a man named Stephen Smirk.

Speaker 17 I felt like this really was him. I didn't know it for certain, but I believed it was.

Speaker 17 Contacted the detectives.

Speaker 7 So she sends me an email.

Speaker 5 She says, I think I found someone of interest.

Speaker 1 What happens as you start looking into him?

Speaker 7 Well, we find out.

Speaker 5 Computer programmer up in New York, married to a defense attorney, two kids in high school, nice house in the suburbs, not so much as a speeding ticket on his background.

Speaker 7 I'm thinking, there's no way this is our guy.

Speaker 1 But according to Detective John Long, things got a bit more interesting when they found his yearbook photo at age 16.

Speaker 3 It looked very similar to the phenotyping sketch.

Speaker 3 We're like, well, you know, maybe this does make sense.

Speaker 1 Steven Smirk lived in Niskayuna, a town in upstate New York. So investigators decided to pay him a visit.
Does he know you're coming?

Speaker 8 No, no.

Speaker 1 They were hoping he would cooperate and provide his DNA. Wallace and Long say he appeared to be home alone, so they knocked on his door.

Speaker 16 All we said is we are detectives from Fairfax County, Virginia, and we're looking into a cold case from the 90s.

Speaker 7 Do you mind if we come in and talk to you? He said, sure. He invited us in.
And... Hey, hold on a minute.

Speaker 1 So you say we're from Virginia. We're investigating this murder.

Speaker 7 His initial reaction.

Speaker 3 No reaction.

Speaker 3 None. None.
Stoneface.

Speaker 16 There was no surprise. There was no fear.

Speaker 7 Nothing.

Speaker 1 They found his demeanor unusual.

Speaker 7 When we're asking for DNA, this conversation typically takes a solid 45 minutes.

Speaker 7 People generally have a lot of questions like, what do you mean someone in my family has committed a murder who was killed?

Speaker 16 There was not a single question from him.

Speaker 7 We were in and out of his house in five minutes with his DNA.

Speaker 7 Consent form signed, swab collected, packaged up. That was it.

Speaker 1 After the visit, detectives checked into their hotel, but then Detective Wallace got an unexpected call.

Speaker 5 It's Steve Smart calling me, and he says, I'm at the police department to turn myself in.

Speaker 5 And I said, turn yourself in for what?

Speaker 5 And he said, I'm here to turn myself in for the murder. A million things start going through my mind.

Speaker 1 Smirk told detectives he was having trouble getting into the Niscauna Police Department, which was locked.

Speaker 7 So then I'm thinking it must be a smaller police station. And I said, okay, what I need you to do is we're going to hang up.
I need you to call 911 and tell them that you're there.

Speaker 1 Steven Smirk's call was recorded. 911, the address of your emergency.

Speaker 33 I'm actually here to turn myself in for a cold case crime you're here to turn yourself in lonely collected dna so

Speaker 33 much here last time

Speaker 7 wow so when do you tell him oh my god i was freaking out so i'm freaked me out i run down his room and i'm banging on his door i'm like we gotta go to the police department he's turning himself in Wallace also reached out to local police and Stephen Smirk was taken into custody.

Speaker 7 The adrenaline was pumping so hard because the reality hit and it sounds like he's going to talk to us about it.

Speaker 1 Detective Long says they had to refocus fast and figure out how they would handle Stephen Smirk's interrogation.

Speaker 3 We need to make sure this is a sound interview that could potentially be used in court down the road.

Speaker 18 All right, go ahead and have a seat.

Speaker 1 When they finally sat down with him, where you want to start? Investigators say he didn't need much prompting.

Speaker 18 I was 100% intentional. I am a serial killer who's only killed once.

Speaker 19 Tonight's 48 hours will continue.

Speaker 34 It's 3 a.m. You're wide awake, soaked in sweat.
You're not broken. You're just a hot sleeper.

