Robert Browne - Serial Killer

   Robert Charles Browne (born October 31, 1952) is an American murderer serving a double-life sentence in the Florida State Prison.

   Robert Charles Browne, 53, who pleaded guilty in the 1991 abduction and killing of Heather Dawn Church, told investigators that he killed up to four dozen men and women from 1970 until his arrest in 1995 in the slaying of Heather, who lived in Black Forest.

Investigators have uncovered bodies, police reports and other evidence from seven killings that corroborated Browne’s story, including the 1987 killing of a 15-year-old Colorado Springs mother – the crime Browne pleaded guilty to Thursday. Investigators said that in those cases Browne provided information that only the killer would know.

Those seven victims were petite women, about 5 feet tall and about 100 pounds.

Browne told police the killings were triggered by his “disgust” with the women’s “lack of morality.”

“Women try to present themselves to be one thing, and then always prove to be something else,” he said in an affidavit. He went on to describe them as “low … unfaithful … cheats … users … not of the highest moral character.”

Browne described his killings as “opportunities,” according to El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa. He said he would go on “ramblings,” where he would get in a car and take a road trip, stopping when he felt like it.

He told investigators that his 48-person killing spree wound through nine states – Colorado, New Mexico, Washington, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas – and even to South Korea.

Browne said he used a variety of methods to kill. He strangled victims with his hands and with ligatures. He used chemicals – chloroform, a compound he found in ant killer, and ether. He shot people and stabbed them.

He dumped his victims in lakes, rivers, ditches and, in one case, over a cliff. He was known to cut up the bodies and dump them in trash receptacles.

Browne claims he had consensual sex with the victims, but when pressed by investigators, he would say: “That’s off the table.”

On Thursday, Browne pleaded guilty in El Paso County Court to the Nov. 10, 1987, murder of Rocio Delpilar Sperry, 15, and received a life sentence.

Brown said he met Rocio at a convenience store a block from her home. He said the two agreed to go out to a movie. After the movie, Browne said, he took her to his apartment and strangled her with his hands.

At the time of Sperry’s death, her daughter, Amie, was only 3 months old. She said she grew up thinking her dad was a murderer.

District Attorney John Newsome agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for the guilty plea.

Maketa said investigators are actively working to identify a second victim from the El Paso County area. Investigators do not know the victim’s name but refer to her as “Cowboy Girl.”

“Mr. Browne never went into any kind of detail on the remaining (Colorado) seven. We’re hoping that he will continue to communicate with us and that some day we will be able to shed light and place names with those seven additional victims,” Maketa said.

Another state could seek the death penalty if its prosecutors could prove the case, but “he would have to complete his sentence here, which is two life sentences, so that makes it almost a moot point,” said Lt. Clif Northam of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

Forty-one of the murders Browne claims to have committed have not been substantiated. He says he was wrongly accused of killing Heather Dawn Church. Authorities are pursuing leads on 22 homicides – including the seven substantiated thus far – referred to them by Browne.

“He claims he has always had a hard time with names. In many cases, he would just give us a description of the area that he was in or a nickname that he came up with to identify the victim,” Maketa said.

Maketa said he is inclined to believe Browne.

“I don’t think we can conduct business assuming he’s exaggerating,” Maketa said. “We’ll hold the No. 48 until he tells us otherwise.”

Browne initiated conversation with law enforcement in a taunting March, 20, 2000, letter to the district attorney’s office. The cryptic letter said: “The score is, you one, the other team 48.” It also said: “Seven sacred virgins entombed side by side, those less worthy are scattered wide.”

The letter went into a file, but it wasn’t until two years later that a cold-case team decided to pursue Brown. The group includes Charlie Hess, 79, a former FBI and CIA agent; Lou Smit, 71, who became a national figure for his work on the JonBenét Ramsey case; and Scott Fischer, former publisher of the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Smit had long suspected Browne was a serial killer. During the course of the investigation of the murder of Heather Dawn Church, Smit learned that two women in Coushatta, La. – Browne’s hometown – had been killed in an apartment complex where Browne worked as a maintenance man. The complex was owned by his brother.

Hess, part of the team dubbed the “Apple Dumpling Gang,” wrote a letter to Browne.

Browne wrote back and, by the sixth letter, he was dropping hints about the Sperry killing.

For a period, Browne stopped writing. Hess showed up at his prison, and the two began face- to-face meetings.

“He was always polite. He was respectful. He was intelligent. … He doesn’t swear; he doesn’t use street talk,” Hess said.

Browne eventually provided enough information for investigators to corroborate the killings of Sperry, Katherine Hayes, Wanda Faye Hudson, and Faye Self, all from Louisiana; Lisa Lowe from West Memphis, Ark.; and Melody Bush and Nidia Mendoza, both from Texas.

Hess said he was determined to find the truth for the victims’ families.

“It was just a matter of will.”

Cases tied to Browne go back decades

Robert Charles Browne, serving a life sentence in Colorado for the 1991 murder of 13-year-old Heather Dawn Church, told an investigator that he has murdered dozens of other people, men and women. Here are some of the cases linked to him.

Katherine Hayes, 15, was reported missing July 4, 1980, in Louisiana. Hayes’ body was found Oct. 16, 1980, in Nantachie Creek. She had been strangled.

Wanda Faye Hudson, 21, was found dead on May 28, 1983, in her Coushatta, La., apartment. She had been stabbed multiple times. Coushatta is Browne’s hometown. Browne had done maintenance work on Hudson’s apartment, including changing the lock on her door.

Faye Self, 26, was reported missing March 30, 1983, in Louisiana. Browne told authorities that her body was dumped in the Red River. She has never been found.

Melody Bush, 22, was found dead on March 30, 1984, in Fayette County, Texas. Her body was found in a drainage ditch and the coroner ruled Bush died of acute acetone poisoning.

Nidia Mendoza, 17, was reported missing on Feb. 2, 1984, in Texas. Her body was found on Feb. 6, 1984, in a ditch.

Rocio Sperry, 15, was reported missing on Nov. 15, 1987, in El Paso County. Browne, who pleaded guilty Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison in this case, told an investigator that he dumped Sperry’s body in a trash bin after strangling her in his apartment. Sperry has never been found.

Heather Dawn Church, 13, was reported missing on Sept. 17, 1991, in El Paso County. Church’s remains were found on Sept. 16, 1993, on Rampart Range Road northwest of Colorado Springs. Browne is serving a life sentence in her death.

Lisa Lowe, 21, was reported missing on Nov. 3, 1991, in Arkansas. Lowe’s body was found on Nov. 26, 1991, in the St. Francis River.

Robert Charles Browne

Age: 53

Hometown: Browne grew up in Coushatta, La., a town of fewer than 3,000 people about 50 miles southeast of Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana.

Family: He was one of nine children, including three sets of twins. Browne has a twin sister. His father worked at a dairy farm, and a brother, Donald Browne, was once a trooper for the Louisiana State Police.

Education: Browne dropped out of Coushatta’s high school in 1969 and joined the Army, serving in South Korea as a medic.

First criminal trouble: Browne was jailed in Louisiana for a car theft. He moved to Colorado in 1987, after his parole.

Marriages: Browne has been married six times, including to Diane M. Babbitts after he moved to Colorado. She filed for divorce in 1995 in El Paso County.