The Murder of Robin Brooks | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

April 25 1980 the body of a young woman discovered in an apartment in Rosemount California there was blood everywhere
she had a water bed so coupled with the blood and the injuries it was a very very very traumatizing scene the female
victim has been raped and stabbed to death I can't comprehend how anyone would stab somebody repeatedly it just I
don't know what goes through their minds the investigation into this brutal murder lasts over 40 years until
revolutionary forensic science comes into play it is by far the greatest advancement in crime solving In Our
Lifetime it's what finally solved it it made it possible when Cold Case detectives
exhaust all their other leads they often turn to new groundbreaking technology investigative genetic genealogy I'm
Nancy Grace this is bloodline Detectives [Music] [Applause] [Music] April 24 1980 Robin Brooks settling into
her new life she's just moved to California's state capital all the way from the East
Coast Robin Brooks was a 20-year-old young lady who had grown up in New York and had recently moved out to Northern
California to be closer to her sister she was 20 years old and just ready to start a new chapter in her
life she was close to her sister Maria and she was out here to start a new life so she found a job she's working at a
doughnut shop and she's just trying to do her very best in the world she was vibrant happy she was
loving she was more daring than me adventurous we hung out a lot we did spend a lot of time together she loved
photography we were just sisters together the extremely close bond between the two sisters is soon
shattered on April 24th 1980 Robin went went to work at the donut time donut shop she got off work around midnight
that night and she had plans to go to a party with a few of her friends that evening then the following day she had
plans to meet up with a friend of hers to go swimming but the friend was surprised that her friend robin never
showed up that day she had friends that came to visit her at her apartment cuz she was
supposed to go swimming go somewhere with with them and there was no answer at the door they went to the dut shop
she wasn't there and so they knocked again later on in the day no answer but the turning point was at about 4:30 she
was supposed to show up to work at 4:00 and didn't show up for work so her friends who actually worked at the dut
shop also went to her apartment and no answer still door was locked so they kicked in the door and found her stabbed
to death in her water bed there was blood every everywhere she had a water bed so coupled with the
blood and the injuries it was a very very traumatizing scene when First Responders arrived on
scene their first responsibility is going to be to preserve the crime scene make sure no one else can enter or leave
make sure that photographs are taken make sure that any evidence that might be there whether it be evidence on the
body around the body is collected this was a violent scene she had been brutally stabbed to death she was found
faed down in her water bed she had been stabbed through the heart she had been bound clearly she had put up a struggle
and she had tried to save her own life and the killer overtook her and ultimately killed
her we surmised that this suspect probably on purpose slashed the water bed so that Robin's body would be
underwater when she was found eventually I don't know if that was because she was
sexually assaulted also to try and conceal the fact that that he had raped her or not but um her sweater that was
she was seen in at work that night was found there in the in the water bed the killer uh hurt himself obviously Robin
fought hard to save her own life she was not successful but what she was successful in was the fact that the
killer left his own bullet behind when I was that age I was the flight I would have run you know but my sister
was always even though she was younger she was the fighter I think she fought back as much as she
could the police were able to gather a lot of key evidence inside the apartment one of which was some blood across the
walls as well as near the door the blood seemed kind of cast off and I think at the time the investigator
thought well the suspect stabbed her you know five times if she was fighting maybe he stabbed himself or cut himself
during the assault there were several drops of that blood throughout the apartment but we knew it wasn't Robin's
blood and anybody else that had been in the apartment we either got their fingerprints or their blood to see if we
could compare it investigators were able to uncover a few sets of fingerprints on Robin's
window this was crucial for the investigation because it suggested that the window was how the perpetrator had
got inside the apartment but when they tested the fingerprints to see who they belong to
they unfortunately weren't able to get a match there was blood at the scene smears there was fingerprints there was
semen on the body all of those things even though it was 1980 had the potential to identify who Robins killer
was the first instinct was probably that it was somebody that Robin knew she was 20
years old but she was young and having a lot of friends but she wouldn't invite a
stranger into her apartment um all her friends and family said that so you know the thought was maybe it's somebody she
knew maybe an ex-boyfriend maybe somebody that she wanted to date her and she didn't so that was what they focused
