Anatomy of Murder - The Promise - Part 2 (Robin Cornell & Lisa Story)

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

26 years after 2 brutal murders, the killer is identified by DNA. A promise would be fulfilled, but not without some startling turns along the way. For episode information and photos, please visit https://anatomyofmurder.com/Can’t get enough AoM? Find us on social media!Instagram: @aom_podcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @AOM_podcast | @audiochuckFacebook: /listenAOMpod | /audiochuckllc

Previously on Anatomy of Murder. I was looking around my room and clothes were hanging out of the door, the doors were emptied out. Everything I was looking at was ransacked and Robin was on the floor underneath my bed. And that's when I realized something horrible. One of the first things I actually remember, starting in the office, was talking about little Robin Cornell and Lisa's story and how they'd been so brutally murdered. These killings were cold-calculated and premeditated.

I promised her, I promise you I will never, ever stop for as long as I'm alive, and I will find out who hurt you. And I promise you they will pay. They started with the immediate circle of people around the family to see if they could exclude those people. Anybody who knew Jan, who knew Robin, who knew Lisa,

they conducted hundreds and hundreds of interviews. She looked at me and she said, we got him. I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff. I'm Anasika Nikolazi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction. And this is Anatomy of Merv. This is the second episode in a two-part series, so if you haven't yet, go back and listen to part one first. On May 10, 1990, Jan Cornell found her 11-year-old daughter Robin

and her friend, 32-year-old Lisa Story, brutally murdered in the condo the three shared in Cape Coral, Florida. Lisa had just moved in the night before. After their deaths, Jan made a promise to Robin and Lisa that she would not rest until their murderer was brought to justice. In the years that followed, she and the law enforcement community of Cape Coral were determined to pursue lead after lead. Decades passed, and the identity of Robin and Lisa's killer remained a mystery. Until 2016, when a Cape Coral detective appeared on Jan's doorstep with some big news. They caught him.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. I said, who is he? And she threw this picture on my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. I said, who is he? And she threw this picture on my cable. She said we had to double, triple, quadruple check everything. I could not tell you till we were certain that everything was the match. All I could say is, oh my God. Oh my God, thank you. Oh my God, God. Oh, my God, thank you. Oh, my God, thank you. Oh, my God, thank you. Authorities had been able to use forensic evidence from Robin and Lisa's crime scene to create a DNA profile. And 26 years after their murder, that profile matched to an individual in the CODIS database. And that man's name was Joseph Zeiler. For Jan, that match was an immense relief after decades of waiting with no answers and knowing

that the person who had committed these crimes was still out there. But before we talk more about Joseph Zeiler, let's go back a few years and look at how investigators tracked him down. We use the term cold case a lot. And at first glance, given the length of time that this particular case took, it seemed to be one. But there is an important distinction to be made here. It was an old case, not a cold case. That's Amira Fox speaking, state attorney for the 20th Judicial Circuit of Florida. And she made it clear that

this case was never forgotten or set aside. It was just taking, unfortunately, a very long time to solve. This office had an active case on these deaths from the time they happened. They were never put into closed status. We knew that the Cape Coral Police Department was working them. The Cape Coral Police Department was working very closely with us through the years on letting us know if they had any leads, bouncing things off of us, and it stayed open this entire time. This meant there had been years of false tips, evidence that hadn't amounted to any breaks, and frustration from both law enforcement and the victim's family members. But this breadth of time also meant that investigators had the opportunity to apply

new testing techniques to the forensic evidence that had been available. Authorities had collected three samples of DNA from the original crime scene. But back in the 1990s, DNA testing was still in its infancy. So initially, forensic analysis was only able to determine that the killer was a white male with an O blood type. But soon they were able to get more specific than that. In 1991, a DNA analyst did the initial DNA testing on those three samples with the outdated technique, which we used back in the mid-90s, which was RFLP. But he did get a profile.

