Robert Mitchell Jr. (8 of Clubs, New York)

Summary

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The Deck – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Robert Mitchell Jr. (8 of Clubs, New York)

Release Date: October 15, 2025
Host: Ashley Flowers
Case Subject: Robert Mitchell Jr., murdered in Rochester, NY, 2016

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Overview

This week’s episode focuses on the brutal 2016 murder of Robert Mitchell Jr., a once-promising athlete known as "Big Rob." His unsolved case is one of the most haunting in Rochester’s recent history: a man found bound, beaten, and burned in a local park, with no clear motive and a string of frustrating dead ends. Host Ashley Flowers, alongside detective Terry Deercop, reconstructs Robert's last days, the challenges investigators faced, and the recent, game-changing break from a long-silent witness.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Discovery of the Crime

• [02:01-05:21]
  • July 6, 2016: A dog walker in La Grange Park, Rochester, discovers a smoldering, bound body near the basketball courts and calls 911 in distress.
  • The victim is burned, naked from the waist down except for socks, hands duct-taped, and clearly killed before the fire.
  • Notable Quote:
    • Caller to 911: “There’s a dead body smoldering. Jesus Christ. Is the body on fire? … What is wrong with these people?” ([04:38])
  • Investigators quickly identify the body as Robert Mitchell Jr., thanks to a wallet and birth certificate found nearby.

Initial Investigation & Crime Scene

• [05:21-09:11]
  • Robert’s body was wrapped in a blue tarp and trash bags, apparently moved in a vehicle (tire tracks detected).
  • Forensic evidence showed he was severely beaten (possibly with a bat), likely killed elsewhere, and transported to the park after death.
  • Surveillance footage from a nearby industrial building captures a bright ignition in the park at 3:00 am—pinpointing time of arson.

Who Was Robert Mitchell Jr.?

• [09:25-14:41]
  • Robert ("Big Rob") was a gentle giant, former college basketball player whose career was derailed by injury and subsequent struggles with substance abuse and housing instability.
  • Known in Monroe Avenue’s bar scene for dart leagues and bouncing, he also struggled with recent job loss and began selling small amounts of cocaine.
  • Notable Quote:
    • Detective Deercop: “Most people described Rob as a gentle giant.” ([14:19])
  • Friends say he had become jumpy and nervous in the weeks before his death; some worried he was mixed up with the wrong people through low-level drug dealing.

Retracing Robert's Last Days

• [14:41-18:50]
  • Last confirmed sighting: Afternoon of July 4th at O’Callaghan’s bar, when he left his camera for safekeeping but missed his usual Fourth of July gathering.
  • Surveillance footage suggests he (or someone resembling him) was walking toward JD Oxford’s bar on July 5th—but it’s unclear if it’s really Robert.
  • He missed an important darts match that night—a strong indication something happened to him between July 4th and 5th.

Rumors, Theories, and Dead Ends

• [18:50-24:49]
  • Investigators dig into the possibility that Robert’s killing is connected to other local murders involving fire and drug disputes.
  • A crisis point emerges: Robert allegedly owed drug money or product to a low-level dealer named Adrian, who worked with an associate named Lance. Both are investigated and flagged as persons of interest.
  • A promising lead surfaces when blood and a broken bat are found in Adrian and his girlfriend’s former apartment—but DNA testing rules them out.
  • Detective Deercop: “A lot of cops will tell you they don’t believe in coincidences, but this case was full of them.” ([24:42])

Witnesses and Breakthrough

• [26:33-28:52]
  • In December 2018, Robert’s ex-girlfriend—embroiled in a bitter divorce and custody battle—implicates her husband (Gary), presenting a plausible but ultimately unsubstantiated suspicion.
  • Despite exhaustive efforts, her information leads nowhere conclusive.

Game-Changing Confession

• [31:17-35:41]
  • “Erica,” a new witness in December 2022, provides the tip that reframes the entire investigation.
  • The witness claims Robert was killed by “Tom,” a lesser-known acquaintance, over a drug debt: Tom had fronted Robert cocaine to sell, and Robert either used or failed to pay for it.
  • According to the witness, Tom attacked Robert as he slept on a couch in a friend's apartment, beating him with a bat or tire iron. The body was hidden for days behind a shed that was later torched, then moved to La Grange Park and set on fire.
  • Notable Quote:
    • Det. Deercop: “...if a witness comes forward and knows how he died, then we’ll know they were there. And that’s exactly what happened.” ([34:13])
  • Details shared by the witness (such as fire at the shed on same day) are independently corroborated in police records, adding strong credibility.

