The slick, new documentary, “Who Killed Robert Wone?” that dropped today on NBC’s streaming channel Peacock is the latest development in this unsolved murder from 2006. The two-part documentary is the first major television production to cover Robert’s murder. It will bring a heightened level of exposure that the case has never seen before, even during its highly publicized trial in 2010. Director Jared Scott and the production company Jupiter Entertainment sunk their teeth into this project. They interviewed key players from the investigation, and Robert’s friends. Craig and I were honored to be a part of the production and share our knowledge that we gained as editors of WMRW.
The question though is whether this documentary represents a new chapter in the search for justice or a blip before it slides back into cold case territory. This documentary looks at the same evidence, the same characters as the criminal trial and this blog did from 2009-2011. What is different now? No new evidence has been uncovered. But something else has happened — the accumulation of time – it has been nearly 17 years since Robert was murdered. The acquitted defendants have moved on with their lives. We’re told that the once tight family from 1509 Swann Street is no longer living under the same roof. The documentary may jostle forgotten memories or folks may learn some new facts they did know about their new friends. It is too soon to tell.
The search for justice for Robert Wone has evolved, winding through many different phases. The first began immediately after Victor Zaborsky placed the 911 call to police on the night of August 2, 2006. This period lasted more than two years. The next chapter began in November 2008 when the three housemates – Joe Price, Victor Zaborsky, and Dylan Ward—were charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy surrounding the murder of Robert Wone. This is when WMRW was created. We were four gay men who lived in the same neighborhood as the three gay male defendants. We ran in similar circles, ate at the same restaurants, went to the same beaches, went to the same gyms. We saw the case through the eyes we shared with the defendants. In doing so, a community of justice-seekers from every perspective gathered to discuss, challenge, argue, dish and camp it up with every post (nearly 600 of them) and development we covered in the case. For those who were charter members of the WMRW community, welcome back. Please drop us a comment. We’d love to know how you are.
The third period was the criminal trial and subsequent civil trial. Over a period of 6 weeks, the prosecution laid out their case: there was no unknown intruder on the night of the murder, the knife found at the scene was not the knife used in the murder, and the defendants entered into a conspiracy to prevent authorities from learning the true facts of what happened the night of August 2. The defense’s case was predicated on raising doubts about the government’’s case. It was a bench trial, and in Judge Liebowitz’s decision acquitting the defendants she noted that what prevented her from reaching a guilty decision was the “math problem.” With a separate case for each defendant, the judge could not determine who did what based on the evidence. She reasoned she would have to speculate to reach a guilty decision.
In 2011 after the settlement in the civil case went cold and while this effort more or less went dormant, we left it up as a testament to our community and for it to be available to the next generation in the search for justice for Robert. Over the years, Robert’s murder has been covered on a number of podcasts. While we welcomed their interest in the case, many took just a cursory glance at it, getting many of the facts wrong.
If you are joining us because you learned about the case from the Peacock documentary, welcome – you are one of the reasons the site is still up and you join an established community that spent countless hours and untold bandwidth searching for the truth of what happened on the night of August 2, 2006.
Just watched the documentary and I am amazed, furious and sad that his family has no answers. Those three “friends” – just walked away.
I agree how sad that they were just let go! The lawyers worked so hard all for nothing! I hope the documentary brings more light to the case! Richard’s wife deserves the truth!
BTW, the victim’s name is Robert.
i saw the serie and i found 3 interesting things. 1. in the testimonies Joseph say HE wake up from the chime, and later victor say WE hear the chime. Also in the begin Dylan say Jo get outside because he saw a spider on the light. And say right after then WE take Robert upstairs. Bud victor was already upstairs and he just say Jo went out side. then about the time line it’s almost impossible that one off them where already asleep. 10.30 robert arrived they talk downstairs then jo went up and he just saw the last minutes of some show. 10.55 to 11.00 when he went up he say Robert went to take a shower. So that must be from around 10.55 to 11.10 i guess a 15 min shower. victor has gone to brush his teeth so he was finished i guess 11.05. Bud did he go down to the bathroom or upstairs. Bud the neighbours hearing a scream between 11 and 11.30 so if robert get out shower around 11.10 and victor fin with his teeth. then it’s hard to belief that they all where sleeping already. I guess victor went down to do his teeth and saw what Dylan had dunn and scream out loud. And then about the knife from dylan his set. his mother told that the knife that missing had not bin sent to him. Did they look ad the total set in court? Because it’s really easy to check if the knife is really then knife off the set. The WÜSTHOF knife have 2 serial nr on there blade 1 item nr and 1 run nr. Because in the video the defence lawyer is holding a knife that is not the knife that original belong to that set. It has no Red label on it. So maybe it’s for the movie. Bud beside that where is the set from Dylan? and is it checked on serial and run nr. If that is not the case, and the mother has buy a similar knife to mislead the jury. And she need to understand that this can have big consequents. Sorry for my bad english bud i hope this will be a stone to the big wall to solve this case Gr Bas
My theory was it was sex gone wrong. The victim ejaculates on person A who is wearing a condom or onto a toy, then person A has intercourse with the victim using the condom or toy. That would be the simplest explanation for the victim’s semen being found inside him. They use the paralysis agent as part as play. I’m not familiar with all BDSM restraints but there’s a subset that uses chemical restraints. Then, maybe bc he’s smaller than them, they miscalculated the amount of drug they used and he’s not waking up. They try to wake him up in the shower. He doesn’t wake up. They figure he’s overdosed so they decide to make it look like an attack. Unfortunately it’s them stabbing him that actually kills him but they don’t know that in the moment bc they think he’s already od-ed. Stab in the shower. Washed away the blood and move him. Explains the rest of the cover up. Overall just a super tragic case. Can’t believe investigators bumbled the blood analysis.
