True Crime with Kimbyr - 80’s Halloween KFC Killing: Robin Hoynes Part 3

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

In the final part of this episode, Kim delves into the tragic case of Robin Hoynes, a 21-year-old assistant manager at a KFC in Torrance, California. On the eve of Halloween in 1984, Robin was viciously attacked and killed during her shift by William Charles Marshall, a former employee who targeted the restaurant for robbery. Although Marshall was initially arrested, insufficient evidence led to his release, leaving the case unsolved for over twenty years. It wasn’t until 2006, when a critical piece of foam from his boot connected him to the crime, that justice was finally served. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There hadn't been any new leads in Robbins' murder investigation since a few days after Halloween. Detectives were made aware of a report that was filed by a manager of another Kentucky Fried Chicken location that was 30 miles away from the one in Torrance. This one was out in Fountain Valley. And in that report, the manager, Peter Goats, said he was working the night shift at the Fountain Valley location on November 2nd. And he was the only one left inside when a guy that he did not know and had never met before drove up to the drive-through window. This was around 11 p.m. after hours. So Peter approached the window and asked the guy if he needed help. All this guy did was ask what time it was, even though there was a clock right in front of him on the wall

that he could clearly see through the drive-through window. He didn't actually have to like knock on there or anything because you could see it through the glass. Then after this, Peter watched this guy park his car and then walk up to one of his employees, John Stumbo. He was still in the parking. lot after ending his shift. And then a couple minutes later, the doorbell on the employee door rang, so Peter looked through the people and he saw John, so he opened the door. But then that strange

guy was standing right behind him. That's when John asked Peter if this stranger could quickly use the phone. But Peter, per their policy, refused to let him inside. The very next day, Peter filed a police report, but no crime had actually taken place at the Fountain Valley location. For all they knew, Maybe this employee John was a friend of this man in the parking lot. But because William was a person of interest in Robin's case, they decided to put his photo, along with ones of other men, into a photo array, and ask Peter if he recognized any of them as the man that he saw that night. And he picked William's picture out.

However, just him being at a place that he formerly worked because remember he was trained there wasn't a crime. Maybe he was friends with John. And maybe they trained together or worked together, and they were just. hanging out but peter said he found it odd because the guy that he now thinks was william was wearing camouflage pants a dark jacket a knit cap gloves and boots and he was carrying a blue bag well it was 60 degrees outside and most of us here we do tend to wear like jackets and coats and stuff because there is a slight breeze when it gets dark and chilly so detectives weren't sure

if this was suspicious or not however it was all they had to go on so after coming up with the plan. They decide to start surveillance on William Marshall. They began on November 6th. They were following him in unmarked vehicles and wearing plain clothes not to tip him off. At one point, they did witness William buying some drugs, but they never saw him using them. But then on November 10th at around 9 p.m., they followed William back to that Fountain Valley Kentucky Fried Chicken, where he proceeded to park in a parking lot close to the restaurant. not at the one in the restaurant. But from where William was parked,

he could see right inside the restaurant, and there were two men and one woman working inside, completing their closing time routine. The detectives noted that William was wearing a denim jacket and gloves. That's all they could see at this point because he was in his car, which is also what was reported as what the man Peter had seen on November 2nd was wearing. William just sat in his car, watching the employees for a little while.

Then he drove off. And when they followed, him, they saw him visit a couple other Kentucky Fried Chicken locations. Then he comes back to the Fountain Valley one. He walks up to one of the windows and at this point it's closer to midnight and they observed that William had on camo pants, a denim jacket, a knit cap, gloves and boots, and again, he's carrying a blue bag, just like what Peter stated in his police report on November 3rd. From what the detectives had observed, it looked as though William was case. the place. So they were concerned for the safety of the employees and they decided to

pull William over at 1245 in the morning on November 11th as he was getting off the freeway and they arrested him. Now here's the picture of Williams sitting on the curb following his arrest. Here's another perspective. I mean to me those clothes look pretty normal for LA, even the style back then the jean jacket the camo pants and boots even now that's kind of in style. I was expecting to see a black trench coat and more of a disguise however get this when detective gilbert and cronk searched his car they opened up that blue bag and inside they found a five inch long boning knife this is what it looked like then when william was searched during booking they found three more gloves as well as the same three inch pocket

knife in his pants pocket that he showed them during his initial interview at this point under california law detective lancaster had two days to either charge william for a crime or let him go. So he took everything that they had thus far to the district attorney. They were confident that even though it was all circumstantial, the DA would move forward with this case. So they even informed Robin's family

that they had who they believed was the killer in custody. However, the detectives wouldn't provide the hoins with any additional information. It was a waiting game. And Kim was feeling a lot of pressure because she was the one that her parents were really leaning on at this time. She even moved back in with them

for a couple weeks so that their whole family could be together. Now they were a family of five instead of six. It was very hard. This was a grieving process that they had never been through before. And as a young woman, Kim tried to have some sense of normalcy in her life. She even went to Disneyland with her cousins since they were in town for Robin's funeral. But all that did was bring her nightmares. There was one nightmare when Kim was frantically looking throughout Tom Sawyer's tree house.