Challenges in Securing a Prosecution

• [38:39-40:41]
  • Lead detective Deercop identifies the crime’s circumstances and alleged perpetrator but can’t move forward legally, as the witness may not be credible enough to testify and faces other legal complications.
  • Tom has not yet been confronted by police—officers are deliberately holding back to protect the witness and avoid jeopardizing the now-clear picture of the crime’s timeline.
  • Investigators are seeking more forensic evidence and hoping for additional witnesses to bolster their case.

The Human Toll and Call for Justice

• [41:27-42:50]
  • Robert’s family remains deeply affected, declining interviews but expressing the pain from losing both their children.
  • Det. Deercop is personally invested in closure:
    • Detective Deercop: “As an investigator, most will tell you that there’s always that one case that sticks with you… This case just stays with me… I would really love to solve this case before I retire.” ([40:41])
  • A $10,000 reward is available for information leading to an arrest. Listeners are urged to come forward anonymously if necessary.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• The 911 Call – Raw Shock ([04:38]):

  “God, what’s wrong with these people? … There’s a dead body smoldering. Jesus Christ. Is the body on fire?”

• On Robert’s Reputation ([14:19]):

  “Most people described Rob as a gentle giant.” – Det. Deercop

• On Searching for the Truth ([34:13]):

  “We always said, if a witness comes forward and knows how he died, then we’ll know they were there. And that’s exactly what happened.” – Det. Deercop

• On the Case’s Emotional Weight ([40:41]):

  “This case just stays with me. Robert’s mom and dad stay with me… I would really love to solve this case before I retire.” – Det. Deercop

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Important Timestamps

• Crime Scene Discovery & 911 Call: [02:01-05:21]
• Identifying the Victim: [05:21-06:22]
• Robert’s Background & Friends: [09:25-14:41]
• Possible Motives (Drugs & Debt): [14:41-20:31]
• Suspects & Investigation Stalls: [20:31-24:49]
• False Leads & Evidence Frustrations: [24:49-29:13]
• Breakthrough Witness Emerges: [31:17-35:41]
• Hurdles to Prosecution: [38:39-40:41]
• Appeal for Information: [41:27-end]

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Tone and Language

Throughout the episode, Ashley Flowers and Detective Deercop balance investigative rigor with compassion for the victim and his family. The episode’s tone is somber yet urgent, communicating the frustration of repeated setbacks as well as determined hope. The police and host avoid sensationalism, focusing on facts and the very real impacts on those left behind.

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Action Points

• Call to Action: Listeners with any information about Robert Mitchell Jr.’s case are encouraged to contact Rochester Police Major Crimes Unit at [phone] or email [e-mail]. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Crime Stoppers at [phone].

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Summary prepared for listeners who want a clear, detailed understanding of the case and episode – ideal for both true crime fans and advocates for cold case justice.

Transcript

[Ashley Flowers]

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[Jeff Bridges]

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[Dana]

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[Ashley Flowers]

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[Ashley Flowers]

Want evidence? It's time to earn your degree. Southern New Hampshire University has it. SNHU offers over 200 online programs so you can dig into what really drives you. No set class times means that you can do it all on your own schedule and with low online tuition, cost doesn't have to stand in the way. When the facts line up, you follow them. Visit snhu.edu to get started. That's SNHU.edu dec Our card this week is Robert Mitchell Jr. The aide of clubs from New York. Early one summer morning in 2016, a man out walking his dog through a Rochester park stumbled onto a body. He was burned and still smoldering. That discovery would mark the beginning of an investigation that has stretched on for nearly a decade. One riddled with strange twists, frustrating dead ends, and coincidences that don't feel like coincidences at all. And just when it seemed like the case had gone completely cold, a witness came forward with details so specific, only someone close to the crime could possibly know them. But getting that information into a courtroom has been challenging. And now, more than nine years later, investigators are hoping that by sharing Robert's story, some. Someone out there can help them finish what they started. I'm Ashley Flowers and this is the deck. On Wednesday, July 6, 2016, a man began his morning like usual, walking his dog through lagrange park in Rochester, New York. It was a routine that he knew like the back of his hand. And most days it was uneventful. But as they neared the basketball court at the rear of the park around 6:20 in the morning, something caught his eye. Smoke. He went closer to check it out, and what he saw stopped him in his tracks. Frantically, he pulled out his phone. And here is part of that 911 call he made.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

Christ. 911 Center. What is that? Yeah, I'm in La Grange giving my dog a walk. God, what's wrong with these people? This is definitely not in here. Lagrange, the park. There's a dead body smoldering. Jesus Christ. Is the body on fire? Yes, the Grange. Okay, now. Send somebody now. All right, hold on just a moment. Okay. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Okay. What is wrong with these people? Is the body still on fire?

