When killer Stephan Smerk confessed to fatally stabbing a Fairfax County, Virginia, wife and mom, he seemed almost eager to tell detectives about the terrible crime he committed nearly three decades earlier.
Robin Lawrence was found in her home stabbed 49 times in 1994.
Lawrence’s 2-year-old daughter was at home at the time of the horrific killing. Her husband was out of town. After he wasn't able to contact his wife, he asked a family friend to check on her. The friend found Lawrence's body, as well as the couple's toddler. Left alone for days, the little girl was dehydrated but otherwise not physically harmed.
In a confession on video, Smerk said he knew he was going to kill someone.
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“It was 100% intentional,” Smerk said.
In November 1994, Smerk left his Army barracks at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall — known then as Fort Myer — and drove to a West Springfield neighborhood where he’d partied with friends. He says he picked the house next door — not knowing who would be inside — driven by an overwhelming urge. He told detectives he used a stick to jimmy open a sliding glass door and went to the victim’s room, cutting the phone cord when she reached for it. Then he began stabbing her using what he called “his combat training.”
“Something came over me,” Smerk said. “I’m not going to say I heard voices in my head. I didn’t, like, hear somebody actually talking to me, but it was like this overbearing thought in my brain that I need to kill somebody. I just had to kill somebody. I can’t explain it to you.”
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Smerk said the victim begged him not to kill her and tried to stop him.
At the time, Smerk was worried his DNA might be under the victim's fingernails.
“I know she clawed at my face,” he said. “I have a little bit of a scar here; I was worried she had some DNA under her finger.”
After committing the murder, Smerk drove back to the barracks, tossing the knife off a bridge and throwing away his clothes. His deadly secret was kept for nearly three decades, until last fall. Cold case detectives Jon Long and Melissa Wallace were able to use advance DNA technology to identify Smerk as a likely suspect. When detectives arrived at his New York home, Smerk confessed.
Smerk said that if he hadn't been surrounded by family, he may have had more victims.
“I honestly believe if it wasn’t for my wife and kids, I’d probably be a serial killer,” he said. “I am a serial killer who’s only killed once.”
When detectives asked if he would like to apologize to the family of the victim, Smerk seemed to show no remorse.
“I don’t feel anything for the family,” he said.
Smerk pleaded guilty earlier this month and will be sentenced March 7. He faces up to 70 years in prison.
