Crime Junkie - MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Robin Pope

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

When a young woman and her dog go mysteriously missing, only to be found dead in the Chesapeake Bay, police must untangle a series of events to determine if this was an accident or something far worse… murder.If you have any information about the death of Robin Pope in March of 2013, please contact the MD State Police at 410-822-3101, or the Metro County Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-866-756-2587. You can also anonymously contact the Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Office at 410-758-6666.Head to the Crime Junkie YouTube channel to check out The Deck's episode on Dana Chisholm! Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: crimejunkiepodcast.com/mysterious-death-robin-pope Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit crimejunkie.app/library/ to view the current membership options and policies. Use promo code FREESUMMER to get access to all Fan Club exclusive episodes for FREE through July and August. Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie!Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuckTikTok: @crimejunkiepodcastFacebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllc Crime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawatTwitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawatTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And before we jump into today's episode, I wanted to make sure you guys didn't miss what we were up to a couple of weeks ago on The Deck. I'm sure many of you, most of you know by now, The Deck is my other weekly podcast where each week I tell you a victim's story

that is featured on one of law enforcement's cold case playing card decks. Every episode we talk to law enforcement or family members and we're talking about cases that do not get attention anywhere else. And the podcast is fantastic. You need to listen if you don't already. Thank you, thank you.

But one of those cards that I recently did was Dana Chisholm, the Jack of Diamonds from Washington, DC. And there was something about Dana's case that I could not let go of. It was one that I knew, I just felt like listening wasn't gonna be enough. I needed everyone to see it, watch it, hear it. I needed to reach as many people in as many places as possible. So for the first time ever, we not only gave you the episode in audio,

in the deck podcast feed, but you also got a visual as well on YouTube. And it is amazing. I mean, I've watched you tell victim stories for years now, right? But like watching this episode on Dana's case, honestly, it was like nothing I've ever seen before. And her case, oh my God. The case is wild. The case is wild.

And the team did amazing. We wanted, I wanted it to be more than just like, a camera on me recording. It really has like a higher production value. It feels a little like a documentary. It was immersive. Yeah, it's a full hour long. So please, if you haven't watched it yet,

go to the Crime Junkie YouTube channel. You can watch the full episode on Dana's case. I'm actually going to have a link directly to it in the show notes. But as you guys know, unfortunately, Dana and her family aren't the only ones out there waiting for justice. Each week right here, we tell you guys the stories that are just as important, that need your attention too. And the story I have here for you today is so tragic in many ways, because it's about a woman who had already faced death once and

won only to have it come for her again. And it's about how some cases are so stubborn to give us the truth, no matter how hard we may want it. This is the story of Robin Pope. It's Saturday, March 2nd, 2013, when a 911 dispatcher gets a call sometime after 2.30 in the morning from a man named Wayne Pope because he's starting to get worried about his 51-year-old wife, Robin. After being married for 20 years, Wayne and Robin have been separated for about a month,

but she had just come by their house, which is perched up right along the Chesapeake Bay in Stevensville, Maryland. She was there to collect some of her things and to see their dog, Bella. So in order to give her some space, again, separated, Wayne decides to get lost for a couple of hours while she's there.

But he says that when he got back, he notices Robin's car still in the driveway and Robin and their dog nowhere to be found. Wayne, I want... Yeah, I'd like to report a shift activity or abnormal activity. I'd like to know if you could send an officer up to my house. According to an article by Hannah Combs, when Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office I had no idea." According to an article by Hannah Combs, when Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office arrives at Wayne's house, they take a look inside Robin's car and they find her keys, her purse,

her cell phone, and then there's something else they find of significance. Robin's medicine. You see, Robin is a breast cancer survivor survivor and she needs to take medication daily, so it's not something that she's just likely gonna leave behind carelessly. But as Wayne tells investigators about the sequence of events that night, he shares something a little odd. He says that while he waited for Robin to show up at his house to pick up her stuff, he had dozed off for a little bit until like 11 30 p.m. And this technically would have been just the night before. So this is March 1st. And he says when he wakes

up, he walks outside, he sees Robin's car and Robin is in the car sleeping. Any clue why she's just sleeping in her car? Did she try to call Wayne at any point? Maybe just thought she'd like, you know, wait it out until he answered or something? Well, that's what's weird. And honestly honestly why this case is a challenge because it's not entirely clear during these beginning hours of the investigation how much Wayne shares with investigators up front. But we do know that he tells investigators that once he sees Robin in her car, he knocks on the window, tells Robin that Bella was inside and whatever else she needs to grab

is there. And then he heads out and goes to his parents' house so she could just do her thing in peace without him there. Could they tell if she was able to grab whatever she had been stopping by for? I think they could tell, but I don't think that she got the stuff she was there for. Because according to an episode of Breaking Homicide from 2019, when they enter the Pope's home, sheriff deputies find no sign of a struggle. They see some of Robin's mail left on the table, which was one of the things that she planned to pick up.