at Disneyland and she wanted to find Robin, but she was nowhere. She couldn't find her anywhere. And everything reminded the family of the void that her death had created. They missed so many things that Robin did and the things she liked, like when she would sing the Oscar Meyer jingle in her funny high-pitched voice, or when she took longer than anyone to say a prayer.

It was the little things, and they knew it would never be the same. They could no longer cook Robin's favorite meals, like pork chops and applesauce. And the holidays would be way too hard without her there. They remembered how it would take Robin forever to open Christmas gifts, and now they would wait a lifetime just to see her face again. It really hit her father harder than anyone else at the time. He was plagued by guilt and inadequacy.

He believed that he had not done enough to protect his precious daughter. His remorse was so deep that he often found himself sitting on the edge of his bed, lost in thoughts of Robin. He was grieving in his own way, thinking that any second she might be running down that hallway to say hello to him like she had for 21 years. The family had so many unanswered questions. Things like, did Robin let her kill her inside? Did she know them? Was her death quick? Or did she suffer? Was she sexually violated in any way? And at this point, they still hadn't gotten access to the autopsy report. So they had no idea how she died. And now it was as hard for Ethel and Virgil to allow their other

daughters out of their sight. Whenever Wendy or Tricia wanted to go do something that any normal teenager would do, they were met with resistance from their parents, and rightfully so. They wanted to protect them, to hold them tightly to keep them safe within the bubble of their home. They were hoping that convicting Robbins killer would bring them some relief. But instead, Detective Lancaster informed them of some bad news. The DA had completely rejected the case. There just wasn't enough concrete connections between William and and Robin's murder. The only solid connection between William and Robin

was that they both worked at the Torrance Kentucky Fried Chicken. None of William's fingerprints were found at the scene, and nothing found on him when he was arrested or in his home could be connected to the crime scene. Unfortunately, the police had no choice but to let him go. As soon as he was free, his girlfriend picked him up, and that was it. The case was at a dead end.

And Robin's family was furious. They truly believed that this was the man that took Robin's life and he gets to walk free? How? It made perfect sense to the detectives that he was guilty. He was working at the same location with Robin. He knew Robin and she knew him. He had the keys to the store and the safe when money went missing two times. And then no thefts happened until the night Robin was killed. And money is a good enough motive for him to kill Robin if she stood in the way of him stealing it like they believed that he had done those two other times. One of which, which Robin was responsible for reporting.

They knew whoever did this didn't break in. Robin was told by Cheryl that William may come by. They think he waited until Robin was alone at closing time and knocked on the door. And since Robin was expecting him, she let him in. However, she also knew that he had been fired for potentially stealing money. So she didn't want to leave it out on the counter where Greg had seen it last. Instead, Robin took the extra two minutes to hide the money in the same. safe because she knew, unlike him, that the combination had been changed. And if he tried to steal

it, he wouldn't be able to. I don't think she could have ever imagined he would actually kill her for it. The fact that Robin's keys to the restaurant and the safe were never found shows that he most likely stabbed her to gain access to them. He had already turned his in, and he got let in by Robin, but needed her keys to unlock that safe. Once Robin was defenseless and lying there dying, he used her keys to unlock. unlocked the safe, but that's when he realized that there was a new combination lock and code. So he tried, but he failed to break into it and then left after at the very least stealing the little money that poor Robin had in her purse, which he dumped onto the floor scrambling to find something

to make this crime worth it to him. Yeah, it does seem to make perfect sense, but some things didn't didn't add up. Like the two knives that were found were only three and five inches in length. And the medical examiner noted that the stab wound to Robbins' back was nine inches in depth. William had an alibi and none of Robbins' things were found at his home or in his car. And none of his fingerprints were found at the scene. But what no one knew is that the clue to link the killer to the scene was within the items collected from the Kentucky Fried Chicken on Halloween. Unfortunately, the case had been set aside into a viable.

lead came, which would take years. The Hoyne's family tried their best to move on, but as Halloween approached in 1985, marking a year since Robin's death, it brought with it so much pain and grief. It was no longer a date that they look forward to. They didn't dress up, hand out candy, or even decorate anymore. Instead, their home remained as dark as it was the night that they found out about Robin's murder. No lights on, no celebration. They couldn't even say the word Halloween. And any time they heard it, all it did was bring back painful and haunting memories. The family had resigned themselves to their new reality that Robin's case would probably never be solved.