Sex gone wrong? He was wearing the mouthguard that he always put in right before bed. And there was that Electrotek (or whatever it was called) device that was found in Dylan’s room that can cause ejaculation.
He didn’t know he was going to be staying in the city that night why did he have his mouthguard?
Going to watch the documentary tomorrow night. It’s infuriating that these three monsters are still walking the streets.
Where are the girls now? Joe and M’aam still together? How’s our Dillion? Where was the big ole fat girl in the documentary ? And is that ninny still alive? Michael spotting? Love to all.
Welcome home, SDI. As shared previously in comments here and elsewhere, we’d heard that Dylan is living in Florida and married and that Joe & Victor may be in the DC area. Love to all.
DC area? Bunking with Aunt Marcia again? Thanks for this site.
Joe/victor are in S Fla
Online sources suggest Silver Spring currently, with FL, R and Swann St. as past residences.
Good ole Dylan Thomas (his new name) is apparently working at Pure Pilates in Fort Lauderdale. I thought Joe and Victor were in Silver Spring, MD but the documentary says they’re in Florida.
Why didn’t Joe Price just tell the cops nothing? Why didn’t they demand to see a lawyer and say nothing at all?
Ego, IMHO. Joe thought that he’d be able to talk his way out of it, and unfortunately, he’s been correct (so far). He’s not as smart as he thinks he is, but he’s still pretty damn smart. He is not someone to be underestimated.
My wife and I just finished watching the documentary. Something I noticed about the autopsy sketch they used in the show was the knife wounds are shown upside down. Single-edge knives are naturally wider at the spine and narrow at the edge. When they enter and exist something they make a triangular puncture wound. So the murderer would have had to stab him by holding the knife with the blade up which is a very unnatural grip. A more plausible position would have the killer behind the victim. The victim would have been either sitting or laying in front of the killer. This is all assuming that autopsy sketches are real and not just props for the show.
Matt – The doc used the real autopsy graphics.
We wrote it up here in May, 2010 and the ten page autopsy report is here – including the toxicology details.
Thanks for keeping this website alive and available to anyone who wants to learn more about Robert Wone’s case. I started reading some idiot’s theory of the case on Reddit and was so disgusted by all the errors that I stopped reading. This a great to have a wealth of factual information here, for those who seek the truth. The documentary was a long time coming. Hope it brings forth some more information from people who were too scared to say anything years ago.
Welcome back, Nelly. Thanks for all of your smart thinking and contributions from back in the day.
Here is what happened:
Sex party
Dylan primary assailant
Robert was injected with sux
Semen injected as red herring
Coverup meeting convened
911 called
Cue police…
Hello! I am retired law enforcement and watched the documentary and am fascinated. I have several questions that I don’t feel the documentary answered, or I am left wondering about and need clarification:
My working theory after watching the doc is that a paralytic WAS administered for sexual assault purposes. Did law enforcement (LE) determine if any paralytics were unaccounted for at the hospital Michael Price had access to?
Was the burglary believed to be committed because Joe did not compensate Michael for assistance, either in obtaining a paralytic or assisting in the cover-up? Was there other alibi witnesses for Michael on the night of the homicide beside his partner? How do we know Michael’s partner didn’t cover for him for helping the three residents cover up a murder? Are Michael and his partner still together? If not, has the partner been re-interviewed?
