It starts with a dead Ivy League lawyer in the guest room of a million dollar Washington, DC home. Next you add in the the following elements:
-a "polyamourous" trio of gay professionals
-an alleged cover-up
-a botched crime scene
-elements of sadomasochism sex acts
-a squad of homicide detectives left scratching their heads
Not enough to pique your interest? How about an autopsy that revealed the victim was, "restrained, incapacitated with a mysterious injection, sexually assaulted and murdered."
For months now I've been looking for the right case to run a sequel to the, "Solve the Mystery," game we played back in May of 2008. If you recall, we spent several days debating the fate of the famous missing NYC judge, Joseph Crater... I think I've finally found a case worth of being the sequel.
I first learned about it when my beloved Washington Post ran a two-part article on the mysterious circumstances surrounding the case last week. I was immediately intrigued with the articles, but it wasn't until FITS friend and frequent commenter, Lauren, emailed me about it that I decided to make it into a "Solve the Mystery" post.
There are far too many details for me to to regurgitate here, so I'll just give a brief synopsis and provide a few links to where the full story can be read. I figure we can use the rest of the week for everyone who wants to participate to put forth their theories... and then next week we'll vote on a winner.
SYNOPSIS:
Robert Wone was a young, Washington, DC, lawyer who had just landed his dream job as legal council for Radio Free Asia. Wone, who had been happily married to his wife Katherine since 2003, was only 32 years old at the time of his murder.
He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, but it was a friendship he made during his undergraduate studies at the College of William & Mary that would lead to his demise. While at W&M, Wone befriended another future lawyer, Joseph Price. The two formed a lasting friendship despite the fact Price was an openly gay, upperclassman from the South, and Wone was a straight, Asian, freshman from New York. The two ended up attending different law schools, but they stayed in touch and eventually found themselves both practicing law in the Nation's Capitol.
On what would prove to be the last night of his life, Wone had gone to meet his future colleagues at Radio Free Asia, and planned on crashing at Price's million dollar home. Price lived with his domestic partner Victor (an ad-executive working for the group behind the Got Milk? campaign), and their lover Dylan, a massage therapy student with a taste for rough sex. Wone didn't get to the house until around 10:30 pm, and the four of them stayed up until talking in the kitchen until around 11pm, when Wone decided to retire to the guest room.
At 11:49, police received a 9-1-1 call from a distraught Victor, who claimed that someone had broken into the home, stabbed Wone, and escaped off into the night. Police and paramedics managed to arrive on the scene only 5 minutes later, but it was too late... Wone was pronounced dead at George Washington University Hospital at 12:24 am.
Right away police thought things looked suspicious... It seemed unlikely that an intruder would have entered the home undetected, bypassed valuables that could have easily been taken, focused in on Wone for no apparent reason, stabbed him to death, and then fled the scene without being seen. There was no motive, and much of the physical evidence didn't seem to match the residents story of how the night unfolded.
The autopsy complicated things further when it was discovered that Wone had mysterious puncture marks on his chest, neck, foot, and hand. It also appeared as though he had been smothered with a pillow at some point before he was stabbed... and the bloody knife that was found on the scene? It didn't appear to have been the knife used in the attack. Investigators thought it was planted there.
With the focus of the investigation placed squarely on the three residents of the house, all three became basically uncooperative. At one point, police appeared ready to bring murder charges against some, or perhaps all of the residents, but it never happened. As it stands now, the three of them are only facing charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy. They're still living together, albeit in a different home.
As I mentioned before, this is just a very brief synopsis of what happened. To get all the details I suggest starting with the Washington Post stories:
Part 1
Part 2
And you may also want to check out the wikipedia page, and this site dedicated to a few amateur sleuths who have investigated the murder. Lets put a deadline of Monday morning for any theories or stories to be presented. I'll put up a poll on the sidebar for voting next week.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
About
Farting in the Shower is a ramblingand ecclectic mix of short stories, embarrasing confessions, pictures, and fast food reviews.