So they tried to take comfort and believing that a higher power would get justice some way, someday on their own. Life had to go on. And in June of 1985, Wendy was honored in the Los Angeles Times for being, an A student at La Cerna High School, doing her best to throw herself into her studies. She finally graduated in 1986. But Robin wasn't there to see it. She wasn't there to see Trisha get married. She was now Trisha Van Forrest.

And Trisha's children who came a couple years later would never meet their Auntie Robin. It was heartbreaking. And then in the midst of all their pain, Virgil got sick. He was struggling with emphysema, which is a debilitating and progressive. lung disease, and in his case, it was terminal. For years, he had battled not only the physical limitations, but also the weight of all the emotional pain he felt and the grief from Robin's untimely passing. It continued to haunt him, leaving a deep scar emotionally, and in 1995, in the face of such

immense suffering, Virgil made the heartbreaking decision to take his own life. The Hoyens had to face another family tragedy. said that it was absolutely devastating. Even though they knew he was dying of a deadly disease, the real reason they believed he chose to leave this world was because he was dying of grief. I noticed on Virgil's tombstone, the family decided to engrave, quote, Dad's not here. He's with Robin. End quote. Years passed, and Detective Lancaster retired, and Robin's case had become very cold, but he never forgot about her. And then 19 Halloween's later in 2003, a new deputy district attorney named John Lewin had created a cold case task

force. Their job was to go through unsolved cases. He was obsessed with solving unsolved cases. So much so, he said that even if he won the lottery, he would still be spending time trying to get justice for these victims. And he eventually began to focus on Robbins case. And as he delved into the details, there was no doubt in his mind that William Marshall was responsible. He just had to figure out how to to prove it. He assigned Torrance Police Detective James Wallace, a cold case homicide detective to the case. Detective Wallace had a unique background. He was in architecture and a degree in design, which made him a very visual person with a keen eye for detail, and that helped him when he was looking through evidence, and that's what he was spending hours doing in Robbins' case. He began

going back through all the evidence that they had from all the way back in 1984, all the pictures, videos and items that I've shown you. And finally, he believed that he found a break in the case, what he called an anomaly in the room at the crime scene. What is it, you may ask? Well, I think some of you may be able to guess. It was that mysterious piece of foam. In his mind, after attempting to figure out where it came from, he concluded, it didn't belong there. It didn't come from anywhere in the restaurant. So that meant it had to come from either Robin or the killer, because no one was. else they interviewed knew what it was. Wallace examined everything left behind that Robin owned. They went through her car and all her other possessions and this piece of foam didn't match anything

belonging to her. So Wallace concluded it had to come from the killer. They left it behind. So if he could figure out what it was and where it came from, he thought that he could crack this case. Wow, I get so excited when I hear things like this because I would be filled with so much adrenaline trying to it out and he didn't have much to go on. There were only a few pictures of William, his mug shot, and the ones taken of him on the side of the road, the night he was pulled over, arrested, and his car was searched. So from head to toe, Wallace examined every article of clothing

that William was wearing that he could see. Could this piece of foam had fallen out of his jacket, or his pants, or his boots? And that's when you noticed something. In one of the pictures of William, the one of him sitting on the car, curb wearing these boots, the angle of the picture and the way it was shot showed what appeared to be a foam cushioning part. Could it be? Could the foam had fallen out from one of his boots? Here's what these type of work boots look like. This isn't the best example, but you see this cushiony part around the back of the

heel. Most of us know, I think my shoes even have that today. That's what we're talking about. Most of us wouldn't even know that it was there. But if we were to take apart our shoe, we would find that there was a foam type of material. Well, what was so awesome is that these boots had been taken in as evidence during William's arrest. And here's another picture of them in inventory. But this picture didn't provide more information. So Wallace wondered, could they possibly still be in storage? Well, they were almost two decades later. And I got to thinking, wow, I wonder how much stuff is stored at these evidence lockers and police departments, and I'm so glad that they don't throw it away.

