Crime Junkie - MURDERED: Robert Wone

Episode Date: January 28, 2019

This is probably the strangest case of murder we have ever covered here on Crime Junkie. It's the story of Robert Wone who, while staying in a friend's DC guest room, was brutally attacked. But with a staged crime scene, a timeline that doesn't add up, and three people keeping secrets we may never get to the bottom of what happened in the Swann Street house on August 2, 2006. For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-robert-wone/    

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And quick announcement before we jump into our new episode. A lot of you have heard us mention it before on the show, but we are officially going to be at Crime Con this year in New Orleans. Britt and I went two years ago for the very first ever Crime Con here in Indianapolis. We just went as attendees because... Oh my gosh, it was amazing.

As hard as it is to remember, we weren't even podcasters back then. It's where we got the inspiration to make this show. And the whole event is so inspiring, so interesting. We've learned so many new things from so many wonderful presenters. So seriously, guys, our show aside, you have to go. But if you go, totally use our promo code to get 10% off. Just use CrimeJunkie19. And you can meet us and hang out with us in New Orleans,

drink lots of gin and tonics. We got to drink too many gin and tonics last time. So that's CrimeJunkie19 for 10% off of your ticket. And an insider tip, I'd get your ticket now because they keep getting more expensive the closer we get to the event. Yeah, definitely. Okay, Britt, business out of the way. Okay.

Are you ready for me to tell you about one of the most bizarre true crime cases I have ever researched in my whole life of being a CrimeJunkie? Always. Okay, let's do this. I want to start the story for you, the same place it started for investigators, on August 2nd, 2006, at 1149 p.m., at the address of 1509 Swan Street, Northwest, in Washington, D.C. In this home resides four people, a long-term couple named Joseph and Victor,

who share the master bedroom on the third floor of this house, another man named Dylan, whose room is on the second floor, and a fourth roommate whose name is Sarah, and her room is in the basement of the home. And on this night in question, Sarah was actually out of town, and a visitor took her place in the house. You see, Joseph had a friend who was going to crash in the guest room that night. His friend's name was Robert Wan. They'd known each other for years, having gone to undergrad together,

and Robert worked in D.C., but lived in Virginia. So on this night, he asked Joseph, his old friend, if he could stay at his house because he had to work really late, and it would just make more sense to crash there, and then go right back to work early the next morning. I've done similar stuff like this all the time, and Robert's wife wasn't concerned that her husband was staying with a friend. I don't think anyone in the house was concerned that allowing Robert to stay

would turn their world upside down for the rest of their lives. And I don't think Robert could have known that making the choice to stay at his friend's house on August 2nd, 2006, would seal his fate, and this would be the last night of his life. Everything seemed calm on Swan Street that night, until Victor emerges from the home in a white robe, hysterical, and talking on the phone to 911. I think he's... I think in the stomach.

In the stomach? Is he conscious? Calm down for me. I'm going to send some help, okay? Female or male? It's a male. He's a friend of ours. You're spending the night with us. Okay. And who was the person that stabbed him? Do you know? Is he conscious? We need an ambulance. Ma'am, this is something...

He's not conscious. He's not conscious at all. No. We need someone right now. Is he breathing? This is something... Calm down. I'm going to help you. Okay. He's breathing. I'm upstairs, and he's downstairs. I don't know. Okay. Who's downstairs? What sounds?

My partner is downstairs with him right now. He told me to go upstairs and call the police immediately. I just went upstairs and... Okay. Who's the person... Okay. I'm sending a pair of meds and the police. Okay. Who's the person that stabbed him? I don't know. We think it's somebody with an intruder in the house. We heard a chime at the door. It's 15... Ma'am, calm down.

1509 Swan Street, Northwestern, Michael Rack. Yes, it is. Is the person that stabbed him? Is he still in the home? I don't know. Whoa. We got help from Ron, okay? Pardon me? We have help from Ron.

Thank you. They are there. Ron, to your name. I'm sending the police and the pair of meds, okay, to assist. Okay. What I need you to do is go downstairs, okay? The place where... Wherever he was stabbed there, I need you to get a dry cloth, okay? And just apply pressure to that area. If he was... Wherever he was stabbed that on his body,

then you take the towel downstairs while you're waiting for the paramedics to arrive and just apply pressure. Even if the rag or towel is saturated with blood, just get another towel and put it on top. But never lift the first towel off the area. Hold it on. Once it gets filled with blood, just put another towel on top of that. And just apply pressure until the paramedics arrive.

Apply pressure until the paramedics arrive on the way. Yes. With that... With that in the heart. In the heart? Yes. In the center of his chest. Okay. Is he breathing? Is he breathing?

We have help from Ron now, okay? You don't know who it was. Okay. Is he breathing? He's breathing, but he's helping out. Okay. We have help from Ron now, okay? We do have help from Ron. Okay. Just go down there and try to tell your husband or your other half to just try to keep him calm and talk to him, okay?