Posts
24 comments:
Holy. Shit.
Can't wait to read it.
I'll remind Mike to check this out. It's long, but too bizarre to ignore.
"There's no such thing as a stupid question. Just a stupid pesron."
Has the female roommate been questioned? I'm not saying she did it, but I didn't see much from her in regards to the investigation.
*Tenant. Not roomate.
Wone blog guy here. Thanks for the interest in the case. Sarah Morgan the downstairs tenant was more a member of the 'family' than just a renter. She was very close friends with defendant Victor Zaborsky.
She is mentioned in the original charging document as W-4 or W-5 I believe. She met with all three after their night-long interrogations. She still lives in DC has lawyered up and said nothing publicly. She could be a lynchpin to this trial.
I've only read what you blogged here but I would guess that Robert Wone was probably a cosmopolitan, generally friendly, non-judgemental type that didn't really care whether any particular friend was gay or not - just the general friendship that mattered.
Wone probably went to meet Joseph Price thinking of other things - friendship, connections, whatever. But when he got to his house and Price started unwinding, maybe with drinks, and his gay lover joined the group, maybe there was public sexual affection between Price and his gay lover. Wone probably felt slightly uncomfortable but thought hey, to each their own.
Without any sign that Wone disapproved it might have gotten more involved with slight insinuations that Wone join in, try it out a bit. Wone might have even given in a little, feeling awkward but unable to completely deny them for fear of coming across insulting.
Eventually Wone would reach a point where he has had enough and tries to pull away. At this point he might have given in too much, he would have already excited Price and his gay lover too much for them simply to respect his wishes. So they pushed harder, Wone pulled away more and in all of this they either got angry and intentionally sexually assaulted Wone, maybe even thinking he really liked it. Eventually they went to far and he eventually died. Then truly shocked at what they had done, they tried to cover up their tracks.
That would be my guess. :-)
HP- like the theory, although some of the details from the story make me question if there was enough time for things to get that far, that quick. There might not have been enough time... although its not impossible. you should really check out the links, its a good, quick read.
I'm going to put out my theory either later today or tomorrow... I've got a gut feeling, but I want to research things further to see how plausible it is.
i figured wone was on the dl until they exposed the electro ejaculation gadget. i think he was drugged and attacked and never saw it coming unless the nightguard was in his mouth for different reasons? and i think that price might be the mastermind behind it. i also think they left him to die while they went and showered and cleaned up the place before calling police. this is a creepy story.
My thinking was that Dylan was coked out of his head or something, decide to pursue Wone, lost control of himself when Wone rejected him, stabbed him, and then when the other two roommates heard the screams and realized it was too late for Wone they panicked and tried to cover for Dylan.
Except I know that can't be completely right because...injection marks? electroejaculation? That seems like something Dylan was into but not something he could have done in a frenzied state.
I just can't wrap my head around this one because Price and Wone were friends, these were clearly highly successful (career-wise) people...why would they risk throwing it all away by attacking a friend whose family knew he was staying at their house? It doesn't seem like something that could have been premeditated because they would have realized they'd be caught. So I keep going back to Dylan freaking out and then his roommates/lovers/whatever trying to clean up his mess.
It also seems plausible that maybe Wone was into experimenting with them but something went wrong (allergic reaction to the injections? changing his mind after the first electroshock?) and then the situation spiraled out of control.
Oh...forgot one thing. When I first read the story I wondered if things got out of control (whether Wone was a willing participant or not) and Wone got injured and then the roommates thought they had to stab him to make it look like a random attacker. I can't remember off the top of my head but wasn't there something off about the stab marks, like they were too clean or something maybe it look like Wone wasn't struggling at the point when he got stabbed? So...they were fooling around, something accidentally went wrong, Wone blacked out, they thought he was dead and rashly stabbed him to make it look like a random attacker broke in. At that point they were locked into that story and had to make weak excuses (a spider on a light bulb) to keep it going.
