Washington police may be moving closer to solving the perplexing murder of Robert Wone ’96.
The unsolved murder of this College of William and Mary graduate is surrounded in mysterious circumstances. Continued efforts from the Washington metro police recently led to the release of chilling new details and an arrest in the case.
In an affidavit signed Oct. 27 and made public three days later by the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Washington police issued an arrest warrant for Dylan Ward on charges of obstruction of justice relating to Wone’s death, which occurred two years ago on the night of Aug. 2, 2006.
Wone was found murdered in the Dupont Circle district townhouse of Joe Price ’93, Victor Zaborsky and Ward. A resident of Oakton, Va. where he lived with his wife, Katherine, Wone was sleeping over at the townhouse following a late night at his new job as general counsel to Radio Free Asia, a non-profit broadcast news corporation.
Wone attended the College with Price, where the two participated in many of the same activities and remained friends after graduation. Both men served as president’s aides, members of Omicron Delta Kappa honor society and in high-ranking positions with the Student Association, now called the Student Assembly.
Arriving at the College from Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1992, Wone immediately made a strong impression on fellow students and faculty. As a Monroe scholar, he spent time with Charles Center and Monroe scholar director Joel Schwartz, who remembers Wone as a kind and loyal friend.
“[Wone] was very, very active on campus, involved with the Student Association, as well as a lot of other things,” Schwartz said. “Something that came out a lot when he first died is [that] he was widely admired and valued by everybody, and all I can do is underscore that.”
The affidavit goes into vivid detail concerning Wone’s murder and reconstructs the case, ultimately reaching the conclusion that Price, Zaborsky and Ward “obstructed justice by altering and orchestrating the crime scene, planting evidence, delaying the reporting of the murder to the authorities and lying to the police about the true circumstances of the murder.”
Following the issuance of the affidavit, Ward was arrested in Miami, Fla., where he currently lives. According to The Washington Post, he agreed not to contest extradition to Washington.
The initial call to 9-1-1, placed by Zaborsky, occurred at 11:49 p.m. on Aug. 2, 2006, according to the affidavit. However, a witness living in the residence adjacent to the townhouse reported hearing a scream while watching the Channel 9 news, which ran from 11 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. that night. The scream was explained to be Zaborsky’s reaction upon discovering Wone’s body, placing Zaborsky’s knowledge of the body sometime between 19 and 49 minutes prior to the 9-1-1 call being placed.
The main alibi put forward by the three residents, that an “intruder” committed the crime, was deemed impossible over the course of the investigation. According to the affidavit, Mr. Wone’s valuables, including a wallet, Movado watch and Blackberry phone, were undisturbed within plain sight of his body. Any possible intruder would also have passed multiple televisions and a laptop on their way to and from the second-story room in which Wone was staying, yet there were “absolutely no signs of forced entry.”
Upon arriving at the scene, emergency medical service workers and police encountered a plethora of strange phenomena, in addition to the lack of evidence supporting forced entry. The document cites one medical worker as noting that the behavior of Price, Zaborsky and Ward, who all appeared in “crisp, white robes,” looking as if each had just showered, was so suspicious that it “made the hair on the back of [the worker’s] neck stand up.”
After examining Wone’s body, another emergency medical worker came to the initial conclusion that the body appeared to have been “showered, redressed and placed in the bed” where it was found. This observation came from the noticeable lack of blood in the room. Wone was found wearing a gray William and Mary t-shirt with three tears roughly correlating to the three stab wounds found on his body. Yet neither the shirt nor the immediate area surrounding the body contained much blood.
The affidavit states that a search of Ward’s bedroom, located next to the room where Wone was found, yielded a copy of the Aug. 7 issue of The New Yorker opened to an article entitled, “Late Works, Writers Confronting the End.” The article contains a full-page sketch of William Shakespeare on his death bed.
According to the affidavit, “[Shakespeare’s] body is shown positioned similar to the way Mr. Wone’s body was positioned when it was found.”
A knife with Wone’s blood recovered on a nightstand near the body was examined by a blood spatter expert and determined to have not been the weapon used in Wone’s stabbing. The expert concluded that the blood pattern on the knife was not consistent with a stabbing, but instead with being smeared against a white cotton towel. Incidentally, the police recovered such a towel at the crime scene.
The three residents claimed to have used the towel to cover Wone’s wounds, but the expert refuted this claim. The knife was found to contain over 10 white cotton fibers linking the knife with the towel, yet there were no gray fibers, the color of the shirt Wone was found wearing, on the knife or towel.
The affidavit also mentions a three-knife box set recovered from Ward’s room that was missing a knife. Upon contacting the manufacturer of the set, police were able to determine that the length of the missing knife, 4.5 inches, was more consistent with the depth of the stab wounds found on Wone’s body than the knife recovered on the nightstand, which measured 5.5 inches. The missing knife from Ward’s set has not been recovered.