Speaker 34 The perfectly snug smart topper actively cools your bed all night long, keeping you at the perfect temperature. We even have a burst mode for focus cold air.

Speaker 34 No more songy sheets, just deep, cool, uninterrupted sleep. Shop now at our biggest sales event of the year and save up to $330.
Use code BlackFriday.

Speaker 34 Visit perfectly snug.com and finally sleep like the cool person you are. FSA HSA payment options available.

Speaker 35 Hey there, we're Corinne Vienne and Sabrina DeAnaroga here to introduce our newest podcast, Crimes of A Crime House Original.

Speaker 36 Crimes of is a weekly series that explores a new theme each season, from Crimes of the Paranormal, Unsolved Murders, and more.

Speaker 36 Our first season is Crimes of Infamy, the true crime stories behind Hollywood's most iconic horror villains.

Speaker 35 Listen to and follow Crimes of available now wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 37 Don't let the holidays derail your fitness. Stay on track with Hydro.
20 minutes rowing on a hydro targets 86% of your muscles as Olympians guide you from incredible locations worldwide.

Speaker 37 Running can't compete. That's why 90% stick with hydro a year later.
GQ named the hydro arc the best rower of 2025. And every hydro comes with free shipping, a 30-day trial, and warranty.

Speaker 37 Go to hydro.com code fit and save up to 600 bucks on your next hydro. Hydro.com code fit.

Speaker 38 You've come here to turn yourself in for a 1994 murder.

Speaker 1 When investigators met with Stephen Smirk on September 7th, 2023, they were skeptical.

Speaker 16 This doesn't happen every day, so we had to really think through: well, why is he doing this?

Speaker 1 Detectives had not yet received the results of the DNA samples Smirk had provided, linking him definitively.

Speaker 7 We needed to be very careful to make sure that we weren't getting a false confession.

Speaker 1 So then what was your approach going to be?

Speaker 3 We started talking about things like, hey, let's make sure that he's going to bring up details of the case without us telling him first.

Speaker 18 You remind me of your name again. Can you say that?

Speaker 38 I can't. Do you remember anything about the person?

Speaker 18 She was an African-American.

Speaker 8 Okay.

Speaker 18 That's all I remember.

Speaker 3 He starts volunteering information, which is great.

Speaker 5 So it was just like he wanted to talk about, you know, his weekend or

Speaker 7 some other family event that he went to. It was a very

Speaker 5 calm conversation, nonchalant.

Speaker 18 I was not in the right frame of mind.

Speaker 1 Steven Smirk told detectives that back in November 1994, he was a 22-year-old soldier stationed at Fort Meyer in Arlington, Virginia. And on the night of the murder, he had been drinking beer.

Speaker 18 I was drunk and under

Speaker 18 ephedrine.

Speaker 1 He says he he had been taking ephedrine pills a stimulant something inside me said that

Speaker 18 it's hard to explain i knew that i was going to kill somebody i did not know who i was going to kill it was like this overbearing thought in my brain that i just had to kill somebody

Speaker 1 smirk said he drove to robin's neighborhood because he was familiar with the area He visited friends who stayed in a house nearby.

Speaker 18 Had you had any contact with her, spoke to her or anything like that?

Speaker 8 No.

Speaker 18 I didn't even, to be honest with you, I don't know, didn't even know who lived there. I never met this person before or seen her or anything.

Speaker 1 Smirk confirmed he entered the house from the back deck and told detectives he was wearing a ski mask and leather gloves.

Speaker 18 I went in and noticed that she had a baby in one of the rooms.

Speaker 1 He said he went down the hall to Robin's bedroom.

Speaker 18 I startled her. She got out of bed.
She was on her knees. She was just begging for her life.
I cut her up pretty good.

Speaker 18 I did everything they taught me in the military, hand-to-hand combat.

Speaker 18 I'm highly, highly influenced by Demons.

Speaker 1 He told investigators one of the reasons he enlisted was because he wanted to kill.