So that could mean she might not have even made it inside. And this is leaving deputies scratching their heads a little bit, because it's as if Robin and Bella just vanished into thin air. And by the way, despite the cutesy name, Bella isn't some, like, teacup chihuahua. Bella is a Great Dane. Oh, so like a small horse.

Yeah, which makes matters even weirder. What time did Wayne say he got back from his parents' house? Well, he just went there to like swap his car for his truck, which I guess was there, and he needed his truck for the next day. So he was only there for a little bit. Then he said he headed over to a 7-Eleven for a late night cup of coffee.

And ultimately he got home some two hours later. And then calls at 2-30. Yeah. So according to Wayne, between the time he got home, because again, he wakes up, sees her what, like 11-30, then like two hours later, 12-30, 1-30. And that hour difference, he says, was him trying to figure out what's going on, trying to look for Robin. He said he reached out to their 19 year old daughter, Rachel, reached out to some of Robin's friends. He also went to Robin's best friend's house, Debbie,

to see if she had heard from her. And when he did, Debbie said that she had gotten a text from Robin about 6.45 that evening saying she was at a job interview, but that was the last she had heard from her. And so that was when Wayne decided to go to the condo where Robin was staying at at the time. She's not there either. So when he finally goes home, that's when he called 911. Got it.

For at least part of Saturday, detectives talk with Robin's friends and family the same way Wayne had, trying to gather as much information as they can from them, hopefully, stuff that will lead to locating her. They also put Robin into the NCIC database as a missing person. But it isn't until one of Wayne's neighbors makes a discovery early afternoon Saturday that investigators get their first lead. Only two piers down from Wayne's residence, Bella's body is found washed up near their neighbor's pier along the Chesapeake Bay.

Is there any indication of how she died? I mean, it can't just be coincidence, right? Well, I mean, nothing seems obvious at first glance. I mean, they're gonna have to do basically a dog autopsy to find out, but it is an ominous sign for sure. Because with the discovery of Bella, alarm bells are now going off for the sheriff's office. And the next day, on March 3rd, they bring Wayne in for a formal interview. And again, they've obviously talked to him before this,

but this is like the real sit down. Now, according to that episode of Breaking Homicide, when investigators interrogate him, they really grill him on what he thinks happened on the night he last saw Robin. "-Wish he could step into your house. Something happened." "-Maybe she's playing with the dog. I don't know." "-And what do you think? She's playing with the dog near the water and they both fell in?"

"-That's a thought I had. Maybe Bella fell in the water and Robin went together. I don't know." "-Do you think Robin fell in the water and, uh..." "-Yeah, Robin wouldn't fall in the water, but if Bella fell in the water..." "-If Bella fell in the water? And uh. Robin wouldn't fall in the water but if Bella fell in the water. If Bella fell in the water she's gonna go after her right? Absolutely. Yeah. And she's a lot of bad feelings. Well, somebody does that to you. That's right. You killed your wife.

That's right. That is no trick. Are you sure? I am positive, sir. You can look at me right now and tell me you didn't have anything to do with your wife's death. Right now, I said I had nothing to do with my wife's death. And I had nothing to do with your waist jet. Right now, I have nothing to do with my waist jet. And I have nothing to do with hurting our daughter. I'm not doing that."

What did he mean by Robin betrayed him? Well, the reason Robin and Wayne had been separated for a few weeks leading up to Robin's disappearance is because Robin was having an affair. Wayne had discovered the affair recently after finding some text messages on Robin's phone. And what really concerns investigators is not just this quote unquote betrayal, but how he acted after he found out.

Wayne says that he was so upset over it that at one point he literally figured out where Robin's boyfriend lived, went over to his house with a gun in tow to confront him, but the guy's fiance was there and she started screaming and so Wayne left. Did anything happen or did they press any charges against Wayne?