[Jeff Bridges]

He's smoldering.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

Okay, stay on the line. Oh my Lord. Until they get there with you. Okay. Don't hang up.

[Jeff Bridges]

Oh my God.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

Oh my God. They poor man.

[Ashley Flowers]

Within minutes, Rochester police were at the park. They were short staffed that week. A lot of investigators were on vacation after the fourth of July. But not Detective Terry Deercop. She and her partner were on call.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

Our shift was starting within the hour anyways, so we went right to the crime scene.

[Ashley Flowers]

When they got there, the location itself was raised eyebrows.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

We thought that was a very unusual spot. It's a pretty quiet neighborhood. On one side is apartment buildings, but the whole backside is just industrial.

[Ashley Flowers]

The victim was laying face down, hands bound with duct tape. And he was naked from the waist down, except for socks. Arson can make identification challenging, but this time police caught a break. They could see the Victim was a very tall black man, and despite the fire, some of his tattoos were still visible. Even more helpful and almost unbelievable is that lying next to his body was a wallet with a birth certificate inside.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

We pretty quickly determined it was Robert Mitchell Jr.

[Ashley Flowers]

The 37 year old's body was still smoldering when police arrived, which told them that he hadn't been there long and that he'd been set on fire right there in the park. But they didn't think that he was killed there. He was wrapped in blue tarp and black trash bags. Tire tracks led straight to his body. So whoever did this drove into the park, pulled up to that clearing tucked between the basketball courts and the thick tree line, and then they dumped him there and set him on fire. Even with the burns, it was obvious that Robert had suffered head trauma. And the medical examiner confirmed that he had been hit several times with something large, something like a bat. And the blows fractured his skull and his jaw.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

There was a theory that he was probably attacked either sitting down or laying down because of the where it was on the head. I mean, his height alone. Someone would have to be extremely tall to hit you that hard in the head.

[Ashley Flowers]

He also didn't have any obvious defensive wounds. And this all led investigators to believe that he was already dead by the time he was bound.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

My thought is that he was tied up to make it easier to move him because again, how do you move someone that is so tall and big? I mean, he was a big guy. We knew at least two people had to have been involved in moving his body.

[Ashley Flowers]

But where was he moved from and when? Residents in the large apartment complex nearby said they hadn't noticed anything unusual. Most workers at the factories and warehouses that backed up to the park had just clocked in when police arrived. Many of the businesses had cameras, but a lot didn't work or were angled the wrong way or just didn't capture anything useful. Still, investigators managed to find one crucial piece of footage.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

We were able to get video from one of the industrial buildings that showed a bright ignition in the middle of the night. You could see kind of like an, I don't want to say explosion, but you could see like the sky light up and you could tell that that's the point. An accelerant had been poured on Robert.

[Ashley Flowers]

They might not have known where Robert was before the park or who put him there. They now knew when.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

3:00Am we have a time now we just have to track the vehicle. And at that time, it's not that hard to track a vehicle. Because there's not that many vehicles on the road.

[Ashley Flowers]

Famous last words, right? Because it turned out to be pretty hard. The only vehicles caught on cameras near the park around that time were sedans, but the footage was too grainy to make out license plates or even car colors.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

It was all like night vision cameras. So every. Every car was gray or black.

[Ashley Flowers]

They had hoped Robert's loved ones would know more. So while crime scene techs processed the park and officers continued canvassing, Detective Deercamp and her partner went to notify Robert's family in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

It was the hardest death notify I've ever done. His mother didn't want to speak with us, not out of being rude or mean, out of. I think out of when she saw us there. She immediately left and went upstairs because I think she knew why we were there. Like, she didn't even have to hear the words.

[Ashley Flowers]

It was Robert's father who ended up talking to them. He told detectives that the family had always been close, but Robert had been struggling. Robert's only sibling, his sister Ashley, died of a heart condition in 2004. He went on to play college basketball. I mean, his 6, 9 height made him a natural until an injury ended that path.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

Without the routine of playing basketball and that injury, he started drinking too much and not going to class and ultimately, you know, lost his ability to play basketball in college.

[Ashley Flowers]

After that, things never fell back into place. While his longtime friends were starting careers and families, Robert, or big Rob, as everyone called him, just seemed stuck. He didn't have steady work or a place to live. But what he did have, according to Detective Deercop, was no shortage of what she called lady friends.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

At this point in his life, he was kind of couch surfing. He had a lot of friends in the byer district down on Monroe Avenue that he would stay at a lot of their places.

