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In the early morning of February 10, 1992, Robin Lee Row’s two-story duplex in Boise, Idaho, was engulfed in flames.  Robin wasn’t home that morning.  She had spent the night at a friend’s house after a fight with her husband, Randy Row.  But at 3am, Robin had a premonition of the fire.  She woke her friend at 5:30 am and they drove together to the duplex to check on Robin’s children.

Joshua, 10-years-old, Tabitha, 8-years-old, and their step-father Randy all died in the fire.  Initially, there was an outpouring of compassion for Robin, a grieving woman who had lost her entire family overnight.  But Robin was not who she appeared to be.  Her behavior after the tragedy along with fire-investigators’ suspicions about the fire led the police to look into Robin’s past.  After a bit of digging, they would discover that Robin had lived a lifetime of deceit, fraud, and, quite possibly, murder.

Join us at the quiet end for Burning Down the House.  The deaths of her family members in the 1992 fire were not the only suspicious deaths found in Robin’s past. Information began to trickle in from acquaintances and co-workers about her web of lies and her cold-heartedness.  Her closest friend was her most ardent supporter, until she, too, discovered the true Robin.

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The Row duplex fire

Sources

20 years since Robin Row killed her husband, 2 kids  KTVB.com, Jamie Grey, Feb. 10 2012

Deadly Confidante by Nancy Whitmore Poore

Idaho death row inmate Robin Row to have court-appointed mental health exam. KBOI news. Retrieved 5-21-2021

State v. Row, Supreme Court of Idaho, March 18, 1998

Police were surprised by Barbara Stager’s lack of emotion when her 40-year-old second husband, Russ Stager, died from an accidental gunshot wound to his head.  Within days, Barbara called her insurance company to cash in on Russ’s life insurance policy. She would collect her money and life would go on for her and her children. That’s what she believed.

To the untrained eye, Barbara looked like an ill-fated woman, widowed twice in just 10 years. But she had her critics; people who knew that her first husband had also died from an “accidental” gunshot wound.  And, in both shootings, Barbara had been in the bed beside her husband.  In fact, she had been the one with the gun in her hand.

Join us at the quiet end for a convoluted story of treachery and deception.  Barbara Stager was a spendthrift, a liar, a sex addict, a thief, and a killer.  She spent her adult life moving from house to house, job to job, and man to man.  It wasn’t until after her second husband’s death that a criminal investigation was initiated, exposing Barbara as a black widow who would do anything For the Love of Money.

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       Russ & Barbara Stager

Sources

Before He Wakes by Jerry Bledsoe

Greensboro News & Record articles by Libby Lewis and Jerry Bledsoe

Broken Promises Forensic Files Episode Season 5, Episode 14

Tyler Hadley’s parents were trying to get the 17-year-old to make better decisions in his life.  Since his early teens, he had been using drugs, stealing, and showing a fascination for violence.  His mother Mary Jo loved her son fiercely, never giving up on him and describing him as a sensitive boy. As he sunk into depression and sullenness, she worried that he would hurt himself.  But when asked, she would say that she never feared her son would hurt her or her husband.

Join us at the quiet end for Killer Party. Tyler planned a big bash at the family home, telling his friends that his parents were going on a trip.  He put out the word on his Facebook page and stocked up on food, booze, and drugs.  But as the party went on, Tyler’s friend noticed that Tyler’s parents’ cars were still in the driveway.  Knowing that they would never allow a teenage drug party in their home, he wondered where they were.  Then a rumor began to circulate among partygoers that Tyler had murdered his parents. This was a party that none of them would ever forget.

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Sources

Port St. Lucie Criminal Court Archives

“See How Much You Love Me” by Amber Hunt

ABC News 20/20 April 2014

WPBF News December 20, 2018

Kathleen Folbigg has lived a life filled with tragedy.  As a child, her father murdered her mother, leaving her to grow up in foster care.  But Kathleen seemed to have overcome her difficult past when she married her husband Craig and they set out to start a family.

In 1989, Kathleen’s infant son Caleb died. This death was followed by the deaths of three more of her children in 1991, 1993, and 1999.  It wasn’t until the death of her daughter Laura in 1999 when family, friends, and the authorities became suspicious.  Kathleen denied killing her babies, but her behavior and her journals may have told a different story.

Join us at the quiet end for The Hand that Rocks the Cradle: The Kathleen Folbigg Story.  When a mother loses a child, sympathy is abundant.  But, when each of Kathleen’s children died in her care, one after another, dark questions about Kathleen and the complexities of motherhood came up.  The accepted wisdom at the time was that one cot death is a tragedy, two are suspicious, and three is murder until proven otherwise.  This left Kathleen and her supporters in the impossible position of proving a negative.  Today we’re going to go into the medical and genetic explanations investigated to explain the sudden deaths of the Folbigg babies as well as the psychological and behavioral characteristics pointing to Kathleen as a calculated serial baby killer.