No, and before you start thinking that maybe the boyfriend or the fiance had something to do with Robin's disappearance, according to an episode of Crime Watch Daily from 2018, detectives definitively follow up on this, and they're both ruled out pretty quickly. But anyways, after that happened, that's when Robin was out of there. Like, she's not going to stick around and live with Wayne. Girl packed up her sh- moved out of the house and into that condo. But the catch was she couldn't bring Bella because the condo didn't allow dogs. So investigators are thinking, like, if Wayne is willing to roll up to someone's house with a gun over this affair, then-

What else is he capable of? Precisely. Do we have any idea what Robin and Wayne's dynamic was before he found out about the affair? We do. We actually have some really good insight directly from someone who witnessed their relationship up close and personal, because it was actually one of Robin's daughters, Rachel,

who reached out to me and asked me to cover her mom's case. She was 19 when all of this happened, and she lived with both of her parents. And she just said that in general, their relationship was good until it wasn't, basically. Robin's oldest daughter, Priscilla, who was from a previous marriage, said that in the beginning, things were great. When her parents met, Wayne was this fun-loving guy, but things began to change over time. According to Robin's friends, Wayne had this kind of dark side.

He would sometimes tell Robin that she looked ugly or gross or that dress made her look fat. And if Wayne saw Robin having too much fun at a party, he would leave and tell her to basically find her own way home, add in some possessiveness and jealousy, and this is what Robin was dealing with daily. And it doesn't sound like Wayne treated Robin's dog Bella much better. I mean, he would often talk about how he hated the dog. Red flag, red flag, red flag. And are you ready for this? Once he even threw Bella in the pool, claiming he wanted to see if she could swim, even though he knew she was terrified of water. No.

I know. Nope. Nope. I'm sorry. Absolutely not. He very clearly, I think, used Bella as something, like a tool against Robin, basically. Like this part is so fucked up, but just the day before Robin disappeared, Wayne told Robin that he had Bella put down. And what? Yeah, obviously he, no, that didn't happen, but he said it wasn't until she started like crying that he told her the truth.

So he's like using this as a tool to upset her, to manipulate her. Because he knew how much Robin loved Bella. Exactly. And speaking of Bella, when her autopsy results come back, it shows something interesting. Though there is water in her lungs, that isn't ultimately her cause of death. Her cause of death was hypothermia.

So they think that she went into the water alive. And one of the reasons that they think this is because there is some bruising on her paws, indicating that she might have made it back to shore, but couldn't actually climb out because of these like large rocks that line the shore. Now, to go back to Wayne, during their interview with him, investigators didn't just ask him the hard-hitting questions.

They also decide to check him for injuries or any kind of indicators of some kind of recent physical altercation. Because, I mean, again, Bella alone, she's got bruises on her paws, we know she's a big dog. So, I mean, if he tried to throw her in the water, like we know he had in the past, maybe there would be some kind of mark on him. We're not even thinking about Robin at this point.

And wouldn't you know it? There are some marks on him. Based on the pictures I've seen, on Wayne's side, the torso and rib area, there is a large bruise and some scratch marks. And what does he say happened? Like, how does he explain that? Yeah, so in that episode of Breaking Homicide, he tells police that after his neighbor found Bella's body,

the two of them went back together and he received those scratches, those bruises, injuries, whatever, while he was leaning over the pier trying to get her body out of the water. But there's a problem with that story because according to that neighbor, Wayne never did that. So Wayne's just straight up lying to the police. Someone is lying or misremembering, but who knows. But the neighbor says something else interesting. They say that Wayne's reaction to finding Bella was... I don't even say bad, it was non-existent.

I don't trust anyone who doesn't like animals, but I don't think, like, him not having a reaction is that weird, because we know he was kind of a piece of sh- when it came to how he treated Bella. Yeah, like, he clearly, like, she didn't mean anything to him. He's not treating her right. No love lost there, right. And that's fair, maybe with Bella. But that aside, they don't feel like he's even got the right response or demeanor when

it comes to his wife. Like, by this time time investigators have pulled in the Maryland State Police for assistance. So while literally Everyone from locals to family and friends and now the state police are looking for Robin Wayne doesn't actually participate in a single one of the searches or any of the efforts to find her I mean, I get she cheated on him. He probably wasn't in like the best place with Robin before she went missing. But they were married for 20 years. They have a daughter together.

