PORTSMOUTH, Va. – It was the kind of case that chilled the spine of a seasoned investigator.
“As far as bad cases, gruesome cases, this is the worst,” said Detective Sgt. Robert McDaniel with the Portsmouth Police Department.
Meghan Landowski
McDaniel, who works both Homicide and the Special Victims Unit, was part of the team who interviewed Robert Barnes, the person who took the life of 16-year-old Meghan Landowski in April 2008.
Landowski was attacked, stabbed more than 40 times and sexually assaulted in her own home. She was discovered by a family member who will be haunted by those images forever.
In a 911 transcript, Landowski’s stepfather, Chris Short, told a dispatcher, “She’s cold, I got to call my wife. God, let me go, I’m standing in blood now.”
Robert Barnes
The trail of blood eventually led to Robert Barnes, a friend of Landowski. A 2009 guilty plea closed the question of who did it but the issue that still looms all these later is ‘Why?’
We examine the possible reasons Monday night on News 3 at 11.
