Catching the Boogeyman - The Murder of Robin Lawrence

February 16, 2026

On this episode, Garrett and Payton dive into the case of Robin Lawrence, a woman found murdered in her home in a crime that left investigators with almost no leads and a mystery that lingered for decades. As time passed and technology evolved, a hidden piece of evidence quietly waited in the background, holding the potential to change everything.

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

You’re listening to an Oh No Media podcast.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I’m Payton Moreland.
And I’m Garrett Moreland.
And he’s the husband.
I’m the husband.

Thank you guys so much for being here and for constantly supporting this show. We love you more than you know, and honestly, I hope you are having an amazing week.

Just a reminder, we do have merch available. If you wanna go check it out, you can find the link on our Instagram.

Big, big, huge, ginormous announcement. Nothing to do with the podcast. I announced my bagel shop name. There’s an Instagram account for the bagel shop. I’m posting on it. We’re opening, honestly, probably within two months. I’m stressed. There’s a lot going on. Busy. Spent all day plumbing something that didn’t work.

That’s okay. Life goes on.

Anyways, if you want to support, this is probably the last time I mention it for a second so I don’t annoy anyone, but the Instagram account to my bagel shop will be below. You can go check it out. I’m gonna be posting bagel content. I’m gonna be posting business content on what it’s like opening a bagel shop, all the equipment that’s coming in, just kind of A through Z, the whole building process. So go check it out if you’re interested.

And that can be my 10 seconds.

Like I said, I was plumbing earlier, and it’s just not working, and it’s making me so mad. And now we’re recording, and all I can think about is how I can’t fix this plumbing issue. And that’s my life, you know? Crazy life. Plumbing, bagels, podcasts.

You don’t wanna tell the listeners the name?
No, you have to go check it out. If you wanna know the name, you gotta go look.
Okay, tell them what you were plumbing.
Payton’s vanity sink. There are just a bunch of issues with the way it was installed. It’s like a bunch of Lego pieces, and it shouldn’t be a bunch of Lego pieces, but I have to make it a bunch of Lego pieces. So I just ordered a bunch of stuff from Home Depot. It should be here in a bit, but we’re gonna go eat after this, and then I’m gonna try to fix it tonight. I don’t know. It’s crazy.

If you can’t tell, I’m a little frustrated, but I’m trying not to be.
And yeah, that’s what I got.
All right. You ready for the episode?
Let’s do it.
You guys ready for the episode?
Yeah. Just kidding. All right.

Let’s get into it.

Our sources for this episode are cbsnews.com, usatoday.com, nbcwashington.com, cbs6albany.com, wjla.com, theindependent.com, augustafreepress.com, ffxnow.com, TMZ, WUSA9.com, and The Washington Post.

So part of the reason we are so fascinated with true crime is because we want to get inside the minds of the people who commit these crimes, try to understand what makes a monster.

Which leads to questions like: How does someone even become a serial killer? If someone kills with intention once, does that mean they’re going to do it again?
Yes.
Can the impulses be channeled elsewhere?
No.

Especially when they walk away from their crime completely undetected.

And Garrett’s saying yes and no, but it is very common, not just with random killers, but serial killers, for them to one day just stop.

The Golden State Killer.
But did they?
Yes.
BTK.
But did they actually stop?
The Golden State Killer, yes.
But how do we know?
He said so. BTK also said so.
I mean…
But can we trust them? They’ve lied their entire lives.
Yeah, I get that.
I think I refuse to trust.

Yeah, I don’t know. I think what actually probably happens is if the opportunity presented itself…
They would do it again?
Yes.
They just weren’t searching it out.
I think they weren’t searching it out. Then they got older, things got harder. But if the opportunity presented itself in front of them, they’d be like, “Yeah.”

You know what’s interesting? I think it’s probably a bad thing to compare it to, but for those who are sober and trying to quit alcohol…
Is that what you were gonna say?
Exactly. They try to either stay away from alcohol or distance themselves from a certain drug because they know if the opportunity presents itself, it makes it harder.