That's what I was gonna say. They have a family. Like this is a person that's at least important to your life like in a whole big picture way, right? Like you go out and look for that person, even if you aren't exactly happy with them at that moment. And especially, you got Bella showing up. I mean, everyone is concerned. Even her daughter Priscilla,

who lived in California at the time, flew in to help look for her mom. So to your point, and this is pointed out in Crime Weekly too, like, at least do it for the kids. Right. But also, I mean, who knows the type of advice Wayne's getting? I mean, his estranged wife has just gone missing. He's naturally gonna be under a microscope. Maybe

he is told by a lawyer, by someone to like lay low. Maybe people just literally didn't want him around. I don't know. And listen, police are not just looking at Wayne right now. They're also exploring different theories, like maybe this was an accident. I mean, if Chuck fell into the water and couldn't get himself out, you better believe my ass is jumping right in after him, no questions asked.

Right. And knowing how much Robin loved Bella, like that's not a far-fetched idea, especially since apparently the currents there were super strong in the bay and the tide was so strong the night that she went missing. Okay, but it still doesn't explain how Bella ended up in the water to begin with. I mean, you said she was not a fan of water.

Right. It doesn't. And I, the other thing that I have heard is that it wasn't common for them to even walk down by the pier. And I heard this from Rachel. Rachel said her mom barely ever went out there when she lived at that home. So to think of them going out there at 1130 at night, like,

does it make a whole lot of sense? Maybe Bella got out and took off, but she's like a 10 or 11-year-old Dane, depending on whatever source you read. Like, I don't see that either. My poor Chuckleberry Finn, you guys, he's 13 now and like the arthritis in his knees and stuff. Like he can't run anywhere.

And he's a smaller dog than a Dane. He is. I mean, either way, one of the problems Robin's family has with that theory, the theory that somehow Bella went in and she went in after her, they're convinced that Robin would have been able to swim out, even if she had gone in after Bella. They say she is a gym rat. She goes all the time. Like, she's just super strong in general.

But you've got this hundred pound dog who doesn't like water, who's probably freaking out because they're in the water. And you have that current you were talking about that's super, super strong. Like, Jim Ratt, great, but... Chuck could take me down. Like, again, he's an old man. And Robin's even smaller than I am. I mean, she's, you know, 5'2". I'm 5'2 and three quarters.

Um, but she's tiny. She's a little over 100 pounds. The problem I have with it, so it's not the fact that, like, she couldn't swim out. Maybe she did, maybe problem I have with it. So it's not the fact that like she couldn't swim out. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't, whatever. Even if Bella took her down accidentally, even if the current got her, wouldn't you think that she would be found with Bella? Like if Bella's body is washing up

and she went in to get Bella, where is she? Well, and Bella's washing up nearby. Mm-hmm, but there is no sign of Robin. At least not until March 10th, when members of the local community do an extensive ground search. And right around the same area where Bella's body is found, they find something washed up along the shoreline. A woman's blouse.

The blouse, they found, is believed to have been worn by Robin the night she disappeared. And while there is still no body, the discovery of this blouse is just a terrible reminder to Robin's family and to all of those looking for her that this is potentially heading for a tragic ending. Are there any signs of any blood or tears on the blouse? No. Maybe to indicate there was a fight or a struggle of any kind? No blood, really no damage to it at all.

And I've tried to figure out what happens to this blouse from there, but there's nothing about it being tested or what after it's found. Like, I mean, to be fair, it's clearly been in water for some time. But I think more than anything, it's just like a sign. Like it's pointing detectives to the idea that something happened here. Maybe we need to keep focusing on the water. We're looking in the right place, basically.

And of course, they're still talking with Wayne, who happens to be changing up his story of exactly what he was up to before Robin showed up at his house on March 1st. So Wayne originally told police that earlier in the evening of March 1st, he was having dinner with friends in Annapolis. And he said that when he was done, he had brought his daughter Rachel some food at her work. And according to that Crime Weekly podcast, police did confirm with Wayne's friends that he did in fact have dinner with them sometime between 5, 5 30.

Nothing shady about that. But it's the second part of his story that Wayne gets himself in trouble with. Because when they talk to his daughter Rachel, she tells police that her dad never brought food to her at work. Like, not just that night, but this was a thing he never did. And it doesn't even matter because Rachel said she wasn't even working that night. And she confirmed that with us as well. I'm so confused as to why Wayne would lie about this little detail. It's one that they could easily debunk, but it's also hours before he even saw Robin later at the house.