Speaker 18 But I want to tell you right now that she's the only person that I've killed.

Speaker 18 I'm married, I have kids.

Speaker 18 I honestly believe that if it wasn't for my wife and my kids, I probably would be a serial killer.

Speaker 1 Detective Wallace knew it was critical to link him to that washcloth found in the bathroom. So she asked him if he'd been injured that night.

Speaker 18 She clawed at my face. I had a little bit of a scar here.

Speaker 38 Did you ever go into her bathroom at all?

Speaker 18 I don't remember that. If I did go into the bathroom, it would have been to look at what she did to my face.

Speaker 7 That's when I knew that

Speaker 7 we were in business with putting him in the bathroom and why his DNA was there. That was the biggest confirmation.

Speaker 1 As the interview wrapped up, Detective Long asked Smirk if he wanted to express any remorse to Robin's family.

Speaker 18 I don't know why I say this.

Speaker 8 Every night I don't know you're recording.

Speaker 18 I don't care anything for the family. I can't say that any other way.
I

Speaker 18 feel bad that I did it

Speaker 18 because I knew someday my personal freedom would be affected.

Speaker 7 I think what you see is 100% what you get from him. Arrogance, entitlement.

Speaker 1 He wanted to do it, so he did it.

Speaker 5 And that's it.

Speaker 1 Detective Wallace believes Steven Smirk confessed because he knew he was caught and wanted to turn himself in on his own terms.

Speaker 7 It wasn't because he was sorry.

Speaker 5 It wasn't because he was tired of running for 30 years.

Speaker 7 He wanted to maintain control.

Speaker 1 Former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole, who reviewed the case for 48 hours, agrees that Smirk wanted to control the narrative.

Speaker 11 He was prepared that he was going to tell his version of the story.

Speaker 1 O'Toole says she doesn't buy Smirk's claim that Robin's murder was random. She classifies it as a mission-oriented homicide.

Speaker 18 Went down the hallway.

Speaker 39 Bedroom was ahead.

Speaker 11 He brought the weapon with him. He had a mask.
He had gloves.

Speaker 11 It also happens to be on an evening when the victim's husband is in a travel status. This was purposeful.
Went inside somebody's home, took enormous risk.

Speaker 11 So that suggests to me more of a targeting than it does randomness.

Speaker 1 In her analysis, O'Toole says she was struck by Smirk identifying himself as a serial killer.

Speaker 18 I am a serial killer who's only killed once.

Speaker 13 He did come across as someone that had admiration for them.

Speaker 1 So here's kind of like the big question, though. Do serial killers stop killing?

Speaker 8 Yes.

Speaker 11 They do.

Speaker 1 According to O'Toole, serial offenders can sometimes channel their compulsion to kill into other crimes like stalking or voyeurism.

Speaker 11 I think it's also possible that he engaged in other behaviors much less serious than homicide that

Speaker 11 satisfied him.

Speaker 1 He has no criminal history of any kind. How unusual is that?

Speaker 11 Not very unusual, but here's the important thing to keep in mind. The absence of a wrap sheet does not mean that criminal behavior is absent.
It means that they didn't get arrested for it.

Speaker 1 After his confession, Stephen Smirk was arrested and charged with the murder of Robin Lawrence.

Speaker 1 Detective Wallace says her first phone call was to Robin's daughter, Nicole.

Speaker 6 You could tell the shock, but she didn't break down or crumble.

Speaker 7 I could tell that she was like, okay, now my job is to notify the rest of the family.

Speaker 13 How is it that he could live his life

Speaker 23 with his family when he blew up our family 30 years ago?

Speaker 13 Where's the justice in that?

Speaker 1 Robin's family prepared for the next step.

Speaker 14 We really wanted to do a trial.

Speaker 8 We wanted the world to know what he did.

Speaker 13 I think we wanted the spectacle of that

Speaker 7 as satisfaction.

Speaker 1 But would they get that chance?