Not comparing that to serial killers, because those are completely different spectrums. But they compare it in their minds. I’ve heard multiple interviews from serial killers who kill because they have urges to, and they say, “I was trying my best not to. I was trying to avoid situations that would put me in it.”

I just hate that because I think they’re such evil people. I hate giving them the, what’s the word? Not benefit of the doubt, but the chance that there’s an…
Another reason?
A reasonable explanation. That’s what I’m trying to say. Nothing reasonable.

And I know you and I probably disagree on this. I just think if you kill, evil person, leave society.
I don’t disagree with that.
Yeah.

I think I disagree with reform when someone kills somebody.
I just disagree with that.
Reform.
When someone kills somebody.
In all situations?
Not manslaughter. First-degree, second-degree murder, yes.
Yeah.

I think if you can cross that line, you are… What if it was one time versus a serial killer?
What does the one time consist of? Like domestic abuse or…
Anything. Gang violence, domestic violence.

I just think once you cross that line of killing somebody, like first- or second-degree murder, I dare to say 100 percent of the time, if the opportunity presented itself again, they would do it.
Yeah.
Even if the motive was very specific?
Yeah.
Interesting.
Yeah, I don’t know.

I mean, Israel Keyes, for instance.
Okay.
He claimed that he would rob banks in place of killing people because it held off his urges. It calmed him down enough to feed the adrenaline and the urge he was having. But then eventually robbing banks or doing other things weren’t enough, and he would end up killing.
Exactly.

Which is so…
The mind is just a pattern that repeats and repeats and repeats.
I think once a killer, always a killer.
Okay.

Like I said, first-degree, second-degree. I think manslaughter and other situations are unique, but yeah.

Can you walk away? Can you be done?

Which is why today’s story is unique. It’s about a case that ran cold for decades, and then new technology led to a breakthrough and a killer who was never once suspected. He had a job. He had a family. He had a completely normal life, actually more common than you would think, which had him asking many of these questions about himself. Why did I kill? And was the monster still living inside of him, just waiting to be unleashed once more, as Garrett would say?

So with that, let’s head back to 1994, to a bustling suburb outside of Washington, D.C., called Springfield, Virginia. That’s where 37-year-old artist and mother Robin Lawrence was living her peaceful life.

Robin was described as a gentle soul who always had a smile on her face. She was also someone who had a lot to be proud of. At 37, she was in a happy marriage, she had a two-year-old little girl, a job as the director of advertising for a tire company, and she was also the daughter of the first Black man to be a councilor on the Syracuse Common Council in New York, the legislative body of the local government there.

But Robin’s passions were different from her father’s.

She attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated with a fine arts degree. Everyone who knew her said she was an extremely gifted artist, especially when it came to pencil sketches and watercolors, so it’s not shocking she graduated in the arts.

After graduating, she was actually selected to create the first medal for the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize. This was an award that was then given to Rosa Parks.

She later moved to Washington, D.C., where she met her husband, Ollie. Friends said Ollie and Robin were perfect for each other. Ollie completely matched Robin’s demeanor. He was also easygoing. He made people feel comfortable around him. He was a warm man with a kind smile.

On New Year’s Eve 1989, the two tied the knot. Three years later, they had their daughter, Nicole.

By then, Robin had her job in advertising, and Ollie was an executive for an airline. So in 1994, when Nicole was about two, the couple was living this very domesticated life. Ollie traveled quite a bit for work, but Robin made the most of her husband’s time away. She would work on her art. She would do improvements around the home.

They were really living the American dream, content to live out their days as this happy little family in suburbia.

That was until November 20th, 1994.

That week, Ollie had been away on a work trip in the Bahamas. After not hearing from Robin for about 48 hours, he decided to call Robin’s good friend and neighbor, Laurie Lindberg.

He’s in the Bahamas, trying to get a hold of his wife back home. She’s not answering. Forty-eight hours go by. He calls her friend and neighbor, Laurie.

Laurie and Robin had been close for years. They met back in Washington, D.C., at a ballet class and quickly became friends. They eventually got an apartment together and were roommates before Robin met Ollie and moved out to live with him. So this wasn’t just any neighbor.

