| Joshua Robinson Suicide or Murder in McGregor, Texas? |
| Eagle Photo by Doug Domedion |
The following case was provided to us by Joshua Robinson's mother, Cynthia.
My son, Joshua Robinson, 20, was found dead, with a swing chain wrapped 3/4 of the way around
his neck, in Amsler Park in McGregor, Texas, at 5:15 AM on February 16, 2006. The police
immediately ruled his death a suicide.
For over two years, Joshua had been dating a young girl named Kayla, who lived with her maternal
grandparents. Kayla’s brother was Joshua’s best friend. In late November, 2005, Joshua came to
me, very upset, because Kayla had a doctor’s appointment. I didn’t understand his panic until he
told me she might be pregnant and, if so, would be sent to live with her mother in Houston. I
calmed him down by telling him that, if Kayla did prove to be pregnant, the two of them could get
married, and Kayla could move in with us to have her baby. That seemed to make him feel better. I
can only assume the pregnancy test was negative, as the situation was never mentioned again.
On February 15, 2006, the day before Joshua died, a stranger appeared at my door, demanding to
speak with Joshua. Friends at my house recognized her as Mary Casarez, Kayla's aunt. I told her
truthfully that Joshua was not at home. Mary began complaining about Joshua’s relationship with
Kayla, and I let slip the fact that there had been a scare in November. Mary went off like a sky
rocket! She told me, “If Kayla is pregnant, your son is going to prison for statutory rape!”
When Joshua came home an hour later, I told him about that encounter. Joshua left but soon
returned, telling me that he’d had a talk with Mary and everything was all right. He went out again,
and returned about 9:40 pm, furious because he’d been told he couldn’t see Kayla. This was not
the first time that had happened. Once in a while Kayla’s Grandma would lay down rules keeping
Joshua away until the weekend. I knew that he was taking his frustration out on me because he
didn’t want to further antagonize Kayla’s family. He left to walk off his anger and never returned.
It was a long and disquieting night for me.
My other son Michael has a friend named Justin. Bill Holt, the father of Justin, routinely ran the
perimeter of the park every morning. This particular morning he left his home at 5:15 A.M. When he
reached the park he saw flashing lights, spotlights and two police cars. Nearing the swing set, he
thought he saw his own son Justin. Bill raced home in a panic to make sure that Justin was safe in
his bed. At 6:29, Justin called Michael to tell him that his father had said that someone was hanging
in the park.
Michael, who also lived with me, came to me and said had something to tell me. “Mama,” he said,
“Justin called me. Someone’s hanging in the park.”
My brain refused to wrap around that information. At some level I knew it was my son, yet it just
wasn’t possible. I told Michael to run to the park, which was about a block away, to see what was
going on and to come right back.
Michael started running, and I rushed after him, but after a half a block I collapsed in the road.
When Michael didn’t return, I knew my fears were reality. A patrol car pulled up to our house, and
an officer approached me. I said, “Please, don’t tell me what you are going to tell me.” He said, “I’m
sorry, Ma’am.” That was the only contact I had with the police until weeks later when I began to
question what happened.
Michael went into shock when he arrived on scene, recognizing his brother by the clothes he had
on. He was placed into the ambulance and was treated by EMS personnel. Regardless, former
Detective Martin asked him to positively ID his own brother! Afterwards, Michael was placed back
into the ambulance, needing further treatment. There was no medical release signed by Michael
when he was allowed out of the ambulance to ID his brother! I signed one, when I refused to go to
the Emergency Room that morning. It was Michael who responded to the officers’ questions. He
told the police that Joshua and I had argued the previous evening, which was not unusual for us,
as we'd always had a confrontational relationship. Police used that statement to convince Dr.
Quinton, the Medical Examiner, who originally ruled Joshua’s cause of death as “undetermined,” to
change that finding to “suicide.”
I learned about the “suicide” finding from an article in the Waco Tribune Herald. Police gave that
information to reporters before they gave it to me or before there was an investigation or autopsy.
There is no evidence to indicate Joshua committed suicide or even that he died by hanging. A
report by Detective Martin included the statement, “Reportedly Joshua was a drug user.”