on originally in in the investigation investigators may not have a prime suspect but they do have one
promising piece of evidence blood from the man who may be Robin Brooks's killer that's next on bloodline
[Music] detectives April 25 1980 the body of a young woman discovered in an apartment
on the outskirts of Sacramento California the victim 20-year-old Robin Brooks Robin recently moved all the way
from New York to the West Coast she is found brutally bound raped and stabbed multiple times detectives now must break
the news to her sister Maria three police officers came in and then I thought that she' been hit by a
car cuz she had a 10speed so when they said she was deceased but that wasn't what it was so later I don't
think they even shared so I know we needed to call my mother and then it was awful actually it
was like a nightmare an autopsy is conducted investigators hope the coroner will
discover more about Robin Brooks's last moments alive Robin had been restraint her her
hands had been restrained and so had her legs um the restraints were gone but the
markings were still there um we believe that all of the assault as far as the murder itself
happened on the water bed beddings and towels that would have been either in her bathroom or in her bedroom were gone
so that was interesting why would somebody take that that we're talking 1980 this isn't the the age of
DNA so it was interesting that the suspect take had taken the items with him the autopsy revealed a couple key
details about what happened to Robin the first thing was that she had been sexually assaulted and the second was
that she had been stabbed approximately five times one of the stab wounds had gone through her heart and the medical
examiner was also able to determine that she had died sometime around 2:30 in the
morning she didn't really have identifiable defensive wounds her family says she would have put up a fight which
is why I believe she was restrained by the suspect and then it would have been very hard for somebody her size to uh
fight this person off I remember the wake I remember the day of the funeral just like Snippets because you I
think your mind protects you everyone learns to their own Survival Mode like how they're going to
deal with it some it's fight or flight some are everybody kind of goes into their own it's like a survival mode
because it's so horrendous detectives have blood evidence left at the crime scene by the
suspect but it doesn't really help them in 1980 DNA technology is still in its infancy and a match to the Killer is way
Out Of Reach investigators instead rely upon traditional police methods they go door too looking for information that
could help unfortunately at that time nobody knew was aware that she had gone to this
party that would have been another person to talk to obviously but I think at the time when she was killed the
young people that were at the party I think were scared to say they were at a party so they certainly didn't want to
come forward with any information about Robin at that time just being naive kids who was in her sphere of influence
who were her friends who were her potential enemies was there anybody that was perhaps sexually interested in her
that she wasn't interested in so all of those things would have been on the table for law enforcement and that would
have been what they were immediately looking at months go by the case investigation stalls and then goes cold
but never forgotten fast forward more than two decades advances in DNA technology offer new
hope that the killer of Robin Brooks could be identified the blood that was found on
the walls in the victim's apartment was analyzed for DNA a male DNA profile was obtained and that was uploaded into the
state and National codus databases in 20 2 is when we started the Cold Case unit in Sacramento that's when
we went around and started making our list of all these unsolved murders or unsolved rapes where we had DNA Robin's
case was right there at the top and we knew that we had DNA from the bad guy and so we sent that to our crime lab the
Sacramento da crime lab they developed a DNA profile that DNA profile of the killer was put into the DNA data bank
codus and ultimately there were no matches they got the approval and then they put it in and then I'll never
forget like it was I don't know if it was Christmas Eve or the day before Christmas Eve I get a call and I was
like wow maybe you get excited right you think wow and then the whoever called me
at that point left a message and said that there wasn't a match that was devastating at that
point it is a heartbreaking development the codus DNA profile is unique to the suspect but it lacks one crucial element
a name it's frustrating because that is you know one of the best tools that law enforcement has been given is this DNA
Data Bank but it's not always perfect it's probably solves maybe 30 to 40% of crimes that have DNA but it's not going
to solve all of them DNA testing was very beneficial for law enforcement because DNA testing
allowed investigators to eliminate many possible Suspects and in Robin's case DNA eliminated
nearly 50 people in 2004 investigators received information that the DNA collected at
Robin's crime scene was also linked to another assault on a young female that happened just 3 weeks
before the discovery of a second attack reinvigorates the investigation but still detectives cannot link the
suspect's DNA to a name Will new forensic science finally help catch a killer we find out next on bloodline
[Music] detectives Sacramento California over 20 years since the 1980 stabbing murder and
