Robert Wone is buried in National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Virginia. This is the first published photograph of his grave. The cemetery has a large Asian population including sections for Chinese and Vietnamese deceased.
- Posted by David
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On August 2nd, 2006, Washington attorney Robert E. Wone was murdered at 1509 Swann Street. Over two years passed before any criminal charges were filed - and then only conspiracy, obstruction of justice and crime scene tampering charges were brought against the Swann Street housemates, all present in the home on the night of the murder: Joe Price, Dylan Ward and Victor Zaborsky.
On May 17, 2010, a DC Superior Court trial got underway and all three defendants were all acquitted in that bench trial on those pending charges.
Nearly four years later, very little seems clear about what happened that night and who murdered Robert Wone. A cloud of suspicion remains over the Swann Street defendants who have denied any involvement in the murder of their friend or in the alleged cover up.
Judge Lynn Leibovitz found a moral certainty in their collective guilt, but not evidentiary certainty. Civil proceedings in a wrongful death suit filed by Robert's family is the next chapter in this tragic story.
We continue to work together seeking answers to the mystery of Robert Wone's murder and in finding justice for his memory and legacy.
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Did you know Robert Wone? I’m curious since you went through the trouble of tracking down and photographing his grave markers.
Anonymous, thanks for the question. I nor the other two authors of this site knew Robert Wone personally. We also didn’t know any of the defendants. But since we are three gay men who have lived in Washington DC for several years, we have discussed the situation with people and friends who do know the defendants personally.
We felt that since we did not know either party we could bring a dispationate eye to a discussion of the case.
We are very mindful of the fact that there are victims who have suffered a loss that time will never heal. Robert Wone’s murder is tragic in every sense of the word, and because of that it transcends the crime itself, speaking directly to who we are as a people, the time in which we live, and the communities we developed to live our lives. Communities based on race, and class, on sexual orientation. More narrowly, many of the individuals caught in this web of desire and deceit, just like all of us, display deep conflicts that cut like the missing knife through the shiny veneer of our time and place.
This is why we went to the trouble of starting this site, and are doing things such as tracking down Robert’s final resting place. This is a story that is bigger than all of us.
Thanks for explaining more about your interest in the case. For a little while I wondered if you guys were actually the 3 accused posing as bloggers.
Anonymous: I can guarantee that we are NOT three accused posing as bloggers.
We are, however, three different individuals joined together by what is a most troubling case.
You should probably ask the family before posting this. I find it inappropriate and not constructive in the quest for justice.
DavidC
You make a great point about the privacy of the family, which is definitely something that we are very mindful of. In the end we thought that it was very important in this journey for justice that we demonstrate the reason for our efforts.
this is further proof that our justice system does not work. Why are these 3 individuals not in jail? People who have done much less are sitting in jail.