So that was the initial profile they were using. While much less advanced than what we have today, that method did produce a profile that allowed authorities to eliminate hundreds of suspects throughout the 1990s. And advancements were coming. As the 90s became the 2000s, DNA science progressed quickly. And as testing evolved, the DNA collected in Robin and Lisa's case was repeatedly reanalyzed. You fast forward into the 2000s when the evidence is sent out for retesting when new methods of DNA are discovered.

Much more exacting methods using much smaller pieces of material and blood, semen to be able to develop a profile. These newer methods also allowed analysts to create more accurate profiles that could be matched to specific individuals. When STR comes about in 2000, this DNA gets sent out for new testing, much better profiles come out. And then, of course, you get the CODIS database coming out in the early 2000s. Now with CODIS, the profile could be uploaded into a local, state, and national database. So once Cape Coral authorities had developed this stronger DNA profile,

they then had a huge amount of people and evidence to compare it to. In 2012, there was another profile done with all the advancements and updates with the DNA science, and it is submitted into CODIS, but still no match. However, just like DNA science has evolved and changed, so too has CODIS. Over the years, larger number of profiles and more crime scene DNA has continually been uploaded to the database, which gives investigators a larger field to compare to. And in 2016, the DNA from Robin and

Lisa's crime scene was put through the system again this time. It looks like 2012 is the latest DNA profile that eventually ends up matching the 2016 CODIS hit. That's right, a hit. 26 years after Robin and Lisa were murdered, investigators had finally gotten a break in this case. And the strength of the match was overwhelming. The semen matched the defendant at one in 450 million. That alone is a staggering number, but the forensic evidence from the pillow wasn't even the most compelling match that they got. The DNA on the bed sheet matched at a frequency of over one in 700 billion. As a quick refresher, those numbers are a measurement, a ratio of the amount of people in a given population with that same DNA. So the rarer it is,

the more solid a match. In fact, FDLE caps their number at 700 billion because the human mind can't grasp how big that number is. That would be one person in 100 Earths, by the way, is what we worked out. That's worth repeating. One person in 100 Earths. The number, the conclusiveness of the match is staggering. I find that completely stunning. So in 2016, I would have been the chief assistant. I was in my office, and at the time, the homicide attorney, who ended up being the first attorney assigned to this case, called me and told me, and I remember feeling chills, as I still do to this moment, all over my body, when I realized that a case that I had known about since I moved here,

and it was the talk of the town back then in 1990, had finally been solved. And Amira remembers the moment they got that name. Joseph Zeiler. Zeiler was a 54-year-old North Fort Myers, Florida resident who had been arrested just a month prior. Zeiler was arrested in 2016 for shooting at his son with a pellet gun. And when he was arrested and booked into the jail, he had some buckle swabs done that were run through CODIS and gave us the match. That's why his DNA didn't hit

in 2012 or before. It wasn't there. His profile was only entered in the database after a sample had been taken in 2016. If it weren't for the 2016 arrest, Zeiler may never have been connected to Robin and Lisa's murders. This is science catching up.

We've talked about so many different cases where the evidence had been collected and preserved fairly well, and now science, and when I mean science, I mean DNA in this case, has become much more definitive, much more accurate. We've talked about this as prosecutors all the time. You know, how many times someone in New York City jumped a turnstile and ultimately they were caught for a much more serious crime as a result?

Well, it's the same thing here. And that was much more than jumping a turnstile. The charges shooting, if that hadn't happened, his DNA would have never been uploaded and they never would have gotten that match. So yes, it's all the science, it's all the hard work coupled with some luck. Patience meets preparedness. And that's exactly what paid off for this case,

for this investigation after so much time had passed. After the DNA match, it was full steam ahead. There was a deep dive. The Cape Coral Police Department immediately started looking at the history he had of living in the area and found that he was living in Cape Coral and working in Cape Coral at the time of this murder and that he was still living in Lee County. He had moved on with a long-term girlfriend to North Fort Myers. But at the time of the murder, he lived and worked in Cape Coral, not that far from the scene of the crime. At the time that this happened, Wood had been 28 years old.