Keep him calm and talk to him until someone gets there. And at the same time, get a dry cloth and just hold it right there in the area. My partner's holding it. Okay. Okay. And once it gets saturated with blood, then I'm going to get another one. Go get another towel so you can apply it on top of that one once it gets filled with blood.

We need you to apply pressure on that area. Okay. Just hold it until a pair of minutes get there. They shouldn't be pulling up any moment if they're already involved in your location. You don't know who did this. We have no idea who did this. Just so I'm clear, Victor is a man, right? Right. The 911 operator just mistook his voice

and he never corrected her, which is why she keeps calling him ma'am throughout the call. But the important pieces of that call were that he tells the operator someone broke into the home. He says that he heard some kind of scream, and they heard their door chime, which is what it does when it's opened and they found their friend dead in the guest room on the second floor.

The other piece of that call that I think is really important is that the 911 operator is telling Victor to take a rag or a towel of some kind and hold it as a compression against Robert's stab wounds. She said, hold it down and if it fills with blood, put another one on top of it and hold it down and keep doing that until the paramedics get there. Pretty much basic first aid, right?

Exactly. And Victor says that his partner, Joseph, is doing exactly that while he's on the phone. So Victor makes this call at 11.49. Fast forward just a few minutes to 11.54 when paramedics arrive on scene. And these aren't like first day on the job paramedics. These are two seasoned EMTs with a combined 25 years on the job.

They have seen it all, except tonight would be a first. Victor tells them to go to the second floor where they rush to aid a man they're told is dying. When they hit the second floor, before they make it to the guest room, they pass Dylan in the hall. He too, like Victor, is in a bathrobe and one of the paramedics asks him what's going on,

but Dylan doesn't say anything and he just retreats back into his room. They continue to the guest room where they see Joseph sitting on the edge of a pull out couch bed wearing only a pair of underwear and his back is to the door and he wasn't even touching the victim much less applying any pressure to his wounds. Already the paramedics start to get strange vibes.

I think it's what we would call the full body chills. One of the paramedics would later say that in all of his 10 years on the job, the people he encountered on these lifesaving missions were always frantic trying to usher him to the victim, crying, yelling, but everyone in this house seemed to be eerily calm and a quote he gave to investigators said it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Definitely full body chills. Definitely full body chills and it made this paramedic so uncomfortable in fact that when he walked into the room he took the longer path to Robert going to the other side of the bed because he didn't want his back to Joseph. He wanted to be able to see him and visually check him for any weapons. But it wasn't just the behavior of the other people

in this house that told the paramedics something was wrong. When they finally make it to Robert's side and are able to actually examine him right away at first glance, they have a whole new set of reasons for being suspicious. The first thing they could see just from looking at him was yes. Just like Victor had said on the phone, Robert had been stabbed three times in fact. They could see the wounds through his gray t-shirt

which he'd been stabbed through twice in the abdomen and once directly in the heart. There was a gaping wound in his chest big enough to fit a finger into but where was all the blood? According to the EMTs, there was no blood whatsoever on the victim and there was very little blood anywhere else in the room. They examined Robert and they said no blood was coming

from any of the wounds and as they continued to work on him, they saw a couple of spots of blood on his chest but it wasn't flowing from the wound. It like had striation marks almost as if this very small bit of blood had been wiped there. And the more they looked at the scene, there was even more that felt wrong. The bedding that he was laying on,

it wasn't somebody who had been sleeping. He was laying perfectly on top of a made bed where the comforter and sheet had been pulled crisply down to like a 45 degree angle. Robert lay completely on top of it with his hands by his side laying on his back, his head flat on the pillow. There were no other indentations on the pillow or the bed like he laid there perfectly still the entire time

he was being attacked. There were no signs of life when paramedics were on the scene but they transported him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12.25 in the morning. 36 minutes after that call to 911. And now it was up to detectives to find out exactly what the hell happened in that house. Investigators know to get to the bottom of this mystery

they need to do two things. Number one, question all of the people in the house that night. And number two, search the home and process it as a crime scene. So while the crime scene technicians are working on the physical evidence, all three men who lived in the home, Joseph, Victor and Dylan were questioned by police and their statements were pretty consistent. Dylan who they learn is a massage therapist and like an ex-chef

and he's the one that stayed alone in a room on the second floor. He tells police that Robert arrived sometime around 10 30 and he and Robert along with Joseph had some water in the kitchen chit-chatted just like about random stuff his wife life all of it and then they ended up all retiring to their rooms. And Dylan says that he laid up in bed for a little bit reading an article and he heard Robert take a shower and then go into his room and soon after he fell asleep and he says the next thing he knew

is that he comes out of his room after he hears a little bit of commotion and Victor's on the phone with 911 and he sees Joseph sitting on the bed in his underwear pressing a towel against Robert's wounds and the next thing he knew EMT's arrived. Now Victor who works in marketing and he's Joseph's partner, he they're the ones that share the bedroom on the third floor. He said that he had actually come home early from a business trip and he was told that Robert would be staying with them

but he was really tired and went to bed early. So he actually never interacted with Robert. He said that by the time Robert got there he was already up in his room and he was able to corroborate the time because he said when he heard him come in he was watching Project Runway. So it was about 10 30 and we love Project Runway. I mean when we started a podcast it was like is it going to be true crime or Project Runway and this one out by a hair by a hair.