sex assault of 20-year-old Rob Robin Brooks in her own apartment at the crime scene police collect blood evidence
blood evidence belonging to the killer but they cannot find a DNA match the case goes cold but Robin's family
becomes actively involved in making sure she's not forgotten Robin's murder was devastating
for the family and they were willing to do anything and everything they could to
get get some answers in this case and the family decided to take matters into their own hands and offer a $110,000
reward for any information in the case when I was the supervisor of the sexual assault unit we had a cold case
team and I was in charge of that and basically I I went through our cold cases at that time we probably had over
300 and just reviewed those cases to see what kind of evidence do we have which ones would be probative for maybe DNA or
or fingerprints and you know assign those to the team so we could maybe make some
progress on those cases so there were quite a few that I read but the robin Brooks case was kind of near and dear to
my heart I think we just kept in contact and I believed in her like I just believed in her there was and never in
my heart once DNA came out I never thought anything but the case could be solved the co case team has the
suspect's DNA profile but no name to go with it the profile doesn't match anyone
in the national law enforcement database codus but then a breakthrough 2017 investigators focus on a new DNA
technique called phenotyping in 2017 I reached out to to parabon who was uh this kind of a new
technique of using genetic material for uh coming up with a profile different than the one that's in codus and so
because we had waited so long to try and solve this case we thought this was a perfect case to try
that the sheriff's office in Sacramento sent the DNA off to parabon for phenotyping which would then give
physical characteristics they really they had no idea they didn't know if the perpetrator was white black Hispanic
whatever and ultimately that proved very helpful to law enforcement because it identified the perpetrator as an
African-American male approximate age in his late 20s it was clear you know where his
Heritage came from and that that's who we were looking for and it's it's quite a tool because it's very reliable so
you're probably not going to be spending a lot of time looking at say an Asian suspect or whatever because you now have
this great piece of evidence evence that's giving you a lot of information investigators hoping the
combination of a physical image and a DNA profile will lead them to Robin's killer well the first thing I did was I
showed it to Maria Robin's sister to see if she recognized the guy at all because
um I thought she knew most of her friends and and the people that she hung around with um but Maria did not
recognize the composite of of anybody that she knew I was just in shock because I
remember Mickey called me and I was at work she said if you have time you know I'm going to send you something and she
sent it via the text and I was kind of just shocked because I don't think they were looking like they were looking with
everybody she knew and but I don't think they were looking at just a random person having the case been so old I
think it was hard to generate a picture of what somebody looks like 40 years later law enforcement put it out to the
public but it did not generate any substantial leads I got a lot of leads on different people um but as it you
know as we investigated that person or that lead um we would try to find ways to eliminate them or include them as a
potential suspect and at that time I probably eliminated after that media went out probably 15 additional subjects
it's frustrating it's frustrating for the families I mean I was in touch with Maria quite a bit cuz she knew we were
doing this type of investigation and I could tell that many times when we thought we were close and we weren't it
it was it was frustrating for her to I was like I'm never bothering with this again I'm just you know you go through
those stages where I'm done I'm done but you you keep chipping away Mickey was unbelievable she just was
relentless DNA phenotyping is a huge help it adds a piece to the investigative puzzle but detectives
still need more now they turn to an exciting new technique investigative genetic genealogy this remarkable
technology has already blown open several seemingly impossible cold cases including the infamous California's
Golden State killer case in the back of my mind I was sitting there thinking well if this works on the GSK then we're
going to do this case this case this case and this case and Robin Brook's case was right there on the top of the
list as well I've worked with her since 2001 and she has always been uh on the Forefront of what's new and where are we
going with our investigations with the science and um when we talked about this case she said that's it's a perfect case
to try this forensic investigative genetic gentic genealogy is perhaps one of the
most advanced tools of identifying somebody through genetic genealogy meaning that we take the DNA from the
crime scene or from the perpetrator you send it to a laboratory for doing this very sophisticated kind of testing
called snip testing which stands for single nucleotide polymorphism and what you're doing is you're looking at
700,000 to a million places on the DNA that gives you so many more data points that then you can then take that profile
put it into genealogy site such as Jed match or family tree and build family trees and find relatives of your