Zeiler also had a few run-ins with the law, including an arrest in 1985 and charges of theft and battery and concealing a firearm. One of these came just two months after Robin and Lisa were killed. As investigators dug into Zeiler's past, they also reached out to the victim's families. As soon as the detective who was working the case at that time, which was Detective Ellis, as soon as she received that evidence, she was in contact with the families to let them know. But of course, knowing Zeiler's identity came with some new questions as well. Nobody could place that they ever knew him. He appeared to have been a complete stranger to both families. This now goes back to the possibilities

that the police had been theorizing in the beginning. They thought that the killer either had some type of personal vendetta against someone who actually lived in the condo or that it was just some sadistic random act. You know, we talked a lot about this in part one of this episode. A lot of the initial theories came from the evaluation of the crime scene, you know, eliminating the possibility of a robbery or other things that really pointed more towards the suspect potentially targeting the victim. But now knowing that Zeiler didn't know anyone in the family, anyone in the condo at

all, well, of course, that goes back to the latter theory being the most plausible and likely that this horrific crime was just random and that the attacker had done this for no other reason than he wanted to. While police investigated further, Zyler wasn't going anywhere. He was sitting in a Lee County jail cell because of the problem he had with his son. Police went to speak with Zyler wasn't going anywhere. He was sitting in a Lee County jail cell because of the problem he had with his son. Police went to speak with Zyler, and he agreed. During the interview, Zyler was evasive, to put it mildly. He claimed to have memory loss from an accident back in 1998.

Here's Joseph Zyler speaking during his interview with investigators. I have a lot of memory issues, so I'm not very good at answering stuff about my family or stuff that's in the past. I just have a really hard time recalling anything before this and after this accident. I mean, I can remember some stuff, you know, but only basically stuff that I have to deal with on a daily basis that's hammered into my head. Among the things he claimed not to remember... Did you go to high school here? Or I know you said that you were born in Illinois, or did you go to high school in Illinois? I don't, I don't really know. And you said that you used to do what when you worked before you had the...

I don't remember exactly what I used to do for work. He also claimed not to know his parents' names, his age, his first wife, if he'd ever been arrested before, or how long he'd been with his present girlfriend. So I really don't know how many years I've been with her. According to Zeiler, he rarely went outside and wasn't even supposed to be driving.

Makes it sound like he's helpless, that his long-term girlfriend has to care for him, and uses memory loss as his excuse as to why he remembers nothing. One of the other things he said that he couldn't remember... Have you ever lived in Cape Coral? Not that I know of. And when Zeiler continued to say he didn't know, investigators mentioned his arrest there.

You don't remember being arrested here in Cape Coral in 1985? No, ma'am. I don't remember being in Cape Coral. He denied this repeatedly throughout the interview, and when Robin and Lisa's case was brought up, he said he'd never even heard of it. You remember this case, right? No. You ever seen anything on the news about it? I have no idea what you're talking about. You know, this was the interesting part for me because

he gave investigators an opportunity to use what he just claimed and test it. I would say, you know, Mr. Zeiler, you say that you have some difficulty with your memory. Let me see if I can help you. What I'm going to do is show you some photographs. And that's exactly what they did. Investigators laid out pictures of the condo where the murders occurred and photos of Lisa and Robin. I don't know who they are. A little bit. I can see it in your eyes. Well, you'd be wrong because I don't know who they are. A little bit. I can see it in your eyes. Well, you'd be wrong because I don't know who they are. There was an immediate,

glaring problem with these I don't remember answers. When Dyler was arrested only one month before for shooting his son, he was interviewed at that time as well. He had already given a statement

on the day he was arrested on using the pellet gun on his son, and he had a full memory to answer where he had been living and questions about his family, told them he used to work in Cape Coral. The Zeiler that was interviewed in August seemed to be a very different Zeiler than the one who was interviewed in September about Robin and Lisa's case. Here's a clip from the August interview where he talks about his relationship with his family. I've been with my girl 26 years. I love her.