So the lie doesn't do anything? Well, I thought the same thing, but it sounds like Rachel might have worked at the mall. And do you remember, so I had said that Robin had texted her friend Debbie about this job interview that day. Well, that job interview was in Annapolis, and she also texted Wayne about this. And it sounds like the interview happened around the mall over drinks with a manager from the place that she was looking to get the job at. But there are some conflicting reports that she said she had an interview first and then had a drink with someone after. No one in Robin's circle really knows which is true. But the point is she was out with someone and we know the manager at

the very least was a man, considering what we know about Wayne and his jealousy. It's- Did investigators ever speak to this guy? Ah, it's not 100% clear in what I've been able to read, but whoever Robin was having drinks with, it sounds like police later rule them out, so I assume they spoke with them. So the police think Wayne was following her, trying to see like who she was with, and since his daughter worked at the mall, he'd be like, oh, I'll justify being at the mall by saying I was there for Rachel and dinner.

Yeah, there's a chance. And a pretty good chance, because detectives say that based on Wayne's cell data, he stayed around the mall long after his dinner ended. And according to Crime Watch Daily, using cell phone records and EZPass and tag readers, police kind of lay out a rough timeline of Robin's movements the night of March 1st. Police say that around 9.30 p.m., she leaves Annapolis and makes her way toward Wayne's house,

or their old house together. And then a little after 10, she texts Wayne that she's gonna stop by the house to get her mail, see the dog. Few minutes later, around 10, 12 p.m., Robin and Wayne speak on the phone. About what? Uh, well, when police ask him about it, Wayne says that they just talked about the fact that she was coming over, stuff she needed to grab from the house. Was this what they talked about?

We don't know. I mean, we only have Wayne's side. Right. But he said it was nothing, like, weird. And then around 10,30, Robin finally arrives at Wayne's house where things are quiet until just shy of 11, when some kind of cell phone glitch happens.

And a single text where Robin is asking to get her mail gets repeated like three times all at once. And it doesn't sound suspicious, especially considering the location of Wayne's house where cell service is or can be spotty. So I think that's just a glitch. That's what they write it off as. But then Robin's final text of the night comes in and it sounds like she's getting a little

annoyed about her mail now because according to Crime Weekly, that one reads, quote, Wayne, I would line to get my mail while I'm here. Now it's assumed line, line to get my mail is supposed to actually be like, it was just a typo. Okay, and all of this is happening while Wayne is apparently inside sleeping. Sleeping, right, that's what he said. And I mean, let's just entertain this idea. In the past, Robin had come to the house on other occasions

and Wayne would make her just wait there, I mean, to literally just be like a, like, exert his dominance. And police believe that she couldn't get into the house because he had changed the locks. So it wouldn't be out of character necessarily. And maybe Robin was just used to it. She knew to stick around until he chilled out

or decided to let her in. Like, I'd sit and wait for Chuck. Like, you better believe. Did Wayne ever respond to her final text? No. So all investigators have his Wayne's version of events. He says he woke up, came outside, found her asleep in the car,

and then he left for his parents' house to swap his car for his truck. But here's the other hiccup. When police talk with Wayne's parents, they don't recall him being at their house that night. Now, to be fair, Wayne said he didn't go inside. I mean, it's super late, no need to bother his parents, who, by the way, also had company over at the time.

But police have this sneaking suspicion that maybe Wayne's movements from 11.30 p.m. on are all just a ploy to help establish an alibi, which maybe initially he figured he could accomplish by just seeing his parents, but then after seeing that they had people over, police think that maybe he decides against it. So as Derek Lavasser kind of points out in Breaking Homicide, he thinks that maybe he improvises by going to that 7-Eleven for the cup of coffee so that he's captured on surveillance cameras. And what time is he seen on the security footage? So this is what's interesting. He is on that footage at 1 0 7 a.m.

He told police he got home at what time again? So this is kind of where it falls apart. He gets home, he says, two hours after he last saw Robin. He said he woke her up in the car at 11 30. So that would put him home sometime around 1 30, which like fine, you're at 7-Eleven at 1.07. Maybe you even got home earlier. Call it 1.15.