[Ashley Flowers]

Robert's dad told detectives he hadn't heard from his son in a few days. His cell phone had been shut off weeks earlier, and unless Robert was connected to wi Fi, there was no way to reach him. Their recent chats had all been through Facebook. Now, personal issues aside, Robert's father couldn't think of anyone who wanted to kill him. But Robert's newer circle of friends was a mystery to his dad. I mean, the best he could do was connect them with some of Robert's longtime buddies in hopes that they could point them in the right direction.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

And my partner and I walked down the driveway, and he looked at me, and he's like, we have to solve this case. And we got in the car and we didn't talk the rest of the way back. We were just so. I guess we just, we were so sad for the father and mother. We just saw it in their face. I mean, it was terrible.

[Ashley Flowers]

Bit by bit, in talking to Robert's longtime friends, police began piecing together what Robert's life looked like in the months leading up to his death. Parenthood today looks different, and so do the tools we rely on. Just like tracking your steps or using your smartphone feels second nature. Nanit makes it hard to imagine parenting without a smart baby monitor. My mom told me when I was a baby, all they had was sound like what my anxiety would have been through the roof. I couldn't have handled it. With Nanit's crystal clear video two way audio so clear that I can hear Josie breathing through the night. Our nanitcam gives me so much peace of mind. It also has personal insights and smart notifications. It tracks sleep milestones, even breathing motion. Trusted by parents and experts. It's like having a second set of eyes that never get tired. Nanit is truly the one baby item we cannot live without. Even though she's not a baby anymore, she's a bit of a toddler. But right now, Nanit is offering 25% off just for our listeners. Get 25% off your first order with code BABY25. Go to nanit.com and use code BABY25 to save. That's Nanit. N a n I t dot com with code BABY25.

[Jeff Bridges]

Morning, Zoe. Got donuts.

[Dana]

Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage?

[Jeff Bridges]

Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me. So Dana.

[Dana]

Oh no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at t mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system.

[Jeff Bridges]

Wow, impressive. Let me try. T mobile is the best place to get iPhone 17 Pro because they've got the best network.

[Ashley Flowers]

Nice.

[Dana]

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[Jeff Bridges]

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[Jeff Bridges]

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[Dana]

Dude, my work here is done.

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[Ashley Flowers]

Robert played in a darts league. He did temp work. He was a talented photographer. He could usually be found at his favorite bar, o' Callaghan's on Monroe Avenue. He was a familiar face to several pubs in that area, and not just as a customer.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

A lot of the bars that he hunt out at on Monroe Avenue would hire him to like, be a bouncer at the door because he was so large. And one of his friends told us that anytime there was a fight, Rob would run to the back because he didn't want to get in a fight with anyone because he just did not have. They said he did not have a mean bone in his body and wouldn't fight anyone or wouldn't confront anyone. Most people described Rob as a gentle giant.

[Ashley Flowers]

But things had recently gotten harder for Robert. He'd lost his job at the YMCA when staff caught him sneaking in at night to sleep. He'd worn out his welcome at some friends houses and he was drinking more. And even though he didn't have a serious criminal history, multiple people said that Robert had recently started selling small amounts of cocaine at the bars that he hung around.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

Very early in the investigation, his friends told us that they were convinced it had something to do with Robert trying to sell drugs. Maybe he got mixed up with the wrong people because, like his friends told us, Robert wasn't cut out to be a drug dealer. Like he didn't have it in him to collect money or sell. And they told us that he gave away a lot of the drugs. We partied with people.

[Ashley Flowers]

Friends also noticed that he seemed nervous lately, but no one knew if he was scared of anyone in particular or what was causing his nervousness or where he was and who he was with the night he was killed. So to detectives, the logical place to start in retracing his steps was where Robert spent most of his time. Monroe Avenue, the busy bar corridor that he'd made his second home. The manager at o' Callaghan's told police that the last time he'd seen Robert was two days before he was found. So that would have been on the afternoon of July 4th. He said that Robert left his camera at the bar for safekeeping. And that detail stood out because friends had mentioned that Robert would normally go to this fourth of July barbecue every year and he would have likely taken photos. But that day he never showed. And he never came back to retrieve his camera.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

So they felt wherever he went, he planned on coming right back. Like he didn't plan on disappearing or leaving town or doing anything. It was that he probably was just leaving for a very short time.

