Post by Joanna on Jun 20, 2016 23:22:26 GMT -5
Suspect in 1995 Disappearance of Robin Murphy
CARMEL, N.Y. – The prime suspect in Putnam County’s biggest mystery – the 1995 disappearance of 17-year-old Robin Murphy (above) – had her underwear in a suitcase when he was arrested five years later in an unrelated sexual assault case, new court documents reveal. Howard Gombert Jr. was with Murphy the night she went missing from a Carmel shopping center. Carmel police never cited the underwear but in 2001 said they had their “most significant break” in the case. But with no recovered body and mostly circumstantial evidence, they have never made an arrest.
The court documents included a 2003 letter from Carmel Detective Lt. Brian Karst to Gombert urging him to “atone for the people that you have wronged in your life,” Robin Murphy among them. “You hold the key to this mystery Howard and you can unlock this door for yourself and the Murphy family,” Karst wrote. “I urge you to do this and set yourself free of the torment you must be feeling. Allow Robin to find her stairway to heaven.”
Gombert, now 52, is serving 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in Connecticut five years after Murphy disappeared. He is also a key figure in the case of Josette Wright, a 12-year-old Putnam County girl whose skeletal remains were discovered in November 1995, almost 14 months after she disappeared. Anthony DiPippo and Andrew Krivak were charged with her murder and rape in July 1996 and convicted the following year in separate trials. But DiPippo has twice had his conviction overturned. He is now awaiting a third trial after the state Court of Appeals in March ruled that he was unfairly blocked from introducing evidence that Gombert was likely Josette’s killer.
Josette was observed in a car driven by Gombert around the time she went missing, and a fellow inmate said Gombert made admissions about having sex with the girl in his car around the time she disappeared. The inmate also claimed Gombert made a reference to another missing girl, presumably Murphy, saying police would never find her.
Details of the discovery of Murphy’s underwear were included last month in a motion filed by DiPippo’s lawyer that he be released on bail.
On the evening of April 9, 1995, Murphy disappeared from the shopping center on Route 52 where Gombert worked at a coin-operated laundry. She was planning to meet her boyfriend, who worked at the nearby Burger King, but never did. Her mother’s car was found in the parking lot and Robin’s wallet and keys were discovered a few days later in a grassy area behind the shopping center.
Gombert (above) knew Murphy because his girlfriend at the time was a friend of hers. He was first questioned by police the following night. Five days later, he tried to commit suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills outside his father’s home and was admitted to Danbury Hospital. In an interview there with The Journal-News, Gombert denied any involvement in Murphy’s disappearance. He said she came to see him at the laundry because he had told her he was having trouble with his girlfriend. They spoke for a few minutes and she left, saying she was going to call someone named James and see her boyfriend. “The last I seen of her she was happy, she was fine,” he said then.
Gombert had a lengthy arrest record in Putnam, including two first-degree rape charges that were later dismissed. One in 1991 involved a 13-year-old girl, who recanted her claim against Gombert on the witness stand during a felony hearing shortly after his arrest. Before he was convicted of the sexual abuse of the 8-year-old girl, Gombert was arrested on Feb. 29, 2000, after his girlfriend accused him of sexually assaulting her at their home in New Milford, Connecticut.
Police recovered a suitcase belonging to Gombert at the house and, several months later, one of the pairs of women’s underwear inside was matched to Murphy through DNA. A necklace recovered at the scene was also turned over to Carmel police, but it was unclear whether it was ever linked to Murphy.
In late March 2001, Carmel police revealed publicly they had found new evidence, but would not identify what it was. Karst, then a sergeant, described the evidence as the “most significant break in this case to date.”
Days later, while two Carmel detectives executed a search warrant at the home of Gombert’s father in New Fairfield, Connecticut, Karst and another detective went to interview Gombert in prison. According to Karst, Gombert seemed surprised when Karst revealed the discovery of the underwear and “told us that he had no idea how this item got to” his girlfriend’s home. Karst wrote that Gombert “seemed on the verge of tears” at certain points during the 90-minute interview, and “when confronted with certain facts about the case he offered no rebuttal.” Karst observed that, at times during the interview, Gombert’s “body language and behavior indicated that he was being deceptive.” Recently, Karst declined to comment on the details in the court documents, saying the Murphy case remained an active investigation.
Source: Jonathan Bandler, The Journal-News, June 9, 2016.