And another where he discussed how he raised his son and mentioned his own father. Really kind of raised him with any physical discipline. You know, like old school way my father raised me. You don't talk back to your father. You don't disrespect your family. Now, information about his parents, the length of time that he'd been with his girlfriend, were all details that he claimed to be confused or unaware of when he was interviewed only one month later in September. Though this information wasn't about this case, this did tell investigators something very important. The Cape Coral Police Department

knows right away that he's not being truthful. That, coupled with very strong DNA evidence, made authorities confident this was the killer who had eluded them for so long. Now they had his name, their evidence, and they were ready to act. We all agree that he should be arrested and that we are ready to indict him for two counts of first-degree murder.

Joseph Zeiler was charged with the murders of both Robin Cornell and Lisa Story. Prosecutors decided that if convicted, this would be a death penalty case. Just because there is a death penalty does not mean that we seek it on every first-degree murder case. The office goes through a process of determining by committee whether or not we should seek the death penalty. The two strongest aggravators are heinous, atrocious, and cruel, meaning basically somebody suffered while they were dying, and cold, calculated, and premeditated, meaning heightened premeditation of thinking it out before you do it. And both of those, plus a few others, existed in this case. I believe this was a unanimous vote by the committee

to go forward with the death penalty on both deaths, which I supported very strongly. Often, the passage of time can be detrimental to the prosecution of a case. But here, it actually worked to their benefit. Because the evidence was taken out every couple of years, working through with the state attorney's office and prosecutors who had been on this case for many, many years to say, okay, what else can we do?

Let's make sure we crossed every T, dotted every I, and let's get this so that when we do find the person, we're able to have all the evidence we need to get him convicted. While prosecutors worked through the files and prepared for trial, there were two families still waiting, more ready than ever to see justice for their daughters. But there was one person who was not sitting back, Joseph Zeiler. Before the trial got underway, he began to send letters to Robin's mom, Jan. While the prosecutor's office was preparing for trial,

Joseph Zeiler began harassing Jan Cornell. I got three letters from him. When I opened my mailbox and I saw his writing, because I had read several letters that were actually put into the clerk's website as parts of what he wanted the court to see. He'd write letters to the judge. So I knew his hand could tell his handwriting anywhere. When Jan opened the envelope and read the contents, she was stunned.

The first letter, he was just saying, you got to remember me. We were boyfriend and girlfriend. Jan made it very clear to investigators she did not know this man. His insistence that they were in a relationship came along with a demand for Jan to stop the murder investigation. His letter started out, I'm getting framed for something I didn't commit, he put himself in my condo six months before the murder, which six months before the murder, I was actually in a relationship with Donnie. In this letter, he said, my brothers worked as masonaries at the Cape Coral Hospital, which my hospital was always doing construction. And my brothers introduced me to Jan because we went to the condo None of it was true. Not the relationship, not the drug dealing.

But what was most unsettling was that he knew details about her life, like where she worked and also where she lived. Even more chilling, his letters also revealed that Zeiler knew another detail about Jan that she intentionally kept a secret for years. I literally almost threw up at my mailbox because it had my name, Jan Cornell Batista. It's been a while, so you might not remember why that last name should ring a bell. It's the surname of Donnie Batista. Donnie, the boyfriend Jan was with on the night of the murders, was now her husband. And just a sidestep for a moment, that is a bright spot in this very dark story. We got married in 1992. He asked me to marry him and I said,

you do realize I'm nuts. Why is it you want to marry me? And he said, because I love you. We were together when this happened and I don't think we ever need to be apart. Jan had taken Donnie's last name, but kept it a secret because she'd always been worried that the killer would find her and her family and hurt them too. That's why it was so jarring to see that name written on the envelope in Joseph Zeiler's handwriting. As terrifying as this letter from Zeiler must have been, Jan was also very aware that it was something beyond a threat. It was evidence. I was very careful not getting it exposed to my counter because I know about DNA and transfer and I kept it on that paper towel. I actually wore gloves when I opened the letter.

Within probably 20, 25 minutes of getting the letter, it was in the possession of the state attorney's office. I took it to them, and they logged it in as evidence. We've both been exposed to threats in our professional careers, and while it's easy to say it's part of the job, each situation really needs to be evaluated. Are they just words or a cause for a higher level of vigilance? For us, it is professional.

It is one of the things that you have to take on when this is the world you choose to work. But for Jan, it was very personal and she already had too much to bear. And so I think it's all the more incredible that she just still kept her eye on the ball, which for her was justice for Robin and her daughter. Amira discussed Jan's incredible dedication to this case

when speaking about her relationship with the prosecutor's office. She was in touch with this office from the time the murder happened until today, but she worked hand in hand with us. She never went to the media and said, I want this and this and this, which can be very detrimental to a case. She never leaked anything that was going on. She just stood by us very, very patiently. Her patience is one of the best displays of patience I've ever seen. That patience was going to be tested yet again, because even though they had a match to Zyler's DNA,

even though they were confident in the case against him, it was another seven years before they proceeded to trial. The trial was delayed many, many times, leading up to the point where it was approximately ready to go to trial, which, of course, we then had the COVID pandemic. Even though trials were going again within a six-month period, it was difficult to get in the huge amount of jurors you need. So just one delay after another. The issue of where the case would be tried also came into play. Zeiler's defense team worried that he wouldn't get a fair trial in Lee County since the case was so well known there and the jury might be prejudiced. This case had occurred a long time ago.

So by the time you get around to the trial seven years later, even though it had had more recent media attention, a lot of people who did not live here in 1990 had actually not heard about the case. And any that had, most of them had not already formed an opinion. So we were able to successfully select a jury here in Lee County without having to move venue. So the case proceeds to trial in 2023. The trial got underway that May. And right from the beginning, Zeiler, shall we say, made himself known in the courtroom.

He was a difficult defendant. He had a lot of problems with his lawyers. You know, this defendant, I would classify as a purely evil person. And he acted up throughout these proceedings. He had outbursts. He had to be removed from the courtroom. And he came to the trial and to the sentencing proceeding wearing some sort of hand-fashioned grill for his top teeth that he had made himself out of maybe styrofoam or some sort of material where he had carved into it letters that spelled out the word killer.

And that is how he came to the courtroom. But no matter what Zeiler did, Jan did not let it deter her from attending the trial. I had been preparing for this for 33 years. Every day of my life, from the day of his first appearance, I never missed one time sitting in the front row of that courtroom because I wanted him to see my face every time he walked in that courtroom. Donnie came to the courtroom to sit alongside his wife and supported her throughout. Other family and friends attended as well. And while their presence was likely comforting, Jan was reluctant to have them there. I didn't want them to come to court and I told them all that you've never heard, you've

never seen, but you'll never unhear and you'll never unsee them. I don't want that for you. While Jan had been on the front line of this case, she had kept many of the gruesome details to herself for all these years. Now, as the trial progressed, it was shocking for her loved ones to learn about the specifics of Robin and Lisa's murder. And it pained them that Jan had suffered with the knowledge of all those details alone. They never knew things. I never told them. And when they all said they were going to attend, especially my daughter, Jeannie, I never, ever, ever, ever told her anything.

My husband Donnie, he had to leave the courtroom a couple times, and he said to me, you never told me. I said, I couldn't. She had sympathy for her family as she watched them now reeling from the things that she had known for so long, but it was also important that nothing detract from the proceedings. When I knew we were going to be going to court a lot, I read everything I possibly could about courtroom etiquette. But I demanded courtroom etiquette for everybody that I knew that walked in that courtroom.