Speaker 31 This podcast is sponsored by MIDI Health. Are you in midlife, feeling dismissed, unheard, or just plain tired of the old healthcare system? You're not alone.

Speaker 31 For too long, women's serious midlife health issues have been trivialized, ignored, and met with a just deal-with it attitude.

Speaker 31 Today, 75% of women seeking care for menopause and perimenopause issues are left entirely untreated. It's time for a change.
It's time for MIDI.

Speaker 31 MIDI is a women's telehealth clinic founded and supported by world-class leaders.

Speaker 31 MIDI is the only women's telehealth brand covered by major insurance companies, making high-quality, expert care accessible and affordable.

Speaker 31 MIDI offers a full range of personalized solutions from hormonal therapies and weight loss protocols to lifestyle coaching and preventative health guidance.

Speaker 31 At MIDI, you will join patients who feel seen and heard. MIDI's mission is to help all women thrive in midlife, giving them access to the health care they deserve.

Speaker 31 Because MIDI believes midlife isn't the middle at all. It is the beginning of your second act.
Ready to write your second act script? Visit joinmidi.com today. That's joinmidi.com.

Speaker 31 MIDI, the care women deserve.

Speaker 37 Don't let the holidays derail your fitness. Stay on track with Hydro.
20 minutes rowing on a hydro targets 86% of your muscles as Olympians guide you from incredible locations worldwide.

Speaker 37 Running can't compete. That's why 90% stick with hydro a year later.
GQ named the hydro arc the best rower of 2025. And every hydro comes with free shipping, a 30-day trial, and warranty.

Speaker 37 Go to hydro.com code fit and save up to 600 bucks on your next hydro. Hydro.com code fit.

Speaker 1 A week after Stephen Smirk's interview with police,

Speaker 1 forensic testing confirmed Stephen Smirk's DNA was a match to the blood on the washcloth found in Robin's bathroom.

Speaker 41 It's a one in over 7 million chance that it would not have been his DNA.

Speaker 1 On April 4th, 2024, Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano's office presented the case at a preliminary hearing to determine if there was enough evidence to move forward.

Speaker 41 Look, I've dealt with murderers before. I can tell you that in my mind, Stephen Smirk stands alone as somebody who represents a true danger to the community.

Speaker 1 Robin's family saw Stephen Smirk for the first time at the hearing.

Speaker 10 I was amazed how big he was.

Speaker 9 He needed two bailiffs around him.

Speaker 10 The first thing I thought of was like, my aunt didn't stand a chance.

Speaker 1 Prosecutors played Smirk's confession, and the family heard the details of Robin's murder in Smirk's own words.

Speaker 10 There was no emotion. It didn't feel real.
It just made me feel angry. Like, how could he have done that?

Speaker 1 The judge found probable cause that Stephen Smirk killed Robin and allowed the case to proceed to a grand jury. On April 15th, a grand jury indicted him.

Speaker 1 But six months later, he accepted a plea deal for first-degree murder.

Speaker 41 We got guaranteed accountability.

Speaker 1 Descano says the agreement ensured Smirk would be held accountable.

Speaker 41 We had the challenge of some witnesses passing, other witnesses, their memories becoming a little bit cloudy and not as sharp.

Speaker 1 Robbins' family, however, say they were disappointed.

Speaker 22 They wanted him to be put on trial.

Speaker 1 On March 7th, 2025, Stephen Smirk returned to court for sentencing.

Speaker 1 As part of the mitigation strategy for a more lenient sentence, his attorney, Don Buderak, Buderak, told the judge that in the early 90s, Smirk was a troubled young man struggling with alcohol and substance abuse.

Speaker 10 He eventually decided, I'm going to join the military, thinking that that would be a good choice for him to maybe get his life stabilized.

Speaker 1 He said he joined the military so he could kill people.

Speaker 1 What did he mean by that?

