Transcription
Has been missing since last Thursday. Her body was discovered on Tuesday near Rosale in Iberville Parish. Yesterday, the coroner ruled the death a homicide: a single gunshot wound to the head. The unborn child that Washington was carrying also died as a result of the mother's death. There was no trauma to the fetus.
Now, as for the criminal investigation, police have arrested Robert Marx in connection with this case. Marx is the assistant principal at the school where Washington worked.
On this episode of Black Girl Gone, I tell the story of Lintel Washington, a 40-year-old woman who was 5 months pregnant when she was brutally murdered on June 8th, 2016. At the time, Lintel was living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A week before her body was found, Lintel had been reporting missing when her 3-year-old daughter was found wandering alone in a parking lot. The little girl was barefoot. When Lintel's car was found nearby, the inside was covered in blood, but Lintel was nowhere to be found. When police began their investigation, they quickly began to unravel a web of lies, deceit, and betrayal. This is Lintel's story.
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Black Girl Gone. As you may know, we took a few weeks off to rest and get ready for the new year, but we are back and ready to continue the work that we started almost three years ago. This week, I bring you the tragic story of Lintel Washington, who at the time of her tragic murder was 5 months pregnant with her second child. But instead of experiencing the joy that often comes with welcoming a new baby, Lintel's pregnancy was surrounded by lies, deception, and ultimately, her brutal murder.
Lintel Washington was born in Louisiana in 1975. Her parents were Calvin and Margie Washington, and she had a twin sister named Cintel. Not much is known publicly about Lintel's childhood or family. Sadly, however, both of Lintel's parents died in 2010, leaving her and her sister the only living members of their immediate family. In 2022, Lintel's story was featured on an episode of ABC's 20/20 titled "The Barefoot Witness," and the little details that we know about her come mostly from that episode.
Friends of Lintel described her as loyal, caring, and trusting. She was the kind of person that always had a smile on her face. She worked as a teacher and had a passion for children. It was a career that she loved, and she was a good teacher whose students loved her.
At some point in her life, Lintel was married, but that marriage ended in divorce. And then, a few years later, she met a man named Darren. He told 20/20 that he was immediately drawn to Lintel. And her friends said that in the beginning, their relationship was good. Darren said that he and Lintel started dating, and they talked about starting a family. But she had confided in him that she had had surgery a few years before and that she was unable to have children. By that time, Lintel would have been in her mid-30s and had mostly given up on the idea that she would be a mom. But as fate would have it, about a year after she met Darren, Lintel found out that she was pregnant. For someone who thought that this wasn't a possibility, when she learned she was pregnant, she was beyond happy. As a teacher, children had been her life, and so now she would get the chance to have a child of her own. Darren said that there was talk of the couple getting married, but during his interview with 20/20, he admitted that at the time, he was battling with alcohol and drug addiction, and it caused issues in their relationship. When Lintel was about 8 months pregnant, the couple broke up.
Despite her relationship ending, Lintel was excited about becoming a mother. After her daughter was born, she wanted to start over, and so they moved to Baton Rouge, where she began working at Brookstown Middle Magnet School. At Brookstown, Lintel quickly became a beloved member of the faculty. Her career had brought her a lot of success over the years; she had even been named Teacher of the Year at the school she worked at before. But her love life had been the complete opposite. Her friend Melissa told 20/20 that Lintel had terrible luck with men. She said that they all had their issues with relationships over the years, but Lintel's relationships were like dumpster fires. But in spite of that, Lintel was still a hopeless romantic. Love was something that she wanted to find, and she wasn't jaded by her past; she still wanted her happily ever after.
Around the same time that Lintel began working at Brookstown, a new assistant principal had also begun working at the middle school named Robert Marx. Robert was a Baton Rouge native and former Marine who had worked his way up to being a school administrator. He was well-educated and had earned his PhD in education. At the time, Robert was a well-respected member of his community. According to her friend, when Lintel first began working with Robert, she had no interest in him and didn't particularly like him. But eventually, her feelings began to change. Melissa said that Lintel went from rebuffing the idea that she was even remotely interested in Robert to a growing attraction. But there was one big problem: Robert was married. A coworker of Lintel and Robert's, who also spoke to 20/20, said that they knew that Robert was married, but no one had ever seen his wife, and he did not wear a wedding ring. She doesn't say, but my assumption is that he probably didn't talk much about his wife at work either.