When Laurie heard from Ollie, she was nervous too. Robin was a long-term friend of hers.

So Laurie gets up and walks over to Robin’s home. She knocks on the front door, but there is no answer. Laurie decides to go around back, and she sees one of the back window screens of the family home was cut.

So this is when she realizes something is probably wrong. She actually climbs in through the window, which I totally understand why she did, but zero out of ten recommend. Nowadays, we know there’s probably so much evidence in that window, but I don’t think back then that was common knowledge.

She climbs in and starts calling Robin’s name, obviously desperate and worried about her friend.

But it wasn’t Robin who appeared. Instead, two-year-old baby Nicole came wandering up to her, looking at her.
That’s so sad.

With these giant eyes and this blank expression on her face.

That’s when Laurie’s heart sank.

She continued toward the primary bedroom, noticing blood all over the walls and large splatters of blood on the floor. When she sees all of this, and sees the state of two-year-old Nicole, she decides, “I’m not even going to step into the bedroom.” This is her dear friend. She knows something is terribly wrong. So she picks up Nicole, gets out of the house, and dials 911.
That’s horrible.

Moments later, police arrive at the scene. Around 12:30 p.m., they enter the house and find Robin’s body face down on the floor of the primary bedroom, with a pillow between her legs. She had extensive knife wounds all over her body. The autopsy would later count 49 stab wounds.

The phone was also on the floor next to Robin, but the cord had been cut.
Okay.

Officials determined by this point that Robin had been dead for about two days. Which, if you’re putting two and two together, means yes, her two-year-old daughter had been left alone by herself with her mother’s body for that long.

Meanwhile, Laurie took Nicole to the hospital for treatment. Remember, this is 1994.

Thankfully, Nicole was completely unharmed in the attack. But she had been alone for two days. And Nicole had undergone a liver transplant in the past, so she was on immunosuppressive medications that she now hadn’t taken in two days. Her health was fragile.

Luckily, she was discharged shortly after being treated for dehydration.

Of course, the psychological damage from those last two days would likely never go away. But back at the scene, detectives were trying to piece together what had happened. They realized the last time anyone had heard from Robin was around 6:00 p.m. on Friday, November 18th.

I mean, sadly, I think as soon as you see the screen is cut, you instantly know what’s going on. You know something bad happened. Because no one goes and cuts people’s screens for no reason.
You are jumping to the conclusion someone’s dead in there?
For sure.
I don’t think that everyone is.
Dead or taken.
I think most people would err on the bright side and be like…
That branch just hit the screen and cut it.
No, but hopefully it’s just a robbery and they’re tied up inside.
I see what you’re saying.
Yeah, I think after doing so many of these cases…
Yeah.
You just always expect the worst.
This is also 1994. I mean, we have Forensic Files on TV, but…
When I was born. Yep.
I don’t know if as many people were as pessimistic about their safety back then as people are today.
Sure.
Pessimistic isn’t even the word.
Realistic about their safety.
Yeah.

So detectives are trying to piece together what happened, and they believe Robin was killed shortly after she was last heard from on Friday, November 18th, at around 9:30 p.m. that night.

They discovered that Robin had been assaulted first on the bed and then fought her way down to the floor, where the struggle continued.

They also found a bunch of bloody tissues all around the house, which they believe came from two-year-old Nicole. Investigators think she may have been subconsciously trying to clean the blood off her mom because she knew something was wrong.

There was also something else in the bathroom that police realized could be important: a washcloth. It was sitting on the towel rod on the shower’s sliding glass door, and it had a few spots of blood on it, which investigators thought could actually belong to the killer.

Detectives collected a few other blood samples at the scene in case the assailant’s DNA was mixed in with Robin’s. But when they took it back and ran it through CODIS, which did exist at this point but was fairly new, they didn’t find a match.

All they could really tell from the scene beyond that was that this didn’t appear to be a robbery. No valuables were taken from inside the home. Cash, jewelry, and other items were still sitting around. They also determined there was no evidence of sexual assault. It was physical assault.

So their first instinct was that this murder had to be personal.

As this is all going on, Laurie Lindberg, the friend and neighbor who found Nicole and called police, was asked by investigators to notify Robin’s parents about their daughter’s death.