perpetrator or if you're trying to identify a missing person you can find relatives of that Jane do or John do it
is by far the greatest advancement in crime solving In Our Lifetime you're using a different type of profile you're
using you know the forensic genetic genealogy profile which they call a snip and you're using that to find relatives
of your suspect and that will help you narrow down maybe who your suspect is detectives then contact Jean by Jean a
genetic testing company based in Houston Texas when we were first contacted about
the robin Brooks case we do an initial consultation we were called by law enforcement they said we have a
potential case we think would be a good candidate for forensic genetic genealogy
and we asked them questions questions about what is the case type we only accept certain cases uh certain types of
cases so it has to be sexual assault homicide unidentified remains or abductions and obviously this this case
checked off two of those boxes uh we asked about the DNA what kind of evidence they have and they did have DNA
evidence that was of suitable quantity and quality for microarray testing microarray testing looks at individual
positions in your DNA it doesn't look at the entire sequence it's not trying to get the entire sequence information it's
like if you were reading a book but instead of reading the sentence the complete sentences you're looking at
every 10th word so it turns into a snapshot of the book that's essentially what micro testing is doing with your
DNA sequence in this case there's a risk the blood evidence may be contaminated whenever you have DNA
mixing with something else it can cause problems in this case it was mixed with the water from the water bed and that
can cause problems for multiple reasons first it can dilute the DNA which means instead of having a certain amount you
have much less of it it's very watered down second because a water bed you use stabilizers or you know know add
additives that you put into the water um any of those chemicals can have an effect on the DNA it's it it's possible
that it could degrade the DNA it could break it down it could make it unstable Dr Connie Borman and her team
determine the sample is indeed viable you do have to be patient and all these cases that we've done we've never
gotten a very very close match so there's a lot of investigating and digging to figure out who your suspect
is with the family members that you might have I have some great people over at the district attorney's office that
are are amazing at this and they help with our cases and this case um took about 2 years once we uh got the snip
profile to determine who our suspect was and we finally did bloodline detectives are so close to
identifying Robin Brooks's killer but can they ever find him and can he be brought to Justice that's
[Music] next 2020 bloodline detectives make a breakthrough in the 1980 murder of
20-year-old Robin Brooks Sacramento California a DNA sample from blood left at the scene by the prime suspect and
the sign of investigative genetic genealogy finally give investigators a name when the DNA was analized law
enforcement came across the name of Philip Lee Wilson this seemed to fit for us so then
you start investigating their life you see if they've been involved in any criminal activity uh and that was one of
the first things that we found was that he did have a criminal record but we could never figure out where he was
living at the time of Robin's murder but when we found one of his Ex-Wives she had the address of the same apartment
complex and they were married at the time and he was living there which just made us know we had the right
guy detectives are positive they've identified Robin Brooks's killer but they still need one more piece of Hard
Evidence to link him to her brutal murder we need to get DNA to confirm that most of the time if this is your
suspect you're not going to want to go ask them for it cuz they're probably not going to give it to you so we do a
ctitious collection normally it has to be a discarded item that the suspect has either touched or drank from and you
test that against the profile that you have in codus from your blood at the scene so we did that and it
matched the timing of the suspect's arrest is especially meaningful for investigators and for Robin Brooks's
family we identified Philip Lee Wilson as our suspect the week before the 40th anniversary of Robbin being murdered and
I wanted to arrest him on either the day before or that day so I did not call and
let the um Family know until we actually had him in custody so we got him on the
23rd of April 2020 and then once he was on his way to jail um I called Maria to give her the
news I've been in class all day I was taking some classes um then I got out and I know Mickey had called and I was
like tired I was like oh but I got to call her back so I called her back and then she said she was driving in her car
I think she pulled over and she had shared they she didn't want to share anything with me until they double
double tested or whatever they did to make sure they absolutely had the right person so I think they ran they must
have got a hit and then they got his DNA to just confirm it and then she had shared that with me was kind of like
almost in shock I was um it's almost unbelievable you know 40 years it's just unbelievable I mean 40 years to the day
that we identify this guy and arrest him I think she was in shock and unfortunately I would love to have done
that in person but but she lived out of state so I had to call her on the phone but I was very emotional and she just
