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April 25 1980 the body of a young woman
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discovered in an apartment in Rosemount
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California there was blood everywhere
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she had a water bed so coupled with the
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blood and the injuries it was a very
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very very traumatizing scene the female
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victim has been raped and stabbed to
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death I can't comprehend how anyone
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would stab somebody repeatedly it just I
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don't know what goes through their
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minds the investigation into this brutal
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murder lasts over 40 years until
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revolutionary forensic science comes
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into play it is by far the greatest
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advancement in crime solving In Our
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Lifetime it's what finally solved it it
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made it
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possible when Cold Case detectives
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exhaust all their other leads they often
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turn to new groundbreaking technology
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investigative genetic genealogy I'm
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Nancy Grace this is bloodline Detectives
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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April 24 1980 Robin Brooks settling into
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her new life she's just moved to
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California's state capital all the way
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from the East
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Coast Robin Brooks was a 20-year-old
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young lady who had grown up in New York
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and had recently moved out to Northern
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California to be closer to her sister
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she was 20 years old and just ready to
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start a new chapter in her
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life she was close to her sister Maria
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and she was out here to start a new life
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so she found a job she's working at a
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doughnut shop and she's just trying to
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do her very best
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in the
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world she was vibrant happy she was
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loving she was more daring than me
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adventurous we hung out a lot we did
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spend a lot of time together she loved
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photography we were just sisters
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together the extremely close bond
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between the two sisters is soon
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shattered on April 24th 1980 Robin went
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went to work at the donut time donut
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shop she got off work around midnight
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that night and she had plans to go to a
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party with a few of her friends that
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evening then the following day she had
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plans to meet up with a friend of hers
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to go swimming but the friend was
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surprised that her friend robin never
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showed up that
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day she had friends that came to visit
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her at her apartment cuz she was
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supposed to go swimming go somewhere
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with with them and there was no answer
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at the door they went to the dut shop
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she wasn't there and so they knocked
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again later on in the day no answer but
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the turning point was at about 4:30 she
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was supposed to show up to work at 4:00
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and didn't show up for work so her
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friends who actually worked at the dut
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shop also went to her apartment and no
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answer still door was locked so they
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kicked in the door and found her stabbed
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to death in her water
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bed there was blood every everywhere she
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had a water bed so coupled with the
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blood and the injuries it was a very
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very traumatizing
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scene when First Responders arrived on
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scene their first responsibility is
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going to be to preserve the crime scene