I say "accidentally" because like I said before, I just can't make myself believe this one was premeditated or purposeful.
I've done much "independent" research on Robert Wone, mostly through the WKRW blog. It's difficult to formulate my thoughts in writing. There's just SO any questions. I wasn't going to post anything for fear of being incoherent, but when has that ever stopped my in the past?
The short of it is that I think Sarah had something to do with it.
Robert was stabbed in bed, already dead.
It was an accident; it happened quick; it took them 40 minutes to figure out WTF to do.
There's so much speculation in this case. Answer me this, though - Why are the three of them STILL hanging out in Florida?
When was Victor suppose to be home versus when he actually came home?
Okay so here it is… my theory…
PART I
Joseph Price has a crack-head brother named Michael… Michael is no stranger to law enforcement. In fact, he actually planned out a burglary that occurred at his brother Joseph Price’s home only two months after the Wone murder.
The burglar in that incident was a friend of Michael’s named Phelps Collins, who got away with about $7700 in stolen electronic equipment. Phelps has a long criminal history that includes four drug convictions and --get this-- he was caught torturing his cats by the Humane Society in 2008… Not neglecting his cats, but torturing them! So that’s the kind of person Michael Price likes to hang out and plan burglaries with.
By all accounts, Joe was well aware of his brother’s issues. He didn’t really trust him, but on the other hand, he owned the condo where Michael and his partner lived. To me, it sounds like he knew his brother was a fuck-up, but he loved and tried to support him anyway.
My guess is that Michael and Phelps, in order to feed their crack addiction, entered the Swann Street home that night with the intention of stealing the electronic equipment that they were later caught stealing a couple months later… as they were gathering up items, Wone walked in on them, confronted them, and then at some point Michael restrained him while “Cat Killer Phelps” did the stabbing.
Hearing the scuffle, Victor and/or Dylan discover the scene and immediately get Joe, who is now faced with quite a dilemma… Does he help cover up the crime, or does he turn in his own brother?
He chooses his brother… He’s a lawyer, and although criminal law is not his area of expertise, he knows enough to have everyone cover things up sufficiently... Get rid of the weapon, plant the fake weapon, put the shirt on him… I think the puncture marks may have been a failed attempt at making it look like drugs were involved, like maybe Wone had a drug habbit... But the important thing they did was remove the important evidence and replace it with evidence that would confuse and deter the investigation. Then everyone gets their story straight, Michael and Phelps leave with the murder weapon, and finally, Victor calls 9-1-1.
It looks to me like investigators may already suspect a similar scenario, which is why they’re going so hard at the three former Swann Street residents… they need one of them to crack in order to build their case. They’re never getting that murder weapon, and they’ve already botched some of the other key evidence… they need someone to panic and strike a cooperation deal in fear that they’ll be convicted on the conspiracy and obstruction charges.
PART II Let me explain how I came to form my opinion…
[1] This is not an episode of CSI… this is a real case… but because it has all these intriguing elements we expect --even want-- this to have some kind of bizarre twist or explanation. So while it would make for a fascinating story if Joe Price and friends accidentally killed their straight friend while attempting to initiate him into a world of gay, sadomasochist sex… the odds are against something like that are just off the charts.
[2] Joe Price doesn’t fit the mold of a sadistic killer… Many of the theories I’ve read so far --not just here but elsewhere-- seem to center around Joe being a participant in the murder of one of his closest friends, and I just don’t buy that… Price was a very accomplished guy. He made law partner at his firm in his mid-thirties. He was an Eagle Scout. He went to W&M and then UVA for law school… I’m not saying that successful people aren’t capable of murder, because they certainly are, but I’d say it seems extremely unlikely that a guy like Joe would throw away everything, simply because he got really horny one Wednesday night and decided that he needed to murder one of his closest friends.
Now having said all that… There was clearly a cover-up, and that couldn’t have happened with out Price’s consent or leadership.