However, Toxicology reports came back negative on drugs and alcohol. The Medical Examiner
found no evidence of strangulation and no damage to the neck area except from bruising by the
chain. A brain study done at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science showed that Joshua’s
neck was not broken. Scene photos, which I finally received on April 28, 2006, do not show Joshua
hanging from the bar of the swing as I had visualized. From the small amount of information I was
given, I had assumed that Joshua had climbed to the top of the swing set, wrapped the chain, and
jumped. Yet the photos make it clear that didn’t happen. They show Joshua on the ground on his
knees with the chain almost looped 3/4 of the way around his neck. There was also bruising on the
finger tips of Joshua’s left hand and on the inside of his right forearm. Upon an Internet search, I
discovered that the bruising could possibly mean that Joshua had made an attempt to get free of
the chain. That would mean that, if Joshua had been allowed to stand up, the chain would have
released.
The police reports are a tangle of confusion and contradictions. According to reports, Officer Kirby
was the first officer at the scene, running to the body and checking for a pulse. However according
to dispatch logs, his car, #1507, was not dispatched until 6:48 A.M. So, how could he have been
the first officer at the scene?
Reports state police were dispatched at 5:35 A.M., arriving at 5:36 A.M., which would seem to
indicate that they were already there at the time they were dispatched.
Officer Jared Norris stated in his report that he did not recognize “the subject.” Yet police ran a
“wants and warrants check” on Joshua at 5:44 AM, only eight minutes after arriving at the scene.
Joshua was carrying no ID, and there was no suicide note. Police allegedly learned his identity
from Michael over one hour later. How could they run a records check on an unidentified subject?
On March 10, 2006, I called Detective Martin and asked him why I, as Joshua’s mother and allegedly
the last person to see him alive, never was interviewed. He told me, “We found out everything we
needed to know from talking to Michael, Kayla and Mr. Holt.” When I questioned Kayla and Bill Holt
about this, both told me they were not interviewed.
Amsler Park, where Joshua often went to walk off his anger, has a 10 P.M. curfew. Police check the
park on an hourly basis to make certain that it’s unoccupied. On the night of Joshua’s death they
allegedly were too busy to do that. However, during a recorded phone conversation on March 22,
2006, with Kelly Lewis Amecuzca of the Southwest Medical Center in Dallas, I learned that this was
not the case. Ms. Amecuzca told me, “It says right here in the report that he was last seen at 1 A.M.
by a patrol officer in the park, and (his body) was found about 5:30 A.M. …. Ooops, I wasn’t
supposed to tell you that.”
What do I personally believe happened to my son that night? From physical evidence and from the
actions and attitude of the McGregor Police Department, the scenario that appears most likely is
that police did do a check of the park at 1 A.M., as indicated in the report they sent the Southwest
Medical Center. If Joshua was there, walking off his anger at not being allowed to visit his
girlfriend, he would not have taken kindly to being evicted. Joshua must have identified himself to
those officers, or they would not have been able to run a background check on him. Perhaps they
tried to force him to leave or to arrest him, and an altercation occurred that got out of hand.
I suspect Joshua’s death may have been an "overlay death," caused by placing a knee in the back
of someone lying on the ground so the diaphragm cannot move and the lungs cannot
inhale/exhale. Once those officers realized Joshua was dead or close to dead, I suspect that they
panicked and attempted to stage a suicide. I believe that Joshua was drug to the chain at the
swingset, as his boots have "drag" marks on them in a straight line. I speculate that those officers
then called in their fellow officers to cover up for them, and the "Blue Code of Silence" went into
effect influencing the actions of everyone involved in the investigation. The "Blue Code" is an
unwritten code of (dis)honor among police officers in which reporting another officer's errors,
misconduct, or crimes is regarded as a betrayal.
In June, 2006, four officers of the five who were on scene were asked to resign for unknown
reasons. The McGregor Police Department only has eight officers at any given time. Also another
city employee who was sympathetic to Joshua's case, was asked to resign. Chief Chris Molina
who was in charge at the time of Joshua's death was replaced by Chief Ron Wadkins, who was
replaced around March 1, 2008 by Steve Foster.
On January 7, 2007, on Channel 25 News, it was announced that the McGregor Police were
considering disbanding and allowing the McLwennan County Sheriff’s Department to take over. I’d
like to believe that my efforts in publicizing the problems with Joshua’s case may have had
something to do with this.
Questions to Ponder:
1. If Joshua decided to hang himself from the swing, then changed his mind at the last minute, why
didn't he stand up? Explain the bruising on his fingertips?
2. Isn't it typical procedure to question the last person known to see a victim alive? Then why not
question his mother? They were known to have an argumentative type relationship.
3. Why did police lie about questioning the girlfriend, (Kayla) and Mr. Holt? If Mr. Holt left his home
at 5:15 a.m. it would have taken him less then three minutes to reach the park by his own
description. So how were the police already there if they weren't dispatched until 5:35?