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make sure no one else can enter or leave
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make sure that photographs are taken
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make sure that any evidence that might
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be there whether it be evidence on the
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body around the body is collected
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this was a violent scene she had been
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brutally stabbed to death she was found
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faed down in her water bed she had been
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stabbed through the heart she had been
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bound clearly she had put up a struggle
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and she had tried to save her own life
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and the killer overtook her and
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ultimately killed
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her we surmised that this suspect
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probably on purpose slashed the water
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bed so that Robin's body would be
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underwater when she was found eventually
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I don't know if that was because she was
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sexually assaulted also to try and
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conceal the fact that that he had raped
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her or not but um her sweater that was
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she was seen in at work that night was
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found there in the in the water bed the
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killer uh hurt himself obviously Robin
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fought hard to save her own life she was
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not successful but what she was
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successful in was the fact that the
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killer left his own bullet behind
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when I was that age I was the flight I
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would have run you know but my sister
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was always even though she was younger
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she was the fighter I think she fought
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back as much as she
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could the police were able to gather a
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lot of key evidence inside the apartment
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one of which was some blood across the
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walls as well as near the
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door the blood seemed kind of cast off
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and I think at the time the investigator
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thought well the suspect stabbed her you
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know five times if she was fighting
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maybe he stabbed himself or cut himself
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during the assault there were several
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drops of that blood throughout the
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apartment but we knew it wasn't Robin's
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blood and anybody else that had been in
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the apartment we either got their
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fingerprints or their blood to see if we
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could compare
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it investigators were able to uncover a
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few sets of fingerprints on Robin's
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window this was crucial for the
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investigation because it suggested that
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the window was how the perpetrator had
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got inside the
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apartment but when they tested the
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fingerprints to see who they belong to
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they unfortunately weren't able to get a
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match there was blood at the scene
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smears there was fingerprints there was
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semen on the body all of those things
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even though it was 1980 had the
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potential to identify who Robins killer
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was
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the first instinct was probably that it
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was somebody that Robin knew she was 20
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years old but she was young and having a
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lot of friends but she wouldn't invite a
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stranger into her apartment um all her
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friends and family said that so you know
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the thought was maybe it's somebody she
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knew maybe an ex-boyfriend maybe
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somebody that she wanted to date her and
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she didn't so that was what they focused
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on originally in in the
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investigation investigators may not have
