Authorities in the Washington, D.C., area announced Friday that the bodies of four women found in Virginia are likely victims of the same suspect they have dubbed “the Shopping Cart Killer.”
On Dec. 15, the remains of two women — including 29-year-old Cheyenne Brown, who went missing in late September — were found in an overgrown lot in Huntington, Virginia; Fairfax County police and her family identified Brown’s remains Thursday thanks to distinctive tattoos on her body.
A “person of interest” in those murders is 35-year-old Anthony Robinson, who in November was arrested on two counts of first-degree murder and other charges following the Nov. 23 discovery of two more female victims in an undeveloped lot in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Those victims were later identified as 54-year-old Allene Elizabeth “Beth” Redmon of Harrisonburg and 39-year-old Tonita Lorice Smith of Charlottesville, WJLA reported.
According to police, Robinson, who had no criminal record, used dating sites to lure his victims to area motels — including Huntington’s Moon Inn, where police tracked Brown’s phone to — where he later did “unspeakable things with his victims,” Fairfax County police chief Kevin Davis said at a press conference Friday.
MEDIA ALERT: Chief Davis to announce evidence of an alleged serial killer in Virginia. https://t.co/HKHmsfsl37 pic.twitter.com/yxEDbStSgR
— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) December 17, 2021
As for the “Shopping Cart Killer” moniker, in the case of Brown and the still-identified fourth victim, it is believed that Robinson used a shopping cart to “transport their bodies to their final resting place,” Davis said; a red Target shopping cart was photographed near the bodies at the crime scene.
Robinson has not formally been charged with the murders of Brown and the other female victim, although members of Brown’s family told the Washington Post that Robinson was seen at the Washington, D.C., house Brown shared with her mother five days prior to her disappearance. “I said, ‘He was just in our house,’” Brown’s cousin Jonathan Willis said after seeing Robinson’s mugshot following his arrest on the first two murders. “I remembered his face.”
Authorities came forward with their information Friday because they believe there could be more “Shopping Cart Killer” victims in addition to the four murdered women. Davis said he has created a task force to examine missing persons cases, and investigators are looking into if the serial killer’s M.O. matches those of unsolved murder cases.
“He’s a predator as all serial killers are and it’s our collective effort in law enforcement to do everything we can with each other and with the community to identify other places where he has been so we can bring closure and ultimately justice,” Davis said.