When Robin’s sister, Mary, heard the news, she imagined it was from a car accident or a heart attack. She never in a million years thought her sister would be the victim of a murder, mainly because it didn’t make sense.

Not only were police keeping pertinent information from the family, but they knew Robin had no enemies. They also felt certain there was no way Ollie would have done this to her.

But just three days after what should have been Robin’s 38th birthday, her family and friends were paying their respects at her funeral.

Because Robin’s injuries were so significant, it was a closed-casket ceremony. Her sister, Mary, said it was incredibly hard because she was never able to lay eyes on her sister one final time.

That funeral was also unsettling for another reason. Based on the little information police had shared, the family felt the killer had to be someone who knew Robin. Someone who might have been at the funeral with them. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Of course, for police, the first person of interest was the one closest to Robin. Whether the family suspected him or not, it was obviously her husband, Ollie.

From the beginning, Ollie was extremely cooperative with police. Not to mention, he was out of the country when his wife was killed, in the Bahamas on that business trip. Detectives literally flew down to the Bahamas to check Ollie’s alibi in person, and it was confirmed.

But when police started looking into Ollie, he wasn’t squeaky clean. They learned he had actually been having an affair with one of his coworkers.
Okay.

Robin didn’t seem to know anything about it. So detectives wondered: could this have been the jealous coworker trying to remove Robin from the equation? Or could Ollie have put the coworker up to it, or hired a hitman?

After looking into the other woman, they found that wasn’t the case. She was cleared pretty quickly. The affair was an unfortunate discovery, one that probably poured salt in the wound of Robin’s family, but after reviewing everything, investigators didn’t believe Ollie would ever hurt his wife.

Plus, Ollie and his mistress both offered up DNA to compare to the blood found at the crime scene. When detectives ran it, there was no match for either of them.

So the unknown DNA on that bloody towel remained a mystery. It didn’t belong to Robin or anyone else they were considering as a suspect, and it wasn’t matching anyone in CODIS.

Over time, Robin’s case started to run cold.

Still, her family refused to let her story disappear. Ollie and Nicole moved out of the house, but Robin’s parents actually moved in for a few weeks afterward, hoping they might figure something out. Maybe the killer would return. Maybe a new clue would surface. Maybe someone would respond to the reward they had posted for more information.

But the years passed with no new leads.

Eventually, Robin’s family came to terms with the possibility that her case might never be solved. Their daughter was murdered, and they had no idea who did it or why.

In fact, Robin’s mother passed away in 1994 without ever knowing what happened to her daughter that November night.

The family tried to move forward, to be okay with not knowing.

That was until 2019.

A volunteer with the police department, known only by her first name, Liz, asked to take a look at Robin’s cold case. Liz was an amateur genealogist at the time, and she thought Robin’s case was a good candidate for her research, especially since there was unidentified DNA left behind at the crime scene.

This was the perfect case for a modern-day DNA solve.

With permission, she submitted the DNA to a company called Parabon NanoLabs. They uploaded it into their databases to see if anyone out there who had willingly submitted their DNA to ancestry websites might share a piece of DNA with the unknown assailant.

The goal was for Liz to build out a family tree and hopefully find a relative who might have lived in Robin’s area at the time or had some connection to her.

Unfortunately, Parabon didn’t have high hopes. They said the chances of solving her case this way were basically zero.

Why? Because when they ran the DNA, they found over 1,500 potential cousins.
Oh my gosh. Okay.

They had matches ranging from first cousins to fourth, fifth, even sixth cousins. That meant Liz would essentially be trying to build a family tree of 1,500 people and then figure out if any of them had a connection to Robin.

It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

What they did learn from that sample, though, was the suspect’s ethnicity: Eastern European, about 25% Irish, and a combination of English, Italian, and Scandinavian. Unfortunately, that’s all they really had to work with for a while.

That was until 2021, when Parabon reached out about using a new tool to potentially help identify the suspect in Robin’s case.

It’s actually a really cool tool called DNA phenotyping. If you don’t know what that is, I’m going to explain it as best I can.