Right, we're talking about a rounding error. Sure. But that wouldn't be feasible for him to be home at 1.15, and definitely not at 1.30, because Robin's best friend Debbie says that Wayne arrived at her house asking if she knew where Robin was between 1.15 and 1.30. So if Wayne is at 7-Eleven at 1.07 and he arrives at Debbie's between 1.15, 1.30, when does he have time to go home, discover Robin's missing, look for her, and then drive to Debbie's,

right? Like, before he went to Debbie's, he said he did all that. He's calling people's whatever. Right. I was gonna say like, it's one thing to be like stopping by your house, but he's stopping by seeing the car, looking for her, calling people, doing quite a bit in those like eight minutes of transition between 7-Eleven and Debbie's house. It feels like he went straight to Debbie's house. Yeah. Like, did you go home and see she's missing?

And listen, timelines can be tricky. People's memories of events are skewed. We talked about this, especially in times of trauma. You have a person missing. But the thinking is, maybe he didn't go home because maybe he didn't need to take time to look for Robin because he already knew what had happened to her. Maybe. And maybe everything he did that night, contacting her friends, texting her daughter, going to

his parents, the 7-Eleven stop, then showing up at Debbie's, could all be attempts to establish some kind of paper trail of alibis. In reality, Robin's final text was sent around 11, right? Two hours before Wayne was caught on camera at that 7-Eleven. Yeah. A lot can happen between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. Truly. And the mystery of what happened in those hours deepens when on March 23rd, a man fishing on a pier with his daughter finds Robin Pope floating near the rocky shore.

Based on the decomposition of Robin's body, they believe that she had been in the water for the entire time she was missing. And because of this, along with the fact that there's no sign of blunt force trauma or signs that she had been stabbed or shot, the medical examiner isn't able to determine a cause or manner of death. Now, it does sound like water is found in her lungs which could indicate that she went into the water alive but it's also pointed out that after a body has been in the water that long water can seep into the lungs so it's a little unclear. Now when she's found she's wearing a pair of jeans and then there's a piece of t-shirt wrapped around her

like like caught on her hand and they believe she was wearing the t-shirt underneath that blouse that they found previously. And the t-shirt by that point had just been like shredded up from the water and the rocks. But something odd stands out to investigators. She also had on her high heels. How did her shoes stay on this whole time? I feel like that's unheard of. They thought it was weird too. It's why they pointed it out.

But it sounds like there was some kind of elastic that helped keep them on. The Crime Weekly podcast also mentions that her feet would have swelled up to help keep them on, but I think a lot of people find it weird that her shoes are still on, but her blouse was off. Because remember, the blouse wasn't like, like shredded or anything, like the t-shirt.

Right, and I don't know how big or loose this blouse was. I mean, if she was struggling in the water, maybe it was weighing her down. Yeah. And she took it off then. I just keep thinking, like, and again, I don't know, maybe, you know, you take off your blouse and then maybe you just get swept over the waves.

I feel like I would take my heels off, but maybe not. I don't, I don't know, maybe it's all happening too fast. How far is she found from where Bella was found? Not super far, it's just like three quarters of a mile down shore. I mean, if her body has been in the water this whole time, it's kind of hard to understand why it took so long to find her or for her to wash up.

In that Breaking Homicide episode, they have an oceanographer who says that if Robin sunk, it would take time for the gases from decomposition to force her body up. So maybe that's why it took her from decomposition to force her body up. Mm-hmm. So maybe that's why it took her body longer to go to the surface. But unfortunately, again, because she was in there so long,

we don't learn a whole lot. Like, her autopsy doesn't give detectives what they needed. And we're never gonna get anything new from it, even if there's new testing that becomes available, because as Robin's next of kin, her body was released to Wayne, and literally within days, he had her cremated. So for police, I mean, that was a devastating blow because it takes away any chance for future re-examination, or like I said, testing advances.

And they can't even question Wayne about it all because he has officially lawyered up and he's no longer talking to them. At one point, I know the state's attorney for Queen Anne's County took a crack and asked Wayne to submit to a polygraph exam, and surprisingly he did agree, but on the day the exam was set to take place, Wayne shows up, gets cold feet, and then backs out. Now in June of 2014, the police formally announced Wayne as a person of interest. But announcing that doesn't actually propel the case forward in any way. And here's the thing, I mean when you look at this case, there are only so many ways that this could have gone down. And really only two people who know what happened, Robin and Wayne.