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a prime suspect but they do have one
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promising piece of evidence blood from
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the man who may be Robin Brooks's killer
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that's next on bloodline
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[Music]
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detectives April 25 1980 the body of a
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young woman discovered in an apartment
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on the outskirts of Sacramento
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California the victim 20-year-old Robin
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Brooks Robin recently moved all the way
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from New York to the West Coast she is
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found brutally bound raped and stabbed
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multiple times detectives now must break
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the news to her sister
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Maria three police officers came in and
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then I thought that she' been hit by a
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car cuz she had a 10speed
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so when they said she was deceased but
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that wasn't what it was so later I don't
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think they even shared so I know we
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needed to call my
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mother and then it was awful actually it
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was like a
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nightmare an autopsy is conducted
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investigators hope the coroner will
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discover more about Robin Brooks's last
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moments
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alive Robin had been restraint her her
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hands had been restrained and so had her
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legs um the restraints were gone but the
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markings were still
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there um we believe that all of the
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assault as far as the murder itself
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happened on the water bed beddings and
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towels that would have been either in
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her bathroom or in her bedroom were gone
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so that was interesting why would
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somebody take that that we're talking
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1980 this isn't the the age of
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DNA so it was interesting that the
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suspect take had taken the items with
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him the autopsy revealed a couple key
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details about what happened to Robin the
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first thing was that she had been
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sexually assaulted and the second was
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that she had been stabbed approximately
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five times one of the stab wounds had
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gone through her heart and the medical
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examiner was also able to determine that
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she had died sometime around 2:30 in the
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morning she didn't really have
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identifiable defensive wounds her family
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says she would have put up a fight which
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is why I believe she was restrained by
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the suspect and then it would have been
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very hard for somebody her size to uh
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fight this person
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off I remember the
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wake I remember the day of the
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funeral just like Snippets because you I
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think your mind protects
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you everyone learns to their own
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Survival Mode like how they're going to
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deal with it some it's fight or
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flight some are everybody kind of goes
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into their own it's like a survival mode
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because it's so
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horrendous detectives have blood
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evidence left at the crime scene by the
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suspect but it doesn't really help them
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in 1980 DNA technology is still in its
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infancy and a match to the Killer is way
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Out Of Reach investigators instead rely
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upon traditional police methods they go
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door too looking for information that
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could
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help unfortunately at that time nobody
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knew was aware that she had gone to this
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party that would have been another
