Robert Wone

The Mysterious Murder of Robert Wone: An Update

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We’ve written before about the tragic, still unsolved murder of Robert Wone, a promising young Asian-American attorney in Washington. At the time of his death, Wone was the general counsel of Radio Free Asia and president-elect of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association in D.C. We never got to meet Wone during the time that we lived in Washington, but we did meet many friends and colleagues of his, mainly through APABA. Wone was universally praised as a talented attorney and an incredibly generous and decent human being.
Almost three years after the fact, Wone’s murder remains unsolved. The circumstances under which he was killed were strange, even bizarre. He was killed in an elegant townhouse in a nice part of northwest Washington (Kash and I lived in the area), supposedly by an intruder (as 911 was initially told). But there were no signs of forced entry, and at the time of the attack, there were other people in the house — three gay men (a D.C. power couple and their housemate), who reportedly live as a polyamorous family.
At first it seemed Wone had been stabbed. But the stab wounds were clean and symmetrical, showing no evidence of struggle, and a postmortem examination found the following: evidence of possible strangulation or suffocation; six premortem needle marks, suggesting Wone may have been injected with drugs prior to his death; and Wone’s own semen around his genitals and in his rectum, suggesting possible sexual assault.
Earlier this week, the Washington Post published a fascinating two-part seriescolor> about the case. The articles are long, but well worth your time. (You can also read the WSJ Law Blog’s recaps, here and here.)
The Robert Wone story has a number of connections to the Biglaw world. Prior to joining Radio Free Asia, Wone was an associate at Covington & Burling. Former Covington partner Eric Holder, now the U.S. Attorney General, previously represented Wone’s widow, Kathy — who has filed a wrongful death suit against the three housemates. One of the trio, Joseph Price — who along with his housemates now faces obstruction of justice (but not murder) charges — was a partner at Arent Fox, until his recent resignation from the firm (after a lengthy leave of absence). Price was also active in the marriage equality movement, as former general counsel of Equality Virginia.
The Post’s articles are excellent — but reporter Paul Duggan is not the first writer to focus intensely on this case. Over at their superb blog, Who Murdered Robert Wone?, four gay D.C. bloggers — Craig Brownstein, David Greer, Michael Kremin and Doug Johnson — have been scrutinizing the case for months. Their site has played an important role in raising public awareness about the case.
To learn more about the Wone case, which is far too complex to be summarized easily here, check out the links below. To learn more about the Who Murdered Robert Wone site and the four enterprising citizen-journalists behind it, which is an interesting story in and of itself, see The Bilerico Project and Queerty.
Who Murdered Robert Wone? [main site]
The Robert Wone Stabbing: Anatomy of a Murder Case [Washington Post]
The Robert Wone Killing Remains ‘a Head-Scratcher’ [Washington Post]
The Robert Wone Murder: Little to Show Three Years Later [WSJ Law Blog]
The Robert Wone Murder: A Hard Look at the Evidence [WSJ Law Blog]
Who Murdered Robert Wone? [The Bilerico Project]
Robert Wone’s Grisly D.C. Murder Inspires Four Gay Men to Seek Out the Truth [Queerty]

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