Purebread Murder | Forensic Files | S14 E1 | FULL EPISODE | Forensic Files

[Music] up next a young woman is murdered after years of domestic abuse he's beat her before he shot at her but
the ex-boyfriend isn't the only suspect people will report the crime just to steer suspicion away from them
it's a crime where things aren't always what they seem there were hamburger buns
thrown all over the bathroom floor even as a youngster christina sanubain had dreams of working
in the news business christina just want to be a journalist she said mom i cannot be a doctor for
you mom i cannot be a lawyer for you but her plans were stalled by an unexpected pregnancy
in her senior year in high school she'd made some bad choices with the people she associated with and
the kinds of things she did for recreation including a fair amount of drug use it appeared
christina dropped out of high school had the baby and moved in with jacob hadley the
father of her child unfortunately that didn't appear to work out either jacob regularly knocked her around she
was seen with bruises and and was very open about it somebody would ask her why why where she got that bruise and
she'd say oh jacob beat me no matter what how he treat her she just cannot be apart from jacob
i don't know why i asked her can you leave him no mom i'm i can't i love him very much
in 1999 jacob shot christina in the face with a pellet gun and spent three days behind bars she
actually had a diary where she described some of her struggles and her desire to start out fresh
and to make a good life for her and her young son he criticizes me he puts me down and
physically abuses me after three years i'm just starting to realize that i was the only one in love
finally christina and the baby moved out into a duplex apartment a few miles away
four days after christina moved one of her friends stopped by to see how she was doing
he rang the bell but there was no answer the door was locked when he looked through
a screened window he saw christina's two-year-old son alone and crying he thought he heard the child say
mommy's dead and that prompted him into action he removed the screen climbed inside and found christina
semi-clothed face down in a bathtub full of water he rushed outside and asked the next
door neighbor to call 911 was pronounced dead at the scene the child possibly witnessed his own
mother's murder and that's that's horrifying to me investigators found evidence that the initial attack took
place in the kitchen the victim's sandals were found squarely in the middle of the
kitchen it was almost as though she was struck with such force that had knocked her right out of
her sandals our crime scene investigators found a metal collar that could have belonged on
a frying pan handle she was hit with such force that it knocked her teeth out christina had been stabbed to death with
a knife but no knife was found at the scene at first i got mad at god why you let her die this way why you
take her away from me this way to investigators it was clear the killer had tried to hide his
tracks well it looked like the person that killed her i tried to wash away some evidence
while cleaning up however he tracked the bloody footprints all over the bathroom floor into the kitchen
and back it was a curious thing why he why he was barefoot i we just really weren't sure
and there was something else extremely unusual in the bathroom there were hamburger
buns thrown all over the bathroom floor it looked like a bag of hamburger buns had just been opened
and tossed around but they couldn't find the wrapper anywhere in the apartment you have to wonder what goes through a
person's mind that kills someone and then leaves a child behind to sit there in that bloody crime
scene christina's ex-boyfriend jacob was the prime suspect jacob certainly had had motive he was
separated from his child and they had separated they had a rocky past jacob did this
everybody thought in my family thought that jacob did it the crime scene showed signs that
christina sanubain knew her killer there was no forced entry and nothing was stolen
i don't believe robbery was ever an issue it was about something else could have been about drugs it could
have been about rejection it could have been about anything but but it wasn't robbery
at the autopsy the medical examiner found evidence christina had been sexually assaulted
her throat had been cut at autopsy it revealed that her trachea had been totally severed
when the knife is used on a victim that's very much up close and personal there was no toxicology screening test
done on christina and this is because dr erlers could not get any blood an x-ray showed a metal pellet lodged in
christina's face a stark reminder of the time her ex-boyfriend jacob hadley shot her with
a pellet gun just 18 months earlier they've had a fight all the time and who's going to
kill her except jacob the most dangerous time for a domestic abuse victim is shortly after she tries to make a
clean break from her abuser and she had just done this in a big way she had moved away
investigators interrogated christina's ex-boyfriend jacob immediately after her murder he said
that on the night of the murder he was a half hour away jacob produced two very credible
witnesses to testify that he had been drinking with them as a matter of fact they were
members of the university of iowa women's track team but the medical examiner estimated the
time of death could have been any time between 9 pm and 3 am and not all of jacob's time could be accounted
for the evidence at the crime scene indicated the perpetrator was probably someone
christina knew other evidence suggested it was someone who lived close by for example the killer wasn't wearing
shoes when you have a barefoot print in blood it's obviously someone that's close to