I would still do a Project Runway recap podcast with you. Yeah. So he's up watching Project Runway. Here's him come in but he doesn't go down to like say anything but he says exactly what Dylan said that Dylan and Robert and Joseph were downstairs had a glass of water. They come upstairs and he and Joseph go to bed. He says the next thing that they hear is the door chime and they have like an alarm system on their home

but he said for whatever reason it wasn't set that night which to me is what's the point of having an alarm system if you don't set it. Yeah and then more than that so like we have an alarm system in our house and if it's not set like during the day if you open the door you hear a chime. Right. And so they said it's not set. They hear the door open as a chime but no one goes to check even though they know that their fourth roommate Sarah is like gone for the night

at the time they say it's their thought that maybe she had just come back and didn't tell anyone but they don't even go look. So they hear this chime and then they hear this kind of what they call like a low scream or breathy grunts. Okay that sounds normal. Right and this prompts them to get out of bed and they go directly to Robert's room where they say they find him and then Joseph tells Victor to go call 911.

Now that's Victor's statement again totally matches Dylan's statement and then when they get Joseph's statement his exactly corroborates Victor's. He says Robert arrives around 10 30. He Robert and Dylan has some water they chit chat they all go to bed him and Victor woke up by the noises go to Robert's room find him and then he ends up telling Victor to call 911. Now because he was the one that seemed to have the most interaction with Robert he gives them more information than the other men are able to.

He tells police that he finds Robert laying on the bed and he lifts up his shirt to see that he's covered in blood. Now he tells Victor to call 911 and he makes it a point of saying to the police that he found the knife on Robert's stomach and then moved it to the nightstand where the crime scene text would find it later. More specifically he says something along the lines of well I handled the knife so it's probably going to have my DNA on it but it probably wouldn't have a killer's DNA on it

because I'm sure like a killer would have worn gloves. So expect to find mine but no one else's. What? Yeah like it's a little bit fishy you don't open with that line. Like I realize I'm a crime junkie you're a crime junkie. That is so far away from the drill if you're even near something that happened it seems insane we all know that. I mean but also I don't know how.

That's not but that's so rudimentary it seems like. But also I don't know how I would react and maybe I would be so paranoid about actually being a crime junkie like so paranoid about my DNA on it that I'd be like oh my god you're gonna find it like I don't know. Like explaining it away before it's there. Yeah I mean I think it's fishy but again I said it a hundred times you have no idea how you're gonna react.

So you know what how about even for this one we give him the benefit of the doubt. Okay. But let's keep going. Yeah. So he also tells investigators that he held the towel against Robert's chest just like the 911 operator had told Victor to do and then he waited for paramedics to arrive. During this interview with police

Joseph seemed especially concerned with Dylan. And where was Dylan and what was Dylan saying? And during a break Joseph actually called his brother and asked if Dylan had been let out of his interview room yet and he kept asking officers over and over to see Dylan and he was very concerned with whether or not Dylan knew he was entitled to a lawyer. Like it was just lots and lots of questions about Dylan. That seems kind of odd.

Do we know why he would do that? I don't know exactly. I've heard that when the police first arrived on the scene that Dylan was getting like a little bit chatty and Joseph was like evil eyeing him but I don't know how accurate that is. But there is something that police learned during these interviews that might shed some light on Joseph's concern with Dylan.

They learned that the three men are more than just friends and more than just roommates. They're in a sort of polyamorous relationship. It is described as Joseph and Victor being in the most serious committed piece of this relationship. But then also Dylan and Joseph were involved intimately in this dominant submissive relationship and the men were trying to make the relationship work

between all three of them which they describe as a family. Well I've got to be honest I was not expecting the story to go there. Well neither were investigators I don't think but even still at first I'm not sure it really mattered. How would the decision of these three adults play into the murder? It was really hard to see. Still is hard to see. But knowing this begins to color the rest of the investigation for police.

So with their three statements they can start to look at what was found at the crime scene. Does the evidence corroborate their stories? The first thing police are looking for is any sign of an intruder anywhere. Two of the men Victor and Joseph were telling them that someone else was in the home. So why? What did they take? Why were they there? The answer is they took nothing.