seemed in shock and then we talked a little later and she was emotional she just was in such shock that she just
couldn't even have those emotions that I know she continues to have now about the
relief you don't get the sense of relief right away you um like I said it's almost
unbelievable um I think how you feels then you start going inside and remembering you know just what she must
have went through once law enforcement had identified Philip Lee Wilson in Robin's
case they made the arrest in April 2022 he was arrested he was booked and his mug shot was made public
why am I here do you recognize that picture no is that is that the doughnut girl
that you dated no no the reason I know is because her chest is not big enough okay what does that mean girl had a
large breast oh yeah okay okay my my memory is really foggy but uh I think you've done really good
with your memory especially your the what's happened in many years ago you've done really well well like I said I have
my long-term memory is really good yeah we have the search warrant we want to get your fingerprints right and we're
going to get your DNA and and the reason you came up is because we're Cold Case detectives right so we started looking
at this old case and we and and we found that La Riviera report where you were stopped for looking like the guy that
raped that woman right right and you were interviewed by the cops right right that was 3 weeks before
this we were done with the interview and we also did major case prints and what those are is not just the the pads of
your fingers but all parts of your hand because we had fingerprints on our um window sill that were never identified
and I realized that they were probably the suspect hanging on as he went out the
window so we got major case prints so they they did that part too before he went to jail and a week later those were
compared to the prints on the window sill and they matched when Mr Wilson was first
interviewed by law enforcement he completely denied any knowledge of Robin what I find interesting about many of
these cases now when you reopen them and you identify them with this genealogy tool some of them just live right there
I mean this is another example of I would call a line of sight murder meaning that he lived right in the same
complex that was something investigators once his name came up fairly quickly figured out that he lived right in that
complex but he had his own record he had been I think to prison at some point for
a short stint in Texas for some type of drug stuff he had some other types of crimes on his background but clearly
this was the most horrific of all of them at this point Philip Lee Wilson was early 7s when we arrested him um so if
convicted he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison after over 40 years investigators arrest
Philip Lee Wilson for the 1980 rape and murder of Robin Brooks when Wilson's trial commences he comes up with an
explosive defense that's next on bloodline [Music] detectives Sacramento California March
2022 the trial of Philip Lee Wilson for the 1980 rape and murder of Robin Brooks
begins prosecutors have incredibly strong DNA evidence linking Wilson to Robins homicide but Wilson goes to
extraordinary links to deny any involvement he had a somewhat of a Cavalier attitude that he just had sex
with her and somebody else killed her I think it's very difficult for any family it's not just the fact that their
sister was killed in a very brutal manner raped in a very brutal manner but it's the fact that this person now gets
up and perpetuates these lies in front of a jury in an effort to get out from underneath the crimes he
committed what it does is it just seeing him just really brings how she must have suffered like my
feelings towards him I he can't take up that room in my heart not only does Philip Le Wilson
refused to admit guilt his defense claims that the boyfriend of Robin's sister Maria is the real killer of
course that's not true but imagine how Robin's family feels hearing that and that was horrible
it was like that was just one more part of just all of what what what this was it's like it just it's like it kept
going but like a friend told me in the abyss you'll find a pearl and that he was arrested convicted
and he'll spend the rest of his life in jail I don't know if that's the Pearl but that
was the end result but he just he just took he wanted to take everybody with his pain my
pain H to spin a tail in front of a jury that's a level of narcissism that we don't see so
much Mr Wilson because of the special circumstances was sentenced to life without the possibility of
parole as a family member I can only imagine I don't stand in their shoes but I can only imagine the agony um but
ultimately the relief in hearing that the man who killed their sister raped and murdered her has is now going to get
Justice bloodline detectives now unmasking criminals like Philip Lee Wilson who otherwise would literally
have gotten away with murder I think for law enforcement I'm more willing to use the word closure
because they did what they were supposed to do and they never gave up they found
the answers they put the bad guy away I think for Robin's family and many families out
there I think it's a very difficult word to use the word closure because Robin's gone she's never coming
back she was killed in a brutal way and so I'm very very hesitant because um closure there's no such thing for
closure for many families I think the Hate's gone but the act of which what he did to