the scene whether it's someone that lives in the residence or someone close by people generally don't run around
barefoot as a matter of course and inside the bathroom investigators found a possible
explanation for why the hamburger buns were there they found the clip to the hamburger
buns on the floor in the bathroom so it appeared that the hamburger buns had been opened in the bathroom
but they never found the bag that the hamburger buns came in we surmised that the killer may have
used the wrapper to wrap the knife in so that as he carried the knife out of the
apartment it wouldn't drip blood anywhere this was yet another clue that the killer
lived nearby not only did he have bare feet but he was concerned about leaving a
blood trail possibly one leading straight to his door this pointed towards two men who hadn't
previously been thought of as suspects the man who claimed he found christina's body
32 year old todd hale and christina's next-door neighbor carlos robinson who had called 9-1-1 both men knew one
another since they both helped christina move into her apartment three days earlier investigators had
been suspicious of todd hale's claim that he'd been able to enter christina's apartment through a small window opening
without disturbing the items on the entertainment center inside we thought for todd to get in
through that window he would have to maybe have an acrobat's physique which he did
not todd they felt when i had been a suspect because of the way he entered the apartment
he wasn't invited in he opened the window removed the screen and snaked himself into this small opening
so they asked him to do it again while they watched we'd allowed him to demonstrate how he
was able to climb through that window and around the entertainment center and he was able to do that even wearing
some steel-toed work boots hale got inside again without touching any of the items on the entertainment
center it was a little bit amazing watching him do that it was like watching a burglar in action next
police asked christina's neighbor carlos robinson to provide a routine statement
and he willingly complied investigators described it as being very helpful very cooperative when the police left
the room of course they keep their eye on him he got down and began praying he was on
his knees praying and that doesn't happen very often i don't think investigators had three suspects in the
murder of christina sanubain her ex-boyfriend jacob hadley who had previous arrests for physical violence
against christina he's beat her before he shot at her he's beat her several times that she has
restraining orders against him the other two included the man who found christina's body
and christina's next-door neighbor who called 9-1-1 sometimes people will report the
crime just to steer suspicion away from them but investigators needed forensic evidence
to compare to these suspects and we're fortunate to find some footprints at the scene
you can't see the prince really with the naked eye and unless you're really looking
and i'm sure that the suspect never realized that he had left so many prints behind
in his haste to collect the physical evidence that he thought might be damning these bare footprints which contain
ridge detail can be identified belonging to a specific person just as a fingerprint
would so jacob hadley todd hale and carlos robinson were asked to provide their prints we brought jacob
todd and the neighbor down to the identification bureau and took footprints from all three of
them todd was very cooperative we inked his feet he walked down one side of the paper we re-inked and he
walked on the other side of the paper todd hale's footprints didn't match jacob was the same way very cooperative
jacob padley's footprints didn't match either well then there was carlos and it struck me as i i inked carlos's feet
and asked him to step down from the chair onto the the paper and he was reluctant to do
that carlos walked down one side of the paper and then walked over the footprints he
just made something's just not right here it wasn't hard instructions to understand and follow it's almost like
he was trying to obliterate as his known footprints finally technicians got usable prints
and they were compared to the bloody footprints in christina's bathroom this is our guy we've got him this this
is the guy who left the footprints there and and they were shocked they they just are
you sure are you sure and yeah we're all sure it's his footprint carlos's palm print was also
a perfect match to the bloody palm print on christina's bathroom sink and carlos's dna
matched the dna from christina's rape test kit when faced with this incriminating
evidence carlos made a startling confession he now claimed he'd had a consensual sexual
relationship with christina in the couple of days he'd known her he also claimed
he found christina's body several hours before todd hale did but said he got scared
and ran home instead of calling police he insisted however he wasn't the killer his story for not calling 9-1-1 was that
he was a black man and he was scared that he would be framed for the murder the medical examiner estimated christina
sanubain was murdered between 9 pm and 3 am robinson was alone with his children
during this time carlos's wife was gone on the night this murder occurred she was gone to
visit a relative in a neighboring city but investigators needed proof that carlos robinson was the killer after all
and not just a neighbor who found her body and hadn't reported the crime people often look for somebody that has a
motive and what we were trying to prove to the jury is that a person who barely knew the victim for four days
had killed her and that the ex-boyfriend who was abusive to her didn't then investigators discovered either