Speaker 10 I never asked him what he meant by that. I think it was an idea

Speaker 10 that if I go, maybe I can take my anger out on this. Maybe this will get me back on the right track.

Speaker 1 According to Buderak, Smirk was also crippled with an undiagnosed mental illness.

Speaker 10 It wasn't until several years later that he eventually was diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder. And when you add ephedra and alcohol, he was struggling a lot.

Speaker 1 The FDA banned some ephedra products in 2004, and Buderak says that was in part because when abused with other substances, they could trigger dangerous psychiatric side effects.

Speaker 1 Did Steve Smirk tell you that he ever had hallucinations or heard voices or anything along those lines while taking Ephedra?

Speaker 10 No, but you have to remember at the time also he had undiagnosed bipolar. So it's hard to figure out exactly what his mental state was attributable to.

Speaker 1 She says by the time investigators came to Smirk's door, nearly 30 years later, Smirk had sought help for his mental health problems and become sober.

Speaker 1 Buderak says her client confessed and waived his right to a trial because he felt genuine remorse.

Speaker 1 But over the 30 years, did he think about Robin?

Speaker 10 Every day. Every day.
Every day he'd think about it.

Speaker 1 But during his statement to investigators, he doesn't express empathy or remorse.

Speaker 10 He always wanted to accept responsibility. Acceptance of responsibility is one form of remorse.

Speaker 1 In the end, the judge sentenced Stephen Smirk to the maximum sentence allowed under the plea deal, 70 years with the possibility of parole.

Speaker 13 I think what he got, as long as he never comes out of prison, ever,

Speaker 14 brings closure for me.

Speaker 1 After the sentencing, Ollie Lawrence gave a statement to the press.

Speaker 41 The Warren Lawrence family are grateful that that justice has finally been done for the murder of our beloved Robin.

Speaker 1 Lauren answered a few questions with Robin's daughter, Nicole, by her side.

Speaker 10 As much as this a sigh of relief, we still have to live with this just doesn't go away. She's strong.
She stood next to me and she held my hand.

Speaker 10 Oh my god, if her mom could see us.

Speaker 8 It was great.

Speaker 1 How do you want people to remember your aunt?

Speaker 10 I want people to remember her as creative,

Speaker 10 exuberant,

Speaker 10 very vocal, caring, a beautiful mother.

Speaker 22 She just had a light that shined from within.

Speaker 1 I feel like she is living through her art because her art

Speaker 1 emotes.

Speaker 1 So when you do look at her art, what do you see?

Speaker 13 I kind of see the spirit spirit of Robin,

Speaker 13 who she was, how she looked at the world, you know, through her eyes. And it was

Speaker 22 good things,

Speaker 14 happy things,

Speaker 23 warm

Speaker 23 things.

Speaker 19 Stephen Smirk will be eligible for parole in 2037 when he turns 65.

Speaker 1 Join me Tuesday for post-mortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.

Speaker 26 Lowe's knows that saving is always top of mind, especially this season. That's why we've picked some great deals for early Black Friday.

Speaker 26 Get free select DeWalt, Cobalt, or Craftsman tools when you buy a select battery or combo kit. More tools? Why not?

Speaker 26 Plus, we've got select pre-lit artificial Christmas trees starting at $59.98 because it's never too early to think Christmas. Get Black Friday prices without the crowds.
Lows, we help. You save.

Speaker 26 While supplies last, selection varies by location.

Speaker 40 Tulsa is my home now.

Speaker 27 Academy Award nominee Sylvester Stallone stars in the Paramount Plus original series, Tulsa King. His distillery is a very interesting business.

Speaker 40 And we gotta go the enemy.

Speaker 27 From Taylor Sheridan, co-creator of Landman.

Speaker 18 What are you saying?

Speaker 40 I'm alright.

Speaker 27 If you think you're gonna take me out,

Speaker 40 it's gonna be really

Speaker 27 difficult. Tulsa King, new season now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus.