Michael Johnston / Michelle Robinson Murders

[Thiussat]

This was on tonight and is one of the better cases I have seen in a while.

My observations:

1) The UM segment said that they were playing a "card game" at a friend's house that involved "black magic, imagination, mythical creatures" etc.. The segment never identified the card game by name. So, I will assume that Michael and Michelle were playing "Dungeons and Dragons." This, as many of you know, is a popular fantasy card game that many teens/young adults play. I know people who have played it and these people are far from being "occultists." This "satan worshipping" label that many zealots try to force upon people who play such games is ridiculous.

2) The segment never mentioned who the friends were or what these friends had to say about that night. Surely the police must have interviewed and cleard them, but I still think that UM should have at least gotten a statement from them. I assume this is how they knew about the card game. Nevertheless, I found this odd.

3) The fact that Michael and Michelle were having an affair seems to be paramount here.

4) Michelle had a stalker. This is 2nd in importance to the fact she was sleeping with a married man, but still important nonetheless.

5) The notion that the psychic espoused about Michael being killed by fellow cult members is far-fetched.. If Michael did know his killer, I will bet that it had nothing to do with the theory about the occult. I have little trust in psychics and I feel UM used the psychic to embellish this segment a little to make it more entertaining.

6) The fact that Michael and Michelle's bodies were found 5 miles apart is bizarre. The segment did not mention she was sexually assaulted, so I will assume she was not.

It is hard to posit a theory about this case based on the info from the segment alone. Michael's wife is not an official suspect because she was cleared by a polygraph. However, there is a reason that polygraph results are not admissable in court. They are notoriously unreliable. I saw research that indicated that polygraphs return false positives up to 25% of the time! The statistics on how often untruthful people can pass them I am unsure about, but I would bet it is also a fairly significant number. Michael's wife does appear believable, but I would assume if she did do it and she passed a polygraph anyway, that she can also be a convincing liar on camera. There was insurance money and she knew Michael was having an affair. However, there are other clues that say she had nothing to do with it.

The stalker would be my #2 suspect. It is possible he followed the couple around that night and took action when he saw them parked in a desolate location. His motive may have been rage when he saw Michelle with another guy. There was so little info on this person that there is not much else to say here. On the other hand, the fact that Michelle was not sexually assaulted kind of makes this scenario unlikely.

I don't think this was a random crime nor was it likely the work of some lone psychopathic stranger who wanted to murder an unknown couple (a la Zodiac). This case does, interestingly, fit the Zodiac's MO perfectly. Anyone notice this? Of course, he is not responsible, but I found it interesting. If this case would have taken place 20 years earlier, perhaps I would list him as a suspect.

I assume that Michael and Michelle did not tell anyone they were headed to this desolate location. This means if the killer knew them, he would have had to have stalked them the entire night. Again, the "friends" at the card game pop up on my mind. They were the last to see them alive, and it is possible Michael told them where he and Michelle were going.

S, it comes down to the wife and the stalker. I don't think that the wife did this with her own hands, but a murder for hire plot is not out of the question. However, I am sorta thinking this doesn't make sense. If it was a simple professional hit, then why all the stabbing and why the separate dumping of the bodies in 2 locations? This crime seems more personal.

This case will probably never be solved unless someone talks. The wife has a motive but the method of killing doesn't fit (unless the hitman was just crafty and tried to cover-up the motive). The stalker makes sense, but no one, except one guy, has ever heard of him. This, also, seems unlikely.

I would have to say look at the friends who last saw them alive. I still think that it had nothing to do with the occult. I saw no evidence of that whatsoever except for the simple fact that Michael had a few books and trinkets relating to the subject.

[SP4CE INV4DERZ]

As I posted before, I first saw this a month or so ago, at 1 in the morning, alone and with the lights out... half-way through I was looking over my shoulder

Yeah it's definately one of the best post "glory years" I can think of. Interesting theories and observations you have there, I do give the psychic some thought (it was Nancy Myers, yeah?). I haven't gone into too much depth of reviewing, I was too busy changing underwear.. well not really but this one is disturbing!

[LooksLikeCRicci]

This is one of my all-time favorite segments. While I tend to be a bit skeptical that the murders were a result of a RPG that went too far, I, too, think that Rochelle's stalker played a role in this.