If a paralytic was used and Robert did not awake or stopped breathing, it is conceivable that he was moved to a shower/tub to douse him with water, to try to wake him. To me, it is most likely the stabbing occurred in a tub, given the lack of blood pooling, and lack of cast off blood spatter visible to the eye. Was the possibility of an IV used to drain Robert’s blood down a tub drain considered? The EMT didn’t mention Robert’s grey tee shirt being wet. If he was stabbed in the shower/tub, his shirt would then have had to be dried. Could that be why the dogs hit on the dryer lint trap? Was the dryer lint collected and tested? Was there a full financial history done on Joe, Victor, and Dylan to see if they had purchased a second e stim machine at any time? My thinking is if someone disposed of the murder weapon, towels/clean up cloths, injectables, paralytic evidence, they also could have disposed of an additional e stim machine, dildos/plugs used for sexual assault. How do we know they only had one e stim machine? Did Dylan’s Mom produce the “missing” knife for the court, or only say she had it? Did LE retest Robert’s clothing, the bedding, towels, and/or possible shower curtain in the past 18 months using an M-vac for dna collection? M-vac finds what even touch dna cannot. I want to know if we can find Michael Price’s dna on any collected evidence using the latest state of the art technology (or any add’t yet unidentified co conspirator) to place them at the scene. Someone disposed of evidence and I don’t buy an intruder at all.
Thank you for bringing attention to this case. I want justice for Robert.
Jodene – Thanks very much. You sure have done your homework. I wonder how thorough MPD’s evidence collection was, physical, financial or electronic and if any of it remains available for additional testing. The absolute fuck up with the blood spatter testing by the MPD, after ripping the house apart, really set the stage for failure after failure of evidence collection, up to an including failure to properly capture and image Robert’s Blackberry and leaving little or no blood samples of his for future testing. Ham-handed collection and storage of evidence by the MPD is the stuff of sad and shameful legend.
Here’s coverage from Diane Ward’s day on the stand and this is the transcript.
As former LE, how do you think a department can jumpstart an ice cold case like this?
Thanks for keeping the victim voice alive, just finished the series, I also listened to all the podcasts about it.
My opinion as a forensic psychiatrist
The prosecution destroyed this case from the start:
1- the amount of blood is irrelevant.
2- they should subpoena all their electronic records from the start.
3- detectives shouldn’t interview them without attorneys.
4- the murder knife is easily in the murder scene.
5- motive is irrelevant but
This murder was premeditated
They needed a jury and they would convict them, 4 people together ended up one dead simply
Also two restrained him and Dylan stabbed him, I mean two held him to the bed
I never met Robert but am married to a friend of his. I hope that something eventually comes to light and the killers are brought to justice.
One thing I found completely bizarre about the defense in the trial was their theory about someone opening the door via the mail slot. Assuming they were talking about the front door (I doubt there was a mail slot on the back door, right?), it is well known that the front door was locked, so the perp would have had to have unlocked the door to get in, then locked it behind him, which makes zero sense (why would you add that extra obstacle to escape?) Didn’t anyone point that out to them??
In any case, it was definitely a huge mistake on the prosecution’s part to agree to a bench trial. A jury would have easily found them all guilty, since they wouldn’t have had the (somewhat weird) notions of logic that the judge had. She instinctively knew they were AT LEAST guilty of obstructing justice and even said as much. A jury wouldn’t have had any qualms about convicting despite not knowing exactly who did what–regardless of which one was the murderer, they all conspired to cover it up. This becomes all the more clear in the fact that they settled the civil case, and I am reasonably sure Kathy would only have settled if she knew all three were taking a pretty big personal hit, not just their insurers.
The other thing is the over-reliance on the e-stim theory. There is exactly zero chance that an e-stim device (i.e., a tens device) would cause an “involuntary” ejaculation. Trust me, I know as a long-time user. You have to be *extremely* motivated to be able to orgasm hands-free with one. If he was unconscious and/or paralyzed, there is no way they could force him to orgasm in that manner, any more than just using manual methods which seems likely as impossible. They are NOT electroejaculators (like you may see on a farm). They are really mainly just a way of inflicting some fun sensations as well as pain. You can’t just strap it into/into an unwilling participant and make them cum. It just doesn’t work that way. My take is that the whole semen thing is a red herring. I wouldn’t be overly surprised if at some point Robert simply masturbated so there would be potential semen on his body. The finding of semen in the rectum could easily just have been a mistake on the part of the person taking the sample (e.g., mixing up swabs).
I do hope one of those 3 terrible human beings eventually develops a conscience and tells the truth about what happened. Otherwise, I can only hope that there really is a hell for them to suffer in for eternity, because they definitely deserve it. Truly among the worst human beings on earth, covering up the murder of a “friend”.
Completely agree the semen is a red herring in this case. It was a composite sample, so there next to nothing found. The sexual assault angle is minimal. There may have been intent (but that is only based on the idea that Joe/Dylan had a sexualized relationship) but no sexual assault occurred. The many red herrings deter from solving this problematic murder.