An autopsy of the body determined that Wone was incapacitated and unable to defend himself, but still alive, at the time he was stabbed. While multiple needle puncture marks were initially observed on the body, the lab technician performing the autopsy issued only standard toxicology tests that did not test for “incapacitating or paralytic drugs.” This was because “there was no early indication — in light of the statements that Price, Zaborsky and Ward gave to the police — that Mr. Wone may have been injected with any such drugs.”
The autopsy also discovered evidence that Wone was sexually assaulted.
Though Wone was heterosexual, according to the affidavit, the document also describes a committed homosexual relationship between Price and Zaborsky, who shared the townhouse’s third floor bedroom. A second homosexual relationship, this one between Price and Ward, was described as well. Citing the three residents interconnected relationship as evidence, the affidavit makes note that “Price, Zaborsky and Ward have a very close relationship and clearly have motive to preserve and protect the interests of one another.”
While the affidavit’s release and subsequent arrest of Ward brings the two-year saga following Wone’s death toward an end, Schwartz is one of many of Wone’s acquaintances who prefer to remember him more for the way he lived than for his death.
Schwartz still keeps a file in his desk that details Wone’s involvement in the defense of a female student who encountered rumors and harassment over the course of a Student Association election. Though not involved in the election, Schwartz said Wone was more than willing to assist her.
“[Wone] kind of took up the charge to have the issue investigated and bring some justice and order to the thing,” Schwartz said. “I bring this up because [it demonstrates] the kind of concern about other people, kind of fairness, justice [Wone displayed]. I admire him a lot. He was active on campus, did great things and we should be so lucky to have other students like him.”
RSS Feeds
15 Comments
tf — those were published
tf — those were published on the same day, Friday, Nov. 21. You’re saying that the Flat Hat plagiarized an article that was published at approximately the same time AND were able to interview Schwartz about Wone to include with the article in the middle of the night? Obviously both articles are based on the affadavit’s description of the crime. These were published on the same day. The Flat Hat and the Washington Post were working on similar articles but clearly the Flat Hat didn’t plagiarize; it didn’t have time!
http://www.washingtonpost.co
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/20/AR2008112001554.html
The similiarities are remarkable.
WDSJ — did you read the
WDSJ — did you read the article? Only one piece of information is attributed to the Washington Post, that Ward was arrested and did not contest his extradition. The remainder of the article describes the crime as recorded in the affadavit, a public document. Further, there is unique information in this story — the interview of Schwartz, who knew him personally and provided anecdotes about Wone’s life. Next time, how about you actually read an article before making your arguments so that maybe they have merit instead of the unfounded accusation you make here.
The real mystery is whether
The real mystery is whether the writer did original research for this article or did some re-reporting from DC-area papers. I don’t know, maybe we could solve this one though!
The only thing mysterious
The only thing mysterious about this case is why nobody is willing to state the obvious. It looks like the 3 men assaulted Wone, and got away with it for 2 years, and they’re STILL not charging anybody with murder.
Wait a minute, wait a
Wait a minute, wait a minute. All this came up because the first post essentially said that those guys “couldn’t keep it in their pants” – and that’s a gay rights issue??? Do you REALLY think that that stereotype is only applied to gay men? You need to talk to more straight men. Wow – if that’s a protest issue maybe I need to start fighting for “heterosexual rights”. Seriously – in the age of Proposition 8, you should be HAPPY if that’s what you come up with. If you’re concerned that gay men are being accused of that, then trust me – gay men are now being treated the same as straight men. We can all celebrate (I’m being sarcastic, of course – they are not being treated the same. But on this count at least, I can assure you they are).
The reason why they did it is that they were male and they were horny . Nobody on this board has suggested otherwise except for Ginny and her cadre. The reason why the police profiler probably put “homosexual” on the top of his list is because it was an assault on another man. I fail to see the great violation here. That move seems eminently logical. (And by the way, as a man I have nothing wrong with the stereotype that men have less sexual self control than women – it’s a combination of culturally enforced gender norms and evolutionary imperative that men can’t “keep it in their pants”, and it’s just the way it is)
As for “relevant to the crime but not relevant to the fact that the crime happened”... that’s a little confusing to me. You might need to explain that one.
What we should be concerned with if we’re worried about gay rights is the threat that these three murderers have posed to the Dupont community for the last two years. And maybe this is more of a concern for me because I actually know gay men living in Dupont, but it seems wrong to me to ignore the issue of their safety in this whole discussion. I may be wrong, but I highly doubt that if you polled Dupont Circle residents, you’d find that they were unsatisfied with how the police are prosecuting this… perhaps unsatisfied that these three aren’t in jail yet.
Daniel – I happen to
Daniel –
I happen to know for certain that Ginny’s comment was in direct response to the first comment. That comment suggested that these people killed Wone because they were gay and couldn’t resist. That is blaming the sexual assault and subsequent murder on sexual orientation. I highly doubt such a comment would have been made if a woman had been killed by heterosexual men. There is a stereotype of gay men as having these voracious sexual appitites and lacking self-control, and the first comment played into this. Ginny wanted to point out that sexual orientation isn’t relevant to the crime happening. Relevant to the crime, yes, but not to the fact that it happened at all.