[3] If Robert Wone was gay, I don’t think he would have been in the closet. He was clearly an open-minded guy who had no qualms about having gay friends. This is a liberal city with a strong gay community. Being openly gay wouldn’t have prohibited him from having a successful career or living a complete life. And while yes, he of Asian descent, he was 4th generation Chinese from NYC. Any ultra-conservative bigotry in his family would have most likely disappeared before or during his parents’ generation.
In short, if the guy was to be gay, he would have been openly gay… no need to hide his lifestyle with a pseudo-marriage or stay hidden in the closet.
[4] 87 minutes… that’s the amount of time between when Wone left Radio Free Asia and when the 9-1-1 call was made. The Price residence was a mile away from the radio station and Wone was on foot, so subtract another 10-12 minutes for his walk over and now we’re down to 75 minutes… if you want to play the “kinky sex gone wrong” card, that doesn’t leave much time.
You can’t convince me that Price and Company were somehow able to talk a straight guy into having ultra-kinky gay sex with them, then have that sex go terribly wrong, and then cleaning it all up in a little over an hour… that sounds like it would take an entire weekend, not 75 minutes!
Even if you want to believe that Wone was a willing participant (again, no reason to believe he was secretly gay) that means he would have had to walk into that house with the orgy either in progress or totally ready to go. Call me a prude, but I’d want a little foreplay and conversation before I got naked and had the sex toys come out… and the needle and syringe of the mystery drug? Ummm, I think that would be something I’d have to work up to in the 2nd or 3rd hour… 75 minutes just isn’t long enough to get involved in all that.
It just doesn’t make sense… and to borrow a phrase from Judge Judy, “If something doesn’t make sense, that’s usually because it’s not true.”
PART III
[5] Who would you cover up a murder for? Seriously, ask yourself that question.
My list looks something like this: my mom, my sister, my wife, Moe Greene, and maybe my nephew William… and that’s it. So if you call me at 4 am, crying, talking about how you “really fucked up” and “might need some help,” your name better be on that list… otherwise I’m hanging up the phone and going back to sleep.
And what if the victim of the crime was another one of my friends? Like, if Moe Greene called me to say that he accidentally hit Mike in the head with a shovel six times, is there any way he’s talking me into carrying the body, digging the hole, or even getting rid of the shovel? No fucking way… I’d probably go visit him in prison, but that’s about it.
So the question is- who would Joseph Price cover up the murder of his close friend for? His partner Victor? Probably, but there is no real motive for Victor to have killed Wone… It’s been suggested by many that Dylan (he was the big S&M guy) to have done it for some form of sexual gratification, but again, was there time for that? And if that was the case, would Joseph Price really want to, not only risk everything he has in life to cover it up, but remain friends with the guy who raped and murdered his dear friend?
The only person connected with the case, with motive, and with the kind of bond worthy of Joe’s actions is his brother… it’s the only scenario I can come up with that makes any sense. All the sensational details surrounding the case seem like distraction to me. If the residents of the Swann St. house were straight, would we have even been looking into the sex angle?
And as far as the evidence of sexual assault, to be honest, it seems kinda flimsy… Wone had traces of his own semen on his testicles and around his anus… so what? Guys masturbate a lot, and sometimes, it gets messy… you do your best to clean up, but we’re talking trace amounts here. It seems like a reach to me.
In all honesty, I think police know what happened but can’t prove it. Now they’re pressing charges and increasing public awareness in hope that a witness will come forward or one of the former Swann Street residents will come forward.
Moe- it's my understanding that Joe and Victor never really lived in Florida, they just bought a house/condo down there and Dylan was the one who lived there.
Seriously, I've been looking at this while ignoring the sex angles. Like you, it just doesn't seem that important to the actual murder.
So, say it was the brother. How were the stab wounds so clean?
I'm on the side of Robert was drugged and possibly died from said overdose. What was the drug? Could it have killed him? What did the autopsy conclude about the mystery drug (I don't remember)?
I guess I'm hanging my hat on the lack of fight from Mr. Wone.
the blood work done didnt find any drugs, and they checked for all the major drugs to check for, but not every drug out there... so thats why if there was a drug, it was a mystery drug.
