Just days before her family was to celebrate Thanksgiving in Connecticut, Robin Warr Lawrence fell victim to a brutal stabbing in her Fairfax County home. Fifteen years later, her slaying remains unsolved.
When Lawrence’s body was discovered on Sunday, Nov. 20, 1994, investigators believe she had been at the West Springfield residence for at least three days. She was stabbed multiple times in the chest. The whole time, her 2-year-old daughter Nicole was in the home with the body. Police found the child unhurt but dehydrated.
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At the time of her death she was the director of advertising for Merchant Tire Co. of Manassas.
Her father, Robert Warr, was the first black city council member for Syracuse, N.Y., serving in the late 1960s and into the next decade.
Robert Warr had been preparing a special gathering for Thanksgiving, celebrating both the holiday and Lawrence’s birthday. In an interview with Syracuse’s Post-Standard after her death, he described himself as “completely devastated.”
On the day Lawrence’s body was discovered, a neighbor came to the house after Lawrence’s husband called, concerned that he couldn’t reach his wife.Entering through an open back door to the house, the neighbor called out to Lawrence and got no response. When she called out the toddler Nicole’s name, the girl came to her. The neighbor took the child from the house and called the husband, Ollie Lawrence Jr., who in turn called police. They discovered Lawrence’s body that afternoon.
In the two years after the murder, police ruled out Lawrence as a suspect in the slaying. Then a USAir executive, Lawrence later moved from the area with the couple’s daughter.
Investigators also ruled out a Maryland woman whom police believe had been having an affair with Ollie Lawrence for several years. They obtained a search warrant and collected blood and hair samples from the woman, but later cleared her.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Fairfax County Crime Solvers number, 866-411-TIPS, e-mail via www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org, or text “TIP187” plus your message to CRIMES (275637).