Because once Wallace located the boots, he noticed that one had the casing where the foam would have been, but it was so worn out that the foam had fallen out. And the other one was still intact. He could not believe it. So he called the deputy DA with this news, but because they had to do things professionally, remember this isn't the 80s anymore.

There are new policies in place. They had to send both. pieces of foam to the FBI crime lab for testing. They needed this for extra confirmation, but they were sure that they were a match. So much so that in October of 2003, Detective Wallace called Ethel Hines to tell her the news. She was no longer in good health, and as a matter of fact, Kim had recently moved back in to help her. When Ethel heard that this was the Torrance Cold Case Detective on the line, she screamed for Kim to come take this call. The detective relayed the information about the foam and it matching to Williams' boots. But he warned her that

this was just the beginning of them building their case against him. There were still a lot of work to do and there was no guarantee that they could convict him. Well, Kim didn't waste any time passing the news along to her sisters. She called Trisha right away. Trisha had two teenagers of her own by then. And even with all the years that have passed, getting this news opened up a floodgate of emotions. it brought her back to the way that she felt on Halloween in 1984 when she found out that Robin had been killed. She actually always thought that William Marshall had done it. And from time to time, she wondered if he would ever confess. Or if he just walked around every day without guilt and that he had seemingly gotten away with it.

Wendy was the next to hear the news. She was now in her 30s, not a teenager anymore. But she said that in so many ways, she was emotionally still 16. She had so much trouble going through the rest of her teenage years after losing her sister, her best friend, and being so young, she wasn't equipped with the emotional maturity to truly come to terms with Robin's death. She lived in a state of fear, imagining that William would come kill the rest of their family. And now it seemed like there was hope, but that would again be shattered. And I'm not stringing you along. This is exactly what was happening, and I know it's very

frustrating but after weeks of waiting the FBI had those results from the testing on the two pieces of foam and they were not chemically a match the boot taken from the boot that was inside the evidence tote had the same texture and color as the foam that was at the crime scene but it contained phallites and the loose piece of foam did not and phallites are a group of chemicals that are used to make plastic more durable and flexible and the forensic examiner concluded that you could not say whether or not the piece of foam came from either one of these boots.

This inconclusive evidence left the detectives questioning whether they had enough proof to charge William with this crime. Detective Wallace came up with a theory about the fallates. Maybe they formed on the boots because they'd been stored in a plastic container for as many years as they did, which also contained fallates. While the other piece of foam was stored in a paper bag. But it didn't matter. The conclusion was that the science says they aren't a match. And that was all they had to connect William to the crime scene. It was now 2004.

They didn't want to give up, so they had to take a different avenue. They wanted to track William down to see what he was up to. What was his lifestyle like? Was he living a life of crime? Maybe he was in jail. But actually, they found the total opposite. William Charles Marshall was living in a quaint, rustic community known as Mountain Center out in the San Yacindo Mountains.

I would describe this area as very out in the middle of nowhere. Look at it. There's nothing but mountains, and it's almost three and a half hours away from where he and Robin used to work at the Torrance Kentucky Fried Chicken. There's only about 35 people who live out here, and that's today. I don't know how many were out there in 2004. It's a two-square-mile community. It's a really pretty area, and it's perfect if you don't want to be found.

He had a pretty two-story home with a nice big yard, but why would he move so far away? Well, as it turns out, William had been working as a firefighter for several years, and eventually he became the fire captain in the year 2000 for the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection at the Riverside Fire Department, which is only about 40 miles away from Mountain Center

where he finally settled down. But he wasn't known as William. In this close-knit community, people affectionately referred to him as Bill. He was now in his mid-40s, a dedicated service. hard worker who risked his life to save others. That's wild. That's not what they were expecting. It definitely made the detectives question whether or not they had the right guy. He was very

unassuming, ordinary, he wore glasses, had a mustache, even a receding hairline. He no longer looked like the younger version of himself. He was a respected member of the community. He'd done very well for himself, especially in the past 15 years with the fire department and the residents, They trusted him. They were friends with him. And they said he was a really great guy. But when the detectives dug deeper, they pulled up criminal records from back in the late 80s, early 90s,

a few years after Robbins' murder. And sure enough, William had been convicted of burglary, and he was sentenced to two years in prison. That didn't seem like a coincidence. He was a thief, or at least had been. But that still didn't prove he was a murderer. And what about the out-examined? the alibi that his girlfriend gave.

Well, they were about to track Yvonne down in the state of Ohio, and they had a plan. Detectives were going to be dispatched out to Ohio to speak to Yvonne on the same day that other detectives would locate William and his residence in Mountain Center. They would interview them at the same time so that neither one could speak to one another about the murder or their interviews.