The platonic coworker relationship between Lintel and Robert eventually developed into way more. Lintel's friend said that Robert ended up asking her out, and she said that Lintel asked him about his marriage, and he told her that he was in an unhappy marriage and was divorcing his wife. He told her that he and his wife were separated, and even though they were still living together, they were sleeping on separate floors. According to Lintel's friend, Robert had done everything to try and convince her that his marriage was essentially over and that he wanted to be with her. As the relationship developed, Robert's behavior seemed consistent with what he was telling Lintel about his marriage. Her friend said that Robert spent time over at Lintel's house with her and her daughter, cooking and hanging out with them. She told her friend that Robert was available, and when she called him, he answered, and so she believed what he was telling her.
Robert and Lintel's relationship became more and more intense, but aside from her close friend Melissa, no one knew about their relationship. It was a secret from its inception. The relationship between these two, for lack of a better word, was complicated. Not only was Robert still married, but he was also an administrator at the school where they both worked and technically her boss. It wasn't a relationship where they could live out loud. And when Lintel found out that she was pregnant with Robert's child, it added another layer to this very complicated situation. However, Lintel's friend said that Robert had given Lintel the impression that he was going to be there for her and her child. Melissa told 20/20 that when Lintel told her that she was pregnant, she asked her friend what Robert thought, and she said that he was happy. They had even decided on a name. The hopeless romantic in her probably wanted to believe that this was going to be her happily ever after. We know that Lintel told her friends certain things about her relationship with Robert, but there's no way to know if she ever saw things that did make her question Robert's truthfulness. Nonetheless, Robert and Lintel continued their secret relationship as her pregnancy progressed. She had learned that she was having another little girl and was preparing for the birth of her second child. But as her due date approached, Lintel's relationship with Robert would take a dramatic turn.
Sometime in late spring 2016, Robert told Lintel that he was going on a trip to Panama City for a family reunion. It seemed innocent enough, but Robert was lying. Robert was on a cruise with the wife that he claimed he was separated from. And how did Lintel find this out? She saw a picture of the couple on social media, looking very happy and very much together. Melissa said Lintel showed her the picture and asked her if she thought it looked like a couple going through a divorce. After discovering the picture and coming to the realization that Robert had lied to her and had likely been lying the entire time they were together, she was angry. Lintel tried to call him several times while he was on vacation, but he would not answer the phone, which only made her, who was already in a fragile state, nearly 5 months pregnant, even more angry. After not getting a response from Robert, Lintel, fed up, decided that she was going to go over to Robert's house. Now, it's not clear what her intentions were since she knew he was away, but when she pulled up to his house, she found yet another lie that Robert had told her. According to her friends, when she got to Robert's house, she discovered that he lived in a one-story mobile home. He had told her that he and his wife were living on separate floors, but it was clear that that was not possible since there was only one floor in this home. The pieces of Robert's lies were slowly coming together, and Lintel was realizing some very hard truths, and she was hurt. But more than that, she was mad. As the truth became clearer, Lintel's anger grew, and when she began to realize that her relationship with Robert was over, she was determined to make sure that he didn't get away scot-free with what he had done. Her friend said that she wasn't going to let him ruin her life; he was going to pay child support, and she was going to tell his wife. Now, while Robert enjoyed his vacation with his wife, back home, his relationship with Lintel had hit a point of no return. His lies had been discovered, and now Lintel was a woman scorned.
Once Robert returned from his trip, Lintel began sending him messages, demanding that he tell her the truth and asking if he planned to support their child. She wanted to know what his plans were and if he was trying to avoid responsibility. Robert had done his best to hide his lies from both his wife and Lintel, and now it was all coming to a very quick end.
