Marie Robards | |
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Born | Dorothy Marie Robards [1] July 10, 1976 |
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Dorothy Marie Robards Strauch (born July 10, 1976) is an American woman, known for the poisoning murder of her father, Steven Robards, in 1993, when she was aged 16, in Fort Worth, Texas.
Marie stole barium acetate from her high school chemistry class and laced her father's tacos with a lethal dose. The trial received media attention since she was a promising student, and patricide is a rare crime more commonly committed by men. [2] [3]
Steven Robards' death was ruled a heart attack initially. Over a year after his death, Marie confessed to a close friend, Stacey High. Her friend then disclosed her information to law enforcement. The medical examiner's office used a gas chromatography–mass spectrometry machine to examine his tissue samples and detected the highly soluble metallic compound. She confessed, telling police she wished to live with her mother. She pleaded not guilty, explaining her intent was to make her father ill.
Marie Robards was convicted of murder in a 1995 trial and sentenced to 27 years in prison. She was released on parole in 2003. She is believed to now be living under a new identity. [4]
The crime was an inspiration for Megan Abbott's 2018 novel Give Me Your Hand , [5] and was covered in episodes of Forensic Files (Season 6, episode 5 (2001)), Redrum [6] (Season 2, episode 17 (2014)), and Deadly Women (Season 6, episode 2 (2012)). it was also the subject of Morbid: A True Crime Podcast , episode 552 in March 2024.
Pamela Ann Smart is an American woman who was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy to murder, and witness tampering in the death of her husband, Greggory Smart, in 1990. Smart, then aged 22, had conspired with her underaged boyfriend, then 15-year-old William "Billy" Flynn, and three of his friends to have Greggory (24) murdered in Derry, New Hampshire. She is currently serving a life sentence at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a maximum security prison in Westchester County, New York.
Darlie Lynn Peck Routier is an American woman from Rowlett, Texas, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of her five-year-old son Damon in 1996. She has also been charged with capital murder in the death of her six-year-old son, Devon, who was murdered at the same time as Damon. To date, Routier has not been tried for Devon's murder.
Reena Virk was a 14-year-old Canadian girl who was beaten and killed by a group of teenagers in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Her status as a victim of bullying prior to her murder attracted substantial media scrutiny in Canada. Six teenagers were tried and convicted for their participation in her death. The Globe and Mail commented at the time that her case was "elevated into a national tragedy". A pair of Canadian sociologists have described the case as a watershed moment for a "moral panic" over girl violence by the Canadian public in the late 1990s.
Carl Eugene Watts, also known by his nickname Coral, was an American serial killer dubbed "the Sunday Morning Slasher" who murdered numerous women and girls over an eight-year period. He is suspected of being the most prolific serial killer in United States history. He died of prostate cancer while serving two sentences of life imprisonment without parole in a Michigan prison for the murders of Helen Dutcher and Gloria Steele.
Cary Anthony Stayner is an American serial killer and the older brother of kidnapping victim Steven Stayner. He worked as a mechanic in Mariposa County, California, and murdered four women between February and July 1999, dumping their bodies near Yosemite National Park, leading to him being dubbed the Yosemite Park Killer or simply the Yosemite Killer. Stayner was found guilty and received the death penalty in 2002. He is currently awaiting execution at San Quentin State Prison.
Paul Charles Denyer is an Australian serial killer currently serving three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 30 years for the murders of three young women in Melbourne, in 1993. Denyer became known in the media as the Frankston Serial Killer as his crimes occurred in the neighbouring suburbs of Frankston.
Audrey Marie Hilley, also known by the aliases Robbi Hannon and Teri Martin, was an American murderer and suspected serial killer. She was suspected in the death by poisoning of her husband and the attempted murder of her daughter, and spent three years as a fugitive from justice. Her life and crime spree are the subjects of the 1991 telefilm Wife, Mother, Murderer.