[Ashley Flowers]

The next night, July 5, Robert missed another commitment. A darts league championship match at JD Oxford's, which is just another bar down on Monroe Avenue. He and his partner had a good chance of winning, and with a cash prize on the line, it's not something that he'd flake on. So it would seem that whatever happened to him might have already happened. Except just as they were getting this info from a bartender at o', Callaghan's, she said something that seriously threw that assumption into question.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

She said, I saw him walking down Monroe Avenue, and she thought it was the fifth because she was away the third and the fourth. And she said, but it was weird. He didn't come in.

[Ashley Flowers]

O' Callaghans and JD Oxford's are about a quarter of a mile apart.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

So we basically knocked on every business door between the two bars for video.

[Ashley Flowers]

And they actually found something useful. A surveillance camera near O' Callaghan's captured a man who looked like Robert at 5.49pm on Tuesday, July 5. The footage was grainy. It was distant, low resolution. But they could see the man walking east toward JD Oxford's carrying a black drawstring bag, the same kind that friends say Robert almost always had on him. Now the man in the video footage walks out of frame, and that's it. He's not picked up on any other cameras, and Robert doesn't make it to his dart match. So if that was Robert, it would seem that he vanished somewhere on Monroe in the quarter mile between o' Callaghan's and JD Oxford's. So detectives kept their attention on that street as they looked for other crime scenes, specifically the one where he was actually killed.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

We just figured he wouldn't have ventured very far because he didn't have a car. He was on foot, and he was almost to the bar where he was supposed to play darts. He's only a couple blocks away from that bar when we last see him on video camera and in an area.

[Ashley Flowers]

He knew so well, with so many friends and acquaintances nearby. Everyone agreed on one point. This wasn't random. Whoever killed Robert had to be someone he knew, probably even someone he trusted.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

We wound up interviewing over 100 people. Everybody knew him. The rumors started flying about who it could have been, and people were throwing out names left and right.

[Ashley Flowers]

They looked for overlap with Other homicides. Several people in the region had been found burned that year, and Robert knew two of them. Michael Royal and Jennifer Leisure, both victims of the Layton Avenue quadruple homicide and arson. That's a case that we covered on this show. All four victims in that case were bound, shot and stabbed before the house was set on fire. That investigation also pointed toward a possible low level drug dispute. The police couldn't find anything actually linking the cases. Even Roberts photography provided leads. He'd been hired to shoot a wedding, but after his computer crashed, the couple never got their pictures. I mean, they were furious and started sending him threatening messages via Facebook.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

We know where you live, we know where you hang out, and all that kind of stuff. So it was like, oh my gosh. But it wound up being completely, you know, they had nothing to do with it.

[Ashley Flowers]

After chasing down every tip, rumor and theory, the drug related angles still made the most sense.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

So our theory was that Rob had probably either stolen drugs from someone or been given drugs to sell and was short on money and that he was assaulted. And we didn't know if the person who assaulted him meant to kill him or just to send him a message. But clearly he died. We felt probably pretty close to the Monroe Ave. Neighborhood.

[Ashley Flowers]

The suspect pool was huge. But as detectives sifted through the noise, two names floated to the top. Hours before Robert's body was discovered, there was a stabbing at a bar across the street from o' Callaghan's called the Park Bench Pub. According to witnesses, the suspect was a 30 year old man named Lance who slashed another guy in the hand. But as that stabbing investigation unfolded, it was Robert's name that kept coming up. You see, allegedly, he and Lance had gotten close. Police know that Lance sold cocaine for a man named Adrian. But somewhere along the way, things got messy. Lance had either started using the product himself along with Robert, or someone stole it. Now police learn that Lance blamed Robert for the missing product. And so Adrian was trying to track them both in down in the days before Robert was killed. Now, he found at least one of them because surveillance videos showed that after the bar stabbing, Lance took off with Adrian and Adriane's girlfriend.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

We spent a lot of time and effort into getting video surveillance from where they lived to see if they had come in, you know, that night or did they come or go around the time his body was burned.

[Ashley Flowers]

Detectives pulled phone records and found threatening texts from Adrian in Lance's inbox. But location data didn't place either man near Lagrange park where Robert's body was Found, which just means that their phones weren't there. Police weren't writing anyone off yet, but they didn't have enough to prove anything either, so they just flagged all three. Lance, Adrian, and Adrian's girlfriend in their internal databases just in case they popped up again. And that didn't take very long. In early August, a custodian at an apartment complex called 911 with something alarming. He said that a couple had just moved out of one of the townhouses, and when he went inside to clean, he found blood on the living room wall, blood on the back door and on the carpet.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

The custodian also told us that he was cleaning out the dumpster because he wanted to look to see what they threw away, because maybe there was something that he could salvage. And there was a broken baseball bat in the dumpster.