On June 9th, 2016, shortly before 4:00 a.m., a man named Leslie was leaving the parking lot of a building where he worked when he spotted a little girl walking around barefoot, holding a pillow. The parking lot was located across the street from an apartment building, and so he figured she must have come from there, but there were no adults outside. The child, no older than three, was alone. Leslie approached the little girl and asked her where her mom was, but he did not immediately get a response, and so he called 911. And while on the phone with 911, he tried again to ask the little girl where her mom was. The 911 operator stayed on the phone with him while he waited for police to arrive. Leslie looked at the little girl's foot, and that's when he noticed that she had dried blood on her. He asked her if she was hurt, and she said no. He continued to question the little girl, hoping that she would give him more information so that the police could locate her parents. She was carrying a pillow, and so he asked her if she had slept in a car all night, and she told him yes. He then asked her where the car was, and she pointed to a blue Toyota Corolla that was parked on the other side of the lot. When Leslie approached the car to take a look inside, he noticed that the front seat of the car was covered in blood. He could immediately tell that something horrific had happened inside that vehicle. He could also see keys and a purse inside the car. Leslie asked the little girl if her mom was bleeding, and she replied, "Yes."
When police arrived at the scene and looked inside the vehicle, it was clear that something had happened to someone inside that car, and there was a good chance, based on the amount of blood, that the person it belonged to was no longer alive. It didn't take long for police to find out who owned the bloody car. The Toyota belonged to Lintel Washington, and the little girl wandering barefoot and bloody in the parking lot was her three-year-old daughter. But there was no sign of Lintel anywhere, and there was no blood outside the car. Police officially had a mystery on their hands, and now they needed to find Lintel, who they believed was severely injured.
When Lintel's car was first discovered abandoned and covered in blood, no one knew at that time that she was even missing. But now that her car and her child had been found, an urgent search was launched to locate her. After speaking to Lintel's daughter, the things she told investigators would lead them right to their suspect and expose the lies and deception that led up to her disappearance. It would not take them long to find their suspect and their motive.
On June 9th, 2016, Lintel Washington's 3-year-old daughter was found wandering in a parking lot, barefoot and alone. Lintel's car was also in the lot, and inside, it was covered in blood. When police arrived on the scene and spoke to her daughter, she leads them right to their prime suspect.
After police were called to the scene where Lintel's three-year-old daughter had been found after sleeping in a bloody vehicle all night, the Special Victim's Unit was called to the scene to assist with a child who was clearly traumatized and terrified from her experience. When Leslie called 911, like I said before, he stayed on the phone with dispatch until the police arrived, and while he waited, he asked the child what happened to her mom. During the call, the little girl can be heard saying that "Mr. Robbie did the blood." When Leslie discovered the car, when he asked her again where her mom was, she told him that "my mommy was going to sleep with Mr. Robbie." According to court records, at the beginning of the investigation, police had no idea who Mr. Robbie was. But Mr. Robbie was what Lintel's daughter called Robert Marx.
After confirming that she was the owner of the car, detectives found out that Lintel worked at Brookstown Middle School, and so they called the school in an attempt to get in contact with her or an emergency contact. When detectives called the school, they spoke to Jamaica Payne, the other assistant principal and friend of Lintel, and informed her about finding Lintel's daughter along with her car, but no sign of Lintel. When Jama found out, she immediately headed over to Lintel's apartment building, and as she pulled up to the complex, she noticed the police activity in the lot across the street and spotted Lintel's car. Jama told 20/20 that she tried to go over to the lot but was told she couldn't enter because it was a crime scene. Jama told police who she was and that she was friends with Lintel. Lintel's daughter was tired and dirty, and so police allowed her to go with Jama while they contacted Lintel's next of kin.
