Dateline: Who was Robert Barnes and what do we know about his crimes? Details of the 2008 murder, explored

Dateline Season 27, Episode 32, titled The Call, followed the brutal murder of 16 year old Meghan Landowski. The official synopsis of the episode reads,

“A dancer is murdered in her Virginia home; after interviewing a series of suspects, detectives realize the case is much more complicated than previously thought.”

Meghan’s body was discovered by her stepfather with stab wounds and clear signs of sexual assault. When none of the initial police suspects could be tied to the crime, the family naturally grew impatient.

However, at that time, a bus driver came forward with crucial information which helped the police to investigate Robert Barnes, a friend of Meghan, who was ultimately convicted of the crime, as shown in Dateline.

Robert Barnes was a fellow student at Meghan’s school

As Dateline showed Robert Barnes was only 16 years old, the same age as Meghan’s when the unfortunate incident of Meghan’s rape and murder happened. He was in the same school as Meghan as local people knew him as a good student. It was also eventually revealed that Robert had a crush on Meghan though the latter did not reciprocate the feelings.

As the investigation into Meghan’s murder proceeded, it took a lot of time for the police to look into Robert Barnes as he was not a natural suspect. The police had looked into Meghan’s immediate circle and searched for anyone with a motive, including Robert Hicke, Meghan’s stepfather’s best friend, who had sexually assaulted her when she was only 15 years old.

However, Hicke’s name was cleared and so were the names of other suspects. When things seemed to be reaching a dead end, the police found out about Robert Barnes and launched an investigation into him. This was naturally shocking for the people who knew him but ultimately, police were able to find out what he did to Meghan.

Robert Barnes was Meghan’s killer as shown in Dateline

As the police started investigating Robert, he tried to act cool and unbothered but attempted to derail the investigation by giving the police a different piece of chewing gum than the one he had used when asked for DNA testing. This further made the police suspicious of his actions, as was shown in Dateline.

Eventually, as Robert was asked about his whereabouts and other details on the day of Meghan’s murder, he fabricated a bizarre story. He said that on the fateful day, he had gone to Meghan’s house but when she did not respond, he went inside through a bedroom window and found that a masked man had Meghan at gunpoint.

Robert claimed that it was that masked man who had killed and raped Meghan. However, police found out disturbing materials on his laptop that highlighted his fascination with breaking into peoples’ homes and raping them. This, along with other evidence like DNA, helped the police to understand that Robert was the one who had brutally killed and sexually assaulted Meghan.

Ultimately, in 2009, Robert pleaded guilty to the first degree murder of Meghan along with charges of statutory rape, aggravated sexual battery, attempted rape, and abduction. He was sentenced to 42 years in prison, after which he became eligible for parole.

Dateline can be streamed on Peacock.

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