August 2nd marks twenty years since Robert Wone was murdered in the home of Joe Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward. What should’ve been a simple overnight stay in the home of his three “friends,” it ended instead with a tragic killing and an enduring mystery of what transpired during those seventy-nine minutes between his arrival at 1509 Swann Street on that hot summer night and a frantic call to 9-1-1 made by an unraveling Zaborsky.
A mystery, yes, but more than anything, a senseless killing of a bright young man with a future ahead of him, his family and friends devastated, two decades of grieving followed. Before the 2010 criminal trial, during and after, the key to solving this murder sits with Price, Zaborsky and Ward, their stonewalling and continued silence remains as selfish and obstinate as it did on the night of the crime.
We’re left to wonder if the threesome, or whatever remains of it now, will ever come clean on what they know and may have done. The optimists will hope for a confession of some sort, an explanation, the pessimists are convinced they’ll take their secrets to the grave. Time will tell.
While the relationship(s) of the three Swann Street housemates have apparently dissolved, Price and Zaborsky remain joined at the hip, and they will be for years to come, at least until 2031 – that is, if they continue to abide by the terms of an element of the 2011 wrongful death civil suit settlement.
But as of a few weeks ago, they are not abiding by the agreement, they’re both in default and under legal attack again. While the larger terms remain confidential, we recently learned of an side agreement signed by Price and Zaborsky, promissory notes, in which they each pledged to make 240 payments to the Robert E. Wone Memorial Trust, in monthly installments of $200 then $300. Starting in 2011 they each began making payments on the $66,000 owed, sometimes late (with late fees applied), sometimes not at all and sometimes writing checks that bounced – and then they stopped paying all together in 2025. An attorney friend of ours, who once socialized with the throuple commented, “…this monthly payment requirement was an ongoing reminder of what they did. Every f’ing month.”
Robert’s estate is taking Price and Zaborsky to court and demanding they start making good on their debt. A DC property jointly owned by Price (aka Joseph R. Anderson) and Zaborsky at 1727 R Street, NW #401 was sold in June, 2026 for $274,000. Property records show it was purchased in September, 1998 for $145,000. Maybe those sale proceeds help them settle their debt to the trust. Oddly enough, there’s no mention of Dylan Ward in this side agreement on payments to the Wone Trust. Maybe he was included at some point, but perhaps his late father Needham, bailed him out again on that financial obligation.
A September 22 hearing by the DC Superior Court Civil Division’s Debt Collection is scheduled to try to settle the matter. We thought our days in the Moultrie Courthouse were behind us, apparently not. Let’s hope someday the Court’s Criminal Division puts some hearings on their calendar. Many in the larger WMRW community, in which we forever remain in debt to, have gone their separate ways, but major thanks to a couple readers who tipped us on these developments. -Craig