[Ashley Flowers]

And the couple who had just left that unit, Adrian and his girlfriend, we're.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

Thinking this is it. We really, honestly thought this is it. This is where he was killed, in this apartment. And there's a broken baseball bat in the dumpster. So we called the crime lab down because we wanted them to see the blood pattern. They were saying that someone was. Was hit and it was cast off.

[Ashley Flowers]

While crime scene techs were figuring that out, they got another surprise. ATF agents who were pulled into Robert's case because of the arson. They picked up Lance on a warrant for the Park Bench stabbing, and Rochester detectives swooped in to question him. Now, Lance denied knowing anything about Robert's murder, but according to police reports, he confirmed that they had hung out before and that Robert and Adrian had crossed paths. Although he wasn't sure if Robert ever sold anything for Adrian. He also admitted that he himself owed Adrian a drug debt of nearly $1,000, and he volunteered that the shirt he wore during the Park Bench stabbing was still at his place, covered in blood. So detectives collected it and sent that out for testing just to make sure that the blood really was from the bar fight and not from Robert. So all this bloody evidence that they're collecting had to turn up something, right? Wrong. When detectives talked to Adrian's girlfriend, now his ex, she said that the blood in the apartment was actually hers. Adriane had assaulted her.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

We still tested the blood. You know, we still wanted to make sure. And it was. It was her blood. Then we found out that the baseball bat that was in the dumpster, her son actually got at a Red Wings, which is our AAA baseball team, that a player broke the bat swain in and gave it to her son at the game.

[Ashley Flowers]

A lot of cops will tell you that they don't believe in coincidences, but this case was full of them.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

It could have been anyone's apartment, and it could have been anyone having a domestic, but it happened to be somebody who. Who we thought Robert might have been into drug dealing with.

[Ashley Flowers]

Then came another blow. The blood on Lance's shirt was not Robert's, and he had an alibi for the general window when police believed that Robert was killed.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

And we tracked that down, and sure enough, he was somewhere else. And so he wasn't our suspect.

[Ashley Flowers]

Just like that, two of their strongest leads became dead ends. And as time kept ticking by with no answers, staying hopeful got harder and harder. Nothing. They collected from the park. Bits of torn duct tape and fabric, pieces of blue tarp and trash bag, charred towel fragments, a burned USB drive, and a lighter. None of that turned up anything helpful. Shreds of jeans found near Robert weren't his. The groundskeeper told police that he'd run over them with a lawnmower the day before his body was left there. Ditto for a pair of sneakers. Even digital forensics was a bust. With Robert's service shut off, There was no live location data for his phone. And when detectives finally got into the laptop and cell that he had left at a friend's place, they didn't find anything useful there either. They tried running a geofence around the park, but between the warehouses, factories, and that big apartment complex nearby, there was just too much data to narrow down anything significant. So despite all their work, the case went cold for one year and then two. But in December 2018, a woman. We'll call Erica, walked into the police station with a bombshell tip.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

She comes to our headquarters and said, I need to talk to someone. I think my husband was involved in a homicide.

[Ashley Flowers]

She believed that her husband. Let's call him Gary. Could be Robert's killer. Erica and Robert used to date, and she said that Gary had always been jealous of him. And one day, around the time of Robert's murder, Gary came home smelling like smoke and started acting paranoid because she.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

Said he and his friends were acting very strange and that he had been on edge around that time. And she remembers him freaking out, talking, whispering in the phone, and she felt like something was going on. So I thought, here we go. We're onto something again.

[Ashley Flowers]

Gary's record showed minor offenses, nothing violent. But Erica told police that he'd been abusive and that she had a restraining order against him. Detective Deercop was cautiously optimistic. I mean, Erica and Gary were in the middle of a nasty divorce and custody battle. So detectives knew that her accusations could be fueled by anger or agenda. Plus, she and Robert hadn't been involved for years. But unexpected twist. Erica didn't necessarily think that Gary killed Robert because of her. She believed that Gary was dabbling in drug sales, maybe helping his friends out. And she'd heard a rumor that Robert stole a stash that Gary or one of his buddies kept in a hiding spot at o'. Callaghan's.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

I mean, we took what she told us very seriously, and we really tried to exhaust all the information she gave us, but it wound up being a dead end. She gave us some names of people we had already interviewed. We went and re interviewed them about the missing stash at o' Callaghan's and about that stuff, and we couldn't find any truth in any of it. So we kept him as a suspect. We did a full workup on him and his history and everything. We didn't clear him, but we just. Nothing led us strongly to him other than her thinking he might have been involved. She didn't have any concrete information like that. She knew he did it, that he confessed to her, that she saw the body, that he and his friends were openly talking about it. She just had a suspicion.

