An affair + estranged husband + a house on the water = A mystery

robbing poop is a 51 year old married woman living with a dangerous secret a passionate affair with a man who's already engaged to someone else an angry husband at home demanding answers and a loving daughter who is left trying to put together the pieces when her mom goes missing and when you think about your mom what do you miss the Rose is having a great time and really being able to tell her everything there isn't another person in my life like that a woman whose fate remains shrouded in mystery and still the talk of the town in the small community of Stephen Saville on the western shore of Kent Island Maryland she loved her friends - yes she did she would do anything for anybody you didn't even have to be her friend and she would she would you were her friend within two days of Robins disappearance a body washes up near her husband's house but it's not Robin Pope cops wonder if there's a connection it's frustrating because there's no closure and now police dog idli work to crack a case that refuses to go cold you know that she was in the water if we know that she drowned we don't know how she got there you believe you'll solve this I hope so right now you know leads have been far few and far between to all outward appearances Robin was happily married to wayne Pope her husband of 22 years but Priscilla Hastings Robins daughter from her first marriage says her stepfather Wayne had a dark side that she experienced firsthand at only seven years old he grabbed me by my hair and dragged me to my room by my hair and basically threw me on the floor by my hair he started to go into fits of rage and you know come after me and I wasn't used to that so I started running away from home she says that even her dog became the target of Wayne's abuse my dog dug a hole outside he would fill it with water and hold my day hold my dog's head under the water and I just thought that was horrific in later years Priscilla moved out of the house but Robins longtime local friend Debbie O'Malley says Wayne's treatment of Robin also went downhill he was degrading to her a lot he would he was very degrading he wasn't physically abusive to her at all he would say oh I think you look terrible that you look gross he was always that way with her just saying little things belittle her Priscilla says her mom struggled with breast cancer and weight gained from chemotherapy but rebounded from both spending hours at the gym she kept up her job as a dental assistant through it all and according to friends kept up her spirits too but Priscilla says the marriage was in Trump and that things really came to a head when Wayne found out that Robin was having an affair with her gym instructor he called Priscilla to tell her about it he sonic creepily come and said okay what did he say to you exactly he told me well your mom's been cheating on me in a very calm demeanor so yeah looks like guess we're splitting up Maryland State Police Sergeant David Sexton says Wayne told police he discovered the affair after searching Robins cell phone and then locked her out of the house somehow Wayne must have grabbed her phone or something and and saw some text messages that indicated that she was having this affair with with this boyfriend but police say Wayne didn't just grab Robyn's phone he'd reportedly grabbed a gun and headed over to her boyfriend's house that he shared with his fiancee he brought a gun to the to the house but when he saw the fiancee there he he didn't he didn't point it anybody didn't he didn't pull it from his waistband or he wasn't arrested for this no and they asked him to leave and he left so there was no real crime Priscilla says Wayne told her that he was stopped by the boyfriends fiancee she came out and started screaming really loud and scared away according to police and friends Robyn moved into a nearby condo after the separation a place that does not allow dogs and she had to leave Bella with Wayne three weeks later she went back to the house under what friends say are mysterious circumstances the night before she went to the house before she disappeared he she wanted to go down to see Bella and he said oh I had Bella put down sergeant Sexton says a phone company technician was working at Robyn's condo at the time the technician just remembers her starting to cry and he was like hey is everything okay and she said that oh my husband just told me that he he put put down Bella my dog and then then that's when Wayne told her no I didn't put down police say Robyn texted Wayne that she wanted to stop by and pick up her mail but Debbie O'Malley believes she was deeply worried about Bella as well he said he was gonna do something to Bella really that is the only way she would go down there by herself police trace Robyn's path along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as she drove on a cold late Friday night on the first day of March to Wayne's house they say she was coming straight from a job interview and dinner in Annapolis Maryland through phone records and EZ Pass and and tag readers that she you know we know exactly what time she came over across the bridge it was about 10:05 in the and we also know that she was she was texting and conferring with Wayne her husband and that's the last anyone's heard of Robyn Pope what do you think happened to her I think something really bad happened that night and I think somebody knows but who the secret boyfriend his jealous fiancee her and raged husband or could it be someone cops never suspected Robin has a lot on her mind as she crosses the Chesapeake Bay Bridge heading for the Ken Island home of her estranged husband Wayne friends say she is stressed by the fallout from her affair with her gym instructor a man engaged to another woman who has reportedly had a serious run-in with Wayne Pope at her house the impact of all of it on Robins marriage is devastating she felt really bad about what she did because she really really loved Wayne and at some point I mean I think she really really wanted to make her marriage work she wanted to get a counseling and he didn't want any parts