4. How did the police run a "Wants and Warrants" background check on Joshua when none of
them knew who he was, he had no ID, and no suicide note. If no one could ID him, how did they run
him?
5. How was Officer Kirby the first on scene as he was not dispatched to go until 6:48 a.m. (just over
an hour later?)
6. My biggest question is how did he hang himself, if the Medical Examiner says there is no
evidence of strangulation? What then, please tell me, caused the death? Suicide by imaginative
chain? By What? There are many more unanswered questions to this case, these are just a few.
It would be of great help if the police had not brushed the family aside as if we were insignificant
and didn't deserve to have the answers we seek. I could almost even see it if there was nothing to
indicate that the suicide was anything more than just that. But the police didn't even have the
decency to tell me to my face they were ruling Joshua's death a suicide, I had to read it in the paper!
There is another swing set in the park, further back, and a pond, and that unless there is a game,
you can't really see it at night because the area is very dark. Could there have been someone else
there? Why did the police take a photograph of the cigarette butt, then change their mind about it's
significance? Did the police contaminate the scene, or make some incorrect assumptions? I don't
have the answers, only those who were there know.
Originally published to this website May 23, 2008
My son, Joshua Robinson, 20, was found dead, with a swing chain wrapped 3/4 of the way around
his neck, in Amsler Park in McGregor, Texas, at 5:15 AM on February 16, 2006. The police
immediately ruled his death a suicide.
For over two years, Joshua had been dating a young girl named Kayla, who lived with her maternal
grandparents. Kayla’s brother was Joshua’s best friend. In late November, 2005, Joshua came to
me, very upset, because Kayla had a doctor’s appointment. I didn’t understand his panic until he
told me she might be pregnant and, if so, would be sent to live with her mother in Houston. I
calmed him down by telling him that, if Kayla did prove to be pregnant, the two of them could get
married, and Kayla could move in with us to have her baby. That seemed to make him feel better. I
can only assume the pregnancy test was negative, as the situation was never mentioned again.
On February 15, 2006, the day before Joshua died, a stranger appeared at my door, demanding to
speak with Joshua. Friends at my house recognized her as Mary Casarez, Kayla's aunt. I told her
truthfully that Joshua was not at home. Mary began complaining about Joshua’s relationship with
Kayla, and I let slip the fact that there had been a scare in November. Mary went off like a sky
rocket! She told me, “If Kayla is pregnant, your son is going to prison for statutory rape!”
When Joshua came home an hour later, I told him about that encounter. Joshua left but soon
returned, telling me that he’d had a talk with Mary and everything was all right. He went out again,
and returned about 9:40 pm, furious because he’d been told he couldn’t see Kayla. This was not
the first time that had happened. Once in a while Kayla’s Grandma would lay down rules keeping
Joshua away until the weekend. I knew that he was taking his frustration out on me because he
didn’t want to further antagonize Kayla’s family. He left to walk off his anger and never returned.
It was a long and disquieting night for me.
My other son Michael has a friend named Justin. Bill Holt, the father of Justin, routinely ran the
perimeter of the park every morning. This particular morning he left his home at 5:15 A.M. When he
reached the park he saw flashing lights, spotlights and two police cars. Nearing the swing set, he
thought he saw his own son Justin. Bill raced home in a panic to make sure that Justin was safe in
his bed. At 6:29, Justin called Michael to tell him that his father had said that someone was hanging
in the park.
Michael, who also lived with me, came to me and said had something to tell me. “Mama,” he said,
“Justin called me. Someone’s hanging in the park.”
My brain refused to wrap around that information. At some level I knew it was my son, yet it just
wasn’t possible. I told Michael to run to the park, which was about a block away, to see what was
going on and to come right back.
Michael started running, and I rushed after him, but after a half a block I collapsed in the road.
When Michael didn’t return, I knew my fears were reality. A patrol car pulled up to our house, and
an officer approached me. I said, “Please, don’t tell me what you are going to tell me.” He said, “I’m
sorry, Ma’am.” That was the only contact I had with the police until weeks later when I began to
question what happened.
Michael went into shock when he arrived on scene, recognizing his brother by the clothes he had
on. He was placed into the ambulance and was treated by EMS personnel. Regardless, former
Detective Martin asked him to positively ID his own brother! Afterwards, Michael was placed back
into the ambulance, needing further treatment. There was no medical release signed by Michael
when he was allowed out of the ambulance to ID his brother! I signed one, when I refused to go to
the Emergency Room that morning. It was Michael who responded to the officers’ questions. He
told the police that Joshua and I had argued the previous evening, which was not unusual for us,
as we'd always had a confrontational relationship. Police used that statement to convince Dr.