[Ashley Flowers]

It felt like they had so many puzzle pieces, but none of the pieces actually connected it together until December 2022, when a new witness came forward with exactly what detectives needed to bring the picture into focus.

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[Jeff Bridges]

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[Dana]

Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage?

[Jeff Bridges]

Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me. So Dana.

[Dana]

Oh no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at t mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system.

[Jeff Bridges]

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[Ashley Flowers]

Nice.

[Dana]

Jeffrey, you heard them.

[Jeff Bridges]

T mobile is the best place to.

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[Dana]

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[Ashley Flowers]

For their safety and at police's request. I'm not going to share any identifying details about this witness, but I can tell you how they ended up on Detective Deercop's radar.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

I got a phone call from a police agency out in the suburbs of Rochester and they said that they had a person who called 911 and wanted to give information on a homicide that happened in the city. And they called up to our office and said that it was the case of Robert Mitchell. So I drove out to this witness's home.

[Ashley Flowers]

The witness said that Robert's killer was a 33 year old man who we're going to call Tom.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

I actually had this person's name in my notes the second day of the investigation.

[Ashley Flowers]

Tom was a newer addition to Robert's circle and Robert's longtime friends weren't fans. They thought that he seemed shady. But back then, Tom was just another name on Detective Deercop's list and he was nowhere near the top of it.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

Out of all the names that I had been given, his was the one that I had the least information on and couldn't find any motive or connection to Rob.

[Ashley Flowers]

Tom didn't have an extensive rap sheet, although he did have a serious charge on his record. A violent felony involving gun possession from when he was a teenager. Now, the witness said that back when Robert was killed, Tom was dealing cocaine and he had fronted Robert a few Thousand dollars worth to sell. Instead, Robert either used it or gave it away and then never paid Tom back. According to this witness, one night in July, a group of people were hanging out at an apartment where Robert had been staying, basically a friend's place that he was crashing at. While that guy was out of town, Tom was there, too. And the witness said that's when he made his move. While Robert was asleep on the couch, Tom attacked him.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

He was hit in the head with either a baseball bat or a tire iron, something of that length and size, multiple times. And that he was beaten so badly, his eye was even damaged and bulging out of his head. And the witness said that there were other people present when it happened, and that Robert was taken from that apartment and taken over to a house on the east side of our city, hidden behind a shed. And after a couple days, they said that he was behind the shed for a couple days, and then ultimately, he was wrapped in. In a tarp. Tied up in a tarp, and transported over to the west side of our city and dumped out at a park on Lagrange, and he was set on fire.

[Ashley Flowers]

What made this tip so compelling is that police had never publicly shared how Robert was killed.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

We always thought we'd keep it very close to our chest to how Robert died, because we always said, if a witness comes forward and knows how he died, then we'll know that they were there. And that's exactly what happened. The witness knew. This one witness knew how he died, and they saw him after he was deceased.

[Ashley Flowers]

The details explained everything. They knew from the crime scene that Robert was attacked while lying down, that he didn't even have an opportunity to defend himself. And it could explain why he had no pants or shoes on. He'd been sleeping.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

We kept trying to, you know, envision what happened. And when they told the story, it made perfect sense. What really sealed the deal on this person's information is that they told us that the shed that Robert was hidden behind was arsoned that morning, and that a vacant house that the shed sat up against to was also arsoned. So I went back to July 6, 2016, and found a house that morning that had been a vacant house in a shed that had been set on fire. And inside there was blue tarp that was still left from the fire. So I knew right then and there that this person was telling the truth. And finally, after all the people that have come forward giving information that led us to dead ends, we finally had someone who had actual, real information, and it was very credible information.