Basically, by analyzing a person’s DNA, scientists can now predict what someone might actually look like. They can determine if their skin is fair or dark. Are their eyes likely blue or brown? Do they have a wider jaw, a narrower nose? Are their eyes set close together? You can literally tell this from DNA.

Then companies like Parabon work with a forensic artist who puts together a sketch or 3D rendering based on those features.

The one thing DNA can’t tell scientists yet is the person’s age. So they can predict what someone may have looked like, but they don’t know whether to render them younger or older. Artists typically create an image of someone in their mid-20s, which is exactly what they did for the DNA found at Robin’s home.

The sketch they ended up with was of a white male with bluish-hazel eyes, light brown hair, thin lips, and a narrow chin. The picture is going to be on our Instagram, or if you’re watching here.

Now it was time to show Robin’s family and friends the picture and say, “We don’t know how old he is. We don’t know who he is. But we’ve used the DNA to put together what we think the murderer looked like. Do you know this person?”

Is it a neighbor? A friend? A mailman? A gardener?

But no one in the family said the guy looked familiar. Even Ollie told current police the face didn’t ring any bells.

So the sketch ends up being a bit of a dead end. Police are kind of shocked because, if you remember, they had predicted the murderer would be someone Robin knew. It was a personal attack, and there was no sexual assault. So they’re surprised no one recognizes this person.

But they continue on.
Okay.

That same volunteer genealogist, Liz, does not give up on Robin’s case, despite the fact that the DNA sample had 1,500 potential cousins.

Little by little, Liz spends her time checking each potential relative off the list.
Oh my gosh. That’s crazy.
One by one.
I don’t blame her.
She’s like, “I know this is going to take forever. They told me it’s a needle in a haystack. But if we have no hits on this sketch, I’m going to spend my extra time going through these.”
Yeah. Might as well.

She spends three and a half years going through these people.
Oh my gosh. That’s…
In her spare time.
Horrible.
Just checking for any possible links.

Finally, around 2023, she finds two really strong candidates in Canada, people who appear to be closely related to the suspect.

She builds out their family trees and discovers that both of those matches have a relative in common. It’s a man who lived in Virginia during the time of the murder.
Holy crap.
They’re getting closer.

She figures out he would have been in his 20s at the time and is now a 52-year-old man named Stephan Smerk.

When she hands this name over to detectives and they begin looking into him, he doesn’t raise any immediate red flags. He’s a family man with two kids in high school in Niskayuna, New York. He’s a computer programmer married to a defense attorney. He has zero criminal record. Not even a speeding ticket.

But there are a few things that interest detectives as they dig deeper into his background.

In November of 1994, at the time of the murder, he was stationed at an Army base just 10 miles from Robin’s home called Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia.

When they find a copy of his high school yearbook, they realize he doesn’t look too far off from the phenotype sketch that was created.
Interesting.

So it’s enough for cold case detectives to say, “Okay, on paper he doesn’t scream suspect, but he kind of looks like the sketch. He was in the area. The DNA points in his direction. So we’re going to go talk to him.”

Oh, I mean, I guess there was no other way at this point. She had to go through all of that.
Yeah, because his DNA isn’t in the system.
So this is when you need a ChatGPT and…
All that stuff. I’m sure it’s more automated now, right?
It has to be.
It has to be able to narrow down potential matches at this point.
Well, and I think as family trees get more connected, you’re no longer doing all that manual work. Because not only is she sorting through people, she’s building family trees.
Yeah.
She’s doing genealogy.
Which is crazy. That’s so much work.

In September of 2023, detectives take a trip north to knock on Stephan’s door.

Remember, it had been almost 29 years since Robin’s murder.
Oh my gosh.

So they’re thinking, if he didn’t do this, he’s probably not going to remember what he was doing that Friday night in 1994. But that’s not even really the point of the trip. They just want to collect a DNA sample. They want to compare it and either cross him off the list or confirm Liz was right.

That’s pretty much what happens, sort of.

They get to Stephan’s house and tell him, “We’re investigating a cold case from the ’90s.” He doesn’t seem fazed. He willingly offers up a cheek swab.
Okay.