And I said, if you can't take what's being said, you get up and you leave the courtroom very quietly because this is not about you. This is about them. It was for Robin and Lisa that Jan sat there in court, reliving that horrible night over and over again. But beyond having to relive it by listening, it was soon her turn to finally speak

as a witness. The whole three hours I was on that witness stand, I kept saying in my head to the girls, I said, okay, buddies, this is my last time I get to be your voice. And I don't want to cry and I don't want to boo-hoo. I want people to understand me clearly. What I saw he did to you. And they were with me the whole time. From the stand, Jan recounted the hours leading up to the time she left to go to Donnie's house to watch the game. How she fell asleep there and rushed back to her condo to get ready for work.

And then she described the way she found her daughter, Robin, and also her friend, Lisa. There was never one question that I did not recall. Because for 33 years, every single day of my life, I woke up and I immediately walked myself through what happened because I didn't want to forget one thing.

I wanted to be able to tell the same thing I told detectives in 1990. I wanted to tell the same thing to those detectives in 2023. Just the anticipation of that day, knowing that you're going to be in the courtroom and sitting on the stand looking at someone who took your daughter's life and the life of such a close friend. It's difficult to process. And then that day comes. What incredible courage.

And I just think about her reliving this for the reasons that she gave every single day. And that she had to now relive this on that witness stand, but this time with Lisa and Robin's murderer staring down at her. That is incredibly painful even just to hear, but it is also inspiring. That day after I testified, I said to Amira Fox, because she was bawling and hugging me and saying, you're so strong, I said, I wish people would quit saying that because it's almost embarrassing. I'm a mom. I am her mother. I am still her mom. And I don't care what it would have taken.

Two days later, it was Zeiler who would choose to take the stand. Defendants tend to be on their best behavior during a trial as they know that the jury who is going to decide their fate is sitting there watching them. But Zeiler was not. He addressed the courtroom by giving a middle finger to the cameras, stating that none of the fingerprints at the scene had been matched to him and that he was in Maryland at the time of the murders. He also tried to refer to statements that hadn't been

introduced into evidence, prompting the judge to issue a reprimand and threaten him with contempt. Jan pointed out that while his behavior was bizarre, it wasn't surprising. I knew it was going to be what I called a show because he could not help himself. We could predict his behavior by watching for almost seven years how he behaved. Even so, the media and the public were likely caught off guard when Zeiler reasserted a previous claim that he had been in a sexual relationship with Jan months before the murders. And according to him, that was the only way his DNA could have been at the crime scene. His claims were outrageous, where he decided it

would be a good idea to attack the mother of the victim. And he absolutely had a wild outburst in the courtroom, on the stand. At one point, the judge had to remove him. He was yelling and directing his extremely unpleasant comments to Jan Cornell. It was really one of the more upsetting things that I've witnessed in a courtroom, and I've been doing this 33 years. It wasn't long after Zeiler's testimony that the trial concluded and the jury was sent to deliberate. Jan sat there, hoping to get the justice she'd been waiting for, and that she'd been promising to her daughter and her friend for decades.

The jury deliberated for three hours before reaching a verdict. Guilty as charged, first-degree murder of Robin Cornell. Guilty as charged, first-degree murder of Lisa Story. Those guilties meant Robin and Lisa's murderer would finally be held accountable. But the jury still had to decide what the punishment would be. Were they going to recommend that Zyler spent his life in prison or received the death penalty? As a whole, the trial had three distinct parts and only the guilty phase was over.

I heard the first guilty and then I heard the first guilty, and then I heard the second guilty. I kept saying, OK, we only have two more parts to go, girls. Because I knew the process. I knew that we had a penalty phase. I knew we had the sentencing. The penalty phase would come next. The state argues aggravating factors, and the defense puts forward any mitigators they would like the jury to consider.

