PORTSMOUTH, Va. – It was the kind of case that chilled the spine of a seasoned investigator.
“As far as bad cases, gruesome cases, this is the worst,” said Detective Sgt. Robert McDaniel with the Portsmouth Police Department.
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Meghan Landowski
McDaniel, who works both Homicide and the Special Victims Unit, was part of the team who interviewed Robert Barnes, the person who took the life of 16-year-old Meghan Landowski in April 2008.
Landowski was attacked, stabbed more than 40 times and sexually assaulted in her own home. She was discovered by a family member who will be haunted by those images forever.
In a 911 transcript, Landowski’s stepfather, Chris Short, told a dispatcher, “She’s cold, I got to call my wife. God, let me go, I’m standing in blood now.”
![robert-barnes-playing-violin](https://localtvwtkr.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/robert-barnes-playing-violin.jpeg?quality=85&strip=all&w=300&h=169)
Robert Barnes
The trail of blood eventually led to Robert Barnes, a friend of Landowski. A 2009 guilty plea closed the question of who did it but the issue that still looms all these later is ‘Why?’
We examine the possible reasons Monday night on News 3 at 11.