I'm gonna start with what happened with Yvonne. It was April of 2005, and upon arriving at Yvonne's residence, The detectives located her in her driveway and they informed her of their intention to discuss an incident that happened two decades earlier. The murder of Robin Hoynes at the Torrance Kentucky Fried Chicken and Yvonne was taken aback to say the least. This was a very unexpected visit, but she expressed her willingness to cooperate. However, she mentioned that her recollection might be hindered by all the years that have gone by, as well as a head injury that she sustained back in 2001.

This injury, it had a lasting impact on her memory. It made it very difficult for her to recall details from the past. Nevertheless, she proceeded to tell them the same account she had shared with Detective Lancaster back in 1984. According to her statement, the night before Halloween, William Marshall was by her side the entire time. The alibi was still as solid as it was 20 years earlier, which would mean it would be impossible for William to have committed Robin's murder. Now let me tell you what was going on at Williams at the same time. When they came to his door, not only did he cooperate with them, but he invited the detectives inside. And he was calm and respectful and willing to talk.

When asked if he had any involvement in Robin's murder, he denied having anything to do with it. And when they asked if he was at that location on October 30th, he said he was not at the Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant that night. He also told them when they knocked on his door that day, they opened up a a chapter of his life that he thought he had closed. Well, since Wallace thought this might be the only opportunity to ask him this, he started to build a rapport by talking him about everyday things. Williams' life, being a fire captain, just positive things. And eventually, Wallace gently began inquiring about the boots that were collected during William's arrest. He mentioned that they had a very interesting wear pattern. And he made this remark very casually, kind of like saying,

man, how in the world would you wear out some boots like that? Almost like it was funny. And William was quick to explain that all of his shoes still look like that because he had a habit that he formed a long time ago where he never untied any of his shoes. He would just kick them off, you know, like one foot, steps on the heel of the other while he's pulling the foot out of the shoe. And over time, his shoes would get very worn in the back. He even let the detective look at some of his shoes that he had right there, and all of them had the same wear pattern.

Detective Wallace observed at least 15 pairs of shoes, and many of them were worn very badly in the same way. And this was in a very messy closet. He also noticed a pair of Vans shoes with thick padding at the back cuff area, which had the same pattern of wear in the collar as the boots in evidence. And he thought he was on to something. And what William wasn't expecting was what Wallace, revealed to him next. He told William about that piece of foam that was found at the crime scene and how interestingly, when they checked those boots in evidence, one of them was missing the same piece of foam. They even showed William a picture of what he was talking about. And William was like,

okay, so you're trying to tell me that you think that this piece of foam from the crime scene came out of my boots? And he was like, yeah. And at that point, Wallace had even attempted to get some video footage of these worn out shoes. But William stopped him. He told the detectives, you know what? I've already had a lot of very negative experiences in regard to this case. His words were, quote, I feel like I'm going down. I'm spiraling away here quick.

And quote. And then he said, maybe I should speak with my attorney before we get into anything else. So that's when the interview came to an end. They really hadn't gotten much further. And nothing transpired at Yvonne's interview either. until they were just about to wrap up and leave. When the detectives told her, please contact them if she happened to remember anything else, that's when she stopped them.

She was like, wait, wait, there was something that stood out. She said that something stood out to her when she went to pick him up from the police station after he was released back in 1984, and I would be holding my breath, waiting for this woman to reveal it. Yvonne said she thought it was very odd that William was overly emotional when he got into the car. crying and he kept repeating how he's never going to get to heaven he's never going to get to heaven he's never going to get to heaven sure he was going through a lot but to her was like why would he be concerned with not going to heaven if he was innocent however this wasn't really a confession if it was true it was just merely another interesting piece of information so wallace decided to get a search warrant

for william's house and he went back there about a month later hoping to get his hands on all of those worn out shoes but instead he didn't find that messy closet? No. Now it was all in order with a shoe rack and several shoe boxes with brand new pairs of shoes. The badly worn older shoes, including the vans, were all gone. Well, that's suspicious. But Wallace was able to find one pair of badly worn shoes on Williams back porch that he must have forgotten about. You can see them in this picture if you're watching and not just listening. But they're like, Sparries and not only is the heel all torn and worn out but even the front had holes in it but look at the heel they're worn in the same way as the boots you can even see the yellow foam pad inside almost falling out so it stands to reason this was exactly how that foam piece of the crime scene got there it's