The prosecution highlighted four things. The severity of the crime, that it was premeditated, Zeiler's criminal history, and that the murders happened while he was charged with another felony. We reminded them that there was evidence that both Robin and Lisa had suffered while they were dying, that they attempted to fright back. We reminded them how premeditated this was for the cold calculated premeditated aggravator, that he traveled from room to room, that it would have taken some time for both of them to die. He was there for a period of time in that home. And that's what we relied upon as we argued the different aggravating circumstances that existed as to why they should recommend that he be put to death. And for the defense? There was no insanity defense

or incompetence proceeding put forward during During the penalty phase, of course, there were some non-statutory mitigating factors that were put forward, and two doctors had examined Zeiler for the purposes of the penalty phase and said things like that he has mild anxiety and depression, suffers from pre-Parkinson's. At the end of the proceeding, the jury found that each one of the aggravating factors

we proved beyond a reasonable doubt. And then they found that the mitigating factors did not outweigh those aggravating factors. They voted 10 to 2 for a death sentence on both charges. But that means that the jury gave their recommendation, but it was still ultimately up to the judge to decide whether or not he or she would uphold the recommendation. That decision would take place during the third phase, the sentencing hearing, which was scheduled for that June. There, Zeiler had a chance to appeal the death sentence recommendation, just as Robin and Lisa's family and friends could address the court via impact statements. There were six friends and family total that spoke at the sentencing,

and some of these friends were childhood friends at elementary school with Robin, who had followed this all these years waiting for justice for Robin, and had also themselves, like Jan, really lived in fear for a number of years of not knowing who did this and whether they might be on a target list. Lisa's sister sent in a statement detailing the impact on their family and how Lisa's murder had traumatized her and her brother, Lisa's fiancé spoke to. He talked about Lisa and what a vibrant, wonderful young woman she was. They had their whole future in front of them. And what really struck me is that he said he still loved her.

And that was just so powerful to hear that. Jan also gave her statement, one that she had been ready to give for decades. She told the court how Zyler's actions had forever changed her life. I said, one thing I will never be able to let go of is I think of the last minutes of my baby's life. And I said, and when I think about it, I can barely swallow. I can barely breathe because I think about how much fear and pain there was for her last seconds of her life on this earth. And for Lisa, too.

And he's a horrible monster. Jan's pain was clear to everyone in the courtroom. She lived in terror for so many years, not knowing who did this. Between that, combined with the grief, it was just overwhelming to think what Jan had gone through and what that family had gone through and what the family of Lisa's story had gone through. It was really powerful to hear that come from Jan and from the other family and friends who spoke at the sentencing. At the end, Jan asked the court to deliver the justice she believed Robin and Lisa's killer deserved.

Then there was another outburst from Zeiler. He attacked his lawyer, elbowing him in the face and had to be subdued by security. Additional security measures were put into place before he was allowed back in. He then barred any testimony on his behalf, instead simply stating that he maintained his innocence. And you know, Anastasia, I have seen this courtroom outburst online, and for all of you, just Google it, you can find it. I do believe that in his own twisted mind, he believed that he did nothing wrong. And it was a story that his defense attorney wasn't able to sell that ended in a level of frustration

when he attacked his own lawyer, all in full display of the jury, which just convicted him, perhaps reinforcing for them the decision they just came to was a righteous one. And it certainly doesn't help a defendant when they act out in the courtroom, but I don't know, I just keep thinking that it's yet another play for attention by this man. But regardless of what his thinking was, it was about to be time for Zeiler to be sentenced.

The judge upheld the jury's recommendation. Zeiler was sentenced to death. The death penalty is a polarizing topic. But whichever side you fall on of the debate, here's one thing we can all agree on. That after 33 years, Robin and Lisa's families now had received that sense of finality, at least in the courtroom, that had eluded them for years. When the sentence was read, hugs were traded, tears were shed, their relief was palpable. Amira was watching Jan when the decision came down.

She became part of the team working to find justice for her daughter, which made it so wonderful to stand by her as Zyler got two death sentences and watch her body movements change, the look on her face change, just to see some of that stress. Not that you can ever get rid of all of it, obviously, after something this horrendous happens to you, but to watch her have some sense of justice at the end of 33 years later when she sees Zyler being sentenced to death.