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person to talk to obviously but I think
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at the time when she was killed the
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young people that were at the party I
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think were scared to say they were at a
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party so they certainly didn't want to
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come forward with any information about
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Robin at that time just being naive
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kids who was in her sphere of influence
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who were her friends who were her
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potential enemies was there anybody that
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was perhaps sexually interested in her
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that she wasn't interested in so all of
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those things would have been on the
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table for law enforcement and that would
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have been what they were immediately
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looking at months go by the case
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investigation stalls and then goes cold
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but never forgotten
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fast forward more than two decades
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advances in DNA technology offer new
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hope that the killer of Robin Brooks
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could be
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identified the blood that was found on
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the walls in the victim's apartment was
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analyzed for DNA a male DNA profile was
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obtained and that was uploaded into the
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state and National codus
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databases in 20 2 is when we started the
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Cold Case unit in Sacramento that's when
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we went around and started making our
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list of all these unsolved murders or
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unsolved rapes where we had DNA Robin's
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case was right there at the top and we
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knew that we had DNA from the bad guy
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and so we sent that to our crime lab the
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Sacramento da crime lab they developed a
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DNA profile that DNA profile of the
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killer was put into the DNA data bank
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codus and ultimately there were no
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matches they got the approval and then
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they put it in and then I'll never
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forget like it was I don't know if it
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was Christmas Eve or the day before
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Christmas Eve I get a call and I was
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like wow maybe you get excited right you
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think wow and then the whoever called me
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at that point left a message and said
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that there wasn't a match that was
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devastating at that
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point it is a heartbreaking development
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the codus DNA profile is unique to the
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suspect but it lacks one crucial element
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a
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name it's frustrating because that is
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you know one of the best tools that law
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enforcement has been given is this DNA
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Data Bank but it's not always perfect
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it's probably solves maybe 30 to 40% of
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crimes that have DNA but it's not going
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to solve all of
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them DNA testing was very beneficial for
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law enforcement because DNA testing
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allowed investigators to eliminate many
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possible Suspects
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and in Robin's case DNA eliminated
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nearly 50
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people in 2004 investigators received
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information that the DNA collected at
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Robin's crime scene was also linked to
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another assault on a young female that
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happened just 3 weeks
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before the discovery of a second attack
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reinvigorates the investigation but
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still detectives cannot link the
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suspect's DNA to a name Will new
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forensic science finally help catch a
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killer we find out next on bloodline
