The Murder Of Robert Wone

On August 2, 2006, Robert Wone worked a full day before attending an evening law seminar in downtown Washington. Then, after a quick call to his wife, he met with the Radio Free Asia night shift at the offices in Dupont Circle.

By the time Wone got to Swann Street, Zaborsky, just back from a business trip, was already in bed. Price and Ward met Wone at the house, and, according to statements, the three men hung out in the kitchen for a bit. During that kitchen visit, Price went outside to check the outdoor lights because he saw a spider on the bulb and apparently felt that needed his attention. No one's sure whether he locked the door when he came back in, or if that's how an alleged intruder later entered the house.

The men soon retired. By 11:00 p.m. Price joined Zaborsky in their third-floor room. Ward says he took a sleeping pill and read for a few minutes in his second-floor room before drifting off; he recalls hearing Wone showering in a bathroom down the hall.

Price and Zaborsky say that a security device that chimed when the house's doors were opened work them up. They say they assumed it was their basement tenant, Sarah Morgan, though she'd told them she wouldn't be home that night. But then they heard a scream. They went to Wone's room, and say that they saw he'd been attacked. Zaborsky screamed, waking Ward in the next room.

Price says a knife from the set in the kitchen was on Wone's abdomen. He moved the knife to a bedside table and turned up Wone's shirt, then saw three massive stab wounds.

Meanwhile, Zaborsky called 911. He told the dispatcher (who mistook him for a woman because the stress raised his voice) that an intruder had stabbed their guest while he and the two other members of his household had slept. The dispatcher told him to apply pressure to the wounds with a dry towel, replacing it as necessary.

He reported having heard the door chime and then Wone's screamsand that the killer had one of their knives.

Zaborsky was crying on the phone when the ambulance arrived at 11:54 p.m. When the dispatcher told him to go let the paramedics in, he told her he was afraid to go downstairs.

Wone was pronounced dead at George Washington University Hospital at 12:24 a.m.

Paramedics and police had already concluded that the scene didn't seem right.