She Knew Him as Anthony. Cops Call Him Something Else

Monica White recounts her brief relationship with the accused 'shopping cart killer'
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 13, 2022 4:23 PM CDT
Woman Learns She Dated an Alleged Serial Killer
This image released by the Harrisonburg, Va., Police Department, shows Anthony Robinson, 35, of Washington, D.C., who Fairfax County, Va., Police Chief Kevin Davis dubbed “shopping cart killer."   (Harrisonburg Police Department via AP)

Monica White's relationship ended badly—but she now fears it could have ended fatally. The Pennsylvania woman met Anthony Robinson on a dating app in 2020. The 36-year-old told the then-53-year-old that he was drawn to older women; she was a divorcee looking for love. He lived in the DC area, and after daily talks, they met in person for the first time in late 2020. It was to be a short-lived relationship: At a February 2021 party he attended, White said an intoxicated Robinson came on to her son and a friend's teen son and then admitted to having an interest in men. They fought and he left. Their relationship was over, though he messaged her weeks later asking her to meet him at a hotel in her hometown of Harrisburg.

She tells the Washington Post she declined. But police allege two women who subsequently met Robinson at hotels ended up dead and say he may have killed more. Police arrested Robinson in November and dubbed him the "shopping cart killer." Authorities allege Robinson met women on dating apps, arranged meetings at hotels, and murdered them there before carting their bodies off in a shopping cart. He is accused of killing 54-year-old Allene Redmon in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in October 2021, and 39-year-old Tonita Lorice Smith, a month later.

The Post reports Robinson was allegedly captured on surveillance video twice wheeling a cart into and out of Room 336 at a Howard Johnson hotel; the women's remains were found in a field near the hotel. Medical examiners were unable to determine a cause of death. WTOP reports a judge on Monday ruled there was probable cause to charge Robinson with first-degree murder and forwarded his case to a grand jury. Robinson is also being looked at as a suspect in three other murders, and the 2018 death of his fiancee, Skye Allen, is being reexamined. The 30-year-old ostensibly died of natural causes. (More serial killer stories.)

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