A New York man has made a chilling confession about the brutal murder of a Virginia mother 30 years ago.
Stephen Smerk, 52, pleaded guilty this month to first-degree murder in the 1994 slaying of Robin Lawrence, 37. who was stabbed 49 times in her home in Springfield, Virginia, while her two-year-old daughter was just steps away.
Smerk, who was 22 at the time of the horrific crime, was serving his first year in the Army and was stationed at Fort Meyer in Arlington, Virginia when he left the base, broke into the victim’s home and committed the murder. WVTM reported.
Prosecutors said Smerk admitted in a confession to police: “I cut her up pretty bad.”
“I didn’t kill anyone else, if it wasn’t for my wife and kids I would probably be a serial killer,” he said.
Robin Lawrence, 37, was found stabbed 49 times in her home in Springfield, Virginia, in 1994
Stephen Smerk, 52, a married father of two teenagers from upstate New York, pleaded guilty this month to first-degree murder
Kelsely Gill, deputy attorney for the Commonwealth of Virginia, said Smerk wanted to “drive far enough away from his barracks to kill.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered if there had been 50 people in that house,” she said. “He was planning to kill someone.”
On the night of November 20, 1994, Lawrence was home alone with her daughter while her husband was abroad on business.
When her husband couldn’t reach her, he contacted a family friend who made the grisly discovery.
Lawrence was found near her bed with a pillow between her legs and knife wounds to her neck, head and face.
Her toddler daughter walked around the bloody crime scene in a dirty diaper.
It was reported that a screen on one of the windows in her home was torn open.
When police arrived, they processed the crime scene and collected DNA evidence, but it turned up no matches at the time.
Cold case detectives continued to work on the business for years and in 2019 she resubmitted the DNA to Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs, which specializes in genetic genealogical analysis.
At a press conference last September, Virginia State Police Deputy Chief Cory said a profile had been developed based on DNA collected at the crime scene.
He said that after three years they were able to create a family tree that led to a familial DNA match, FoxDC5 reported.
Parabon NanoLabs created one digital composite sketch of the suspect, and detectives compared it to a yearbook photo of Smerk when he was 16 and a DMV photo of him at age 26.
The images show Smerk at various ages, including a digital composite sketch and a photo of the killer aged 16 and 26
Smerk’s home was located in Niskayuna, a town in Schenectady, New York
Smerk, meanwhile, had no idea investigators were closing in on him and lived with his wife and two teenage children in Niskayuna, a town in Schenectady, New York, where he worked as a software engineer.
Fairfax County detectives traveled to his home last year, where they confronted him as he was throwing out the trash and asked for a DNA swab.
He complied and Smerk later drove to the Niskayuna police station, where he made a confession to police.
At a press conference last September after Smerk was taken into custody, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said, “This is the type of crime that shocks a community.”
On October 4, the victim’s family watched in court as he pleaded guilty to murder.
After the hearing, Lauren Ovans, the victim’s niece, said, “He looks like he has no soul.”
Lawrence attended Carnegie Mellon University and was a promotions manager at a tire company
Lawrence’s sister Mary Cowans told the story WUSA9 TV News that her sister’s murder “blew our family apart for many, many years and it was very difficult and difficult for all of us.”
After seeing Smerk in court, she said, “I can’t wrestle with it, or any of what he did.”
Smerk will be sentenced on March 7 and faces a prison sentence of up to 70 years.