By Crime Weekly and Breaking Homicide, they kind of go through the couple of theories that are out there. I mean, the only plausible ones in my mind, which there's the accident theory. So maybe Bella falls in, Robin jumps in after her. This is basically what Wayne had theorized to police. And again, I can see if you find Bella, like it's kind of a logical conclusion,

but I go back to like what Rachel said about her mom, that she's like, she doesn't walk down there. Like it doesn't, she didn't spend time down there. Like I said, Bella's old. It seems like an unlikely place for them to be for this scenario to even like kick off. Yeah, and again, she's just, I don't know if she didn't wanna be in the house.

Like in my mind, if you're there at 1130, he's gone. So why not just kind of hang out in the house with the dog? I don't know. The other theory is that she was murdered. And in that scenario, one of the only things that is the most plausible is that Wayne was somehow involved, that he put her into the water and then also put Bella into, either to concoct a story or, again, we know he doesn't like Bella, but there's nothing we have to prove that.

And then there's like maybe a weird combination of the two where potentially like the most plausible in my mind, where it's like, so again, we know Wayne has a history of throwing Bella into the water. We know Wayne has a history of using Bella against Robin. So, did they get into some kind of altercation? Is he trying to mess with her? What if he threw Bella into the water,

and Robin jumped in to rescue her, and she drowns? Like, maybe he walked away, doesn't even know that happened. Maybe he saw what was happening, didn't come to her aid. Maybe he knew that the current was too rough and he wasn't going to go in because he knew what would happen to him. But at the end of the day, he's responsible because he started it, if you will,

by throwing the dog in the water in the first place. Right. And so his intention wasn't murder, but like, you know, then he makes up the story. Because the thing I can't get over is like, where did he get that big bruise and the scratches? Right? Like the, to be on your side like that, that does seem more like it could be from Bella than from Robin. Right. But I mean, at the end of the day, all these theories are just theories for a reason. Correct. And, I mean, that's all they may ever be.

Though I do want to know another theory that has been thrown around that caused me to spiral a little bit, but I couldn't find anything to substantiate it. So, Robin's other daughter, the one from the previous marriage, Priscilla, she pointed out in the Crime Watch Daily episode that her father, whose name is Dean, that would have been Robin's ex-husband, apparently he also was found in the Chesapeake Bay just three months before Robin was found there. What? Yeah, I know, like, the details are super scarce on this.

All we know is that Dean was found with a large bruise on his head, but police ruled it an accident. Though Priscilla feels like the case was closed way too quickly, and she points out that her father Dean had stayed in touch with Robin and hoped that they would get back together at some point. Again though, this is ruled as an accident. It doesn't seem like anyone else associated with Robin or her case, including Rachel. Doesn't seem like they think there is a connection between Dean and Robin. But I thought it was at

least important enough to mention. It's bad enough that Priscilla lost two parents in such a short period of time, but then to lose them under similar and strange circumstances? I mean, I can see why she's drawing the connection. Like it would rock me. Yeah. The last update on this case is from March of 2024 on the 11th anniversary of Robin's death.

According to a WMDT article by Javari Burnett, law enforcement still seeks the public's help to crack this case. And Wayne's name appears nowhere in this article. Do the police not consider him a person of interest anymore? It's unclear, but there's no indication they've cleared him over the years. And it seems that they believe Robin's death is most likely not an accident. Because the article talks about how they think that a suspect is still out there,

whether that's Wayne or not, remains to be seen. And it's important to point out that Wayne has never been charged in connection to Robin's death. And in the past, his lawyer has claimed he is innocent. Robin's case is truly at a standstill, and with no physical evidence to test, the only way investigators can definitively get resolution is by someone with information coming forward.

Any type of info, even something you don't think is important, could end up being useful. Because if there is a fourth theory, if this wasn't Wayne, then there's an unknown suspect out there. And if this were some kind of tragic accident, then police would appear to be chasing a ghost. Robin's family and friends deserve real answers to what happened to her. And without them, Robin's without the one thing she deserves the most. To rest in peace. So if you have any information on the death of Robin Pope in March of 2013, please contact the Maryland State Police at 410-822-3101. Or if you want to remain anonymous,

you can contact the Metro Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-866-756-2587. There's also an anonymous line directly to the Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office at 410-758-6666. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. So Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production.

So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve? Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo