‘Who Killed Robert Wone?’ Director Jared P. Scott Haunted by Murder Timeline: ‘We Don’t Know What the Hell Happened in Those 79 Minutes’ [Exclusive]
Peacock‘s Who Killed Robert Wone? is a true crime murder mystery onion with more questions than answers.
In the two-part documentary, streaming on March 7, director Jared P. Scott meticulously examines each salacious detail of the 2006 murder of 32- year old Washington D.C. attorney Robert Wone.
Who Killed Robert Wone? begins with a jolt – Wone is found stabbed to death at the home of three friends. Wone, a happily married man, planned to work late, so he arranged to stay overnight with friends Victor Zaborsky, his domestic partner Joe Price and friend, Dylan Ward.
Wone called his friends from his D.C. office to alert them he was on his way to their house – 79 minutes later Wone was found stabbed to death.
Investigators discovered a treasure trove of BDSM toys in Ward’s room, strange needle marks on Wone’s body, and a crime scene that was suspiciously antiseptic.
The friend trio claimed an intruder must have murdered their friend … but their alibis don’t exactly add up.
‘Who Killed Robert Wone?’ explores important details
Each clue to this murder jigsaw could possibly answer who killed Robert Wone. It doesn’t appear that Wone fought off the attacker, but there’s no evidence that he was restrained. Rape kit results only add to the questions. Plus Scott found it curious that Wone seemingly treated the sleepover like any night he’d be just going to sleep – not engaging in sexual activity.
“I think all of these details are something you can pick up and revisit at some point,” Scott told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “The mouthguard was a big one and we didn’t even have much time for it on the show. But just like, OK, so he always puts a mouthguard in when he goes to sleep. So he went to sleep.”
“That means going back to the 79-minute timeline,” Scott said. “[Wone] has to come over. He’s got to say hello. He’s got to take a shower, he’s got to go to bed. And then like, a murder has to happen?”
Why was Robert Wone murdered?
But that leads to why was Robert Wone killed.
“Then there’s a potential cover-up and a potential sexual assault?” Scott pondered. “I think all of these details that come back to me is that I don’t know how to fit them in. The smallest detail, whether it’s the mouth guard, whether it’s no defensive wounds, whether it’s the precision of the stab wounds. When you step back and orbit around that small detail, how in the world we can cram that into that 79 minutes? Because 79 minutes is not long.”
“And then you get into questions of was it premeditated? Was it an accident or a crime of passion? Or was he just a victim of a senseless murder? Just like the most unlucky guy in the world?” Scott said. But also, “Were the friends the most unlucky guys in the world? I don’t know.”
“But I think the idea that whatever detail or whatever clue you pick up and you examine, whatever orbits around that, you have to continually think about the 79 minutes and cram everything into that,” he said. “Because we do know that Robert placed a call at 10:24 and got over there at 10:30. And we do know that the 911 call was at 10:49 and that the EMTs arrived at 10:54. We just don’t know what the hell happened in those 79 minutes. And it’s maddening. It’s maddening for everybody.”
Jared P. Scott hopes ‘Who Killed Robert Wone?’ brings justice
Scott hopes the documentary finds answers and ultimately delivers justice. “We want you to feel empowered to seek justice for Robert,” he said. “And my hope is that somewhere that enough people talk about this, that enough people see this, that this gets injected into the bloodstream of the world or of this current moment, and somebody comes forward.”
“And they might have heard something or they might have seen something. Maybe they didn’t know that was an important detail that night. Or maybe they did,” he said. “And now they have the courage to say something. But at some point that there’s a tip and there’s something that propels this from a cold case into a revitalized murder case because no one’s been tried for murder.”
Scott included a toll-free tip line at the end of the film so anyone can call with a lead.
Who Killed Robert Wone? begins streaming on March 7 on Peacock.