It was the end of the city's oldest unsolved homicide case. And for Amira, it was a true full circle moment. That was incredibly rewarding to watch a case that I knew about from the month it happened to the day that the perpetrator was sentenced. You know, this case is an example of why people become prosecutors and stick with it through the years. Being a prosecutor is an incredibly difficult job. It's a very emotional job. So remaining a prosecutor for many people is because they have been able to handle a case like this, where even though so many years have passed by,

you still get to stand there side by side with a family and watch justice be done, which is what a prosecutor is, a minister of justice. The case's resolution also provided a future roadmap for Amir and her office, one that will hopefully be a boon to old or cold cases going forward. When I became state attorney, I put into effect a cold case homicide unit within our homicide unit here. It has been remarkable how you can take an old case, go back through it,

figure out what needs to be sent for retesting using advanced DNA methods, and also figure out who do we need to go talk to that might know something about this because allegiances and alliances change through the years. So we have found this unit to be incredibly valuable and we've made many, many arrests since we opened the unit. Not all of the victim's families were alive to see Zyler brought to justice. Lisa Story's mother died a few years after her daughter's murder. Lisa's mother and I used to secretly meet. We felt that our babies died together.

It's part of the reason why Jan has always felt the need to talk not just about her own daughter, but about Lisa too. For every minute as much as I've been the voice for Robin, I've been the voice for her too. Because they were together. I want people to know that Lisa was so in love with Earth and everything that the Earth produced. She loved animals. She had compassion. She loved every child she ever met. She just loved the world and she had such a positive attitude. Lisa's death caused Jan so much pain, but of course, it's the loss of Robin that forever changed her. And that's the love she carries in her heart. My last mother's day card from her. It said, roses are red, violets are blue.

Whenever you see balloons in the sky, you'll know I'll always love you. As much as she aches for Robin, Zyler's conviction has allowed Jan the ability to move forward. She can breathe more easily, knowing that she fulfilled the promise she made to her daughter and to her friend. In spite of the grief, Jan still appreciates the life that she's been able to build around herself. We just all need to move on with our lives because I'm going to be honest with you, I feel very blessed. The only thing not perfect in my life was that. I have a beautiful daughter. I have beautiful friends. I had great, amazing,

supportive jobs where people actually were compassionate. And I never had one problem with any employer to deal with this case. I got so much support and the amazing people I met on this journey that I'll hold in my heart forever. So that was the good that came out of this evil night in May of 1990. This case, there is obviously so much for us to say. Amira Fox, the elected DA, this case spans the arc of her career and as she put it is a reminder of the reasons she is proud to be a prosecutor. That resonates with me and I am thankful for her and the many like her that are dedicated to public service. And Jan, the arc of the decades and what she lost to these vicious crimes is a pit in my stomach that I can't shake whenever I think of her loss.

I can't help but think about the incredible sense of guilt and self-blame that Jan felt and clearly still feels to this day. She's not alone in those feelings. Parents and siblings of victims may incessantly replace scenarios in their minds, tormenting themselves with the what-ifs and if-only thoughts, convinced that they could have done something differently to prevent the unfathomable loss. This intense guilt can manifest in various ways, ranging from isolation and depression to anger and anxiety as family members struggle to reconcile with the reality of their situation. For Jan, it transformed her into a tireless pursuer of justice,

and I'm happy to hear that she has found some peace and comfort. She certainly deserves it. But she is so strong. She lived with many of the details of these crimes alone for so many years because she wanted to spare that same pain to the many others that loved Robin and Lisa. If each of us could take just one drop of her pain to ease it for her, wouldn't we all? Jan, just to reiterate what Scott said, we hope that you can rid yourself of that unfair feeling of guilt that you still hold. The accountability belongs to one man alone, and now at least he can never hurt anyone else again. And it is your persistence that in part helped ensure that that happened. But the ending here should be about Lisa and Robin.

Lisa, the lover of nature, a good friend and fun to be around. And Robin, so loved, kind. We will remember both of you for who you were in life and how very loved you clearly still are today. Tune in next week for another new episode of Anatomy of Murder. Anatomy of Murder is an AudioChuck original produced and created by Weinberger Media and Forseti Media. Ashley Flowers is the executive producer. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?