S7, E8: One Document From Murder

 It’s the late 1990’s and while the internet is still fairly new, millions are now on the web, connecting with family, friends and meeting new people in chat rooms online. It has opened up a whole new world for everyone. Suzette Trouten, a 28 year old single woman embraced the online world. She’s a hard-working nurse’s aide and a cook at a local restaurant in Michigan. In December of 1999, while browsing online, she gets what seems like an unbelievable offer. She had made a new friend online who seems interested in hiring her for a dream job. This man, John Robinson, who used the handle, JR online, lived near Kansas City, Kansas. He proposed Suzette move to Kansas city where she would be paid 67,000 a year to be his ailing father’s private nurse. For Suzette, who is working her tail off at two jobs and still just making ends meet, this would be a godsend. Although some of her family points out that it sounds too good to be true, Suzette just can’t pass up the chance at such a life changing event. She drives 700 miles down to Kansas along with her two small dogs to meet up with John Robinson to discuss the job and get settled in. John sets Suzette up in a motel not far from Kansas City. For the first few weeks, Suzette regularly calls family and friends back home. She’s always diligent about reaching out daily to her mom, Caroline, either by phone or email. But, on March 1 of 2000, Suzette didn’t call or write Caroline. Caroline immediately knows something is wrong and she reaches out to John directly to find out where Suzette has gone. John tells Caroline that he hasn’t heard from Suzette for a while either and goes on to say that she actually didn’t end up taking the job he had offered her; instead, she went on an impulsive vacation with a wealthy lawyer she met in the area named Jim Turner. Caroline was confused. Suzette had never mentioned this Jim Turner to her ever and besides that, it was completely out of her character to take off with someone she had just met, especially without having talked about the person in some way before. Shortly after talking with John, Suzette’s family and friends began receiving emails from her, which seem to confirm John’s story. They said that along with her two dogs, Pika and Harry, she’s now traveling overseas with her new acquaintance. The recipients of the emails noticed that they weren’t written in Suzette’s typical style of writing. In fact, one of her dog’s names was spelled incorrectly which of course raised their suspicions. Through the mail, they began receiving type-written letters, also supposedly from Suzette. Once again, the style of writing was completely different than she normally would have phrased things, but her signature was on the letters, so that threw them off. Thinking, hmm… maybe she did write these. On March 25 of 2000, Suzette’s worried sister Dawn, called Kansas police to file a missing person’s report. As was/is typical, can you guess what the police told them? People often run away from their lives, yada yada yada. Police do look into it though, and they visit the hotel Suzette was staying at in Kansas. Staff last saw her on March 1, the very day her communications with her family and friends stopped. Staff also said that it was John Robinson that had actually checked Suzette out from the motel and was seen coming back in his truck that afternoon removing Suzette’s belongings. They even provided surveillance tapes showing John there and completing the check out, so it’s looking like John was the last person to see Suzette. Police also looked into John’s claim that Suzette ran off with a man named Jim turner. Surprise, there’s no lawyer in the area or the surrounding area named Jim Turner. Further, when checking into John Robinson, they found he had a colorful past involving cons, fraud and theft. He’d been scamming people since his youth. Most disturbing, though, was that he was also being flagged as possibly being involved with 3 other missing person’s cases dating back to the 1980’s. Because of his suspicious past, a task force was formed to investigate him further. So, they start running surveillance on him. He lives with his wife, Nancy in a mobile home community. Police keep an eye on his trailer and follow him everywhere he goes. They also start collecting his garbage – they’d grab garbage bags in the very early morning hours and replace them with similar looking bags to avoid suspicion. John’s trash was filled with paper that had been run through a shredder. So investigators set about on taping the hundres of pieces of paper back together. Most of it was ordinary, like bills and such and didn’t raise red flags on his every day life. He’s a father and a grandfather who picked kids up from daycare, went on dates with his wife, all pretty ordinary things. About a month after Suzette’s disappearance, police go speak to her mother, Caroline, and get a detailed list of the items Suzette likely had with her on her move to Kansas. They figured that since she had moved, she had probably gotten a storage unit to keep her things in until she got settled into someplace other than the motel. They called all the storage facilities in the Kansas City area but didn’t find any listed for Suzette. However, they do find one belonging to John Robinson. Interestingly, records showed he had visited the unit the same day he checked Suzette out of the motel. Meanwhile, while painstakingly piecing together the pieces of the shredded documents from John’s garbage, they find a bill for another storage unity in Raymore Missouri. So police set up cameras in the entry to both storage facilities to watch when John goes to them. They also went back to take a look at the other missing person’s cases related to John. One had to do with 19 year old Lisa Stassi and her 15 month old baby from back in the 1980’s. Lisa and her baby had been referred to a program in Kansas aimed at helping young single mothers get on their feet. The program at the time was run by none other than John Robinson. He had an apartment that he was using back then for this program and he’d house the young women