Now, while at the scene, the lead detective spoke to Jama, who was asked about Mr. Robbie. She told them that Mr. Robbie was Robert Marx, and that he and Lintel had been in a relationship, and that Lintel was pregnant with his child. According to court records, Jama told the detectives that Lintel had been threatening to tell Robert's wife that she was pregnant. After taking Lintel's daughter home, Jama said that she was also told by her that "Mr. Robbie hurt mommy." Later that afternoon, Jamaica brought Lintel's daughter to the Child Advocacy Center in Baton Rouge so that she could be interviewed. During her interview, Lintel's daughter was asked who hurt Mommy, and she replied, "Mr. Robbie." When the interviewer asked her who put blood in the car, she again said, "Mr. Robbie." The interviewer asked her if she heard when Mommy got hurt with her ears, and she said that she heard a "boom." The interviewer also asked her, "Did you see Mr. Robbie hurt her Mommy?" and the little girl replied, "Yes, ma'am."
Within hours of finding Lintel's daughter, they were pretty sure that Robert Marx was a person of interest in her disappearance. As part of their investigation, police searched Lintel's apartment, and inside, they located ultrasound pictures and Lintel's personal belongings. They also found a cell phone, and in the phone, they found a number for Robert, and so he was contacted and brought down to the police station for questioning.
At around 4:00 p.m. that day, Robert Marx sat down with detectives for questioning. During the interrogation, he admitted that he had been having a relationship with Lintel and that his wife had no idea. He also claimed that he didn't know that Lintel was planning to tell his wife about their relationship. They asked him when he last spoke to Lintel, and Robert said that he had sent her a text, but she had not responded. But the last time he had seen her was the night before. Robert said that they had met in the parking lot of a local Walmart. He said that he had driven his motorcycle to meet her, and that they sat and talked for a while before they went their separate ways. Robert said that after he left, he went to a local restaurant called Twin Peaks, where he had pizza and watched the end of a basketball game that was on TV.
While police attempted to verify Robert's alibi, they obtained search warrants for his cell phone. They had also launched extensive searches around Baton Rouge for Lintel. When the cell phone records came back, detectives discovered that both Lintel and Robert's phones had been together the night of June 8th. At around 8:19 p.m., Lintel placed a call to Robert near the parking lot of the Walmart. Robert, who was also nearby, answered her call, and then both cell phones traveled to the Scotlandville area. After that, both phones crossed the Mississippi River to a town called Ama, where they stayed for 15 minutes before heading back to Baton Rouge. But after that, Lintel's phone is turned off. At 11:35 p.m., Robert places a call from the intersection of Newcastle Avenue and Sherwood Forest Boulevard.
After interviewing Lintel's daughter and receiving the cell phone data, detectives were convinced that Robert Marx had something to do with whatever happened to Lintel. They had also checked his alibi, and the surveillance footage from Twin Peaks on June 8th showed that Robert had not been at the restaurant at all that night. At that point, police had enough evidence to arrest Robert, and on June 10th, 2016, he was charged with aggravated kidnapping of a child and child desertion. Investigators were still trying to find Lintel, but placing Robert under arrest was a big step.
After his arrest, the search to find Lintel intensified. Cell phone data had allowed them to narrow the search area, but the terrain made the search difficult. At one point, the search was even suspended, which enraged Lintel's family and friends. They could not understand why they were suspending the search after only a couple of days. They knew that time wasn't on their side, and if there was any chance of finding Lintel alive, they would have to find her quickly. But 5 days after she disappeared, the lead detective on the case got a call from a man that owned some sugarcane fields near where Lintel and Robert's phones had pinged. In a drainage ditch on the property, they had found the decomposing body of a woman. The property owner knew that they had likely found the body of Lintel Washington. However, police still needed to confirm the identity. The body was so badly decomposed that all they knew initially was that it was a woman.
Detectives asked her friend and coworker Jamaica what Lintel was wearing the day that she was last seen. She said that she went through surveillance footage from the school cameras and spotted Lintel leaving that day. In the footage, detectives noticed the sandals that Lintel had been wearing. They had found one at the scene where the car was found, but the other sandal was on the body. It was their confirmation that Lintel and her unborn baby had been found.