First of all the front door was locked. The men said the back door could have been left unlocked and in fact it would have had to have been if they heard that door chime. But their backyard and yard is like a loose term. It was like this small gated courtyard. It had this seven foot fence and that fence had been closed and locked. So the assumption is someone had scaled this seven foot fence, came into the home, went directly to the second floor

and what killed their house guest and then just left? Do we know if anything was taken? Like anything? Not a single thing. There were valuables on the first floor. The person could have easily taken TVs. Like anything. But no, they took nothing. They go right to the second floor and fine.

Okay, say they wanted to bypass everything. They can't hold the big stuff like TVs. They just opened Robert's door. Fine, maybe they passed Dylan's door. But then it seems like what they did was just stab Robert, leave both of the wallets that he had, his blackberry, his watch, all of his clothes. And the more like you're talking about it out loud,

this theory is losing traction really fast. And it only gets less plausible from here. The investigators focus on the room that Robert was sleeping in. Like it did with paramedics, one of the first things that sticks out to them is the lack of blood and like anywhere. Except for that little bit of blood on Robert's chest that had the striation marks,

there was hardly anything else. There were just a couple of spots of blood on the bed, which is strange since Joseph specifically said in his interview that he went to the room and had lifted up Robert's shirt and said he saw a lot of blood. Okay, wait, why does he have to lift up Robert's shirt at all? Like if there was blood everywhere,

wouldn't the shirt have soaked it in and you would be able to see it from just standing there looking at him? Exactly, his shirt was gray. And as far as I can tell from the police's report, there were just three holes in the shirt corresponding with the knife wounds, but absolutely no blood on it. So almost no blood on the victim, two small spots on the bed.

The bed itself, they make note of in their report just like the paramedics did, that it was totally pristine with the comforter folded down, only one indent on the pillow, proving that either A, he wasn't stabbed there at all and just placed there, or B, he was stabbed there, but he didn't move a muscle when it happened. So the other place that the investigators

assumed that they're gonna find blood is the towel. Oh, wait, what towel? Well, if you remember, the paramedics told Victor to hold a towel to Robert's wounds to stop the bleeding. Right. And even in his statement to police, Joseph said that he had done exactly that. So there was a towel and it was in the room

and this is one of the only things that we actually have a picture of. And I think in this case, truly, a picture is really worth a thousand words. Okay, Brett, so I'm gonna send this to you right now and I've also posted it on our Instagram at CrimeJunkie Podcast. Just to clarify, those stab wounds,

they weren't like three paper cuts by any chance, were they? We'll get there, but they were four and a half inches deep and one of them was directly into his heart. That supposedly was beating at the time, right? That was, and it actually was. Yeah, don't buy it. Yeah, so tell people what you're seeing in the picture. There are three places where there is blood on this towel.

One is actually kind of significant. If I were to cut myself while I was cooking, the towel would probably look like that. Yeah, if you were to cut maybe a finger while you were cooking. Right, like I... Not stab yourself in the heart while you're cooking? Right, like if I nicked the side of my finger,

I would grab a towel and it would look like that. The other ones, honestly, I've bled more when I cut my legs shaving. No, it's hardly anything. Like where is the blood? The one I can barely see. So to be clear, they're saying that this is the only thing that was held up against Robert's wounds at all.

Like there's nothing else. This was the towel that they were using, even before 9-1-1 said, if you need another pilot on, right? Yes. Yes, yeah, so this is the towel, the only towel that has blood on it in the entire house. So they're saying they held it.

This has to be the towel, but here's the thing. I don't think that blood came from holding it against Robert. I don't think anyone thinks that. But wait, actually, you know, let me take that back. I don't think the towel was used for any life-saving measures

is probably more accurate. I think part of that towel was pressed against Robert's wounds to get blood on it, but for an entirely different reason. I think that that towel was actually used to transfer blood from Robert's body onto the knife that was found on the nightstand.

The one that Joseph said he took off of Robert's stomach when he found him. Why do you think that? Well, one would assume that the knife covered in blood found right next to the body of a dead man with stab wounds is the knife that killed him, but it's not adding up to be the murder weapon. First, the blood pattern on the knife

actually are like swipe marks, like someone had taken something, say, a towel, and had held the towel open in one hand while placing the knife in their palm and then pinching the towel closed and smearing the blood on the blade. Back to my kitchen thing, I can totally see that.

Yeah, and this theory was further pushed forward when the blade was forensically tested and they found that there was blood on the sides of the blade, but no blood on the actual cutting edge, meaning that there is no way that this knife went into his body. Furthermore, there were more than 10 white cotton fibers

found on that knife that were consistent with the towel found at the scene while there were no fibers on the knife that were consistent with Robert's shirt, which had cut marks on it, so you would be expecting to see gray fibers on the knife if it were used to kill him. Wait, this is getting twisted.

