March 3, 2025 • 39 mins
Sharon Lopatka’s husband didn’t think anything of it when she told him she was travelling out of state to visit friends. However, everything changed when he found what appeared to be a suicide note she had penned. When detectives got involved, their investigation would send them to the dark underbelly of the then-burgeoning internet.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Lenoir, North Carolina, is a town with deep roots in
American history. Nettled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains,
it was originally inhabited by the Cherokee before European settlers
arrived in the eighteenth century. The town was officially established
in eighteen forty one and named after Revolutionary War officer
William Lenore. For much of its history, the nor thrived
(01:02):
as the center of furniture manufacturing and textiles, with factories
dotting the landscape and providing steady jobs for generations. But
as industries shifted overseas in the late twentieth century, the
town faced economic decline. Once bustling factories stood empty, and
neighborhoods that had flourished in better times began to show
signs of neglect. Just beyond the town limits, done an
(01:25):
unpaved road choked with weeds, stood a weathered mobile home,
its windows dark and its metal siding rusted from years
of exposure. The yard was littered with discarded toys, broken furniture,
and overgrown grass, giving the eerie impression of a life abandoned.
Were interrupted. In nineteen ninety six, this unassuming mobile home
(01:46):
became the focus of an investigation that ultimately exposed the
grim and hitting corners of the Internet. The World Wide
Web was in its infancy that this case would expose
a world where fantasy met reality in the most horrific
way possible. Sharon Lepaca was the eldest of four daughters
(02:17):
born to Abraham and mag De Denburg, a devout Orthodox
Jewish couple in Baltimore, Maryland. Sharon was raised in the
close knit Jewish community of Pikesville, Stevenson's neighborhood, and her
childhood was steeped in tradition in faith. Her father, Abraham,
served as the cantor for the Beth t Fellow Congregation
for over three decades, With the family living in a
(02:39):
neat brick ranch less than two hundred feet away. Sharon
and her three sisters often joined him in performing Hebrew's standards,
their voices harmonizing in what many saw as a reflection
of the family steep connection to their heritage. Though she
kept kosher and honored the Sabbath, Sharon possessed an undeniable
strike of rebellion et cetera. Part Friends only described her
(03:02):
as a free spirit, somebody who seemed to dance on
the edge of the rigid lines drawn by her upbringing.
One classmate, John Burham, said of her, she wasn't very
popular or much of a skilled leader. I think she
resented being watched so closely because of her father. After
graduating from Pikesville High School in nineteen seventy nine, Sharon
(03:23):
took a bold step away from her insular world. She
married Victor Lupatka, a construction worker from outside the faith.
The wedding was a simple affair, held in Victor's home,
with none of the grandeur her parents might have envisioned.
To Abraham and Magde, this marriage was an act of defiance,
a break from the path they had hoped she would follow.
(03:45):
But for Sharon it was liberation, a declaration of independence
from the constraints of her orthodox upbringing. In nineteen eighty nine,
Sharon and Victor packed up their lives into boxes and
moved to Hampstead and Maryland. They purchased around home at
the bottom of a hill in a subdivision valued at
just over one hundred thousand dollars. Their new chapter was
(04:07):
a fresh start, but it wasn't without challenges. Victor's construction
job provided stability, but Sharon's restless energy and sharp mind
drove her to seek something more. In nineteen ninety five,
she turned her attention to the burgeoning world of the Internet,
seeing its untapped potential as a platform for entrepreneurship. Her
(04:27):
first venture was a website called House of Dion. It
was a modest foray into the world of online business.
Sharon co wrote and sold home decoor guides with her
collaborator Diane so Far under the title Deyon's Secret of
Home Decorating. For just seven dollars plus three dollars postage,
customers could receive decorating advice inspired by Diane's experiences touring Europe,
(04:51):
the Middle East and affluent homes in Beverly Hills and Boston.