[Ashley Flowers]

The only thing that didn't 100% line up was the date. The witness said that Robert was killed at least a couple of days before he was found, probably on July 4th. But all along, police had been operating under the assumption that he'd last been seen on that surveillance footage on the fifth. But honestly, that could have been a wrong assumption. Remember, the quality was poor. And while still some people thought it was Robert, there were others who, even early on, didn't think that. And actually, the fourth makes way more sense, because the one thing him being alive on the 5th couldn't explain is why he would leave his camera behind at the bar and never come back for it. In the end, Detective Deercott believes that the figure on that footage from the fifth was someone else. Just another weird coincidence. Now, detectives had their work cut out for them. They needed to try and see if they could find anything that proved this story even further or anything that physically linked Tom to Robert's murder. The witnesses didn't have addresses for either place where they alleged the murder happened or where Robert's body was first hidden. But no problem, at least on the second one, because they were able to pull the address for the body stash spot. Because of the police report, that vacant house and shed that burned that morning was at 41 Lang street, in a neighborhood that Tom apparently knew well. Finding the apartment where the murder took place, though, was trickier. The witness couldn't remember the exact address, but said they knew it was on Meg Street. And the man who rented the apartment was a bartender at the Scotch House Pub a couple of blocks from o'. Callaghan's. They only had his first name and let's call him Harley. Detective Deercop dug through old police reports tied to the Scotch House Pub until boom. A guy named Harley was listed as a witness in a 2016 assault case, and his address at the time was 86 Meg Street. An old Victorian split into apartments.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

I figured out who it was. I figured out the apartment. I called the landlord who owned the building back in 2016, and yes, this person was, in fact, the renter of the apartment at the time. We are hearing that the apartment was a mess and that when the male who rented the apartment came home, he was actually upset.

[Ashley Flowers]

Now, by the time this information came to light, it was way too late to get a warrant to search the place. But Detective Deercop went to speak to Harley, hoping for a breakthrough. Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly forthcoming. He admitted to knowing Robert casually from the bar scene, but said that he'd Never let him crash at his place. And as for Tom, he claimed that he didn't know him at all. Still, for Detective Deercop, it felt like the finish line was finally in sight.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

Well, I thought this was it, and I thought we were going to, you know, full steam ahead, and we're going to be making an arrest. And I called my partner, who was now retired. I called him so excited, told him everything. And I came back to the office, and I was like, this is it. My supervisor and I were all excited, but.

[Ashley Flowers]

And there's always a but. When prosecutors reviewed everything, a major hurdle emerged.

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[Detective Terry Deercop]

That there may be difficulty with this person being able to. To testify to the knowledge that they have. Of course, some of it might be considered hearsay, some is eyewitness knowledge, but that there are reservations about putting this person on the stand because there are multiple witnesses. And I don't want to pinpoint why this one witness might be a difficult person to put on the stand.

[Ashley Flowers]

Investigators haven't approached Tom yet. They're holding off so they don't spook him. But more importantly, they want to protect the witness.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

But if we talk to him now and then, we can't move forward. I certainly would not want him to start confronting people that he thinks are the witnesses, because there are, like I said, there are multiple people who were present.

[Ashley Flowers]

Even so, Detective Deercop believes that there are ways to move forward.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

I know now who killed Robert, what it was over, where he was killed, where he was transferred to, and when they drove him to his ultimate spot on Lagrange Avenue. We know all that. We just have to be able to prove it in court.

[Ashley Flowers]

Police don't think that Tom acted alone. At the very least, someone helped move Robert's body twice. They're hoping for another witness to come forward and confirm the account. Even a small tip shared anonymously through Crimestoppers could make a difference. They're also looking to science to close the gap.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

We have a tarp. We have duct tape. We have a towel. We have things that were left that we don't have DNA samples from. But maybe we can do some new testing, retest some of the evidence we do have. As an investigator, most will tell you that there's always that one case that sticks with you, that you want to solve, that one case that you can't let go. This case just stays with me. Robert's mom and dad stay with me. His sister, and, you know, I would really love to solve this case before I retire. This is the one case I really would like to put down. Just because this case was nine years ago does not mean we're not still investigating it. It will never be closed until we make an arrest.

[Ashley Flowers]

Robert's parents declined to be interviewed for this episode, but it is clear that he was deeply loved.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

They had made a comment to my partner that when they left the cemetery they were leaving the two kids behind.

[Ashley Flowers]

For his family and friends, a resolution wouldn't just mean accountability, it would mean answers, an end to the questions that they've been carrying for nearly a decade.

[Detective Terry Deercop]

Maybe your cooperation could really help us put this case away.

[Ashley Flowers]

There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever killed Robert Mitchell Jr. If you know anything about his murder or what led up to it, please call Rochester Police Department's Major crimes unit at 585-428-7157 or you can email them at majorcrimes cityofrochester.gov if you want to remain anonymous, you can also call Crime Stoppers. Their number is 585-423-9300 or you can submit a tip to them online. The Deck is an audio Chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit the Deck Post podcast.com I think Chuck would approve.

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[Dana]

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[Ashley Flowers]

Com.