When the autopsy was performed, it was determined that Lintel had died of a single gunshot wound to the head. The coroner said that even though the baby she was carrying was only 22 weeks along, he believed that she may have been able to survive even after her mother died. During the autopsy, DNA confirmed that Robert Marx was the father of Lintel's baby. The news that Lintel had been found dead was shocking for her family, friends, and the school community where she worked. And as the details of her murder and the affair between her and Robert emerged, it was almost unbelievable to people who had known them.
After Lintel's body was found, detectives attempted to speak to Robert, but he refused to answer detectives' questions, according to them. But police had enough circumstantial evidence to charge him with murder. On top of everything that they had found, shortly after his initial arrest, detectives were contacted by a woman that had critical information about Robert's activities the evening that they believed Lintel was murdered. A woman named Trakia contacted detectives and revealed brand new information. She told them that she too had been in a romantic relationship with Robert Marx. So, not only was he married and seeing Lintel, who was pregnant, he was also seeing another woman at the same time. Trakia said that Robert called her on June 8th at around 11:30 p.m. and asked her to pick him up. She said she picked him up at the corner of Newcastle Avenue and Sherwood Forest Boulevard. She said when she picked him up, he was wearing his motorcycle gear, and she said that she drove him to the location of his bike, which was parked across the street from the Walmart where he said that he had met Lintel. Surveillance footage from the area captured Trakia picking Robert up as he walked along Newcastle Avenue.
The evidence against Robert was damning, and investigators believed that he had murdered Lintel and dumped her body in that drainage ditch. The motive, they believed, was that Robert was not happy about the pregnancy, and Lintel began threatening to tell his wife about their affair. He decided to kill her.
When investigators did a forensic search of Robert's cell phone, they found a May 20th, 2016 Google search for "pregnant shot" and an online search for "a rifle." The search history also revealed a May 28th, 2016 Google search for "injection of Clorox" and "what would happen if you inject bleach into someone's bloodstream." On May 29th, 2016, another Google search was performed for "failure to appear for paternity test" and "I missed my court date for paternity test for child support can they order me to pay child does not have my last name." Along with his cell phone, investigators also searched the defendant's iPad. A forensic examination of his iPad search history revealed a May 24th, 2016 search for "a large caliber handgun" and a May 28th, 2016 search for "whether a father had to pay child support without his name being on the birth certificate." Shortly after his arrest, during a phone call to his sister, according to court records, Robert asked her to erase his iPad.
On June 17th, 2016, while already in jail, Robert Marx was officially charged with first-degree murder and first-degree fetocide. It took 5 years for Robert Marx's trial to actually begin. It was initially charged in Baton Rouge, but the case was moved to the nearby parish where Lintel's body was found and where they believe the murder took place. When he was indicted in that parish, the charges were changed to one count each of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree fetocide, aggravated kidnapping and second-degree kidnapping, and obstruction, and for counts of illegal use of a weapon. In December 2021, the trial finally began and included testimony from Lintel's friends, her twin sister, and her daughter, who had witnessed her mother's brutal murder. The defense argued that the state's case was weak and that there was no hard evidence linking their client to the murder. They argued that the cell phone data did not prove that Robert had been with his phone when it pinged on those towers. Robert did not testify in his defense, and after a brief trial, Robert Marx was found guilty on all charges and he was sentenced to life in prison.
After her mother's murder, Lintel's daughter went to live with her dad, who is raising her now. Lintel's family and friends said that all she ever really wanted was love, and that is perhaps why when a wolf in sheep's clothing came along and sold her a dream, she bought it. She was looking for her happily ever after, and she wanted to believe that she had found that with Robert, but instead, he killed her in front of her daughter, all so he could protect his lies. After his conviction, his wife, who had initially stuck beside him, filed for divorce. She said she had no idea about her husband's multiple affairs. In the end, Lintel did not get her fairy tale ending. Her life and the life of her unborn baby were cut short. Her daughter, the other victim in the story, had her life changed forever, and it was all for nothing.
Lintel Washington, rest in peace. Thank you for listening to this week's episode. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Threads.