After inviting them in, he doesn’t ask many questions. He’s not like, “What case? Who’s the victim?” He’s just calm. He shows zero interest. They ask for his DNA. He says, “Okay.”

The police are in and out within minutes.

It’s a bit strange. They’re thinking, why didn’t he ask any questions? But they also reason that if he has nothing to do with it and knows he’s innocent, maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe he’s just like, “Take my DNA.”

No matter what you do these days, it’s suspicious.
Right.

So they head back to the hotel they’re staying at, expecting a quiet night before returning home in the morning to test the DNA.

But that’s not what happens.

A few hours later, one of the detectives gets a phone call. And it’s from Stephan.
Okay.

He says, “Hey, I’m actually at the police department. I’m trying to turn myself in, but the doors are locked.”
And this detective’s like…
What?
“What are you turning yourself in for?”
And Stephan says, “Murder.”

Keep in mind, these detectives have traveled up from Virginia.
This is not their jurisdiction.
Oh my gosh, this is insane.

So the detectives say, “What station are you at? We’ll come meet you. But in the meantime, you should probably hang up and call 911 to notify the local authorities, because this isn’t our jurisdiction. We’re going to need police from here as well.”

That’s exactly what Stephan does. He calls 911 and says, “Hey, I’m at the police station trying to turn myself in for a cold case.”

“911, what’s the address of your emergency?”
“I’m actually here to turn myself in for a cold case crime.”
“You’re here to turn yourself in?”
“They collected DNA. It’s just a matter of time.”
“Okay. What’s your last name?”

At this point, detectives are wondering why he’s doing this. He didn’t act scared. This feels too easy. They haven’t even run the DNA sample yet.

He probably realized the moment they took his DNA that it was only a matter of time.

They’re cautious. Is this real? What’s going on?

Once he’s in the interrogation room, they’re extremely careful about how they phrase their questions. They want him to share the details on his own, to confirm he’s telling the truth. They don’t want to suggest anything or risk a coerced confession. They need proof this is voluntary and backed up by specific details that only the killer would know.

Here’s what he tells them.

Back on November 20th, 1994, Stephan was a 22-year-old soldier stationed at Fort Myer in Arlington. He had been drinking that night with a friend and had taken some ephedrine, basically a strong cold medicine.

He said he took it and then decided, “You know what? I’m going to kill somebody tonight.”

He drove around the Lawrence neighborhood and eventually picked out Robin’s house.
They think it was drug-induced?
Well, I mean, it’s cold medicine.
Yeah, I mean…
He might’ve been a little high, but he wasn’t out of his mind tripping.
Yeah.

He tells police it was completely random. Robin’s house was a random choice. He had no idea who lived there or who he would kill once he got inside. Which is incredibly risky for a first-time kill.

He told police, “There could have been 50 people in that house. I don’t know. They could have all had guns and shot me dead. I honestly wasn’t even thinking about it.”

He said an impulse came over him that he couldn’t control.

He entered the house from the back wearing a ski mask and leather gloves. He walked through the house and found Robin in her primary bedroom.

Immediately upon seeing him, Robin jumped out of bed. She got down on her knees and started begging for her life.
Oh, that’s so awful.

But Stephan, a soldier with no criminal record and not even a speeding ticket, showed her no mercy. He stabbed her close to 50 times, using what he described as his combat training.

He said he noticed there was a baby asleep in one of the bedrooms and chose to do nothing. He didn’t make an anonymous 911 call to ensure the baby was rescued. He didn’t attack the child. He just fled into the night, leaving two-year-old Nicole alone with her mother’s body for two days.

Stephan shared something else that confirmed his story. He said Robin fought back hard. Detectives already knew that. But he showed them a scar on his face where Robin had clawed him deeply enough to leave a permanent mark.

When detectives asked, “Did you go into the bathroom and use a towel to clean up?”—because that’s where they found his blood—he said he couldn’t remember. But he admitted it was possible, given how badly she had injured him while fighting back.

After he left that night, Stephan said he threw the murder weapon into the Chesapeake Bay and went back to base like nothing had happened. He took a shower. He threw his bloody clothes into a dumpster. And he never looked back. He never killed again.