Has anyone ever entertained the possibility that Michael's wife knew about the affair and arranged a hit for Rochelle, but the hitmen screwed up and got Michael, too? It's a long shot, but it's also an interesting idea, if plausible...

[Thiussat]

Ricci,

I think a murder for hire plot is very likely. Outside of this being a completely random thrill killing, I can find no motive outside of the wife.

I still would like more info on the friends that the couple visited before their murders.

[Lyndi48]

I think it is possible they were followed and watched for a while and a routine was able to become established. They could have gone to the same place every time after the card games and perhaps someone at the card game could have known about this routine or a possible stalker could have easily caught on. Does the segment suggest sexual activity took place in the car? To me it suggests something was about to happen but never did and whether or not it was meant to be portrayed in that way is not known but it could be of importsnce from the standpoint of the killer in terms of motive.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the segment suggest sexual activity in the car. They mention that when the bodies were found, pieces of clothing were on backwards and inside out, suggesting that they were put on in a hurry. Wasn't Rochelle wearing something of Michael's, too? THAT I don't remember...

[Thiussat]

Lyndi,

According to the segment, there was some sort of sexual activity in progress. This is evidenced by the fact that Michelle was found wearing Michael's shirt and it was inside out (indicating that she quickly put something on as the attacker interrupted them).

I agree that someone had to be watching them. According to the segment, this area they were parked seem so desolate that anyone running into them "by chance" seems highly unlikely.

As I said, there isn't enough info presented to concoct any theory with a relevant degree of confidence. I still say that the friends from the card games should be checked out. Afterall, they were the last to see them alive. I realize the police probably cleared them already, but I wish UM would have elaborated on them a bit.

One thing still sticks out like a sore thumb here: married man having an affair while his wife has a $250,000 insurance policy on his head. If that isn't a motive, I don't know what is. And Michael's wife admitted on the segment that she knew about the affair. She said something like "I wasn't sure if he was in the process of leaving me or not." Plus you must factor in that he was obviously out at night with Michelle, and his wife had to know about this.

I think it is a crock the cops cleared the wife based on a simple and antiquated polygraph test. But, to the cops' credit, murder for hire cases are tough to crack, especially if the hitman performs a "clean" job and keeps his mouth shut. They had to move on for lack of evidence, I am sure. I can't really fault the police, if you have no evidence, you have no evidence. I am sure they are thinking the same thing I am in the back of their heads.

You have to use Ockham's razor. Which is most likely? Michael was sacrificed by some unknown satanic cult for breach of duty (a cult no one has ever identified)..Remember the psychic said this is all true, we must take her seriously. ---rolling eyes---

OR

Michael was killed by a wife who knew he was having an affair and who had a quarter million bucks to earn?

I report, you decide.

[Lyndi48]

Unless someone slips up and brags to the wrong person this case may never get solved or the person responsible could be in jail for another crime but I doubt it. I suspect they were followed and perhaps for a while before the crime took place.

[wiseguy182]

Originally Posted by Thiussat

Remember the psychic said this is all true, we must take her seriously. ---rolling eyes---

I wouldn't dismiss Nancy Myers so quickly. This wasn't her only UM appearance, and she has helped out the police with cases before, and has helped put a rapist behind bars. Granted, there are some phony psychics out there (I'm thinking of Sylvia Brown), but Nancy Myers appears to be a legitimate psychic.

[Eire]

One minor nitpick, D&D is not a card game. I've been around D&D players for years, never a card to be found. Magic the Gathering and games like it are card games that fit the description on UM. Don't know when this segment originally aired, so I can't say whether these games were in production then.

I love UM, but they sometimes went off on this evil Satanic cult conspiracy bend. That irritates me quite a bit. There's never been any proof of these Satanic cults running around killing people the way it was often portrayed in the 80's and 90's. Jealous wife has husband and lover killed no doubt wouldn't have glued viewers to their seats in the same way was Evil Satanists kill two. I'm going with jealous wife. I've know and still know Satanists and killing folks for kicks and grins isn't on their list of hobbies.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

OMG! I totally thought of Magic: The Gathering as the game they were playing, too! I just didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to look like any more of a geek than I already am...

