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Murders of Robin Cornell and Lisa Story

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Murder of Robin Cornell and Lisa Story
Lisa Story on the left and Robin Cornell on the right
DateMay 10, 1990
LocationCape Coral, Florida
TypeSexual assault, murder by smothering with a pillow.
PerpetratorJoseph Zieler
DeathsRobin Cornell and Lisa Story
VerdictGuilty
ConvictionsFirst degree murder (2x)
SentenceDeath

On May 10, 1990, 11-year-old girl Robin Cornell and 32-year-old woman Lisa Story were murdered and sexually assaulted in Cape Coral, Florida, by a man named Joseph Zieler.

For many years, the murders were considered a cold case. Zieler was not identified as a suspect in the murders until DNA evidence was found linking him to the murders on September 29, 2016.[1] Zieler was arrested on September 29, 2016, and was put on trial in 2023. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death.[2][3] As of 2023, he is incarcerated on death row at the Union Correctional Institution.[4]

The murders were featured on the television program America's Most Wanted on January 21, 2006, and again on July 28, 2007.[5][6]

Background

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Joseph Zieler

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Zieler was 28 years old during the murders and lived in Cape Coral at the time. According to his criminal records, he was arrested two months after the murders in Lee County. His charges included dealing in a stolen property, battery of a police officer, and carrying a concealed firearm.[7][1] Zieler’s only arrest after the charges was for possession of cannabis; no other charges were filed until 1990.[1] According to his profile in a Wire of Hope, a website of a prison correspondence service, he has a "good sense of humor". His profile states that he is a "straight guy" who is looking for a female penfriend. He loves music and is a skilled guitarist. He loves handicrafts such as shoe mending. He also said that he loves sailing and riding motorbikes. He claims that he is working out in jail, and that he is a Catholic.[8][9]

Robin Cornell and Lisa Story

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Jan Cornell, a 28-year-old single mother, lived in an apartment with her 11-year-old daughter, Robin Cornell. On May 9, 1990, Jan's 32-year-old friend, Lisa Story, moved to her apartment as a roommate and agreed to babysit Robin. Robin Cornell was a fifth grader who reportedly loved playing outdoors and skipping. Lisa Story was a photographer and a cyclist; she was actively preparing to get married in the year that she was murdered.[7][10][11]

Murders

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On May 10, 1990, the bodies of Robin Cornell and Lisa Story were found inside their apartment by Jan Cornell. Both victims were suffocated and sexually assaulted.[12][13] According to Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore, during the night, a man broke into the apartment and murdered and raped Robin and Lisa.[14]

The night before their murders, Story had agreed to watch Robin while Jan Cornell was on a trip to visit her boyfriend.[15][14] Story worked with Cornell at the hospital and had moved into the apartment the day before.[10] When Cornell returned to her home the next morning and tried to enter it, her key would not open the front door, making her feel uneasy. The door had two locks: a deadbolt, which worked, and another in the doorknob, which did not work. That night, the deadbolt opened, but the doorknob had been locked. Everyone in her household knew not to lock the doorknob lock.[11] She then heard footsteps inside the apartment. Upon entering the apartment through a sliding glass door, she went to the kitchen, where she found an ironing board open with pictures of her daughter laid out.[5] She then ran to her daughters room, where she found Robin Cornell's naked body lying in a bed. She called 911 while unsuccessfully attempting to revive her daughter. Responding officers found Lisa Story's body "sprawled" on a bed in a nearby bedroom. Police were able to collect and save DNA samples from the crime scene.[15][10] An analysis of DNA from the crime lab revealed the killer was a white male with type O blood.[10]

Several days before the murders, Jan Cornell and multiple neighbors were concerned about a "peeping tom" that was walking in the neighborhood. Jan Cornell stated that she had slept poorly because of noises coming from him. On May 9, 1990, the day before the murder, Jan saw a man staring at her outside her window. He smiled for several minutes, then left.[16][17]

Investigation

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Two detectives, Kurt Grau and Christy Jo Jells, were appointed by Cape police to investigate the murder.[5] They believed that the killer entered the apartment through a sliding glass door and then climbed the stairs to the bedroom. The killer found Lisa Story sleeping and quickly killed her by suffocating her with a pillow. When Robin heard a noise of struggle and came to investigate, she was punched multiple times in the face and suffocated by a pillow. While the killer was ransacking the apartment, he found a sex toy belonging to Story, which he used to violate their bodies. Footprints were found in a bathroom, suggested the killer have taken a shower before leaving.[11]