00:14:43
[Music]
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detectives Sacramento California over 20
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years since the 1980 stabbing murder and
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sex assault of 20-year-old Rob Robin
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Brooks in her own apartment at the crime
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scene police collect blood evidence
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blood evidence belonging to the killer
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but they cannot find a DNA match the
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case goes cold but Robin's family
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becomes actively involved in making sure
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she's not
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forgotten Robin's murder was devastating
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for the family and they were willing to
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do anything and everything they could to
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get get some answers in this case and
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the family decided to take matters into
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their own hands and offer a $110,000
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reward for any information in the
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case when I was the supervisor of the
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sexual assault unit we had a cold case
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team and I was in charge of that and
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basically I I went through our cold
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cases at that time we probably had over
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300 and just reviewed those cases to see
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what kind of evidence do we have which
00:16:01
ones would be probative for maybe DNA or
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or
00:16:04
fingerprints and you know assign those
00:16:06
to the team so we could maybe make some
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progress on those cases so there were
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quite a few that I read but the robin
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Brooks case was kind of near and dear to
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my
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heart I think we just kept in contact
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and I believed in her like I just
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believed in her there was and never in
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my heart once DNA came out I never
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thought anything but the case could be
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solved the co case team has the
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suspect's DNA profile but no name to go
00:16:38
with it the profile doesn't match anyone
00:16:41
in the national law enforcement database
00:16:44
codus but then a breakthrough
00:16:47
2017 investigators focus on a new DNA
00:16:51
technique called
00:16:55
phenotyping in 2017 I reached out to to
00:16:59
parabon who was uh this kind of a new
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technique of using genetic material for
00:17:06
uh coming up with a profile different
00:17:08
than the one that's in codus and so
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because we had waited so long to try and
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solve this case we thought this was a
00:17:15
perfect case to try
00:17:17
that the sheriff's office in Sacramento
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sent the DNA off to parabon for
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phenotyping which would then give
00:17:24
physical characteristics they really
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they had no idea they didn't know if the
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perpetrator was white black Hispanic
00:17:30
whatever and ultimately that proved very
00:17:32
helpful to law enforcement because it
00:17:34
identified the perpetrator as an
00:17:36
African-American male approximate age in
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his late
00:17:40
20s it was clear you know where his
00:17:43
Heritage came from and that that's who
00:17:46
we were looking for and it's it's quite
00:17:48
a tool because it's very reliable so
00:17:50
you're probably not going to be spending
00:17:52
a lot of time looking at say an Asian
00:17:54
suspect or whatever because you now have
00:17:57
this great piece of evidence evence
00:17:59
that's giving you a lot of
00:18:01
information investigators hoping the
00:18:04
combination of a physical image and a
00:18:07
DNA profile will lead them to Robin's
00:18:10
killer well the first thing I did was I
00:18:12
showed it to Maria Robin's sister to see
00:18:16
if she recognized the guy at all because
00:18:19
um I thought she knew most of her
00:18:21
friends and and the people that she hung
00:18:23
around with um but Maria did not
00:18:26
recognize the composite of of anybody
00:18:29
that she
00:18:30
knew I was just in shock because I
00:18:32
remember Mickey called me and I was at
00:18:34
work she said if you have time you know
00:18:36
I'm going to send you something and she
00:18:38
sent it via the text and I was kind of
00:18:41
just shocked because I don't think they
00:18:42
were looking like they were looking with
00:18:45
everybody she knew and but I don't think
00:18:47
they were looking at just a random
00:18:51
person having the case been so old I
00:18:54
think it was hard to generate a picture
00:18:57
of what somebody looks like 40 years
00:18:59
later law enforcement put it out to the
00:19:00
public but it did not generate any
00:19:02
substantial leads I got a lot of leads
00:19:05
on different people um but as it you
00:19:07
know as we investigated that person or
00:19:10
that lead um we would try to find ways
00:19:12
to eliminate them or include them as a
00:19:15
potential suspect and at that time I
00:19:18
probably eliminated after that media
00:19:20
went out probably 15 additional subjects
00:19:25
it's frustrating it's frustrating for
00:19:28
the families I mean I was in touch with
00:19:29
Maria quite a bit cuz she knew we were