Marybeth Roe Tinning is an American murderer and suspected serial killer who was convicted in New York State of the murder of her ninth child, 4-month-old daughter Tami Lynne, on December 20, 1985. She is suspected to be similarly involved in the previous deaths of her eight children, all of which took place within the span of fourteen years.
This is a list of notable overturned convictions in the United States.
Toni Jo Henry was the only woman ever to be executed in Louisiana's electric chair. Married to Claude 'Cowboy' Henry, she decided to break her husband out of jail where he was serving a fifty-year sentence in the Texas State Penitentiary for murder. Together with Harold Burks, she took a ride with Joseph P. Calloway, whom they then robbed and murdered. Toni Jo Henry was convicted and sentenced to death. After three trials, she was executed by electrocution on November 28, 1942. Her case generated several popular books and films including A Savage Wisdom and Stone Justice.
Celeste BeardJohnson, more commonly known as Celeste Beard, is an American convicted murderer who is serving a life sentence at the Christina Melton Crain Unit in Gatesville, Texas, for the 1999 murder of her millionaire husband, Steven Beard.
Lethal Vows is a 1999 made-for-television American drama film based on the events which led to the trial and conviction of Richard K. Overton for the poisoning death of his third wife, Janet Overton. Starring John Ritter, Marg Helgenberger and Megan Gallagher, the movie premiered October 13, 1999, on CBS.
Barium acetate (Ba(C2H3O2)2) is the salt of barium(II) and acetic acid. Barium acetate is toxic to humans, but it has use in chemistry and manufacturing.
Since the 1994 film Natural Born Killers was released, several attacks suspected to be copycat crimes have been committed by fans of the film, mostly by high school students within the age range of 15 to 18. Though apparent links have been claimed between the film and most of the incidents described below, certain causality has not been proven.
Brenda Hodge is an Australian who is notable as the last person to be sentenced to death in Australia. She was found guilty of murdering her de facto partner in 1984 and was sentenced to death. Her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and she was paroled in 1995.
Faryion Edward Wardrip is an American serial killer who sexually assaulted and murdered five women. Four of the women were killed in Wichita Falls, Texas, and the surrounding counties, and one woman was murdered in Fort Worth. Wardrip's killing spree began at the end of 1984 and lasted until the middle of 1986. All of his victims were white, were between the ages of 20 and 25, weighed less than 120 pounds (54 kg), and were under 5+1⁄2 feet (170 cm) tall.
Christine Marie Paolilla is a convicted American mass murderer who is serving a life sentence for fatally shooting four people, including two of her friends, in their Clear Lake City, Texas, home on July 18, 2003. The killings, which came to be known as the Clear Lake Murders, made national headlines.
Diane Michelle Zamora is a former United States Naval Academy midshipman and convicted murderer who, in 1995, murdered Adrianne Jessica Jones, who she believed was a romantic rival for her ex-fiancé and accomplice, David Graham. Graham had confessed to giving Adrianne a ride home and having sex with her one month earlier, leading an enraged Zamora to demand that he kill Jones. In the early morning of December 4, 1995, Graham picked up Jones in Zamora's car while she hid in the hatchback. They went to a remote location and got into a struggle, at which point Zamora hit Jones over the head with weights and Graham shot her twice after she broke away from them.
The murder of Angela Samota occurred on October 13, 1984, when she was attacked while in her apartment, raped and killed. The case remained unsolved until DNA evidence surfaced in the 2000s, following which charges were brought against a convicted rapist, Donald Andrew Bess Jr., who was subsequently tried and received a death sentence. He died of natural causes while awaiting execution in October 2022.
Lorraine Thorpe is a British woman who is Britain's youngest female double murderer. Over the space of nine days in August 2009, Thorpe tortured and murdered two people in Ipswich, one of which was her own father. She came to national attention upon her conviction in 2010, when it was noted that she had only been 15 years old at the time of the killings. She was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 14 years' imprisonment, while her accomplice in the murders was issued with a 27-year minimum tariff. She remains imprisoned at HM Prison Foston Hall, having been refused parole in October 2023.