there. However, instead of putting Lisa in the same apartment, he had put her up in a motel. While there, her family had gotten a call from her, frantic, wondering why they want to take her baby away. The family is all confused and assured her they weren’t taking her baby. She was frantic, saying that she was forced to sign 4 blanks sheets of paper, but was interrupted by approaching footsteps and quickly disconnected the call. Those were the last words they ever heard directly from her mouth. The family did receive a signed letter, though, saying she had met someone and she’s moving on in life with him, noting that she was appreciative of the help she got from the program and especially John Robinson. The letter said she was just going off to start a new life. Back in the 80’s a probation officer had talked to John about his single mother’s program and the missing Lisa Stassi. He claimed he didn’t know why he was being hassled for a woman who decided to run off, he was simply trying to help these poor women. Only 6 months prior to Lisa going missing, a woman named Paula Godfrey had also gone missing and her family, like the others, received signed letters proclaiming she was leaving for a new life. BREAK? Digging further into John, police find he has a fetish with BDSM. In fact, at least one woman was on record claiming that John had hired her out to men with similar fetishes. She said that John had a kind of escort service he ran to provide women to these BDSM dudes. He’d pay the ladies with money and drugs. Though John was connected to the missing women before Suzette, there hadn’t been enough evidence to arrest him for anything. Meanwhile, elaborate letters from Suzette continued to arrive for her family. The letters would say things like, I’m on the deck this morning watching dolphins swim alongside the boat. While that sounds nice, Caroline didn’t think so. She knew Suzette hated bodies of water and definitely wouldn’t be boating around on them. Then, 2 dogs matching the description of Suzette’s were picked up by a local animal shelter. Police got photos of the dogs from Caroline to compare to these ones. They were at match. One had been adopted out to a family and when he visited that family, they agreed it looked just like the picture. The cop called it by the name suzette had given it and it came running. When Suzette’s mom was told that indeed the 2 dogs were found safe, but without Suzette, she said she knew that her daughter was likely dead. Suzette’s dogs were like her children and she would never willingly separate from them. While surveilling John, he unknowingly led police to a secret hideout far from his known residence with his wife. It was a trailer on some farm land out in the boonies where they wondered if he could be keeping Suzette. They also got the letters Caroline had received in the mail and worked to trace where they had been sent from. It turned out the letters were being mailed from a town near the area of John’s farm trailer. Investigators also got a break-through on the email that Suzette had supposedly sent. In the shreds from the garbage, police found info about John’s internet service provider which gave some important clues. After the day Suzette stopped calling family, all emails from her actually originated from John’s residence. His online activity also showed the many BDSM sites he visited and they saw he used the online handle of, Midwest Master on BDSM chat rooms and forums. They do learn that Suzette had some interest in BDSM as well, so they wondered if it was possible John and kidnapped her and sold her into sex slavery. They then began monitoring John’s phone calls and tracking down numbers dialed from his cell. He was contacting women all over the states and arranging travel for them to Kansas. He would tell them that he’s a wealthy businessman and promised well paying jobs and a place to live. On April 24, nearly 2 months after Suzette disappeared, a young lady named Vicky arrives in Kansas from Texas. She checks into a motel room reserved for her by John. She had met John online in a BDSM chat room and had brought her own bag of sex toys. Police watch as John arrives and heads up to the room. Vicky soon heads down to the front desk and asks to have a photocopy made. The clerk, who knows about the police surveillance, makes 2 copies and gives one to detectives. The document turns out to be a slave/master contract. Officers take up positions in adjacent rooms to Vicky’s in case they need to intervene to save her. They’re literally listening in from the other side of the wall, trying to distinguish the difference between violent BDSM sex sounds and whether Vicky is in danger. They heard hitting and hollering but they think it’s consensual play. After 3 days of this, Vicky, looking fine and unhurt, leaves and heads home to Texas. Other women soon show up as well. John would go around, meeting up with these women during the day, then heading home to his wife at around 5 every day. One day, during typical surveillance of John, he somehow slips away. Cops figure out from tapes of the recordings at the storage units that he had stopped by the one in Kansas. In the recording, they see he brings in a large black duffel bag and pushes it into the storage locker. On May 19, 2000, a woman named Gina arrives in town to meet the Midwestern Master at the motel, but they quickly seem to have a falling out. John leaves and Gina goes to the front desk clerk, asking them to call police. Gina tells police that john has sexually assaulted her and had given her the false name of Jim Turner, the same name of the rich lawyer john had claimed Suette had run off with. Police set Gina up in a safe location and then they get a call from Vicky who had just gone back to Texas. She called to tell them that she needed to report John for stealing a duffle bag full of sex toys from her and was refusing to return them. Because of these two reports, police have cause to get search warrants for all of John’s properties and storage units. One June 1st of 2000, police wait for John’s wife to leave their trailer for work and they move in to serve the search warrant to