A former Army service member who confessed to a Fairfax County, Virginia, cold-case told detectives that he knew that he was going to kill someone when he left the barracks that night in 1994. He just didn’t know who.
Nearly 30 years ago, Robin Lawrence, 37, was killed after being stabbed 49 times in her Springfield home while her 2-year-old daughter was in the next room.
Her killer remained a mystery until DNA led police to investigate Stephan Smerk, 52, of New York in September 2023.
Officers went to Smerk’s home to ask for a DNA sample. Shortly after police visited his home, Smerk called police and turned himself in.
“It was 100% intentional,” Smerk told detectives in a videotaped confession. WTOP obtained a copy of the video from court.
Smerk pleaded guilty to first-degree murder earlier this month.
Nearly 30 years with no answers come to a close
The software engineer was honorably discharged from the military and had no prior criminal record, according to police. He’s married to an attorney and has two kids of his own.
“I honestly believe that if it wasn’t for my wife and my kids, I probably would be a serial killer,” he said.
When asked by detectives if he had anything to say to Lawrence’s family, he fell silent.
“I don’t have animosity to the family. I don’t feel anything for the family,” he said.
Why was Lawrence targeted that night?
At the time of the killing, Smerk was an active-duty Army soldier based at what is now Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall near Arlington National Cemetery.
He drank a couple of beers and took ephedra pills — an over-the-counter pill that’s since been banned. His friends went clubbing in D.C. but Smerk drove to a familiar neighborhood in West Springfield instead.
“It was like this overbearing fog in my head that I needed to kill somebody, I just had to kill somebody,” Smerk said.
Smerk said he’d never seen Lawrence, her husband or daughter. He didn’t know the couple had a child until he entered the home. He also didn’t know the family was African American.
He picked the house next door to one where his friends had been staying, and parked in the driveway.
“I have no idea why I chose that. I just knew that I knew where that place was.”
A knife was in his pocket, and he wore leather gloves and a ski mask.
He smoked in the Lawrences’ backyard, discarding the cigarette butts there — something he told detectives he realized later was a mistake, as it potentially left his DNA behind.
The Army service member got inside by jimmying open a sliding-glass door with a branch he found.
Smerk said he noticed the toddler’s room but didn’t go inside. Then, he startled Lawrence out of bed.
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Lawrence begged for her life, Smerk said.
“She was on her knees,” Smerk told detectives.
When she reached for a phone to call for help, he cut the phone line.
He told detectives he stabbed her with a tanto knife, cutting her throat and stabbing her from behind.
“I did everything they taught me in the military, hand-to-hand combat. I stabbed her in the back of the neck.”
He remembered seeing a scratch on his face in a mirror at the home.
“She clawed at my face. I had a little bit of a scar here,” he said. “I was worried that maybe she had some DNA underneath her finger.”
When leaving the house, Smerk said he didn’t speed away. He drove over a bridge and tossed the weapon into a body of water.
Smerk returned to the barracks, washed up and threw away his clothes and shoes in a dumpster.
Lawrence’s husband was out of town for business. After he had trouble getting ahold of his wife over the phone, he asked a friend to check on her.
The mother’s body was found Nov. 20, 1994. Her daughter was uninjured, but was walking around in a soiled diaper when a friend came to check on them.
‘Influenced by demons’
Smerk told detectives that he’d been diagnosed as psychotic and suffers from PTSD. He had seen a psychiatrist and been on medications to address his mental illness in the past.
“I’m highly influenced by demons. I wouldn’t say I’m possessed but I’m influenced,” he said.
At times, Smerk said he has felt remorse for the killing, which motivated his decision to turn himself into police.
“I feel bad that I did it because I knew someday my personal freedom would be affected,” he said, at one point asking detectives about whether Virginia uses the death penalty.
Police were able to connect Smerk to the killing through work with Reston-based Parabon NanoLabs, a DNA technology company that’s solved several cold cases.
A database of genealogy helped investigators build a family tree.
Detectives traveled 400 miles to Smerk’s home in New York to ask for a DNA sample.
After the detectives’ visit, he called his wife, who is an attorney, and told her about the killing and his plans to confess.
“She was hysterically crying,” he said.
Detectives said they were preparing to head home when Smerk called and told them, “I want to talk.”
Smerk’s sentencing hearing has been scheduled for March 7, 2025.
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