more than just a coincidence it's a connection but it's still a circumstantial one so detectives moved to the other items that were collected like blood swabs that had been taken back at the scene in the 80s. Back then, they could only do blood typing and antigen tests to see if the blood was human. They did not have the ability to test for DNA. And back in 1984, when the knife was collected, it was checked for any substances on it that were clear to the naked eye. And there were none. But David Sujiama, a criminalist in the Los Angeles crime laboratory, tested the blood collected near the safe. And it was positive for human antigen at the time, which was to be expected. However, he also scraped the knife and recovered some

tiny flakes from where the blade and the wooden handle met. These little flakes also tested positive for human antigen, meeting human blood had been present on that knife at one time. You know, that boning knife I showed you? That one. But in 2004, the technology had advanced. So Los Angeles Sheriff's Department senior criminalist John Bachrath reviewed David's findings from back in 1984. and he subjected the blood from the knife to DNA testing. The result, unfortunately, no human DNA was detected. He also tested for DNA with the blood that was collected near the safe and on the floor near Robin's body, and it was a match to Robin's DNA.

But none of the blood found at the scene matched William's DNA. And there was no blood found on the pocket knife that he carried, any of his clothing items, his boots, his gloves, or anything that was in his possession when he was detained by police. I hope I'm not losing you here, but I also want to mention that there were several different expert opinions on whether that five inch boning knife in Williams bag could be the murder weapon. It is a single blade, thin knife.

But initially, the medical examiner, Dr. Margaret Greenwald, she reported that Robin's back wound was at a depth of nine inches. And if you were thinking when I said that, that that was odd, stay with me. In 2005, criminalist Deborah Cawall wrote a report that excluded Williams' boning knife as the murder weapon based upon Dr. Greenwald's depth measurement of nine inches on that autopsy report because that's all she had to go on. However, Robbins was only the third stab wound autopsy that Dr. Greenwald had ever done.

But after she performed hundreds in her career, hundreds of knife wound autopsies, she realized she never again had one that deep. So she concluded through having so much more experience, the depth can only roughly be estimated. And any stab wounds that penetrate the chest are problematic, especially in cases like Robbins, where you have a person a very slender build. That would mean there would be less depth needed

to inflict as much damage. So because of this, Dr. Greenwald said that despite the nine inch depth measurement in her report, The knife taken from Williams bag, which only had a blade of five inches, could have been used to inflict the two stab wounds. And it makes sense because skin, organs, and tissue, it moves. It's not solid. So a shorter knife can potentially go deeper than its own length, and we kind of know that.

The detectives needed another expert opinion, so they had Stephen Dowell, a criminalist with LA County Corners Department, come in, and he worked in the same lab as Deborah did, who said that it couldn't be William's knife. he was asked to review that report, and I know this is getting confusing, but just another person reviewing the report whether or not William's knife could have done this. And he examined that single-edged bony knife with the five-and-three-quarter-inch blade. And after speaking with Dr. Greenwald, the original M.E., he discounted the finding in her report that the depth of one of those wounds was nine inches. He said the depth measurements are so unreliable that most doctors don't even take them. He concluded that William's knife could not be excluded as the murder weapon.

So far, so good. But it still wasn't enough. But meanwhile, after that interview Yvonne had with the detectives, she started to think about the entire situation, all the years that have gone by. So much had changed since she was a young woman. And something began to weigh on her conscience. She was currently in college at the time. And one of her professors happened to be a lawyer.

So she pulled him aside for some of her. some friendly advice. When their conversation was over, Yvonne picked up the phone and called the Torrance Police Department and she told them that she had some information they needed to know. She said that she had been so scared to tell the truth back in 1984 because William had beat her up so badly that she was scared he might kill her. So she didn't want to say anything. She didn't know what could happen to her. But now after all these years, she no longer has contact with him and she feels like she needs to come clean. She lied. Not only back then, but also when detectives came to speak with her in Ohio.

For one thing, she never had a brain injury. It wasn't true. And neither was Williams' alibi. The truth is, he wasn't with her on the night of October 30th in 1984. He told her to cover for him, not telling her what it was in reference to. So his rock-solid alibi was all a facade, and that's not all. She went on to admit that William was addicted to crack cocaine back in 1984 when the murder occurred and that he was living in poverty trying to get by so she was letting him stay at her place and at some point between the day after the murder so october 31st and the time that she picked him up from jail he was ranting and raving about the bible saying he wasn't going to go to heaven and she finally asked him why he thought that and that's when she said william confessed to her

that he went out to that torrents kentucky fried chicken hoping to get his hands on that money that night and that the female manager was there he said that she had led him in and he did not say that he stabbed or killed her but instead he made it appear as though at some point he left and came back or something and somehow he saw her on the ground stabbed so it was as though he just stumbled upon her body and he said at that point he slit the young lady's throat because if she woke up from her quote original injury end quote that at this point he wasn't claiming responsible for that she could write his name in blood. What?