So you're saying someone did stab him, but with a different weapon? Mm-hmm. But they decided to place a dummy weapon on the body to throw the police off. It doesn't make any sense, but it seems like exactly what happened here. Is there any chance that maybe

one of the other guys in the house found the knife, panicked, washed it, and then was like, what am I doing? So they tried to stage it, so it would make sense? I mean, again, you never know what somebody's gonna do, but no, I don't think that that knife was used at all. And this is actually kind of the perfect transition

to start talking about Robert's autopsy. So first of all, the wounds that were found in Robert were about four to five inches deep, averaging about four and a half inches. Each one was almost exactly the same in depth. The knife that was found on the nightstand was five and a half inches in length, and this just doesn't work.

You would have to stab forcefully enough to penetrate a human body, but know exactly when to pull back that an inch of the knife stayed above his skin. Like, I don't know how that's physically possible, and neither did the medical examiner or the police. They conclusively ruled that this knife that was found next to Robert was, in fact, staged.

It was taken from the kitchen and then placed next to him, but the real murder weapon was still missing. Additionally, Robert's stab wounds were exactly the same. Like, not just the same length, but the same angle, the same cut mark, no signs of tearing like you would expect to see if you were stabbing somebody who was fighting back

for their life. There were no defensive wounds on Robert anywhere, and he didn't have a lot of blood on his hand, which is exactly something you would expect to see if someone was stabbed. They instinctively reached for the wound and would have clutched his abdomen and his heart where he was stabbed.

So all of this leads investigators to conclude that Robert wouldn't have been conscious when he was stabbed. Okay, so back to my question earlier, was his heart even beating? So I actually kept thinking that exact same thing. Like, with the lack of blood, maybe he was already dead, and like this whole stabbing thing

is the actual biggest staging of it all, but no, he was alive because the report showed that after he was stabbed, his blood had started to pool in his digestive tract, which means that his digestive system was still functioning at the time that he was stabbed, and the medical examiner ended up ruling that the stabbing was actually his cause of death.

And there's something else that suggests that he had been like paralyzed or maybe just rendered unconscious instead of actually like dead before he got stabbed. He had at least six fresh needle marks on his body. Please tell me they ran a toxicology report to see if there was anything in his system. All right, so here's the rub.

This is the part of the case that literally made me bang my head against my desk when I was researching. The medical examiner did a toxicology right when he got Robert's body. They tested for like all the normal drugs, alcohol, all of which were negative, but they didn't do any testing

for any kind of like paralytics. What? Yeah, so here's the thing though. You have to remember that I'm telling you this story over 30 or 40 minutes, but all of these events were taking days or sometimes weeks, and it takes police time to piece together

all of the things that aren't adding up. So they send the first sample off right away because they always do that in a murder case, but then I guess they just never like had a blood sample saved once they realized that he was like totally paralyzed when he'd been stabbed. I couldn't find like a for sure reason,

but no other tests were done. That's so frustrating. Yeah, I don't know. There is always one part of each of the cases that we do that I tend to fixate on, and this is the one for me. To me, it couldn't be more clear that he was incapacitated.

Even the paramedics who were first on the scene noticed that something was wrong, and it's clear to me that he was murdered, but people are saying that there's no proof. So, okay, why don't we just go get that proof? If we have his body, why aren't we running these tests? Again, I don't feel like we'd be talking about this so many years later if we had this,

but they didn't. So let's get back to the autopsy because there's even more. They also find evidence that Robert had a pillow held to his face for some time. Like someone maybe tried to smother him before they stabbed him. I'm not 100% sure what to make of that,

but it's just, like, worth throwing out there. The medical examiner also took swabs from his genitalia, his thighs, his anus, and his rectum, just like he's done in most autopsies to show for any signs of recent intercourse or sexual assault. In every place swabbed, the medical examiner found semen.

Okay. Yeah, and to me, that's not the crazy part. Are you ready for the wrench that's going to get thrown in? Ugh, I guess. After the DNA testing is done, they find that all of the semen samples, all of it, is Robert's own semen. I'm sorry, what?

Even in his rectum? Yes. And for the publicity that this case got, I think it was totally sensationalized, and I read so many theories about Robert being secretly gay, or he went there for this or that, but no, everyone can just stop those theories.

Don't let your mind wander. Robert was very supportive of the LGBTQ community, always had been. That's how him and Joseph from the House became very close. He was very selective and stuff like that in college, but he was straight, and there hasn't been a single piece of evidence

that has ever come forward suggesting he ever had any kind of gay affairs, any kind of gay relationships, and this isn't just my opinion, this is the same opinion drawn by the police and the investigators who actually looked at this case. Because of how the evidence was found and where specifically the fact that it was inside his rectum,

that Robert had been sexually assaulted before his death. So most likely, the order of events were that he was rendered unconscious, most likely with some kind of paralytic, sexually assaulted, then maybe someone attempted to smother him, and when that didn't work, he was stabbed three times.