of it and they say she is deeply worried for the safety of her aging Great Dane Bela they used to tease about it all the time telling her that he'd you know had the dog put down he wasn't a nice person with fella Robin loved that dog more than anybody more than weight yeah but her friends still wonder why she is compelled to drive to Wayne's house alone that night she would never go anywhere without telling anybody ever police are left with little to go on after Robins disappearance that night in the course of their investigation they check out Robins gym instructor boyfriend who is also in the Air Force and his fiancee who Priscilla says drove a gun-toting wing off their property he was a pilot we actually spoke to his his supervisors and his superiors who told us that yes he was in Wichita Kansas at the time that she was she went missing but what about his jealous fiancee cops say she's got a solid alibi - with they turned to Robyn's husband Wayne hoping to find more answers the question is why did Robyn want to get come over there so late there are a lot of questions about her being alone with him not feeling safe with around him Wayne tells police he spoke with Robyn on the phone as she drove to his house but they say that's where the story gets murky because according to Wayne the very next thing he did was fall asleep with Robyn less than 15 minutes away if you know somebody's coming over especially your estranged wife you're gonna be alright I'm gonna stay up and wait for Eddie and then I have to go leave because she's coming to the house I don't want I don't feel comfortable being alone with her we don't think that he was being truthful at all about you know falling asleep they're just red flags dust they just don't add on Wayne told police he woke up an hour later and went outside to see Robyn's car parked in his driveway she's sleeping in the car he knocks on the window and says hey you know if you need to get your stuff go ahead get your things I'm going to my parents and then police say Wayne got in his own car and drove away he said he was going to his parents house and then when we talked to the parents parents said no we don't recall him being there Wayne tells police he returned to his house two hours later only to find Robyn's car empty with her purse keys and phone sitting in the front seat but that Robyn and Bella are gone he says he headed out again to search for her at some point he is picked up on a store surveillance camera as he stops for coffee he was at 7-eleven we have one video that was about 107 and shortly after that he stops at Debbie O'Malley's house he was very distraught he said I just don't know where they are Belen and Robyn they disappeared she came to the house my lawyer thought it would be best if we're not together alone so I left Wayne goes to check on Robyn's condo with Debbie O'Malley's daughter but comes dumpty so they get back to your house and at this point it's what time it was about 2:30 and you tell Wayne what he needs to go home and call the place so and he did my 1 and I are separated for about a month now and she came by the house she get some clothes and see the dog her Court is still here but she is nowhere to be found and our dog is missing too and I don't know she stole the dog and I would give her the dog she doesn't need to do that I guess and then officer just so we can I don't know one of the first things that we listened to a nine one one call from especially from a spouse anybody just to find out what their demeanor was how excited they were he was pretty exciting he was pretty excited about it he was he seemed relatively you know just scared that his wife was missing it seemed genuine at the time at some point Debbie says she remembers calling Robyn's cell phone herself he said yeah yeah but she's not answering her phone I've tried as well we went to Wayne's house and that's when you know we saw the car and I looked in the window her keys her phone or makeup bag everything we're just laying on the front seat he said yeah yeah but he had me call her I didn't understand that so he was having you call her even though her phone was in yeah he knew they were yeah just laying right there now living in California Priscilla gets an early morning call from her younger stepsister Rachel the daughter of Robin and Wayne I just cried to my sister and said I'm sorry I can't be there right now I'll be there as soon as I can and I jumped on the next plane that I could and Priscilla has her suspicions about her stepfather Wayne so you get on the ground and what happens I talked to investigators I tell them everything about my childhood how he was how he treated animals the things my mom had told me about him recently just everything that I could to help the case the morning after her disappearance family friends and police kick off a massive search for Robin and that same day they find a body floating along the rocky shores of Ken Island not far from Wayne's house but it isn't Robin Pope it's a mystery an all-out search is underway on Ken Island Maryland for Robin Pope the ground searches that are stopped consonantal canine dogs everything everything you could think of people really came out the community really got together a body has just washed up on shore but it's not Robin it's her beloved Great Dane Bella found dead on the rocks near the water not far from where Robin was last seen at the home of her estranged husband Wayne Pope initially we thought maybe the dog drowned but we had the dog we had an autopsy done by a veterinarian and what did that vet basically told us that she believed that the dog died of exposure did have some a little bit of water in the windpipe that's indicating that the dog was alive when it went in and then about two weeks into the search another haunting clue washes up on shore we were walking along the shoreline and my girlfriend Carol found the shirt in the water and we pulled it out and it was her shirt was there blood on it mm-hmm her friends are sure this shirt belongs to Robin this was a picture of her with that the shirt on the tip that we found just beautiful surely was but there is still no