That is so confusing. But that is when William admitted to Yvonne, I stabbed the young lady referring to slitting her throat. He added that the woman never gave up the money. It was dropped down the shoot. Whatever that meant, because Yvonne wasn't sure. And the police had never released any details about the restaurant, the safe, and what the procedure was when you needed to deposit the end of night.

funds sure sounds like exactly what happened and this was a lot to take in but yvonne wasn't done yet remember when detectives showed her that photo of the piece of foam well it's true she didn't have a clue what it was or where it came from until a couple days after that interview william wanted to know what did you tell the police what did they ask you and she explained that they showed her a picture of an object william asked her to describe it when she did he pointed to his his boot and then he had something in his hand something that looked exactly like the object and he said is this what they showed you and yvonne was like oh my god how did you get it william was like i didn't get it this is the other one what you described came out of one of my shoes and what i'm showing you

is the other one out of the other shoe then she said he threw the foam out on the freeway evan was nervous but she was tired of keeping william's secrets she felt a feeling of relief letting all of this out after keeping it for so long. After Yvonne recanted her original statement, William Marshall was left without an alibi. So a felony warrant was out for his arrest. And Detective Wallace made his arrest in September 2006 while William was working at his fire station. The news that the man suspected of killing Robin had worked for years as a firefighter for over 15 years shocked her family and the people of the town that he served. A grand jury indicted him and the 45 was arraigned on September 29th. He sat emotionless, except for when the judge read the allegation

of a special circumstance of robbery. That's when he jerked his head back like he was shocked. And I can't help but think of that toja cat meme. You're shocked? Don't be shocked. You're shocked? You're shocked? But what's not shocking is that he pleaded not guilty. In October of 2007, In 23 years after Robin was killed, William Marshall found himself in a courtroom facing trial for her murder. Throughout the duration of the trial, William made a striking impression. He appeared in court every day clutching his Bible in his hand. However, his physical appearance was a stark contrast to his demeanor. His legs and arms were shackled, which was a clear indication of the seriousness of the allegations against him.

One of the key witnesses, of course, was Yvonne Williams, who was had flown in from Ohio to testify against her former boyfriend who she hadn't seen in so many years. Yvonne recounted the statement that William had made to her. She testified, quote, he said that if I was contacted by anyone, he didn't specifically say who, that I was to tell them he was with me, end quote. And then she told the jury about what I told you he said about slitting Robin's throat. Cheryl Fuller, the woman who switched shifts with Robin on the night she was killed and who also discovered her body, testified as well. Her emotional distress was evident during her testimony. Because as she recounted the events from Halloween 1984, the judge had to call for a break to allow

Cheryl to gather her composure again. However, despite the weight of the situation and all of her guilt, Cheryl received some unexpected solace. After the trial concluded, Cheryl learned that Robin's family did not blame her. They never said she couldn't come to the funeral. And this revelation provided some much-needed relief for Cheryl. She had carried the burden of that guilt for so many years, and we don't always think about survivors' guilt, or even what it's like to witness someone dead, or who's been brutally murdered.

Cheryl's life was forever changed. The prosecutor told the jury that it was obvious how cold-blooded this crime was. William knew that Robin knew him. He knew if he went in there to commit this theft, he would have to kill her, and he proceeded anyway for drug money. Nothing was going to stand in the way,

way of his next fix, not even an innocent young girl. William had been arrested before Robin's murder for possession of PCP. So that was on his record. It wasn't just an assumption. The jury took only five hours to convict William Marshall for murdering Robin. And then her sister spoke at his sentencing, and I really wanted to end with this because it's so important to allow their words to be heard and their feelings expressed. They had 23 years to think about Robin and her killer and what her absence has done to them. Kim began taking notes the last few weeks of the trial trying to find the right memories to talk about and the right words to say to convey what a special person Robin was. For that moment, she wanted to paint a picture of her sister that would bring her back to life

in the minds of the people in the courtroom. And I hope that I did that today, that I painted a picture of her that you can imagine and you can take with you so that she can live on in our minds. The foreman told the Hoyne's family that his birthday was October 30th, 1984. He was born the day they got the heartbreaking news that Robin was dead. And now he was there as a juror. He grew up and was sitting on a jury that found the man that killed Robin guilty. Kim said that that was God working. As her mother Ethel held up a framed 8 by 10 picture of Robin,

Kim took a deep breath and she turned to William and she asked him, Do you know what murder means? She said from that moment when you hear that, you wonder, did she die right away? Did you know what was happening? Was she sexually violated? And she said that her mom and dad worried about that until they were able to read that autopsy report weeks later. William didn't even flinch.