Sorry, give me a second to wrap my head around this one. Like, this guy goes to his friend's house just to crash before work the next morning, and he's raped, then stabbed to death, but probably not in his bed, the scene is cleaned up and staged, and the people in the house are still saying

it was all an intruder who did this. Yep. That doesn't make any sense at all. Nope, and I'm not even done yet with this case. Oh my god. So we've processed the bedroom, the autopsy has been completed, now let's move further outside of the room

and take a look at the other stuff found in the home, along with witness testimony, people who were outside of the house. When police search the rest of the house, the only drug that they find anywhere is some ecstasy, even though that drug dogs who are trained to hit on cocaine, marijuana, and opiates hit on two places in the house,

one place in Dylan's room and one place in Joseph's, but they don't find anything, just the ecstasy. I mean, both those things are interesting, but we know that none of those were in Robert's system. Right, totally agree. So let me tell you what else they find. When they search Dylan's room, they find loads of sex toys and restraints and books on BDSM,

which honestly, like, who cares? If you're a grown consenting adult, like you do you, you have fun, we already knew that him and Joseph were in a dominant submissive relationship, so most of this would have been kind of commonplace for them. What stood out to investigators was this one specific device. It was an electrical shock device

that's also, like, called a milking machine. It's placed on the penis and it's used to force somebody to ejaculate. So it's believed that this device could have been used on Robert as part of his sexual assault, and this is how his semen would have gotten all over him. Now, this was found in Dylan's room, so if it was used,

it kind of proves that the killer had to have taken it from his room and then replaced it. And I'm sorry, are we still saying that this is an intruder? Right, because Dylan was in his room at the time, right? Exactly. And the bad news here is I know police collected it, but I can't actually find the report on any testing done to the machine itself.

It's another big question mark for the case, but in all of the police's, like, summaries, they keep referencing this machine. So, again, I don't know what exactly testing they did on it, but it's their assumption that that machine was used on Robert. Now, in case you wanted to have even more questions about this case, how about this one? Also in Dylan's room, they find a cutlery set,

because remember, he was a trained chef. So in this set, there's a large knife, a large fork, and an empty pocket where a smaller knife is supposed to be, a smaller knife that would have been about four and a half inches in length. What? It's just missing? Yes. A knife the exact length of the wound is missing, right? Yes, and that knife to this day has never been found.

And know what else was never found? Any more blood. At first, crime scene tax used a chemical called Ashley's reagent, which I had never heard. Love the name, but turns out it's super unreliable. And Ashley's reagent showed 170 items in the home that supposedly had blood on them, but when those items were sent to the FBI,

none of them tested positive for blood. So they ended up bringing a dog into the home who can sniff out blood and decay as well. And you know my trust prep, it's more than any reagent. So there were two spots that the dog hit on. There is a drain outside in that back courtyard area and in the dryer lint trap. What does it mean to have blood in the lint trap?

I don't know exactly, but there is also an uncoiled hose near the drain outside. So I think the theory is, what I keep reading anyway, is that somebody hosed themselves off outside, washed off all of the blood on them and their clothes, and then put their clothes in the dryer. I mean, if you remember, all of the men in the house were wearing robes, and it was even noted when police first showed up

that they all looked freshly showered. Okay, but if a person was so covered in blood that they had to hose themselves off, that sounds like a very bloody crime scene. Where was it? Where did the crime happen? I don't know, and that's the mystery. I'm sorry, I just don't get it. The timeline doesn't even work.

It only took emergency responders a few minutes to get there after the 911 call happened. How would all of this been cleaned up already? Well, that actually brings me to the witness they have in this case that creates an entire new timeline. This witness is their next door neighbor. This neighbor was actually in their bedroom, which shared a wall with the room

Robert would have been sleeping in that night. That neighbor was in their room watching the news on August 2nd. They remember a specific segment which aired from 11 to 1130, and during this segment, they remember hearing a scream. Any chance it was the same, like, guttural scream that was heard earlier? So, the more police pulled out of the men, they said it was, like, blow breathy grunts, and this guy says, this witness says that it's, like, a full scream.

So, the more I read about this case, the more people theorize that the scream the witness heard was actually Victor screaming when he came into the room and saw Robert's body. So, if this is Victor finding Robert, this is bad for the men in the house. Wait, why? Because the absolute latest this could have happened was when the guy was watching that news segment,

and that news segment ended at 1130. That means that they scream, they find the body at 1130, at the very latest, then that means they waited 19 minutes to call 911. And that's best case scenario. Worst case scenario is that the scream happened closer to the beginning of that news segment, 11 o'clock, which means, then, that 49 minutes went by before Victor called 911.