sign of Robin until 22 days after her disappearance a horrific discovery and a major break in the case as police get a 9-1-1 call from a man fishing with his daughter off of a pier on ken island they have found a body he looked over and noticed something floating in the water and saw that it was a body over near the shoreline and called 9-1-1 right away and of course we thought it's gonna be Robin and of course it was the first thing was relief that her body was found if they would have never found her I mean that would have been worse the images that go through your mind the gruesome images that you can't think of your mom you know spending three weeks in the water which she must have looked like or I would say that was probably the hardest part I hated getting a news but I needed it I want the person that did this to get punished the body may be found but the mystery only gets deeper and even more frustrating for the family they get the autopsy results but the coroner unable to explain just how robbed and died they could have said yes he was hit over top of the head she had blunt-force trauma she was stabbed she was shot she you know we didn't have any of that the only thing they could tell us is that she had water in her lungs and that she probably drowned water in her lungs means that she was alive when she went into the water there's going to be water in their lungs because they're they're trying to breathe in air and they drown you can also have a body that's been in the water for two or three weeks and water goes goes into the lungs because they it absorbs the water it's you know it's almost like it's a sponge police don't know if Robin was pushed or held under water but say at least one piece of evidence indicates that she did not go in voluntarily she was wearing high heels so someone that's wearing high heels you wouldn't think that would be even anywhere close to this the rocks and the the pier but for some reason something drew her to the pier or to the rocks and she went in that water and she was still wearing those shoes still wearing those shoes I know when her body was pulled out yes anyway Robin Pope could have committed suicide all vacations does that she was not having any kind of depression I don't think she was depressed about the split between her and Wayne and her talking to her family and friends there was no indication there was a lot for Robin Polk to live for yes police also rule out Robins one-time love interest her gym instructor as a suspect and they find no witnesses to any foul play it's a very quiet community I don't even think they had any break-ins and that in that but police say the discovery of Bella and Robin in the same area creates all sorts of scenarios about what happened some of them involving her estranged husband Wayne Pope maybe he's walking the dog down the pier and she's running after him and then he nudges her in or pushes her in and then he doesn't try to try to save her or she fell she fell you know maybe she fell in on her own maybe this was all a big accident right it could have been a big accident but the reason that we can't say it's a big accident because of the way Wayne basically told his story and the story's not that his story's just not adding up and it's just not consistent with with what happened somebody put the dog in the water and I think Robin tried to save the dog that's that's all we got Wayne Pope is not charged with any crime in the death of Robin but police say he remains the only person of interest in the case the more I pressed him about you know what he did to his wife what happened you know you can tell me you know if it's if it was an accident it's an accident just tell me what happened to your wife he basically he said I need to stop the interview I need to talk to my lawyer later Queen Anne County State's Attorney Lance Richardson is relieved when Wayne agrees to take a polygraph test if he were specifically asked did you kill Robin Pope and he was able to say no I did not did not indicate deception I said I'll allow you to present that to the public and if you fail said polygraph I will withhold that from the public at this time but things don't go quite as planned did he walk through the door he was there he was present in the lobby but before they could get him hooked up and administer the test he left so I think that it's so frustrating it was frustrating because I wanted to see where that would lead us and state's attorney chief of staff Rob penny says the invitation to the polygraph exam remains open we're not gonna stop investigating and all we need is one break and if I were mr. Pope I'd provide us the information before we have to provide it to him that's your best advice absolutely with that in mind we track down Wayne Poe and we put the question to him would you talk to us about Robin I've talked to well do you have anything like what haven't heard did you kill her that's alright what are you hiding like why don't you see the lie detector ah hello but the story isn't over in an almost unbelievable twist Priscilla reveals that just three months before her mother's murder her biological father was also found dead in the Chesapeake Bay just like Robin what happened the case was closed so fast that all we know is there was a huge bruise on his head and they found his body in the water eerie coincidence Priscilla doesn't think so her biological dad Dean Hastings had been wanting to get back together with his ex wife Robin he loved my mom till the day he died there's still a picture of him my mother and I our family photo when I was a baby in his wallet her father's death has been ruled accidental but Priscilla now can't help but wonder if it really was an accident I have made questions sound because my father was still talking to my mother and saying how much he loved her and always would so who knows that case was closed so fast who knows

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 2,701,582

Rating: 4.6255493 out of 5

Keywords: Crime Watch Daily, True Crime Daily, Robin Pope

Id: kQYIoafr1X8

Length: 21min 14sec (1274 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 17 2018