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Police in Washington, D.C., have identified a woman who was found dead in a shopping cart outside of Union Station last year in a case officials have connected to an accused serial killer.
Sonya Champ, 40, was publicly identified as the woman who was found on the 200 block of F Street near Stanton Park in northeast Washington on Sept. 7, 2021. Police ruled the case a homicide but are still unsure of Champ’s cause of death, noting there was no obvious trauma to her body.
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Law enforcement officials in Virginia linked her death to a man officials have dubbed the “Shopping Cart Killer,” who was charged in November with killing two women in Fairfax County. The suspect, Anthony Robinson, earned his moniker because police believe he would lure women on dating apps and take them to hotels before killing them. He would then wheel them away in a shopping cart to dump their bodies at different locations.
Digital evidence obtained by police linked Robinson to the area where Champ was killed, though officials have not detailed the evidence. Champ was found with a blanket draped over her body, and police believe she may have been homeless and living in a tent outside Union Station.
The woman is believed to be Robinson’s fifth victim, and investigators are still trying to determine if her death is connected to the other killings in Virginia. Robinson is a person of interest in Champ’s case, Washington police told the Washington Examiner. No charges have been filed in connection to her death.
Robinson was charged with murder and an attempted cover-up of the deaths of two Virginia women, Allene Redmon and Tonita Smith, in the Harrisonburg, Virginia, area last year. The 35-year-old man has also been linked by police to the deaths of two other women who were found in a trash can outside a motel in Fairfax County in December 2021. No charges have been filed in those killings, according to the Washington Post.
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Robinson does not have a prior criminal record. The string of deaths all occurred within a matter of months, and police are beginning to investigate other missing person cases to see if Robinson is connected to other incidents, officials said.
“He didn’t suddenly turn into who he is three months ago,” said Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis in December. “That’s why we are painstakingly going through his whereabouts, his relationships, [and] employment history to figure out if in fact there are other victims.”
Robinson has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two felony counts of concealing, transporting, or altering a dead body. He faces life in prison if convicted and is scheduled to appear in court in September.