another piece of evidence or a complication in looking at the crime scene evidence
scientists noticed something in the hamburger buns at first when we looked at the buns we
we just really couldn't understand what we were seeing one of them was misshaped we did use
some light oblique angles and some ultraviolet light this was also used when we took photographs of the bun the
indentation strongly resembled a right toe the ball of a foot and bits of the second and third toes
it was obvious that this is somebody's foot and it looked like there were ridge details in the soft bread
that resembled prince if these were footprints that met carlos robinson prosecutors had an
open and shut case our suspect found the package of hamburger buns in christina's kitchen
dumped the buns on the floor and used the plastic bag to carry out the knife the buns were fresh
and the barefoot person had also stepped in these hamburger buns but if they weren't robinson's prince
then it raised the possibility of reasonable doubt or the possibility that robinson had an
accomplice so it was almost like we had to prove not just that the defendant committed
this crime but that nobody else did either investigators assigned to christina sanubain's murder found
an unusual piece of evidence at the crime scene they had what looked like a footprint in
a hamburger bun next to christina's body investigators believed it was made by the killer as he
fled the scene in order to verify their work iowa investigators took the bun and photographs to gene zarniki
a certified print examiner at the dci crime lab in des moines iowa zarniki not only
confirmed this was a right foot in the soft bread but found enough clear ridge detail to convince him
that it was the footprint of carlos robinson i think if the bun was in a dry or stale
condition the print may have not been reproduced we were quite fortunate in that the bun
appears to have been fresh when he stepped on it i've never seen hamburger buns at a
murder scene before and for the suspect to step into it and leave what looked like a very
identifiable patent print on the bun was was really unusual this proved that the only evidence at
the crime scene was carlos robinson's investigators believe christina was a victim of her
own trusting nature carlos was her neighbor they'd already met so when he knocked on
her door she let him in christine carlos wasn't wearing any shoes since he lived next door
once inside prosecutors believe he made a sexual advance which christina turned down
so carlos hit christina with tremendous force knocking out three of her teeth he then dragged her to the bathroom
where he sexually assaulted her and killed her with a knife he filled the tub with water in an
attempt to wash away evidence but he grabbed the sink with his bloody hand as he got up
leaving behind a perfect palm print he needed to get rid of the murder weapon so he went to the kitchen
tracking his bloody footprints he grabbed a bag of hamburger buns dumped them on the floor then put the
knife inside the bag so it wouldn't leave a blood trail when he left on his way out he stepped on one of the
buns leaving the one piece of forensic evidence he couldn't refute robinson murdered christina with her child inside
the house that little child was in that house for up to 24 hours we estimate with his dead mother in the bathtub i
am calling him a monster and i never forgive him [Music] even i die till the day i die i'm not
going to forgive him ever prosecutors believe carlos was afraid his wife would end their marriage when she
found out he had made a sexual advance toward christina and that's why he decided to murder her
robinson was charged with first-degree murder mr robinson i would advise you with
respect to the charge you have a right to have an attorney and to have the attorney represent you at
all stages of the proceeding robinson was convicted of christina's murder and was sentenced to life in prison
without parole i think one of the things that comes out of this case just be aware of the people around you and
and we have to be pretty vigilant about who we know and who we have contact with
it was not one little thing that convicted him it was a whole bunch of little things
and a big hamburger bun there's certainly a feeling of the victim getting some justice but at
the end of the day you still have a 20-year-old single mother that died for no reason other than
someone else's violence and that that's sad i believe that other people parents have a children got killed or
murdered and they move on in their life but me i don't know why i can't i cannot go work outside it hurts me
and it hits me all the time that i miss christina so bad you

In 2000, Christina Sanoubane was murdered in her Cedar Rapids apartment after moving away from her abusive boyfriend. There are clues at the scene: bloody footprints and DNA from the victim's rape kit.

Brief Summary

Christina Sanubain was murdered by her neighbor Carlos Robinson after years of domestic abuse from her ex-boyfriend Jacob Hadley.

Key points

The Tragic Murder of Christina Sanubain. Christina, a young mother, is found dead in her apartment after a history of abuse.
The Discovery of a Crime Scene. A friend discovers Christina's body, leading to a shocking investigation.
The Unusual Evidence. Investigators find hamburger buns at the crime scene, leading to a breakthrough.
Carlos Robinson's Conviction. Carlos Robinson is convicted of Christina's murder, highlighting the tragic outcome of domestic violence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I cannot be a doctor for you, mom.

Christina's struggle with her mother's expectations.

0:47WatchMar 13, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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