What is happening? This case is insane. Truly, there was supposedly evidence on Robert's blackberry that he was alive at 1107. There were two drafted emails, one to his wife, one to his friend about lunch plans the next day, but neither one got sent. And, like, I get if you were in the middle of drafting one email and someone comes in your room and knocks you out somehow,

but having two messages in draft seems almost fishy. Like, okay, it narrows down the window to 42 minutes, but to me, it's more likely that somebody who wasn't really familiar with a blackberry tried to fake these emails to provide some kind of false timeline to the evening, but they didn't realize how to actually make them send. But we will never know because the chain of custody on this blackberry got all kinds of messed up, was eventually returned to Robert's work and wiped clean

before anyone could do any kind of real testing on it. No. For two years in this case, nothing happened. It wasn't until late 2008 when all three men, Joseph, Victor, and Dylan, were charged, but not with murder. They were charged with obstruction of justice. And here's a quote from their indictment. The evidence demonstrates that Robert Wong was restrained, incapacitated,

sexually assaulted, and murdered inside of 1509 Swan Street. There exists overwhelming evidence far in excess of probable cause that Joseph, Victor, and Dylan obstructed justice by altering and orchestrating the crime scene, planting evidence, delaying the reporting of the murder to authorities, and lying to police about the true circumstances of the murder. The men's lawyers claim that all of this is speculation and they maintained their innocence throughout the trial.

On June 29, 2010, a judge in charge of this case found each of the three men not guilty of the charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and tampering with evidence. She explained in her ruling, which took her like an hour, that she personally believed that the men knew who killed Robert, but she wasn't convinced by any kind of reasonable doubt that they committed the offenses that they were charged with.

Around the same time that they were charged for obstruction of justice, Robert's wife also sued all three men in a civil case for like $20 million for failing to rescue Robert after he was injured, and they ended up settling outside of court for an undisclosed amount. Now, the latest I could find on the men's show that they might own some property down in Miami. I think it's possible Joseph and Victor are down there. Joseph has changed his name from Joseph Price to Joseph Anderson.

Victor is still going by his full name, Victor Zaborsky, and Dylan also changed his name. He's actually living out in Seattle, and he's no longer Dylan Ward. He's going by Dylan Thomas. Wait, that's it? This is the end? Yes, so that was 2016, and that's it, girl. This case is a cluster.

We could spin in circles all day trying to figure out what exactly happened in the house that night, but truthfully, the only people who will ever really know are Joseph, Victor, Dylan, and Robert. This case feels exceptionally tragic when I think about Robert's wife. To me, this case has more unanswered questions than even our usual unsolved cases.

Like, again, you're staying with a friend. These people weren't strangers. How did the night go so wrong? How did Robert misjudge these people so severely? And what in the world was the motive for this crime? These were all successful men with everything to lose, and it seems like this was clearly a stage scene and some kind of cover-up.

But how is no one serving time for this murder? There are so many wrongful convictions. TV almost makes it seem like it's super easy to put someone in jail for literally anything. So there seems to be a lot of reasons here to find someone guilty, but nobody's serving time. And I would love a true crime docu-series to get their hands on this case,

because not a single piece of the timeline or the evidence will ever make sense to me. We would love to hear your thoughts on this case. Check out our episode thread on the Facebook discussion group. Check out the pictures we talked about on Instagram at CrimeJunkiePodcast. You can also look on the blog. You can tweet at us, your theories, at CrimeJunkiePod.

And the blog is located at CrimeJunkiePodcast.com. And you guys, don't forget to check out our Patreon. We have over 21 full-length episodes for you guys to check out. Our husband's just did an episode. We're calling him Crime Hunky. It was so good. And I think we're going to have a short follow-up on this case, because I told Brett we have...

There are so many theories. There's so many tiny things that I couldn't get into in this case that I just want to hash out and have more of a conversation around rather than storytelling. So if you can't stop thinking about it, if you're into it, sign up for the five bucks. You'll get like 11 hours of content dropped in your plate right away.

And if not, we will be back next week with a brand new episode. This episode of CrimeJunkie was researched, written, and hosted by me with co-hosting by Brett Prewott. All of our editing and sound production was done by David Flowers. And all of our music, including our theme, comes from Justin Daniel.

CrimeJunkie is an audio chuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? Oh! Okay, Ashley, I'm still on the proper of the month beat because your emotions are just... not okay with the prephets. I can't handle it, but I love hearing the stories.

Okay, so today we're going to talk about two prephets, which I love a double feature. We're going to talk about Odin and Dahlia. Ooh, good names. Yeah. So our listener, Rika, wrote in about her dogs, and I'm so excited to tell you about them. She said about Odin,

Odin is my baby, my shadow, my light, and he is just as crazy about me as I am about him. And I'm like, girl. Niles. For you. You're speaking my language. Isn't it amazing how...

I don't know if this is true for everyone, but most people I know, they have a different and deeper connection with their first dog, always. Oh, I totally believe it. Niles, and if you're a patron, you know this because my husband talked about it in the CrimeJunkie episode.

