Twenty years ago this month, attorney Robert Wone stepped into a townhouse in D.C.’s Dupont Circle neighborhood to stay the night with a friend. A 911 call placed not long after reported that Wone, 32, had been stabbed. What transpired in the intervening minutes became a mystery that has confounded detectives and captivated the public for years.
The facts of the case were murky. Three other men were in the house; they told police they believed there had been an intruder. When the paramedics arrived, one noted that it appeared Wone’s body had been cleaned, according to court documents. He was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after midnight.
No one has ever been charged with killing Wone.
Over the decades, bloggers, podcasters and documentarians have entertained theories about the case, but virtually no new information about the killing has been disclosed by the police. Now, while the publicity has largely faded, a financial dispute in court has revealed new details about a settlement Wone’s estate reached with the three men who were in the house.
In 2008, the estate filed a $20 million wrongful-death lawsuit against Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward. The suit, which alleged the men were responsible for “negligence, spoliation of evidence and conspiracy” that led to Wone’s death, was settled in 2011 under terms that remain confidential. But in May of this year, the Wone estate filed complaints with the D.C. Superior Court alleging that Price and Zaborsky failed to make payments to the Robert E. Wone Memorial Trust required by the settlement.
Price had agreed to pay $85,500 over the course of 20 years, according to court documents, and Zaborsky had agreed to pay $60,000 over that time. As of May 29, Price owed $56,893.75 and Zaborsky owed $31,753.75 in missed payments and bounced checks plus fees and interest, the estate alleged. The estate also said the remaining balance is due immediately but did not specify a dollar amount.
It is unclear whether Ward, who did not respond to phone messages, signed a similar agreement. David Schertler, who had represented Ward in the wrongful death suit, said, “There is really nothing I have to say about the case.”
According to court documents, Zaborsky’s mother, Agnes Zaborksy, said she resides with her son and was served the complaint on his behalf in Tamarac, Florida. Neither she nor her son responded to phone messages.
Reached by phone, Price told The Washington Post that he was not aware of the complaint filed against him. “I’ll have to get in touch with my lawyer,” he said before ending the call without naming his attorney. Craig Roswell, who represented Price during the suit, said he is unable to comment for confidentiality reasons.
The court has received no response regarding service of the complaint from Price, according to Doug Buchanan, a spokesman for D.C. Superior Courts.
The Post could not identify current lawyers for either man. Both Price and Zaborsky have remote court hearings scheduled for the end of September.
The trust was established shortly after Wone’s death through initial donations from strangers and loved ones, Kathy Wone, his widow, told The Post. In 2023, funding provided by the trust was used to establish the Robert E. Wone Scholarship Endowment at William & Mary college in Virginia, Wone’s undergraduate alma mater.
Kathy Wone, speaking publicly about the case for the first time in more than a decade, told The Post that the funds and other honors that were established in his name provide a measure of solace.
“Robert’s life was cut so short,” she said. “He had so much more to give to the world by way of his talents and joy, and that’s why the scholarships and honors that people have created to continue his legacy of learning, compassion and helping those in need mean a great deal to me.”
Wone and her lawyers declined to comment on the pending litigation or the settlement agreement.
A house in Dupont Circle
On Aug. 2, 2006, Robert Wone — then general counsel for Radio Free Asia — was working late and made plans to stay the night in the Dupont Circle home of his college friend, Price, who lived with his two romantic partners at the time, Zaborsky and Ward.
Wone called Price at 10:24 p.m. to inform him that he was on his way, according to court documents. At 11:49 p.m., Zaborsky called 911 to the house on Swann Street Northwest and said that Wone was bleeding and had been stabbed by an intruder.
“I don’t know who stabbed him. We don’t know how they got in,” Zaborsky said in the call, according to previous Post reporting.
The medical examiner later determined that Wone had been stabbed three times, in his chest and abdomen, which involved his heart and right lung, according to court documents.