John. They tell him he’s being arrested for theft and aggravated sexual battery. Acting embarrassed, he admitted to these, but when they bring up the missing women, his mood shifts. When their names were mentioned, his face went white and he went mute. He's taken to the police station and placed in a room covered in images from the missing women cases. This way, wherever he looked, he would realize police knew he was their man. Immediately after seeing it all, John asks for a lawyer. So, without a confession, cops go to turn over his properties for proof. At his regular home, they find paperwork showing that he was portraying himself with different names and he had all sorts of false identification impersonating a CIA agent, FBI agent, DEA agent – all sorts of different law enforcement roles. Roles that would place him in a position of power. At the Kansas storage locker, they find Vicky’s duffle bag of sex toys, but most intriguing were items of Suzette’s that her mom, Caroline had described for them. They found her ID, envelopes addressed to her family and blank sheets of paper with Suzette’s signature at the bottom of them. Not only were Suzette’s id’s found, but they also found ID’s belonging to many other women unknown to the current investigation. Though they have evidence of Suzette there, they still don’t have her. So they’re not sure if she’s still being held or if she’s dead. Next, they head to his farm property. They comb the area and they find large plastic barrels. When they pull one barrel out of the junk pile it’s in, it begins to leak with a thin line of red fluid. Immediately, flies started swarming. When they opened it, they find a decomposing body. In a 2nd barrel, they find another body. They still had one other place to search. The storage unit in Missouri. In that unit, they find another 3 barrels marked “Rendered Pork Fat”. Instead of pork fat, they found 3 more human bodies. Dental records are compared with the bodies. One is positively identified as Suzette. Another is Isabella Luika, a 21 year old from Indiana who had last been seen in 1999. Beverly Bonner, Sheila Faith and Sheila’s daughter, Debbie were the other bodies. None had ever been reported missing and no connection had been known with John Robinson. These weren’t the bodies they were expecting to find, but once this info is discovered, new information comes to light. It turns out that John’s brother and sister-in-law had long ago been having trouble having a child of their own. John forged adoption papers with signatures from 2 lawyers and a judge, charged his brother thousands of dollars and gave them missing Lisa Stassi’s 5 month old daughter. John’s brother had believed the entire time that the adoption was legitimate and he was horrified to find out what had happened. It was later confirmed through DNA that she was indeed Lisa Stassi’s biological daughter. In October of 2002, John went to trial for capital murder and 1st degree murder. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was dubbed the world’s first cyber killer and often referred to in the press as the slave master. Three of the missing women have still never been found. Robinson is known to be responsible for eight homicides, but his total victim tally remains unknown. • 1984: Paula Godfrey (age 19); remains never recovered • 1985: Lisa Stasi (age 19); remains never recovered • 1987: Catherine Clampitt (age 27); remains never recovered • 1993: Beverly Bonner (age 49): remains discovered at storage facility in Raymore, Missouri • 1994: Sheila Faith (age 45) and Debbie Faith (15): remains of both discovered at storage facility in Raymore, Missouri • 1999: Izabela Lewicka (age 21): remains discovered at Robinson's ranch near La Cygne, Kansas • 2000: Suzette Trouten (age 28): remains discovered at Robinson's ranch near La Cygne, Kansas Of these victims, Paula Godfrey had been hired by John to work as a sales rep for his fraudulent shell companies. Paula told friends and family that John was sending her away for job training. After not hearing from Paula, her parents filed a missing person’s report. John denied knowing anything off her disappearance. After her parents received signed typewritten letters from her saying that she was ok, and didn’t want to see her parents, police closed the case and she’s never been found. Cathrerine Clampitt who was 27 at the time of her disappearance, left her child with her parents in Texas and had been hired by John, and told she’d be doing extensive traveling and would be getting a new wardrobe. She vanished in 1987. When he was incarcerated from 87-93 for fraud convictions, he met the prison librarian, Beverly Bonner, who after John’s release, left her husband to move to Kansas to be with John. After arranging for her alimony checks to be sent to a Kansas post office box, her family never heard from her again, though John kept cashing her checks. As the Midwestern Master online, he met Sheila Faith who was 45 with a 15 year old daughter Debbie (these were 2 of the bodies found in barrels). 15 year old Debbie was confined to a wheelchair with spina bifida. Sheila had been told that John would support them, pay for therapy for Debbie and give Sheila a job. After moving to Kansas, they immediately disappeared. John cashed Sheila’s pension checks for 7 years afterwards. In 1999, he met Izabela Lewicka online. She was a 21 year old Polish immigrand living in Indiana who was also in the BDSM scene. He offered her a job and a bondage relationship if she were to move to Kansas which she did. Though he was married, he gave Izabela an engagement ring and paid for a marriage license. They think she believed she was married as she did tell her parents she now was. She had signed a slave contract with John that have him control over everything in her life including her bank accounts. In the summer of 1999, she disappeared. John told people she’d been caught smoking marijuana and had been deported. In 2005 Nancy Robinson filed for divorce after 41 years of marriage, citing incompatibility and irreconcilable differences. Sources: Crime Stories, s6, e8: The slave master, Wikipedia, murderpedia