And yes, I believe Magic; The Gathering was in production at the time of the Johnston/Robinson murders.

[wiseguy182]

I had mentioned above about Nancy Myer being involved in more than one UM segment. I think I just found another one: Wasn't the same police officer interviewed in both the Dennis Walker and Steven Cox segments? Sorry if it's been mentioned before, I think there was a thread on the subject of connected cases, but I couldn't find it.

[Thiussat]

Thanks for the clarification about the cards. I have never been into that sort of RPG type thing (other than certain video games). I have heard of Magic, so that seems like a good possibility.

I agree with Eire here. I remember when I was a kid in the 80's that there was a lot of hoopla about satanic cults running around kidnapping children and sacrificing them etc.. I don't doubt that satanists do exist, but there has never been a documented case, that I am aware of, that involved satanists, as a group, killing people for some ceremonial reason.

The only satanic murders that I can think of would have to be the Son of Sam Berkowitz, but he was such a nutcase that I think his "satanism" was a manisfestation of some weird psychotic delusion. He had auditory and visual hallucinations, so the notion that he was some organized "satanist" seems far-fetched to me. Just as many psychotic people proclaim that God made them do it, but you never hear panic about those evil God worshipers coming to get you.

Murderous satanic cults are much like the "snuff film" phenomenon -- both are old wives tales. I saw a website once where a former FBI agent had done research into the "snuff film" claims and he could never turn up a single one -- not one. Are such films out there? In this day and age where everyone has a video camera I would think so, but they certainly aren't being distributed if they are.

Satanic cult murders are much the same way; if a good investigator was to try to find documented cases of such murders, he would have a very hard time finding a single one. You may have lone individuals who kill and then claim it was because of satan, but organized killings are extremely rare. Such an organized group of people would not last very long. Satanists are humans too, they suffer the same problems that other people do; that is, someone will always talk when they are squeezed.

[1990 UM fan]

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but today marks 25 years since Michael and Rochelle were murdered. I would have liked to think the Tacoma police had a suspect or suspects by now, but the case remains unsolved. Nancy Myer helped a great deal and I wonder if any of her suspect leads were followed thoroughly? I definitely think someone both knew or kind of knew, relating to their fantasy games, killed them. Games like Dungeon and Dragons and occult activity, as we've seen, have lead people to adopt violent identities, and unfortunately, Michael Johnston and Rochelle Robinson were "ritualistically murdered". Sounds farfetched, but people who have been involved in shady dealings have been known to kill people to "appease a spirit" in the past. This case is creepy and hopefully it'll be solved someday.

[justins5256]

Oddly enough, I saw this story a couple nights ago. Though, admittedly, I didn't make any connection with the date. I posted my thoughts on this case on another thread in 2014 (this case doesn't get much discussion), but figured I'd re-paste them here if anyone wants to discuss. It definitely is a creepy and disturbing case from the later years of the show...

I thought the PI and psychic angle was pretty much BS, and I got the vibe it was added to the story to sensationalize it and/or pad the length of the segment due to a lack of evidence regarding the actual circumstances behind the crime.

From the get go, it appears obvious that whoever did this was targeting Rochelle. I say this because the assailant killed Michael by slitting his throat and shooting him and his body was left at the scene with no attempt to hide it. Rochelle was transported some distance away, stabbed repeatedly, and her body dumped and covered by a cardboard box.

The fact that the perp went out of (presumably) his way to prolong things by transporting Rochelle to another location, stab her repeatedly (which is very messy, and a very personal way to kill someone) in what seemed like a frenzied overkill suggests that the perp was targeting her in what was likely a crime of passion type scenario. The fact that he covered her body after the murder could have been done out of some remorseful feelings. Also, the fact that he used a box that forensics showed had been in his car or residence for some time suggests that he's not a very smart murderer, and that this was an amateur job. Why leave behind something like that which could be potentially traced back to you?

The stalker angle certainly seems the most viable direction. Unfortunately, without knowing the man's name, and just going by a sketchy description and not the greatest composite, it seems like the chances of finding him aren't great.

Failing that, I think the police need to investigate the people who were close to Rochelle at the time, specifically jealous ex's or potential wannabe suitors. That is where the killer will be.