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Sources

Articles

Circulatory and cardiovascular Genetics, 2014

Colmodulin: An Introduction, The Canadian Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, 1984

Inquiry Reinforces Guilt by Lucy Cormack, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2019

Kathleen Folbigg: Could Science Free Australian Jailed for Murdering Babies?  BBC news, March 2021

Killing Them Softly by Julie Szego, The age.com, 2003

Unexpected Deaths in Infancy, by D.R. Lawrence 2005 New South Wales Child Death Review Team

Books

When the Bough Breaks by Matthew Benns, 2003

Videos

Guilty of Killing Her Children, or has Kathleen Folbigg been Wrongly Convicted? Australian Story, 2019

Mothers Accused of Killing their Four Babies | 60 Minutes Australia, 2019

Divorce and child custody battles can be brutal, but they rarely end in murder.  In February, 2002, Alan Bates and his wife Terra were excited to pick up his two daughters from the home of his ex-wife, Jessica McCord.  His relationship with Jessica had been acrimonious since the divorce, but he loved his girls and would not give up on them. The couple was planning to take the girls to his parents’ home for a weekend visit, a rare and happy event.

When Alan and Terra failed to show up at his parents’ house, his family was worried.  Alan’s father called the police, who handled the call as a routine case of overdue motorists.  It happened all the time.  People made plans, and something along the way held them up. But this wasn’t like Alan and Terra.  The longer family members waited, the more panic began to set in.

Join us at the quiet end for Overdue Motorists: Alan & Terra Bates.  Alan’s ex-wife Jessica and her police officer husband, Jeff McCord, would claim that Alan and Terra never showed up to pick up his children. But investigators were concerned. Their story didn’t add up. Soon, the McCords became prime suspects. They refused to let the police search their home after they had pulled up carpet, re-wallpapered the walls, and hauled away furniture. They were hiding something, and what investigators found would expose an evil plot carried out by cold-hearted morons.

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Read “Death Trap” by M. William Phelps

 Alan & Terra

Jessica & Jeff

The Schenecker family home was in a nice neighborhood; the kind of place couples choose to raise a family.  Julie, her husband Parker, and their two children, Calyx and Beau, seemed to be living the good life in their spacious home located on a cul-de-sac in a gated community.  But on January 28, 2011, the city of Tampa and surrounding communities were reminded that appearances can be deceptive and money cannot buy happiness.

Join us at the quiet end for The Devil They Knew, the story of a mother who planned and carried out the murders of her two children because they were “mouthy and disrespectful.”  Julie was a carpool mom, her husband was a Colonel in the military, and their two children were good students who played sports and had lots of friends. But behind the family’s facade, Julie was a powder keg with serious mental health and substance abuse issues.   At the heart of this case lies the question of whether Julie was capable of understanding the consequences of her violent actions.  And how could her children have been protected from her?

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Read “Sleep My Darlings” by Diane Fanning

William Bradford Bishop, Jr., was born and raised to succeed.  With classic good looks, cultured parents, and a Yale education, he expected a lot out of life.  As an adult, he married a beautiful woman who gave him three healthy sons.  They travelled the world, eventually settling into a Maryland suburb.

Bishop built a career with the U.S. State Department, working in military intelligence. In his esteemed position, he felt in charge.  But in his home, his wife and mother were running things. After 15 years of government service, Bishop was passed over for promotion.  His stalled career may have been the final indignity.

Join us at the quiet end for The Bradford Bishop Murders.  Forty years have passed since this stunning case of family annihilation and Bishop seems to have vanished from the face of the earth. The suggested motives behind his crimes are as specific as they are unusual.  Today we’re taking a deep dive into the psychology and sociology in Bishop’s family life and career as they culminated in the brutal, fatal attack of the people who loved him.

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       William Bradford Bishop, Jr.

Jennifer Cave and Colton Pitonyak had their addiction to drugs in common, but they were otherwise two very different people. Jennifer was known as a caring person who tried to help everyone she met.  Pitonyak was a drug dealer with a growing propensity for violence.

In August of 2005, when Jennifer didn’t show up for her new job working for a law firm in Austin, Texas, her employer called Jennifer’s mother Sharon back in Corpus Christi.  Concerned, Sharon called several of Jennifer’s friends.  She even called Pitonyak, who lied to her and claimed he had not seen Jennifer.  The next day, Sharon and her fiancé, Jim, drove to Austin to look for Jennifer.  The crime scene they found in Pitonyak’s apartment was shockingly gruesome.

Join us at the quiet end for When Darkness Fell. Colton Pitonyak was a former rich kid who was used to getting everything he wanted.  Jennifer considered herself his friend, but he wanted more from her.  He took Jennifer out for dinner to celebrate her new job on August 16th, but something very dark occurred back at his place.  There has never been a clear motive for what happened to Jennifer that night, but it soon became clear to investigators that Pitonyak had had a co-conspirator after the fact.  Once arrested, Pitonyak and his accomplice turned on each other, further deepening the mystery of motive and blame.

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    Jennifer Cave, Colton Pitonyak, Laura Hall