"Wone had traces of his own semen on his testicles and around his anus… so what?"
Haha oh my god. I could have happily lived my life not knowing that it sometimes "gets messy" enough for guys to get their own cum on their butts.
But I thought there was evidence that electrowhatever had been used on Wone, which would explain why his own semen was there.
lauren- lol im not saying a lot, but i could see where "trace amounts" might get down there... frankly, i could have my life without ever typing or thinking up scenarios for how it could happen.
i think the WP stuff was pretty vague about what the possible evidence of the elctro stuff was, im sure the WMRW blog has all the details, but they have SO much info on the case that its hard to sift through and a little intimidating as far as figuring out where to start.
This is a really scary and creepy incident. There have been two murders here in Chicago in Boystown similar to this one and the killer has not yet been found.
I definitely don't think Wone was gay or curious or experimenting. I think he was raped by Price who was probably high on some crystal meth and had ALWAYS been secretly in love with Wone. Price then went crazy and killed Wone while under the influence of crystal meth. The other two loving Price so much helped him clean up the mess and also thought of cover up story.
you guys are good. A couple clarifications... Not to get too clinical on a Saturday morning, but autopsy results indictaed Robert's semen inside his own rectum, not just adjacent. That's where AUSA Kirschner is pinning his sexual assault hopes on and how he introduces the electroejaculation idea.
If Wone was incapacitated by a drug, how did he ejaculate? Electro toys were found and confiscated from Dylan's room. Unsure of any forensics were performed on them. We have the search warrant docss. What they found there makes Bob Crane look like a choir boy.
Many of your are right - the compressed timeline presents problems and we think the defense team will shrink it as much as possible to suggest the roommates were incapacle of drugging, assaulting, suffocating, stabbing then clening up the murder scene is so short a time.
The defense has already said they're going to pick apart the G's theory of sexual assault and will go after the autopsy results that suggested that.
Moe - If Robert waas stabbed in bed (3x) where is the blood. The bed and mattress would've been soaked. This leads many of our readers to think that happened in the shower to wash away all traces down the drain. EMTs on the scene said Wone appeared showerd and redressed and place onto the bed.
Joel - a remaining 3-4CCs of blood is left to conduct further tests. True, no one tested positive initially in the screening of standard steet drus, including we believe ketamine.
And also true, the amount of information and detail we have on our site is voluminous and hard to wrap your arms around. We pick apart everything in obsessive detail: evidence, timeline, language, documents, biography, bit players, etc.
We're trying to add a discussion board feature to help organize all the disparate elements. Suggestions welcome.
Craig - Is it true that when a dead body is stabbed, the blood doesn't spray like it would with a live body?
I guess I'm wondering how they would've moved him from the shower without a greater loss of blood. Then again, the shower theory is by far the best theory I've heard, yet.
craig- anytime a Bob Crane reference makes it into a comment on my blog it brings a smile to my face.
anyway, the main points I just cannot get around are [1] there wasnt time for an orgy, a death, and a coverup, and [2] I just can't see how Price could be close friends with someone for that long and then just decide to rape and murder him on a whim after all these years... that's sociopath level behavior and as far as I know, there it nothing in his past to indicate he is capable of that... now, if you told me they picked up a stranger or someone they only vaguely knew and killed him, okay, maybe... but not a good friend.
you could argue that it was a consensual act that ended in tragedy, but again, that takes us back to the time issue.
the more I learn about the case, the more confused I get... unless one of the inner-circle residents crack, we'll never solve this.
Moe - Uncertain about blood spray but the coroner thought Wone was alive, although in a near paralytic state at the time of the stabbing. Digested blood in his system was her indication of that.
Joel - You might be right. Unless one of them flips, we may never know for certain and murder charges may never be filed.
Which brings us to this - Does the prosecution have enough to convict on conspiracy, obstruction & tampering?
Post a Comment