00:19:31
doing this type of investigation and I
00:19:34
could tell that many times when we
00:19:36
thought we were close and we weren't it
00:19:37
it was it was frustrating for her to I
00:19:40
was like I'm never bothering with this
00:19:42
again I'm just you know you go through
00:19:43
those stages where I'm done I'm done but
00:19:47
you you keep chipping away Mickey was
00:19:50
unbelievable she just was
00:19:54
relentless DNA phenotyping is a huge
00:19:57
help it adds a piece to the
00:20:00
investigative puzzle but detectives
00:20:03
still need more now they turn to an
00:20:06
exciting new technique investigative
00:20:09
genetic genealogy this remarkable
00:20:12
technology has already blown open
00:20:15
several seemingly impossible cold cases
00:20:18
including the infamous California's
00:20:21
Golden State killer case in the back of
00:20:24
my mind I was sitting there thinking
00:20:26
well if this works on the GSK then we're
00:20:28
going to do this case this case this
00:20:30
case and this case and Robin Brook's
00:20:32
case was right there on the top of the
00:20:33
list as well I've worked with her since
00:20:37
2001 and she has always been uh on the
00:20:42
Forefront of what's new and where are we
00:20:45
going with our investigations with the
00:20:47
science and um when we talked about this
00:20:51
case she said that's it's a perfect case
00:20:53
to try
00:20:56
this forensic investigative genetic
00:20:58
gentic genealogy is perhaps one of the
00:21:00
most advanced tools of identifying
00:21:03
somebody through genetic genealogy
00:21:04
meaning that we take the DNA from the
00:21:07
crime scene or from the perpetrator you
00:21:10
send it to a laboratory for doing this
00:21:12
very sophisticated kind of testing
00:21:13
called snip testing which stands for
00:21:16
single nucleotide polymorphism and what
00:21:18
you're doing is you're looking at
00:21:21
700,000 to a million places on the DNA
00:21:25
that gives you so many more data points
00:21:27
that then you can then take that profile
00:21:30
put it into genealogy site such as Jed
00:21:32
match or family tree and build family
00:21:34
trees and find relatives of your
00:21:37
perpetrator or if you're trying to
00:21:39
identify a missing person you can find
00:21:41
relatives of that Jane do or John do it
00:21:43
is by far the greatest advancement in
00:21:46
crime solving In Our Lifetime you're
00:21:48
using a different type of profile you're
00:21:51
using you know the forensic genetic
00:21:53
genealogy profile which they call a snip
00:21:57
and you're using that to find relatives
00:22:00
of your suspect and that will help you
00:22:02
narrow down maybe who your suspect is
00:22:05
detectives then contact Jean by Jean a
00:22:09
genetic testing company based in Houston
00:22:13
Texas when we were first contacted about
00:22:16
the robin Brooks case we do an initial
00:22:18
consultation we were called by law
00:22:20
enforcement they said we have a
00:22:22
potential case we think would be a good
00:22:24
candidate for forensic genetic genealogy
00:22:27
and we asked them questions questions
00:22:28
about what is the case type we only
00:22:31
accept certain cases uh certain types of
00:22:34
cases so it has to be sexual assault
00:22:37
homicide unidentified remains or
00:22:39
abductions and obviously this this case
00:22:42
checked off two of those boxes uh we
00:22:45
asked about the DNA what kind of
00:22:48
evidence they have and they did have DNA
00:22:51
evidence that was of suitable quantity
00:22:54
and quality for microarray testing
00:22:58
microarray testing looks at individual
00:23:01
positions in your DNA it doesn't look at
00:23:04
the entire sequence it's not trying to
00:23:05
get the entire sequence information it's
00:23:08
like if you were reading a book but
00:23:10
instead of reading the sentence the
00:23:12
complete sentences you're looking at
00:23:14
every 10th word so it turns into a
00:23:18
snapshot of the book that's essentially
00:23:21
what micro testing is doing with your
00:23:24
DNA
00:23:25
sequence in this case there's a risk the
00:23:28
blood evidence may be
00:23:31
contaminated whenever you have DNA
00:23:33
mixing with something else it can cause
00:23:36
problems in this case it was mixed with
00:23:40
the water from the water bed and that
00:23:42
can cause problems for multiple reasons
00:23:45
first it can dilute the DNA which means
00:23:48
instead of having a certain amount you
00:23:50
have much less of it it's very watered
00:23:52
down second because a water bed you use
00:23:56
stabilizers or you know know add
00:23:59
additives that you put into the water um
00:24:02
any of those chemicals can have an
00:24:04
effect on the DNA it's it it's possible
00:24:07
that it could degrade the DNA it could
00:24:09
break it down it could make it
00:24:12
unstable Dr Connie Borman and her team
00:24:15
determine the sample is indeed
00:24:18
viable you do have to be patient and all
00:24:21
these cases that we've done we've never
00:24:23
gotten a very very close match so
00:24:26
there's a lot of investigating and
00:24:27
digging to figure out who your suspect
00:24:29
is with the family members that you
00:24:31
might have I have some great people over
00:24:34
at the district attorney's office that
00:24:35
are are amazing at this and they help
00:24:38
with our cases and this case um took
00:24:42
about 2 years once we uh got the snip
00:24:46
profile to determine who our suspect was
00:24:49
and we finally
00:24:51
did bloodline detectives are so close to
00:24:55
identifying Robin Brooks's killer but
00:24:57
can they ever find him and can he be
00:25:00
brought to Justice that's
00:25:03
[Music]
00:25:11
next 2020 bloodline detectives make a
00:25:15
breakthrough in the 1980 murder of
00:25:17
20-year-old Robin Brooks Sacramento
00:25:20
California a DNA sample from blood left
00:25:24
at the scene by the prime suspect and
00:25:27
the sign of investigative genetic
00:25:30
genealogy finally give investigators a
00:25:33
name when the DNA was analized law
00:25:37
enforcement came across the name of
00:25:39
Philip Lee
00:25:41
Wilson this seemed to fit for us so then
00:25:44
you start investigating their life you
00:25:47
see if they've been involved in any
00:25:48
criminal activity uh and that was one of
00:25:50
the first things that we found was that
00:25:52
he did have a criminal record but we
00:25:54
could never figure out where he was
00:25:55
living at the time of Robin's murder but
00:25:58
when we found one of his Ex-Wives she
00:26:01
had the address of the same apartment
00:26:03
complex and they were married at the
00:26:05
time and he was living there which just
00:26:08
made us know we had the right
00:26:10
guy detectives are positive they've
00:26:13