David
I always felt the possibility Robert Wone may have been a willing participant in SOME manner of sexual activity (which then went awry, or turned into a crime) was given short shrift in the early analysis of this case, probably out of respect for Wone and his wife. All these years later, we’re a little more progressive as a society, so maybe entertaining that idea is less “offensive”. As the idea that someone had to be gay to consent to some manner of sexual activity in those circumstances. I thought of that when Joe said things like “he’s never been close to gay” in the first interview. Maybe not, but maybe he was willing to check out the ejaculation machine or engage in some light rough stuff.
I felt that might be a part of what happened for a long time. The idea that three guys with so much going on in their lives would throw it all away – even if they got away with it – just for an hour of kinky fun made no sense. As did the idea that they would just be able to continue on as normal.
After watching the documentary, and especially Grimm’s closing comments and the way he presented them, I have a different go-to theory now. It was Ward, who knew Robert was coming, and planned to sexually assault him when the others were upstairs. It was something Joe and Ward maybe fascinated about and discussed, and then Ward actually did it, and ended up killing Robert “accidently”. And the other two covered it up. And now, even though Ward isn’t a part of the family, they’ve decided it’s better for all of them to just take it to the grave.
I’m watching this documentary right now and I’m hooked! I live and work in Virginia and have been to hotspots near DuPont before so this murder hits close. I’ve been sitting here researching the current whereabouts of the suspects while I listen to the episodes and I was able to track down the contact information for Joe Price (a.k.a Joseph Anderson), as well as his current address in Florida. The listing of current and past residents has included both Dylan and Victor’s names. Ridiculous that they get to live in a $1.137 million sunny Miami house while Robert Wone’s family still suffers and grieves all these years later.
I’ve watched this documentary at least 10 times now and I’m still in shock and awe, just as much as the first time I watched it. My take on it is that Dylan definitely killed him. Dylan was unaccounted for; he locks eyes with the EMT and goes back into his room, not offering a shred of help or concern to get them to Robert; he’s turned on by his sexual partner in pain or enjoys watching whomever his eyes are set on at the time, in pain; the missing knife is “mother kept”, now why would his mother send him a knife set and keep one? Kind of defeats the purpose of sending your son a knife “set” eh?; HE FAILED THE LIE DETECTOR TEST! on questions regarding if he killed Robert, and knowing who killed Robert, that’s kind of a big one; now, I don’t know how long polyamorous relationships tend to last but him parting from them but victor and joe still together, tells me that he likely killed Robert, the other 2 had to help him cover it up so they wouldn’t be complicit in a murder and now they hold some resentment for his actions and felt it’s best to part ways.. that may be a long shot but it fits the narrative; Dylan is also a DOM, that may be ignorant to say but he’s likely the only one capable or interested, IF it was a crime during sexual activity, which Roberts lack of defensive wounds says it likely was; lastly, when Dylan said, “I hardly knew the guy”, during his interview with the police, just reminded me of any person being accused of murder that actually did it to try and separate themselves from the situation as much as possible. I may be completely wrong but that’s just my opinion. Also, Mr. Grimm says, gun to my mothers head it was Dylan, is the icing on the cake. If you’ve made it this far, thank you!
Are the interrogation videos available anywhere? So glad you guys put the site back up. I hope Bea, AnnaZed, Clio, Bill, HoyaLoya and others drop in for old times sake.
We had the tapes at one point but they were lost in a media library purge. I’ll try to reload them this week.
March 21 Update: I found the DVDs! I just need to rip them onto files and load them in the media library or Youtube. March 21 Update II: Et voila, posted!
Thanks so much for all you have done re: this site. I hope one day Robert gets justice. I was an avid reader here back in the day and have not given up hope. May the blog and doc serve as some sort of catalyst now.
Thank you. Let me know if you need help with anything. I used to make websites with WordPress for a living.
Online data indicates that Joe and Victor are now living in Silver Spring, with FL, R St., & Swann as past residences. Any sightings? Thoughts on why they came back to DMV? Joe appears to have an active DC bar license.
Can someone explain why he had his mouthguard with him when he didn’t know he was staying in the city or did he? Was it his mouth guard?
His overnight visit was planned at least a week in advance. Robert’s wife (widow) Kathy helped him pack for the stay.
I watched the documentary and although the intruder theory makes no sense, the judge was correct to acquit. The prosecutors don’t know who did what. As equally implausible as the intruder theory is that these guys incapacitate, assault, kill, and clean up to that precision in 79 minutes? I agree it’s more plausible than the intruder but it’s still illogical. You can’t convict based on something is fucked up here. I also don’t understand the theory of planting a different knife. If the guys were lying about an intruder it would have been a better story that the intruder took the knife with them.
Agree, it’s maddening, those are pieces of the puzzle that just don’t fit.