Quinton, the Medical Examiner, who originally ruled Joshua’s cause of death as “undetermined,” to
change that finding to “suicide.”
I learned about the “suicide” finding from an article in the Waco Tribune Herald. Police gave that
information to reporters before they gave it to me or before there was an investigation or autopsy.
There is no evidence to indicate Joshua committed suicide or even that he died by hanging. A
report by Detective Martin included the statement, “Reportedly Joshua was a drug user.”
However, Toxicology reports came back negative on drugs and alcohol. The Medical Examiner
found no evidence of strangulation and no damage to the neck area except from bruising by the
chain. A brain study done at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science showed that Joshua’s
neck was not broken. Scene photos, which I finally received on April 28, 2006, do not show Joshua
hanging from the bar of the swing as I had visualized. From the small amount of information I was
given, I had assumed that Joshua had climbed to the top of the swing set, wrapped the chain, and
jumped. Yet the photos make it clear that didn’t happen. They show Joshua on the ground on his
knees with the chain almost looped 3/4 of the way around his neck. There was also bruising on the
finger tips of Joshua’s left hand and on the inside of his right forearm. Upon an Internet search, I
discovered that the bruising could possibly mean that Joshua had made an attempt to get free of
the chain. That would mean that, if Joshua had been allowed to stand up, the chain would have
released.
The police reports are a tangle of confusion and contradictions. According to reports, Officer Kirby
was the first officer at the scene, running to the body and checking for a pulse. However according
to dispatch logs, his car, #1507, was not dispatched until 6:48 A.M. So, how could he have been
the first officer at the scene?
Reports state police were dispatched at 5:35 A.M., arriving at 5:36 A.M., which would seem to
indicate that they were already there at the time they were dispatched.
Officer Jared Norris stated in his report that he did not recognize “the subject.” Yet police ran a
“wants and warrants check” on Joshua at 5:44 AM, only eight minutes after arriving at the scene.
Joshua was carrying no ID, and there was no suicide note. Police allegedly learned his identity
from Michael over one hour later. How could they run a records check on an unidentified subject?
On March 10, 2006, I called Detective Martin and asked him why I, as Joshua’s mother and allegedly
the last person to see him alive, never was interviewed. He told me, “We found out everything we
needed to know from talking to Michael, Kayla and Mr. Holt.” When I questioned Kayla and Bill Holt
about this, both told me they were not interviewed.
Amsler Park, where Joshua often went to walk off his anger, has a 10 P.M. curfew. Police check the
park on an hourly basis to make certain that it’s unoccupied. On the night of Joshua’s death they
allegedly were too busy to do that. However, during a recorded phone conversation on March 22,
2006, with Kelly Lewis Amecuzca of the Southwest Medical Center in Dallas, I learned that this was
not the case. Ms. Amecuzca told me, “It says right here in the report that he was last seen at 1 A.M.
by a patrol officer in the park, and (his body) was found about 5:30 A.M. …. Ooops, I wasn’t
supposed to tell you that.”
What do I personally believe happened to my son that night? From physical evidence and from the
actions and attitude of the McGregor Police Department, the scenario that appears most likely is
that police did do a check of the park at 1 A.M., as indicated in the report they sent the Southwest
Medical Center. If Joshua was there, walking off his anger at not being allowed to visit his
girlfriend, he would not have taken kindly to being evicted. Joshua must have identified himself to
those officers, or they would not have been able to run a background check on him. Perhaps they
tried to force him to leave or to arrest him, and an altercation occurred that got out of hand.
I suspect Joshua’s death may have been an "overlay death," caused by placing a knee in the back
of someone lying on the ground so the diaphragm cannot move and the lungs cannot
inhale/exhale. Once those officers realized Joshua was dead or close to dead, I suspect that they
panicked and attempted to stage a suicide. I believe that Joshua was drug to the chain at the
swingset, as his boots have "drag" marks on them in a straight line. I speculate that those officers
then called in their fellow officers to cover up for them, and the "Blue Code of Silence" went into
effect influencing the actions of everyone involved in the investigation. The "Blue Code" is an
unwritten code of (dis)honor among police officers in which reporting another officer's errors,
misconduct, or crimes is regarded as a betrayal.