Even during the interrogation, Stephan showed very little remorse.
Is he a psychopath?
Well…
Does he have feelings?
He told detectives, “I don’t really feel bad for the family. I didn’t know them. I didn’t know her. She was a completely random stranger.”
Yeah, that’s psychopathic.

He said the only feelings he had about the crime were for his own sake. “I knew one day my personal freedom could be affected by it. That’s the only feeling I’ve had about it.”

So no, Stephan didn’t turn himself in because of guilt. Not because it had been weighing on his shoulders for 29 years. Not because confessing felt good.

He turned himself in because he knew they had his DNA. He knew it was over.

For 29 years, he blended into society. He received awards for his military service.
Holy crap.
He went to rehab. He got sober. He got married. He had two kids. He went back to school.
Oh my gosh.
He bought a home. He worked a six-figure job.

He stole Robin’s future and then built his own.

That’s disgusting, honestly.

One of the most disturbing parts of the interview was what he said about the “monster” inside him.

Detectives said, “This doesn’t add up. This is unusual.” And he responded, “I just have this monster in me. There’s a monster inside of me.”
Okay.

And he says, quote, “I’m married. I have kids. I honestly believe that if it wasn’t for my wife and my kids, I probably would be a serial killer.”

So, honestly, similar to what I said. If the chance presented itself again, he would have done it. But he went a different direction in his life and never did it again.

Oh my gosh. It’s so sad.

He admits fully in this interview, “It’s in me. I could still do it. I could have been a serial killer. I just never did it.”

Can you imagine being his wife or his kids?
No.
Like… what?

After this confession, Stephan was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for killing Robin Lawrence.

Of course, the police’s first call was to Robin’s family. I can’t imagine how, after 29 years, that call felt to them.
Like, you just rewoke—
Yeah.
You just awoke something in them that they had probably spent years trying to find a place for, and then you just…
But then, you know, at least they have an answer. But it’s not “at least,” because you’ve reopened a wound. It’s just horrible.

There are still so many unanswered questions for them. Why? Why did you do it?

And I’ve heard so many different reactions from families in situations like this. Some feel a small sense of relief finally knowing. Others say, “I wish you never told me. I had finally gotten to a place where I could live my life and accept what happened, and now it’s all shaken up again.”

Some of Robin’s relatives lived in New York, not far from where Stephan had spent the last few decades of his life. They were living near their family member’s killer.

Robin’s niece, Lauren, said some of her closest friends actually lived across the street from Stephan and his family. She had been by his house dozens of times with no idea.

And while that might be a coincidence, there are other details that might not be.

Former FBI profiler Mary O’Toole said she doesn’t believe Stephan chose Robin at random that night, despite what he claims.

That’s what I was going to say. One, I don’t think this was random. Two, I promise this wasn’t the first time he thought about killing. He didn’t just take some cold medicine and suddenly decide, “Oh, I want to kill someone.” No. He’s been thinking about this for years. He’s just lying to minimize it and make himself look better.

Mary believes he may have been watching Robin for some time, observing how the family came and went. Especially because Ollie was out of the country on business when Stephan attacked. Had Ollie been home, Stephan likely wouldn’t have stood a chance.

What are the odds the husband just happens to be out of town and he knows she’s alone?

The real nail in Stephan’s coffin was the DNA swab.

Forensic testing confirmed it was a match to the blood found on the washcloth in Robin’s bathroom. Investigators said there was a one-in-seven-million chance it wasn’t his.

On April 15, 2024, a grand jury indicted Stephan on first-degree murder charges.

Robin’s family desperately wanted the case to go to trial. Not just for the maximum sentence, but because they wanted his face plastered across the news. They wanted the world to know what he had done.

But a trial never happened.

Six months after the indictment, Stephan pleaded guilty.

His attorney fought for a lighter sentence. She argued that in the 1990s, Stephan struggled with alcohol and substance abuse. He had joined the military hoping it would change him, but it didn’t. According to his attorney, the real issue was undiagnosed bipolar disorder, which he didn’t discover until years later.