Niles is my first child. He and I, when we're at home, we're literally connected. He lays outside my door while I record, and it's like a thing. He's always with me. And, evidently, that's what Odin is for our listener. And how they met Odin was something that I will never identify with,

but basically our listener, Rika, and her husband, for fun, used to just visit shelters to play with dogs, which, like, I get playing with dogs. I don't, like, fault you that. You're doing a great thing, but I can't visit a shelter without getting a dog. No, I love the people who volunteer at shelters, and they volunteer to do exactly that,

like, play with dogs, go walk the dogs. Such a good cause. It is because those poor little puppers shouldn't be in the cage all day, but it would actually kill me. Yeah, I would have every dog I played with. Oh, good for you. Oh, my gosh, okay.

So they would do this, like, as a date, which is adorable, but again, could never do it. And for some reason, Rika always loved blonde pit bulls, and, like, I love a good pit, so no shame. And for some reason, none of these blonde pit bulls seem to like her, which, Shut up, really?

As someone who, like, gets personally offended when a dog doesn't gravitate towards you, I get it. You do. You do. So one day, after a lunch date and a beer or two, they decided to hit up their favorite shelter. Again, this is just so unbelievable to me.

I am. So true. They had no intention of getting a dog and had done this so many times before, but there they are surrounded by all these cute little puppets, and out of nowhere comes this smiley, happy, one-year-old blonde pit bull that liked her. So he was covered in scars,

his ears were all scabbed up, and he was actually bleeding, but he would not stop kissing her. And it was, like, Velcro. She knew he wouldn't let her leave without him, and, like, I love pits because they're so expressive, but she claims that Odin had the most expressive face and his smile is just massive.

And he knew the second they got him in the car that he was theirs, and he didn't stop smiling for days. You guys, I'm about to cry. Oh, my God. I, again, there's the rescue dogs. Like, their attitude is just incredible. And she does want to go back to the point

that he was covered in blood, and evidently, he was found in Philadelphia a few blocks away from where it was known to have a lot of dog fights in the area. Oh, hell no. So they think that he either escaped or someone threw him out when he lost a fight. But he's the happiest, smileiest,

most mommy-loving puppet, or, as she calls them, doopies, which is also really cute, that they've ever met. And I just love that story. Again, I have, like, a huge soft spot for pit bulls. They're so cuddly. They're truly the happiest dog, those smiles.

I just cannot get over. Yeah. Obviously, like, all of our puppet-loving crime junkies are on board with all kinds of dogs. But I think it's so tragic that pit bulls have gotten such a bad name, because it is all about the owner and the life,

and they, even the ones that are, like, victims of dog fighting, can turn out to be the sweetest, most-loving animals. Truly. I mean, you've met my raw. It's like, she has scars all over her. I know. But no one wants to love you more than Razo. I know.

Dogs are so amazing. Again, we've said it a thousand times. We don't deserve their love. But they're, like, an amazing example of, like, second chances. Like, just because one human tried to destroy you, like, it doesn't mean the next one won't love you to death. Okay, so that's the story of Odin, right?

Mm-hmm. But we also have Dahlia. And two years after they got Odin, our listener went to buy dog food. And I'm assuming it's, like, a pet smart, because an adorable chocolate lab pit mix comes running up to her. So I think it's, like, a puppy event or something, or maybe this woman literally just attracts dogs. You can't go to pet smart on a Saturday or Sunday,

because that's when they do their adoption days. Like, I have learned. I have all my dog food, like, shipped to me, or I go in the middle of the week to avoid exactly that scenario. That's why I only have two dogs. So this little lab pit mix comes running up to her, literally shoving all of the other dogs out of the way with her head, and makes sure that she was the only one getting attention.

And what really got to Rika was this giant scar across his puppy's face. A scar on his face? Yeah, it was around her snout and almost into her eye. And it turns out that some *** had tied her up and wrapped her snout in barbed wire. And at that moment, as soon as they found out, they had to take her home. Oh. So our listener drove home, grabbed her husband and Odin to meet her, and her husband fell in love immediately.

And she told us that her husband has the softest spot for abused dogs, which... Dude. Same. Same. Maybe. Come on. But Odin really wasn't interested until Rika brought sweet Dahlia out and said, I got you a present.

Oh, my God. And put Dahlia right in front of him. And ever since then, they've been completely inseparable, and her husband finally got a dog of his own. Oh, good. Yeah. So I just love these two. I love the Odin story, again, soft spot for pitties.

And poor little Dahlia has been through so much. Even after I talked to Rika, you know, Dahlia has been sick. She's had a couple of health issues. And go to our Facebook discussion group. You'll see more about it there. I just love puppets. I love doing this. Ashley, I hope you never get emotionally stronger,

because these stories are so much fun to tell. Like, you tell the murder stories, and I'll tell the puppet stories. Yeah. I mean, I can let you know for a fact. Like, as long as Charlie's face hair keeps getting grayer and grayer, like, I'm getting weaker and weaker. And I can barely say the p-word and not get teary-eyed.