She said, William, you are responsible for this. When it was Trisha's turn, she expressed how hard it was to watch William Marshall day after day during the trial show no remorse for what he did to her sister. Tricia had never believed that Robin died quickly. She imagined that she suffered lying there all alone. And when she had to sit through all the testimony and the crime scene photos for the very first time, it was clear in her mind all the pain that her sister went through. She was stabbed in the back. She never had a chance to fight back because Tricia knew she would have if she would have known that she was being attacked. But William cowardly ambister. Tricia hoped that if he didn't feel anything for her family, he at least

had sympathy for his loved ones, saying, quote, now as you sit in your cell day after day, year after year, I hope you spend a great deal of time thinking about the pain that you've caused your own loved ones, end quote. And then there was Wendy, the youngest of the Hoyne sisters. She had just gotten married three weeks before the trial had begun. She wished that Ron Robin and her father could have been there. She referred to the previous four years of her life as a season of deep healing. And she addressed the court saying, quote,

my grief would come like a thief in the night with no warning of coming or going. Like an unpaid debt, my pain accrued tremendous interest over the years and often overwhelmed me. Knowing the whole truth of Robin's murder would eventually set me free." And quote, and now she knew. But she went on to say,

the truth is you never make restitution for your actions because you can never bring Robin back. Robin's mom Ethel had written a letter to the prosecutor, which he read and in part it said that a day never went by that she didn't miss her precious freckle-faced Robin and she wish she was there. At the end, Kim thanked everyone on the case for their hard work and she said that years don't make the whole disappear. Torrent Superior Judge Mark Arnold called William Marshall evil and said that the way he stabbed Robin in the back was cowardly and he showed a lack of humanity by his willingness to try to commit the same crime days later. Remember, he went to that Fountain Valley Kentucky Fried Chicken location. They know what was him. And the judge said that he should be housed

in a maximum security prison. The sentence was life in prison without the possibility of parole. Case closed. But for the hoines, it never is. is real closure. However, that Halloween in October of 2007, the same month William was put away, Ethel turned to Kim and said, I guess we need to buy some Halloween candy. And that actually made my heart sink a little bit, but at the same time, I understand that to many people who don't know the story, it wouldn't seem that important. But the last 23 years of their lives after Robin was killed, they never handed out candy at the Hines residence in Whittier. And now Ethel was ready to because justice had been served and the monster was no longer walking the street

among trick-or-treaters who were merely pretending to be as evil as he really was. For the first time, in over two decades, Ethel felt a glimmer of hope and she decided to embrace the spirit of Halloween once again. The front porch was illuminated with bright lights coming from carved pumpkins, proudly displaying their toothy grins. The Hoyne's family even sent a thank you letter to Yvonne for coming forward against William and that she was instrumental in getting justice. But interestingly, I saw a post on Reddit that asked why nothing happened to her for lying all of those years and basically aiding and abetting him. And that's a valid question.

And there were a lot of answers on Reddit, some of which were like, you know, she's a victim too, she was afraid of him, she didn't know what to do or what was going to happen to her, you're dealing with a killer. But unless there was an evil motive on her part to hide it like she had something to do with the crime, that would be one thing. But a lot of times, police want to encourage people to come forward. And if they believe that telling the truth is going to put them behind bars, they're unlikely to do so, so good Samaritan laws do exist.

And of course, I don't know the details they could have made a deal with her. There are so many reasons why she wouldn't have been considered guilty of a crime. As the night fell on October 31, 2007, Ethel and Robin's sisters awaited the arrival of trick-or-treaters. The sound of children's laughter echoed through the once silent halls, filling the house with a renewed sense of life and joy. Ethel and her family happily handed out candy to the eager youngsters cherishing every smiling face that crossed their path. Year after year, the tradition of decorating the house and handing out candy continued as a reminder of Robin's spirit and the strength that it

propelled Ethel, Kim, Trisha, and Wendy through the darkest time in their life. I think all of you so much for being here, and I hope that you think of Robin and her family as a lot of you. especially on Halloween, from now, and going forward. I will see you in my next video. Bye.