Legal News

The Robert Wone Murder: Little to Show Three Years Later

By Ashby Jones

We remember nearly three years ago being shocked and saddened by the story of Robert Wone, at the time the newly installed general counsel of Radio Free Asia. On the evening of August 2, 2006, Wone, then 32, was stabbed to death in a Washington, D.C., townhouse where a self-described “polyamorous” family of three men was living.

At the time, we thought — perhaps naively — that the case would be an easy one for law enforcement to solve. But nearly three years later, no one has yet been indicted in Wone’s murder — though each of the residents of the townhouse have been indicted on obstruction charges.

The Washington Post today offers up Part 1 of a two-part series on the case, and it’s very well done. The story traces the connection between the four men, which began in 1991 when Wone was a prospective student at the College of William & Mary. That’s when Wone met Joe Price, one of the three residents in the house and a lawyer at Arent Fox in D.C.

Fifteen years later — on the night of Wone’s murder — Price was living with his partner, Victor Zaborsky, a marketing executive for the milk industry, and a third man, Dylan Ward. Wone had stopped by the house after introducing himself to his staff at Radio Free Europe, which was also located in the Dupont Circle section of the city. He arrived around 10:30. Just before midnight, Zaborsky called 911 to announce that Wone had been murdered — the victim of a stabbing by an intruder.

“Okay, who was the person that stabbed him?” the operator asked.

“I don’t know,” answered Zaborksy. “We think it’s somebody . . . an intruder in the house. We heard the chime at the door.”

According to the WaPo:

[T]here was no stealthy intruder, authorities allege. Citing a strange-as-fiction web of circumstantial, forensic and autopsy evidence, investigators have publicly theorized that one or two of the housemates, or the three together — all professional, highly intelligent men, none with a criminal record — murdered Wone in a weirdly elaborate sexual assault involving the injection of an incapacitating drug.

Having a theory is one thing; proving it is another, especially when the theory has significant holes. Without a cooperating eyewitness to help cement a murder case, the U.S. attorney’s office has filed no charges in the killing. And despite being pressured by prosecutors to turn on one another, the men have steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.

For other info on the Wone situation, click here, here and here for other blog posts; click here for a well put-together Web site devoted to Wone and his case, called whomurderedrobertwone.com. We eagerly await the next WaPo installment.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 01, 2009 (boomark / email).