In June, 2006, four officers of the five who were on scene were asked to resign for unknown
reasons. The McGregor Police Department only has eight officers at any given time. Also another
city employee who was sympathetic to Joshua's case, was asked to resign. Chief Chris Molina
who was in charge at the time of Joshua's death was replaced by Chief Ron Wadkins, who was
replaced around March 1, 2008 by Steve Foster.
On January 7, 2007, on Channel 25 News, it was announced that the McGregor Police were
considering disbanding and allowing the McLwennan County Sheriff’s Department to take over. I’d
like to believe that my efforts in publicizing the problems with Joshua’s case may have had
something to do with this.
Questions to Ponder:
1. If Joshua decided to hang himself from the swing, then changed his mind at the last minute, why
didn't he stand up? Explain the bruising on his fingertips?
2. Isn't it typical procedure to question the last person known to see a victim alive? Then why not
question his mother? They were known to have an argumentative type relationship.
3. Why did police lie about questioning the girlfriend, (Kayla) and Mr. Holt? If Mr. Holt left his home
at 5:15 a.m. it would have taken him less then three minutes to reach the park by his own
description. So how were the police already there if they weren't dispatched until 5:35?
4. How did the police run a "Wants and Warrants" background check on Joshua when none of
them knew who he was, he had no ID, and no suicide note. If no one could ID him, how did they run
him?
5. How was Officer Kirby the first on scene as he was not dispatched to go until 6:48 a.m. (just over
an hour later?)
6. My biggest question is how did he hang himself, if the Medical Examiner says there is no
evidence of strangulation? What then, please tell me, caused the death? Suicide by imaginative
chain? By What? There are many more unanswered questions to this case, these are just a few.
It would be of great help if the police had not brushed the family aside as if we were insignificant
and didn't deserve to have the answers we seek. I could almost even see it if there was nothing to
indicate that the suicide was anything more than just that. But the police didn't even have the
decency to tell me to my face they were ruling Joshua's death a suicide, I had to read it in the paper!
There is another swing set in the park, further back, and a pond, and that unless there is a game,
you can't really see it at night because the area is very dark. Could there have been someone else
there? Why did the police take a photograph of the cigarette butt, then change their mind about it's
significance? Did the police contaminate the scene, or make some incorrect assumptions? I don't
have the answers, only those who were there know.
Originally published to this website May 23, 2008
| WHAT YOU CAN DO Contact the following people or agencies and ask that Joshua Robinson's case be reopened and thoroughly investigated. Police Chief Steve Foster McGregor Police Department 409 West 4th Street McGregor, TX 76657 254.840.2855 Asst. Police Chief James Burson 254.840.2855 ---------- City Manager Dennis McDuffie 254.840.2806 cmcgregor@mcgregor-texas.com ---------- Mayor James S. Hering City Hall 302 S. Madison McGregor, TX 76657 ---------- Sheriff Larry Lynch 219 N 6th Street Waco, TX 76701 254 757-5000 ---------- Criminal District Attorney John W. Segrest 219 N. 6th Street Suite 200 Waco, Texas 76701 Phone: 254 757-5084 Fax: 254 757-5021 INVESTIGATIONS Office of the Criminal District Attorney 219 N. 6th St., Suite. 200 Waco, Texas 76701 Phone 254-757-5084 Fax 254-757-5021 George Foster Chief Investigator Montea Stewart Investigator Jason R. Chambers Investigator Don K. Marshall Investigator Abdon Rodriquez Investigator ---------- Texas Rangers Company "F" 102 Texas Ranger Trail Waco, TX 76706 254-754-2303 ------------------------------ News Agencies THE MCGREGOR MIRROR 311 South Main McGregor, TX 76657-0415 Ph. & Fax 254-840-2091 E-mail: staff@mcgregormirror.com -------------------- Sign the Petition for Joshua at www.justiceforus.org |
| Here are names of the four out of the five officers present at the scene of Joshua's death, who resigned within a few months of the incident: Det.Kory Martin Sgt. Jeff Freeman Officer Walter Kirby K-9 Officer Jared Norris -------- Also have resigned: Interim Chief Chris Molina ~ first demoted to Lt. then resigned Chief Ron Wadkins (as of February 29, 2008) |
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Murder, robbery, sexual assault, burglary, theft, and fraud bank fraud theft by credit card and computer generated counterfeit checks misuse of criminal history information misconduct and corruption of threats against the governor and other state and federal officials and missing persons, parental abductions, questionable deaths and unidentified bodies |