Those in the queer community have just cause to be defensive about such statements as these sorts of stereotypes have been used as arguments against equal rights.
“I think this poor guy
“I think this poor guy Wone just wanted a place to lay his head for the night and someone couldnt handle themselves thinking about Wone in the shower and got carried away once he was laying in the bed sleep.”
This comment is trying to place the blame of the assault on a particular sexual orientation. People don’t commit crimes because “someone couldnt handle themselves thinking about Wone in the shower….” Therefore, while the police noted the sexual orientation of the people who lived in the townhouse, what I think Ginny was getting at is that people don’t commit crimes BECAUSE they are heterosexual or BECAUSE they are homosexual. People crimes because that is what some people do. This first comment is trying to make it sound like a crime was committed DUE TO the sexual orientation of a person, which is definitely not the case.
Ashley – how is Ginny’s
Ashley – how is Ginny’s response at all a response to the admittedly inappropriate first comment on this article? The first comment was inappropriate because it suggested that the suspects would enjoy jail because of their sexual orientation. It’s a horrible thing to say, and I oppose that.
But Ginny is arguing something completely unrelated – she’s suggesting that sexual orientation isn’t relevant to a crime where a sexual assault occured. Again – think of counterfactual scenarios. What if it was a woman that was assaulted and killed in these guys’ apartment. Of course they should still be suspects, but wouldn’t you want the police to look elsewhere for suspects as well – precisely because these guys are gay? Ginny is also warning against suggesting that the crime was “caused” by their sexual orientation. However homophobic the first post was, it wasn’t anywhere close to that claim – and neither was anybody else.
As for Pablo, I’m not sure what replacing “gay” with “black” or any other adjective would necessarily do. There was evidence of a man on man sexual assault, so the police are only doing their job by keeping sexual orientation in mind when they’re looking for suspects. If there was a witness to the crime and they said “I saw a black man do it”, then police would only be doing their job by keeping that in mind when they’re looking for suspects. Not ruling other suspects out if other evidence guides them in another direction – mind you. But keeping it in mind. Same if someone said “I saw a white guy do it” or “I saw an old lady do it”. This isn’t rocket science, people – this is basic stuff. You also mention that “gender or sexual orientation shouldn’t be taken into account when punishment is concerned”. Of course it shouldn’t be considered – who was ever suggesting that???? (I’m going to make the assumption that that first post was an outburst and not a sentencing recommendation).
Ginny is blowing the situation way out of proportion and making global accusations about statements that nobody has come anywhere near making. It’s just frustrated because this happened very close to where I live and work, and honestly I think people should be more focused on prosecuting the suspects than getting defensive about statements that NOBODY EVER MADE.
Don’t even tell me,
Don’t even tell me, Daniel, that you didn’t see the comment to which Ginny was clearly responding?
“I think this poor guy Wone just wanted a place to lay his head for the night and someone couldnt handle themselves thinking about Wone in the shower and got carried away once he was laying in the bed sleep. Clearly these guys have alot to hide and the truth will always come out in the end. These guys will go down and when in that graybar hotel they will have all the homo actions they have been looking for years on end.”
It’s pretty obviously homophobic so she is simply trying to prevent a “war” or whatever you want to call it that this person is trying to cause.
apologies i misread the
apologies i misread the article, but still the point stands
Daniel what are you even
Daniel what are you even talking about. He wasn’t sexually assaulted therefore it is irrelevant. Even if he had been sexually assaulted, the gender or sexual orientation of the assailants shouldn’t be taken account as far as punishment is concerned.
For a test of this, replace ‘gay’ with ‘black’.
That’s not the point,
That’s not the point, Ginny. Nobody is suggesting that homosexual equals homocidal. If Wone was sexually assaulted before the murder, and he happened to be in the apartment of two or three gay guys, then their sexual orientation would absolutely be relevant.
Think of it this way – if the other guys were straight, wouldn’t the police reasonably be looking for other suspects? Not ruling the roommates out (after all, there’s nothing that says that straight guys can’t sexually assault another guy), but it would make sense for the police to also look more broadly for suspects.
But since the roommates are gay, how is their sexuality not relevant? Please, please, please don’t try to turn this into a culture war Ginny. It is completely relevant – I think that’s self evident – but nobody is saying that it’s relevant because the “the crime was caused by their sexual orientation”, as you say. Nobody is suggeseting that.
This is a very disturbing
This is a very disturbing article describing a very disturbing crime. However, I would like to point out that the sexual orientation of the suspects is irrelevant. While it is true that the sexual assault was by gay men to a man, the crime just as easily could have been men assaulting and murdering a woman. The crime was NOT caused by the sexual orientation of the suspects. Please do not allow the incriminating actions of several people to condemn many others.
I think this poor guy Wone
I think this poor guy Wone just wanted a place to lay his head for the night and someone couldnt handle themselves thinking about Wone in the shower and got carried away once he was laying in the bed sleep. Clearly these guys have alot to hide and the truth will always come out in the end. These guys will go down and when in that graybar hotel they will have all the homo actions they have been looking for years on end.