identified Robin Brooks's killer but
00:26:16
they still need one more piece of Hard
00:26:18
Evidence to link him to her brutal
00:26:22
murder we need to get DNA to confirm
00:26:25
that most of the time if this is your
00:26:27
suspect you're not going to want to go
00:26:28
ask them for it cuz they're probably not
00:26:30
going to give it to you so we do a
00:26:32
ctitious collection normally it has to
00:26:35
be a discarded item that the suspect has
00:26:38
either touched or drank from and you
00:26:42
test that against the profile that you
00:26:43
have in codus from your blood at the
00:26:45
scene so we did that and it
00:26:50
matched the timing of the suspect's
00:26:52
arrest is especially meaningful for
00:26:55
investigators and for Robin Brooks's
00:26:58
family we identified Philip Lee Wilson
00:27:02
as our suspect the week before the 40th
00:27:05
anniversary of Robbin being murdered and
00:27:09
I wanted to arrest him on either the day
00:27:12
before or that day so I did not call and
00:27:16
let the um Family know until we actually
00:27:19
had him in custody so we got him on the
00:27:22
23rd of April 2020 and then once he was
00:27:25
on his way to jail um I called Maria to
00:27:28
give her the
00:27:29
news I've been in class all day I was
00:27:33
taking some classes um then I got out
00:27:36
and I know Mickey had called and I was
00:27:37
like tired I was like oh but I got to
00:27:39
call her back so I called her back and
00:27:42
then she said she was driving in her car
00:27:44
I think she pulled over and she had
00:27:46
shared they she didn't want to share
00:27:50
anything with me until they double
00:27:52
double tested or whatever they did to
00:27:54
make sure they absolutely had the right
00:27:57
person so I think they ran they must
00:28:00
have got a hit and then they got his DNA
00:28:02
to just confirm it and then she had
00:28:04
shared that with me was kind of like
00:28:06
almost in shock I was
00:28:08
um it's almost
00:28:11
unbelievable you know 40 years it's just
00:28:17
unbelievable I mean 40 years to the day
00:28:21
that we identify this guy and arrest him
00:28:23
I think she was in shock and
00:28:25
unfortunately I would love to have done
00:28:27
that in person but but she lived out of
00:28:28
state so I had to call her on the phone
00:28:31
but I was very emotional and she just
00:28:33
seemed in shock and then we talked a
00:28:35
little later and she was emotional she
00:28:37
just was in such shock that she just
00:28:39
couldn't even have those emotions that I
00:28:42
know she continues to have now about the
00:28:46
relief you don't get the sense of relief
00:28:49
right away you
00:28:52
um like I said it's almost
00:28:55
unbelievable um
00:29:00
I think how you feels then you start
00:29:02
going inside and
00:29:08
remembering you know just what she must
00:29:10
have went
00:29:12
through once law enforcement had
00:29:14
identified Philip Lee Wilson in Robin's
00:29:17
case they made the arrest in April
00:29:20
2022 he was arrested he was booked and
00:29:25
his mug shot was made public
00:29:28
why am I
00:29:30
here do you recognize that
00:29:34
picture
00:29:39
no is that is that the doughnut girl
00:29:42
that you dated no no the reason I know
00:29:46
is because her chest is not big enough
00:29:49
okay what does that mean girl had a
00:29:51
large breast oh yeah
00:29:53
okay okay my my memory is really foggy
00:29:57
but uh I think you've done really good
00:29:59
with your memory especially your the
00:30:02
what's happened in many years ago you've
00:30:04
done really well well like I said I have
00:30:06
my long-term memory is really good yeah
00:30:10
we have the search warrant we want to
00:30:12
get your fingerprints right and we're
00:30:14
going to get your DNA and and the reason
00:30:17
you came up is because we're Cold Case
00:30:19
detectives right so we started looking
00:30:20
at this old case and we and and we found
00:30:23
that La Riviera report where you were
00:30:25
stopped for looking like the guy that
00:30:28
raped that woman right right and you
00:30:31
were interviewed by the cops right right
00:30:33
that was 3 weeks before
00:30:35
this we were done with the interview and
00:30:38
we also did major case prints and what
00:30:40
those are is not just the the pads of
00:30:43
your fingers but all parts of your hand
00:30:45
because we had fingerprints on our um
00:30:48
window sill that were never identified
00:30:51
and I realized that they were probably
00:30:53
the suspect hanging on as he went out
00:30:55
the
00:30:56
window so we got major case prints so
00:30:59
they they did that part too before he
00:31:00
went to jail and a week later those were
00:31:03
compared to the prints on the window
00:31:04
sill and they
00:31:06
matched when Mr Wilson was first
00:31:08
interviewed by law enforcement he
00:31:10
completely denied any knowledge of Robin
00:31:13
what I find interesting about many of
00:31:15
these cases now when you reopen them and
00:31:16
you identify them with this genealogy
00:31:19
tool some of them just live right there
00:31:22
I mean this is another example of I
00:31:24
would call a line of sight murder
00:31:26
meaning that he lived right in the same
00:31:28
complex that was something investigators
00:31:30
once his name came up fairly quickly
00:31:33
figured out that he lived right in that
00:31:34
complex but he had his own record he had
00:31:37
been I think to prison at some point for
00:31:39
a short stint in Texas for some type of
00:31:41
drug stuff he had some other types of
00:31:43
crimes on his background but clearly
00:31:45
this was the most horrific of all of
00:31:47
them at this point Philip Lee Wilson was
00:31:49
early 7s when we arrested him um so if
00:31:53
convicted he was going to spend the rest
00:31:54
of his life in prison
00:31:57
after over 40 years investigators arrest
00:32:01
Philip Lee Wilson for the 1980 rape and
00:32:05
murder of Robin Brooks when Wilson's
00:32:09
trial commences he comes up with an
00:32:12
explosive defense that's next on
00:32:15
bloodline
00:32:19
[Music]
00:32:26
detectives Sacramento California March
00:32:29
2022 the trial of Philip Lee Wilson for
00:32:33
the 1980 rape and murder of Robin Brooks
00:32:38
begins prosecutors have incredibly
00:32:41
strong DNA evidence linking Wilson to
00:32:44
Robins homicide but Wilson goes to
00:32:47
extraordinary links to deny any
00:32:51
involvement he had a somewhat of a
00:32:54
Cavalier attitude that he just had sex
00:32:57
with her and somebody else killed
00:32:58
her I think it's very difficult for any
00:33:01
family it's not just the fact that their
00:33:03
sister was killed in a very brutal
00:33:06
manner raped in a very brutal manner but
00:33:09
it's the fact that this person now gets