Autopsies of the bodies confirmed that they were suffocated with pillows and sexually assaulted after they were killed. Investigators stated that they believed that the killer looked at a pornographic magazine after the murders and then violated their bodies. He left multiple clues, including a horseshoe-shaped Etienne Aigner charm and four keys. Two of the keys belonged to a Toyota Land Cruiser, while the other two were house keys, which were found in Story’s bedroom. A pair of white socks that that did not belong to anyone else were also discovered on a chair in a dining room. Detectives believed that the items may have belonged to the killer, who accidentally left them behind. Detectives also said that several items were stolen from the apartment. They included Story’s driver's license, credit card, checkbook, and a wristwatch. None of the items have been recovered.[10][18] DNA that the police collected did not match any suspects. No arrests were made, despite hundreds of police interviews.[7] Charlie Garret, a detective of the Alaska State Police, initially termed John Patrick Addis, an unrelated serial killer, as the main suspect of the murders, though police eventually ruled him out.[5]

Arrest

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In 2016, Joseph Zieler was forced to submit his DNA sample at Lee County Jail, where he was incarcerated for an unrelated charge. A week later, the police were notified that his DNA matched a database cataloging evidence from the 1990 double murder, allowing them to initiate an arrest warrant and arrest him.[10][19] He was charged with two counts of first degree murder, two counts of sexual battery, and one count of burglary.[20]

The unrelated incident that caused Zieler to be convicted of the 1990 murders was him shooting his adult son with a pellet rifle. The son was not seriously injured and was admitted for emergency surgery following the shooting. Police found Zieler hiding in a shed with the rifle by his side. He tried to defend his actions by saying that his son was bigger than him, and that he was acting in self-defense. Police arrested Zieler anyway and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon.[21][22]

While he was in jail, he sent three threatening letters to Jan Cornell, demanding her to stop the murder investigation. He was charged with tampering with a witness in relation to those letters.[23]

Trial

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Mugshot of Zieler at Lee County Jail

On May 17, 2023, Zieler's trial started after years of repeated delays. Kevin Shirley and Lee Hollander were lawyers who represented Zieler.[24] Assistant State Attorneys Dan Feinberg, Stephanie Russell, and Abe Thornburg were prosecutors of the case.[25] He pled not guilty to two murder charges and maintained his innocence. The court told him that his DNA was found on a sheet at the murder scene. Zieler stated that his DNA was there because he had sex with Jan months before the murders. When the court told him that the DNA would be long gone by the time of the murders, Zieler called Jan "a pig who never washed her sheets". Zieler's statement deeply distressed her, and she testified to the court that she had never met Zieler.[7] During his trial, Zieler wrote the world "killer" on his teeth with a permanent marker which was seen when he opened his mouth. Jan Cornell's family was reportedly "shocked" by this, they said that Zieler's "deteriorated teeth" were also seen throughout the entire trial, making his appearance more disturbing.[23][26]

After three days of deliberations, a jury found Zieler guilty of two first-degree murders, and a month later, the judge sentenced him to two death penalties, one for each victim.[7][25] The jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty.[27] Hours before Zieler was sentenced to death, he asked to speak with his lawyer, Kevin Shirley. As Shirley leaned over to speak with him, Zieler raised his elbow and hit him in the face. Nearby bailiffs immediately tackled Zieler to the ground and took him out of the courtroom.[28][29] Shirley told the judge that he was fine after the attack, and as a former boxer, he had survived much harder hits.[30] After the attack, a judge ordered for additional chains to be placed on Zieler's hands and feet. He also placed Zieler in the corner of the courtroom to prevent him from hitting, kicking, or spitting at anyone else.[31] After the trial ended, Zieler was transported to the death row section of Union Correctional Institution, located in Raiford, Florida.[4][32]

Reactions

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Neighbors of Joseph Zieler were surprised that he was a murderer. Jonathan Gallimore, one of the neighbors, said: "We were kind of shocked and surprised because the name they said on the news it just blew me away. I never thought he's capable of doing something like that but he did apparently". Gallimore also said: "This is here is a little weird because you see this on TV happening everywhere and you say, 'Glad it's them and not me', well now it's me. but what can you do?".[33]

Jan Cornell stated that: “Nothing can take the place of hearing the words today that justice for Robin and justice for Lisa has happened. He has received the ultimate punishment that the state of Florida can give. He will never see a free moment. He will never hurt another individual on this earth. For that, I could not be more grateful”.[1] Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore sat together with the victims' families in the courtroom during the trial. In a statement, he said: "We will never quit seeking justice for our victims, and this case proves that fact".[34]

Jennifer Fettig, an old friend of Jan Cornell with whom she had not spoken for years, reached out to Jan after the murders to support her. She also said that the murders of Robin Cornell and Lisa Story have inspired her to become a police officer. She explained it in an essay that she wrote at the Detroit Police Academy: "I met this young girl a few times prior to her death. She was a sweet friendly girl whose life was only beginning. How someone could commit such a terrible and horrific crime we may never know but as a police officer and a crime scene investigator I would like to do all I can to help prevent such tragedies from happening or help solve the mystery so a family may obtain some kind of closure".[18]

Florida state attorney Amira Fox thanked the families of Robin Cornell and Lisa Story for their patience during investigation. She also thanked the Cape Coral Police Department for never giving up on the investigation.[25]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Haddad, Cj (June 26, 2023). "Zieler sentenced to death in Cornell-Story homicides". Cape Coral Breeze.
  2. ^ "Convicted double murderer Joseph Zieler elbows his attorney in face — then is sentenced to death in Florida". CBS News. June 26, 2023.
  3. ^ "Judge sentences Joseph Zieler to death for 1990 Cape Coral double murder". FOX 4 News. June 26, 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Joseph Zieler moved to death row". FOX 4 News. August 17, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d Puit, Glen (January 4, 2011). Ghost: The True Story of One Man's Descent Into Madness and Murder. Berkeley Books. ISBN 9781101484739 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ "24 years later, Cape Coral double murder remains unsolved". WINK News. May 9, 2014. Archived from the original on May 19, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Beaten, Choked and assaulted by depraved killer". Sunday People. September 17, 2023 – via PressReader.
  8. ^ Meah, Ravi (February 3, 2025). "Death row monster who raped girl, 11, joins dating site claiming he 'has good sense of humor'". The Irish Star.
  9. ^ Mcinerney, Liam (February 3, 2025). "Death row child killer who raped girl, 11, joins dating site 'looking for female penfriend'". Daily Mirror.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Lohr, David (September 30, 2016). "Police Solve 1990 Slayings Of Babysitter And Girl, 11". Huffpost.
  11. ^ a b c Ballingurd, David (July 19, 2002). "Profilers warm to killer's trail". Tampa Bay Times.
  12. ^ "1990 double-murder remains on radar". Cape Coral Breeze. May 10, 2011.
  13. ^ Rodriguez, Thomas (January 10, 2025). ""I'm keeping my faith": Jan Cornell continues to honor Robin Cornell, Lisa Story amid appeal". Yahoo News.
  14. ^ a b Luperon, Alberto (May 29, 2023). "Jurors recommend death for double murderer who insulted victim's mother and flipped off camera". Law and Crime News.
  15. ^ a b "Death penalty sought in Cape Coral double homicide from 1990". Lehigh Acres Citizen. December 7, 2016.
  16. ^ Shaw, Derrick (December 9, 2016). "New clues unfold in 1990 Cape Coral double-murder". Wink News.
  17. ^ "Justice served 33 years after hideous attack". New UK. January 9, 2024 – via Readly.
  18. ^ a b "Unknown Robin Cornell and Lisa Story Killer". AMW Radio. January 24, 2006. Archived from the original on February 2, 2006.
  19. ^ Hydes, Daniel (March 16, 2021). "26 Years Later, The Double Murderer Who Killed An 11-Year-Old And Her Babysitter In Florida Has Finally Been Caught". Thought Catalog.
  20. ^ Oliver, Nick (October 5, 2016). "DNA Leads to Arrest in 20-year-old Double Murder". Forensic Academy Africa.
  21. ^ "Florida Homicide Arrest Made in 26-Year-Old Cold Case". The Ansara Law Firm. October 5, 2016.
  22. ^ Alexander, Radu (April 9, 2017). "The Cornell-Story Murders". Listverse.
  23. ^ a b "Convicted Double Child Murderer With 'Killer' Teeth Calls Victim's Mother 'Pig' During Trial". The Latin Times. June 28, 2023.
  24. ^ Rodriguez, Thomas (May 17, 2023). "Trial begins for Joseph Zieler in 1990 Cape Coral rape, murder of 11-year-old, babysitter". The News-Press – via Yahoo News.
  25. ^ a b c Syoen, Samantha (June 26, 2023). "Zieler Sentenced to Death". State Attorney's Office.
  26. ^ Blanco, Andrea (June 27, 2023). "Florida murderer elbows attorney in face and flashes 'killer' across teeth as he is sentenced to death". The Independent.
  27. ^ "Convicted Murderer Attacks Own Attorney Before Being Given Death Sentence In Court". Toofab. January 6, 2024.
  28. ^ Burke, Minuvonne (June 27, 2023). "Video shows convicted murderer elbow attorney in the face hours before he's sentenced to death". NBC News.
  29. ^ "Florida Murderer Elbows Attorney in the Face Before Death Sentence". Daily Beast. June 26, 2023.
  30. ^ Donneli, Dylan (June 27, 2023). "Florida child murderer elbows lawyer in the head as he's sentenced to death". The Daily Express.
  31. ^ Palmer, Emily (June 27, 2023). "Child Murderer Elbows His Lawyer Before Death Sentence". People.
  32. ^ Guzman, Carolina (April 17, 2023). "Convicted murderer Joseph Zieler moved to death row". Wink News.
  33. ^ Cadigan, Michael (September 29, 2016). "Neighbors describe cold case murder suspect". FOX 4 News.
  34. ^ Rodriguez, Tomas (May 19, 2023). "Cape Coral police pledge commitment to cold cases after conviction success". The News Press.
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