And to be clear, bipolar disorder—diagnosed or undiagnosed—does not make someone a murderer. It is not an excuse.

His attorney claimed that combined with alcohol and drugs that night, it became a dangerous mix. She also told the judge Stephan had diabetes and heart problems, suggesting that a long sentence could mean he might die in prison.

At sentencing, Stephan had almost no one on his side. His children, 17 and 20, had disowned him. His wife had divorced him.

Meanwhile, Robin’s family filled the courtroom.

At one point, Stephan turned toward them—including Nicole, now grown—and said, “All these years, I have been a coward, living with guilt, shame, and self-hatred. It’s my sincere hope that my arrest and subsequent incarceration brings some closure.”

Complete 180.

I just think he’s saying what he believes people want to hear. I don’t believe him.

He also apologized for the pain and suffering he caused.

In the end, the judge sentenced Stephan to life behind bars with all but 70 years suspended—essentially 70 years.

Because the crime occurred 41 days before parole was abolished in Virginia, he is eligible for parole. That eligibility comes in 2037, when Stephan will be 65 years old.

He already had nearly 30 years of freedom. He built a life. He had a career. A family.

And he’ll be eligible for parole at 65, while Robin never got to finish her life.

That feels light.

There was nothing the judge could do about the law at the time. But still.

I agree.

That brings me back to a question I asked at the beginning of this episode, and that is, what makes a serial killer?

I mean, if you’re going by definition, it’s a number of kills. But was Stephan telling the truth when he said he was able to suppress this monster living inside of him, all thanks to his family? Is that monster still there? That doesn’t just go away because you get caught. Is it living dormant?

And now that his family is no longer there to support him, and he could potentially get out on parole, does he just give in to the monster that he already said was there? He said that if it weren’t for his family, he would be a serial killer. Now he doesn’t have them and could get out.

Here’s the thing. There’s a lot I don’t believe. I don’t believe that he wouldn’t have killed again before he died. I don’t believe that he wasn’t looking at child pornography or other disturbing things. I just don’t.

I don’t think you can kill someone, admit you want to kill people, and then just live a normal life. That’s just not… that doesn’t seem possible.

Do you think he did kill and didn’t get caught?
Exactly. One hundred percent.

Those are the other two scenarios. There are so many unsolved cases. Statements like “I am a serial killer who only killed once” should not be taken lightly.

If Stephan Smerk is released before his life is over, does that give him another opportunity?

There’s no way he is. There’s no way he would get parole after saying that.

Because when someone claims that their motive to kill was simply to kill for enjoyment—no money, no hatred, no emotional trigger—that is a different kind of monster than the people we typically cover. That’s someone who should be handled very carefully before ever being released back into society.

And that is the murder of Robin Lawrence.

Before we go, I just want to take a second to remember that Robin’s family lived so many years without answers. Her mother died not even knowing what happened to her daughter. They lived with that uncertainty, and then decades later, everything reopened. They had to hear the details.

Nicole, her daughter, now has to look at the man who left her alone with her mother’s body.

I just want to take a moment to think about them and send love, grace, and support their way, even if we’re not there in person.

This case brings up so many questions that come up again and again in true crime, especially when it comes to serial killers or people who kill for enjoyment. What’s going on in the brain? Can there be reform?

I don’t know.

I’m pretty harsh when it comes to this. I think Payton and I might have slightly different perspectives, and that’s okay. Some people get mad at me for having this opinion. That’s fine.

But I promise you, it would feel different if someone killed someone in your family.

You don’t kill people. For me, that’s a hard line. No ifs, ands, or buts. You kill someone? Goodbye.

And that will always be how I feel. I don’t care the scenario. Like I said earlier, I’m talking specifically about first- and second-degree murder. Not manslaughter. Not rare exceptions. I’m talking about cases like this.

It’s important to remember that people make mistakes every day. People are ugly versions of themselves sometimes. But making an ugly choice because of complicated emotions is very different from taking someone’s life. That distinction matters.

All right, you guys. Thank you for listening to today’s episode, and we will see you next time with another one.

I love it.
I hate it.
Goodbye.

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