00:33:11
up and perpetuates these lies in front
00:33:14
of a jury in an effort to get out from
00:33:16
underneath the crimes he
00:33:19
committed what it does is it just seeing
00:33:22
him just really brings
00:33:28
how she must have suffered like my
00:33:29
feelings towards him I he can't take up
00:33:31
that room in my
00:33:33
heart not only does Philip Le Wilson
00:33:36
refused to admit guilt his defense
00:33:39
claims that the boyfriend of Robin's
00:33:41
sister Maria is the real killer of
00:33:46
course that's not true but imagine how
00:33:48
Robin's family feels hearing
00:33:51
that and that was horrible
00:33:58
it was
00:34:00
like that was just one more part
00:34:06
of just all of what what what this
00:34:11
was it's like it just it's like it kept
00:34:15
going but like a friend told me in the
00:34:18
abyss you'll find a
00:34:23
pearl and that he was arrested convicted
00:34:27
and he'll spend the rest of his life in
00:34:30
jail I don't know if that's the Pearl
00:34:32
but that
00:34:33
was the end result but he
00:34:37
just he just took he wanted to take
00:34:40
everybody with his pain my
00:34:43
pain
00:34:47
H to spin a tail in front of a jury
00:34:50
that's a level of narcissism that we
00:34:52
don't see so
00:34:54
much Mr Wilson because of the special
00:34:57
circumstances was sentenced to life
00:35:00
without the possibility of
00:35:02
parole as a family member I can only
00:35:05
imagine I don't stand in their shoes but
00:35:07
I can only imagine the agony um but
00:35:11
ultimately the relief in hearing that
00:35:13
the man who killed their sister raped
00:35:15
and murdered her has is now going to get
00:35:18
Justice bloodline detectives now
00:35:21
unmasking criminals like Philip Lee
00:35:23
Wilson who otherwise would literally
00:35:27
have gotten away with
00:35:29
murder I think for law enforcement I'm
00:35:32
more willing to use the word closure
00:35:35
because they did what they were supposed
00:35:36
to do and they never gave up they found
00:35:38
the answers they put the bad guy away I
00:35:41
think for Robin's family and many
00:35:43
families out
00:35:45
there I think it's a very difficult word
00:35:48
to use the word closure
00:35:51
because Robin's gone she's never coming
00:35:54
back she was killed in a brutal way and
00:35:56
so I'm very very hesitant because
00:36:01
um closure there's no such thing for
00:36:04
closure for many
00:36:07
families I think the Hate's
00:36:09
gone but the act of which what he did to
00:36:13
her is the hard you know that's that's
00:36:15
the
00:36:15
thing family has to live with
00:36:20
forever this how
00:36:25
she had to suffered
00:36:28
for that you know it's hard they say to
00:36:31
forgive because then you can let your
00:36:33
own pain
00:36:36
go and I think I work on that I say
00:36:41
heard something somewhere if you can't
00:36:43
pray for the person individually then
00:36:45
pray for everybody and I include him in
00:36:48
that prayer because I have to cleanse my
00:36:50
heart and soul of who he
00:36:56
is the closure comes where I don't have
00:36:59
to be obsessed anymore and
00:37:05
driven every
00:37:07
holiday all the special moments in your
00:37:11
life this is a case where the
00:37:14
Revolutionary science of investigative
00:37:17
genetic genealogy succeeds and finds the
00:37:21
truth against remarkable
00:37:24
odds I don't think that this case case
00:37:27
could have been solved without forensic
00:37:29
genetic genealogy I mean it has been
00:37:32
decades since and there had been no
00:37:34
progress made on the
00:37:36
case Philip Wilson would have continued
00:37:39
to live his life on the lamb if we had
00:37:42
not used this tool and because of
00:37:44
forensic investigative genetic genealogy
00:37:47
Philip Wilson now will die in
00:37:49
prison and ultimately I think what
00:37:52
stands out for me is the fact
00:37:55
that 40 years went went by without an
00:37:59
answer and the passion and the
00:38:01
Persistence of people like Sergeant lyns
00:38:04
was what brought this man to
00:38:07
Justice I think I just have that don't
00:38:10
give up attitude and when you solve
00:38:13
cases by not doing that just more of a
00:38:15
reason to keep it going um so yeah I
00:38:19
mean we've been successful we're not
00:38:21
going to solve every case but um I hope
00:38:24
it gives people hope that if they have a
00:38:26
case maybe it can't be solved even 40
00:38:30
years
00:38:31
later every case that we get leaves an
00:38:36
impression this one impacted me one
00:38:39
because Robin was so
00:38:41
young and because of the nature of how
00:38:45
she was murdered I I just the fact that
00:38:50
the he came through a window it makes me
00:38:54
double check everything at night or when
00:38:57
I'm home alone are my windows locked are
00:39:00
my doors locked are my car doors locked
00:39:03
um and it's it's sad but it's the
00:39:06
reality I think he just knew that she
00:39:09
was not ever going to date him and when
00:39:12
we found out that she had gone to that
00:39:13
party the night uh she left work one of
00:39:17
the people at the party that I
00:39:18
eventually got to speak to said she was
00:39:20
telling a couple girls at the party
00:39:23
there there was a guy that was harassing
00:39:24
her and begging her and she was scared
00:39:26
of him and I think that was Philip
00:39:28
Wilson There is a human toll of crime it
00:39:32
changes people's lives I look at Robin's
00:39:34
case and I look at her sister Maria who
00:39:38
has now created a foundation to help
00:39:41
bring more cases to answers and I look
00:39:44
at it you know public policy is often
00:39:46
times impacted by the actual victims of
00:39:49
crime and so for me I never want the
00:39:51
public to forget that human
00:39:54
toll she went down fighting and
00:39:57
ultimately it's because she went down
00:39:58
fighting that that this person left his
00:40:00
DNA
00:40:02
behind I think the world knows that she
00:40:05
didn't have the opportunity
00:40:08
to fulfill her
00:40:10
life on Earth I think she was a
00:40:14
beautiful funloving happy go-lucky
00:40:21
trusting kind person with her whole life
00:40:24
ahead of her and that's what she lost
00:40:28
time incredible science and
00:40:31
determination solve the case of Robin
00:40:34
Brooks's murder after 42 years the
00:40:38
forensic techniques of phenotyping and
00:40:41
investigative genetic genealogy now mean
00:40:44
that no killer no matter how old the
00:40:48
case no matter how distant the time and
00:40:51
location from his horrible act can ever
00:40:55
feel safe from Justice
00:40:58
I'm Nancy Grace thank you for being with
00:41:00
us here on bloodline detectives
00:41:05
[Music]
00:41:14
[Music]
00:41:34
[Music]