her is the hard you know that's that's the thing family has to live with forever this how
she had to suffered for that you know it's hard they say to forgive because then you can let your
own pain go and I think I work on that I say heard something somewhere if you can't
pray for the person individually then pray for everybody and I include him in that prayer because I have to cleanse my
heart and soul of who he is the closure comes where I don't have to be obsessed anymore and
driven every holiday all the special moments in your life this is a case where the
Revolutionary science of investigative genetic genealogy succeeds and finds the truth against remarkable
odds I don't think that this case case could have been solved without forensic genetic genealogy I mean it has been
decades since and there had been no progress made on the case Philip Wilson would have continued
to live his life on the lamb if we had not used this tool and because of forensic investigative genetic genealogy
Philip Wilson now will die in prison and ultimately I think what stands out for me is the fact
that 40 years went went by without an answer and the passion and the Persistence of people like Sergeant lyns
was what brought this man to Justice I think I just have that don't give up attitude and when you solve
cases by not doing that just more of a reason to keep it going um so yeah I mean we've been successful we're not
going to solve every case but um I hope it gives people hope that if they have a
case maybe it can't be solved even 40 years later every case that we get leaves an
impression this one impacted me one because Robin was so young and because of the nature of how
she was murdered I I just the fact that the he came through a window it makes me
double check everything at night or when I'm home alone are my windows locked are
my doors locked are my car doors locked um and it's it's sad but it's the reality I think he just knew that she
was not ever going to date him and when we found out that she had gone to that party the night uh she left work one of
the people at the party that I eventually got to speak to said she was telling a couple girls at the party
there there was a guy that was harassing her and begging her and she was scared of him and I think that was Philip
Wilson There is a human toll of crime it changes people's lives I look at Robin's
case and I look at her sister Maria who has now created a foundation to help bring more cases to answers and I look
at it you know public policy is often times impacted by the actual victims of crime and so for me I never want the
public to forget that human toll she went down fighting and ultimately it's because she went down
fighting that that this person left his DNA behind I think the world knows that she
didn't have the opportunity to fulfill her life on Earth I think she was a beautiful funloving happy go-lucky
trusting kind person with her whole life ahead of her and that's what she lost time incredible science and
determination solve the case of Robin Brooks's murder after 42 years the forensic techniques of phenotyping and
investigative genetic genealogy now mean that no killer no matter how old the case no matter how distant the time and
location from his horrible act can ever feel safe from Justice I'm Nancy Grace thank you for being with
us here on bloodline detectives [Music] [Music] [Music]

40 years after the sexual assault and murder of 20-year-old Robin Brooks in Sacramento, California, determined cold case detectives collaborate with scientists using revolutionary forensic techniques to identify her killer and put him behind bars.

Now in its fourth season, Bloodline Detectives is the leading true crime series that explores how police departments harness genetic genealogy to solve crimes that were once considered "unsolvable," bringing long-awaited answers to victims' families.

=============== Like, comment and subscribe if you’re ready for more true crime. Your favorite shows like World’s Most Evil Killers, Meet Marry Murder, Forensic Files, Unsolved Mysteries, Murdered At First Sight and Bloodline Detectives are all available to stream 24/7 for free via the FilmRise Streaming Network. You can access The FilmRise Streaming Network through most free App Platforms and Smart TV portals such as Amazon Fire TV, The Roku Channel, Android, iOS and many more.

Brief Summary

The episode details Robin Brooks' 1980 murder and the 40-year investigation leading to Philip Lee Wilson's arrest through advanced DNA techniques.

Key points

The Discovery of a Body. On April 25, 1980, the body of 20-year-old Robin Brooks is discovered, leading to a decades-long investigation.
Advancements in Forensic Science. Over two decades later, advances in DNA technology offer new hope in solving Robin's case.
A Sister's Bond. Robin Brooks was a vibrant 20-year-old who had just moved to California to be closer to her sister.
The Brutal Crime Scene. Robin was found brutally bound, raped, and stabbed multiple times in her apartment.
A New Hope with DNA. In 2017, investigators focus on a new DNA technique called phenotyping to identify Robin's killer.
Breakthrough in Robin Brooks Case. In 2020, investigators identify Philip Lee Wilson as the prime suspect in the 1980 murder of Robin Brooks.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I can't comprehend how anyone would stab somebody repeatedly.

Reflecting on the brutality of the murder.

0:37WatchJun 16, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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