Prosecutors came to suspect the three men of engaging in a cover-up, and in 2008 charged them with obstruction of justice. The prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to determine the killer but alleged that Wone was restrained and incapacitated, and that there was suggestive evidence of an intended sexual assault.
Two years later, they were all found not guilty at a joint bench trial. In her decision, Judge Lynn Leibovitz said although “it is very probable that the government’s theory is correct,” prosecutors “failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of obstruction of justice.” There is a “difference between ‘moral certainty’ and ‘evidentiary certainty,’” she said. However, in her decision, Leibovitz did reject the defense claim that there was an unknown intruder and said “some or all” of the defendants were probably withholding information from investigators.
The case continued to garner interest. Local communication professionals Craig Brownstein and David Greer were two of four men who co-created a website — Who Murdered Robert Wone — that has chronicled the case off and on since December 2008. They said they wanted to provide insights as gay men living in Dupont, as the defendants’ polyamorous relationship was bringing attention to the community.
Greer most recently wrote about the 18-year anniversary of Wone’s death, and Brownstein was the first to report, this month, about the financial dispute and the allegations of nonpayment by Price and Zaborsky. Both men say they continue to think about the killing.
“I bike down that block of Swann Street all the time, twice a week, and I look at 1509. I look in that upstairs window,” Brownstein said.
“I can’t believe it’s been a generation since this man died,” Greer added.
The homicide case is still open, according to a D.C. police spokesperson. The spokesperson said that in 2023, the same year Peacock released a documentary about the case, the department received a tip, but it did not lead to the closure of the case.
Memorials continue
In the past two decades, at least $200,000 has been dedicated to students in honor of Wone, including by his alma mater and organizations in which he was active.
Friends and family say Wone was known for his dedication to doing public good. “He was a man of great vitality who brought a degree of enthusiasm to everything he did,” said Frank Sullivan Jr., a former justice of the Indiana Supreme Court and friend of Wone.
In 2023, William & Mary’s Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies program launched the Robert E. Wone Scholarship Endowment with $100,000 funded through the memorial trust — the trust Price and Zaborsky have allegedly not contributed to as they agreed.
The endowment funds are to be used to support student research and student advocacy for Asian American groups. Deenesh Sohoni, director of the program, said it recently distributed the funds for the first time — a total of $1,000 to two students for a joint project on how U.S. and international events, including the covid-19 pandemic, shaped the patterns of student entry into the country.
“Particularly if research can lead into potentially advocacy, that’s what we were looking at as how we would honor his legacy,” Sohoni said.
Kathy Wone told The Post that this scholarship is one of the honors that has “personally meant the most” to her.
At the time of his death, Wone was president-elect of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund (AEF), a nonprofit organization that focuses on charitable and educational activities for law students in the greater D.C. area.
The AEF created the Robert E. Wone Fellowship in 2007, which is awarded annually to a law student who is committed to public-interest work and who embodies the person Wone sought to be as a lawyer. Each year the recipient is awarded a $5,000 to $6,000 stipend, funded by donors, to help offset the costs of having an unpaid internship.
The 2020 fellow, Christine Lorica, said without this fellowship she could have been dissuaded from continuing into public-sector work.
“Having funding … gave me the peace of mind that this was worth the experience,” said Lorica, who is now a staff attorney for the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia. “[It] allowed me to persevere.”
Lorica said she also found a community. Wone “had a huge network of people who trusted and looked up to him, and because my fellowship was funded by [AEF], I was able to connect with a number of talented lawyers who are Asian American,” she said.
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, who tried the obstruction-of-justice case related to Wone’s killing, told The Post that over the years he came to realize how much people cared for him.
“Robert was beloved by [many] — it’s funny how many people said to me, ‘Robert was my best friend,’” Kirschner said.
Kirschner, who now works as an independent legal analyst, said this case will always stick with him. Even with no current authority over it, he said he would be happy to follow up on tips.
“I’ll never stop working the case,” he said.
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