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Local Crime & Public Safety


SHE POSTED AN AD ON A DATING SITE. AN ALLEGED SERIAL KILLER ANSWERED.

By Justin Jouvenal
September 11, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Monica White, 55, dated Anthony Robinson, who police allege is a serial killer
dubbed the “Shopping Cart Killer.” (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
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Monica White had gone through a painful divorce, but at 53 she was ready to
begin dating again in the fall of 2020. She created profiles on dating sites and
soon got a message from a potential suitor — a man authorities would allege was
a serial killer a year later.



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Anthony Robinson, 36, who police have dubbed the “Shopping Cart Killer,”
allegedly met women on dating sites and lured them to hotels, before killing
them and loading their bodies into shopping carts to dump in vacant lots. He has
been charged in two killings and been linked publicly by police to three others.

“Hi beautiful,” White recalls Robinson writing in his first message. “I’d like
to get to know you better.”

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The whirlwind romance that followed was by turns intense, bizarre and menacing.
White’s account provides the richest picture yet of a man who has largely
remained a mystery since authorities labeled him a serial killer at a news
conference that garnered national attention in December.

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Police have said little about Robinson, other than that the D.C. man moved
frequently and held a range of jobs. His family has never given media
interviews. Louis Nagy, an attorney for Robinson, declined to comment for this
story.

Robinson is slated for a preliminary hearing on two counts of murder Monday in
Harrisonburg, Va., where he is accused of killing 54-year-old Allene Redmon, of
Harrisonburg, and 39-year-old Tonita Lorice Smith, of Charlottesville, last
fall.

Virginia police say they are investigating man as possible serial killer after
four victims found dead

The Washington Post has also learned police are re-examining the 2018 death of a
Maryland woman who Robinson was engaged to marry in light of the allegations
against him.



White said her brush with an alleged serial killer has left her shaken. She said
she has not been able to go on dates since.

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“It really rocked my world,” White said. “I went into a depression.”

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White, who lives outside Harrisburg, Pa., said her relationship with Robinson
proceeded quickly after that first message. White said Robinson was flattering,
telling her what he found attractive about her profile. She said he liked that
she was into art and had been a preschool teacher.

White said she told him she was looking for a serious relationship, and he
confided in her that he preferred older women because they were more mature.

The messages soon progressed to video chats. White said Robinson would call her
from the Metro as he commuted to or from his job in D.C., where White said he
was working removing snow and cleaning streets for the city. At the time,
Robinson was living in a friend’s apartment in the District and occasionally
stayed with his mother in Maryland.

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Robinson told White he had never been married, but he did have a son who died
when the child was around 2 years old and a daughter who was around 5 or 6 at
the time. White said she never learned much about the children’s mother, but
sensed Robinson had a difficult childhood himself.

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White and Robinson grew closer.

“He seemed to have an attachment to me, so he would call me every day,” White
said.

By late 2020, Robinson scheduled his first visit to Pennsylvania. White said she
and Robinson spent a weekend together, hanging out, watching movies and eating
Chinese food. White introduced Robinson to her adult son.

The relationship continued, and White said Robinson said he hoped they could be
a couple and move his daughter to Pennsylvania to live with her. Robinson
returned to the Harrisburg area for White’s birthday in February 2021.

Story continues below advertisement



White said Robinson’s visit held a surprise: He bought a one-way bus ticket.

“When he got here, he said I’m going to have to get a job or something in order
to get back home cause I don’t have my ticket money,” White said.

White said Robinson got a job at a warehouse for an online pet supply store and
stayed with her for three weeks while he raised money for his return trip.

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White said Robinson never discussed killing or hurting women, but he did have
darker moments.

At one point, White said he pulled up his shirt to show her a scar and said he
had been stabbed. White said Robinson never explained how the stabbing occurred,
but promised he would kill anyone that came at him with a knife again. When they
were intimate, White said Robinson sometimes choked her briefly, leaving her
gasping for breath.

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Robinson mentioned he had been engaged to a woman who died.

The woman was 30-year-old Skye Allen, who passed away on Valentine’s Day in
2018. Robinson had met Allen online in 2016, and the pair were planning a
wedding, her family said. The couple were living with Allen’s mother in
Glenarden, Md.

Stacey Allen, Skye’s mother, said she found her daughter barely breathing and
with a light pulse in her bed on the morning of Feb. 14, 2018. Skye Allen had
spent the night with Robinson in the room the pair shared, Stacey Allen said.
Skye Allen was rushed to the hospital, where she died a short time later.

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Skye Allen’s death was found to be caused by “fatal cardiac arrhythmia,”
according to a copy of her death certificate obtained by The Post. Prince
George’s County police said they are taking a fresh look at the case.

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“The Prince George’s County Police Department did not open an investigation into
Ms. Allen’s death in 2018,” the department said in a statement. “Our agency was
not notified of her passing, which occurred at a hospital, and therefore had no
involvement in documenting any aspect of her death. She was cremated following
her death. In January of 2022, a PGPD Homicide supervisor did speak to Ms.
Allen’s relatives. Based on those conversations, the PGPD’s Cold Case Unit is
reviewing the facts surrounding her death.”

At White’s house, her relationship with Robinson came to a tumultuous end. White
held a birthday party for herself in mid-February 2021. At the party, White said
Robinson drank heavily and made sexually suggestive comments toward her son and
the teenage son of a friend, which were confirmed by a cousin of White’s who
attended.

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White said she confronted Robinson about the comments the next day. White said
she told Robinson the comments were inappropriate and asked if he had an
interest in men. White said Robinson told her he did.

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White said she felt blindsided because Robinson had not been forthcoming about
that side of himself and said she couldn’t trust him any longer. “He could be
anything,” White said.

A fight ensued, during which Robinson called police before he finally left,
White said. Local police confirmed they responded to a call involving White and
Robinson. White thought it would be the last she would see of Robinson, but it
wasn’t.

Weeks later, White said Robinson messaged her on Facebook and said he was living
at a hotel in Harrisburg. Robinson asked her to come to the hotel, saying “I
will give you whatever you want.” White said he was also interested in buying
“spice,” or synthetic marijuana. White declined to meet him.

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About a month later, White was driving in Harrisburg and saw Robinson walking
down the street. White said she was shocked by his appearance. Robinson had
always been clean-cut and neatly groomed, but now he had an untidy beard and a
knotty Afro. White never saw him again.

Roughly eight months later, in October 2021, police said Robinson killed Redmon
in Harrisonburg, about 130 miles south of D.C., after going there for work.
Police said Robinson killed Smith in November.

Robinson was arrested on Nov. 23 after both women’s bodies were found in an open
lot in a commercial district in Harrisonburg. Police said surveillance video and
cellphone records connected Robinson to both victims.

Fairfax County police announced in December they were investigating Robinson in
connection with the slaying of two women whose bodies were found in a trash can
in a vacant lot in the Route 1 corridor. Robinson has not been charged in the
slayings of Cheyenne Brown, 29, of D.C., and Stephanie Harrison, 48, of Redding,
Calif.

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Fairfax County police have interviewed White as part of their investigation, a
spokesman said.

D.C. police are also investigating Robinson in connection with the killing of
Sonya Champ, 40, of D.C., whose body was found in a shopping cart near Union
Station in September 2021.

D.C. police identify slain woman linked to accused serial killer

White said she was stunned when a relative forwarded her a story about Robinson
being called a serial killer by police in December. She was supposed to be with
her niece, who was giving birth, but she couldn’t leave her home. She thought of
the women who had been killed and her own experience with Robinson.

“It was all kinds of emotion flooding my head,” White said.

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