We're targeting the stay at home mum or the working
person who doesn't want to hire an interior decorator, Diane
explained in an interview with The Sun. She described her
friend Sharon as a sensible and conservative woman, somebody with
a good head on her shoulders. But Ouce of day
(05:13):
On was only the beginning for Sharon. Sharron then founded
Classified Concepts Unlimited, a small marketing business where she rewrote
ad copy for fifty dollars apiece. Her ability to adapt
to the evolving digital landscape was impressive, and she quickly
expanded her reach, managing several websites that offered psychic ratings
and other premium rate services. Sharn earned her persentage from
(05:37):
every sale, leveraging the Internet to tap into niche markets
and build a steady stream of income. On the thirteenth
of October nineteen ninety six, Sharon Lupaka left her family home,
(05:58):
telling her husband Victor, she was heading to North Carolina
to visit friends for a week. It seemed like an
ordinary trip, and Victor didn't think much of it when
he didn't hear from her over the following days. Sharon
had always been fiercely independent, so her silence wasn't cause
for alarm. He assumed she'd return home as promised, her
(06:19):
week away just another chapter in her mundane life. But
one afternoon, Victor stumbled upon a note that Sharon had
left behind. The content sent a chill down his spine.
It wasn't just a letter. It appeared to be a
suicide note. As cryptic as it was. On settling, she
(06:39):
asked Victor not to pursue her killer and concluded with
an ominous line, If my body is never retrieved, don't worry,
know that I am at peace. Confused, an alarmed Victor
turned to Sharon's computer, hoping it might offer some clues.
Sharon was practically glued to the screen most day running
(07:00):
her online businesses, perhaps had held the answers that he sought.
What he found, however, was far beyond anything he could
have imagined. Digging through her emails, Victor discovered a correspondence
(07:21):
with a man named Robert Glass. The emails revealed a plan,
one that contradicted Sharon's claim of visiting friends. Instead, Sharon
had arranged to meet this stranger, A forty five year
old man from North Carolina, Robert Glass had a modest background,
Much like Sharon. He'd grown up in Caldwell County near
(07:43):
Lenore on a family farm. His father, Joseph, worked in maintenance,
while his mother, Myrtle, was a public school teacher. Glass
and his sister Joan had been raised with strong work ethics,
and he excelled in school, eventually earning a gatry from
North Carolina State Universe Today, but Glass's life had taken
a sharp turn from those promising beginnings. He was now
(08:06):
a divorced father of free Struggling to pay seven hundred
and fifty dollars a month in child support, he worked
as a computer programmer for the Catawba County government, designing
systems to track tax re seats and election results. On paper,
Robert Glass's life was respectable, even unremarkable. However, there was
(08:26):
a darker side to Robert Glass, one that had driven
his wife, Sherry to leave him earlier that year. After
fourteen years of marriage, Cherry had grown tired of competing
with her husband's computer for his attention, but her frustrations
went far beyond neglect. One afternoon, she accessed his computer
and found a trove of disturbing emails. They were violent, explicit,
(08:51):
and deeply unsettling, revealing a part of Glass that she
never knew and didn't want to know. Horrified, Sherry packed
up their three children and left him, severing ties with
the man she thought she knew. Now, Sharon Lapac has
husband Victor, found himself staring at similar emails filled with
the same disturbing undertones. Sharon and Glass had been emailing
(09:22):
back and forth, and it was clear they had arranged
to meet up the day that Sharon had disappeared. Victor
contacted police to report his wife missing, sharing everything he
had uncovered on her computer. The note, the lies about
her destination, and the correspondence with Glass all pointed to
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slash morbidology. Get quip quip dot com slash morbidology. Detectives
immediately launched an investigation. Their first step was to retrace
Sharon's movements. They found her car abandoned at Baltimore, Pennsylvania Station,
(11:13):
a stark indication that she had boarded a train, but
to where As they scared through her digital trail, they
unearthed even more emails between Sharon and Robert Glass. The
case took a sharp, terrifying turn when detectives pieced together
the contents of those emails. It wasn't just a missing
(11:33):
person investigation anymore. It was something far more disturbing. Detectives
knew they needed to act fast, but what they didn't
know yet was just how deeply twisted this case would become.
(11:53):
At the time of Sharon Lapaca's disappearance, few who knew
her suspected the secret life she had built online. Beneath
the surface of her suburban existence. Sharon had created an
alternate persona that the loud heard explore the darkest corners
of her imagination. Operating under the pseudonym Nancy Carlson, Sharon
advertised pornographic videos on the Internet, but these weren't ordinary videos.
(12:19):
They were sadistic in nature, allegedly featuring unconscious women subjected
to various scenarios. In one advertisement, Sharon had claimed, I
just made a video of actual women willing and unwilling
to be knocked out, drugged, under hypnosis, and chloroformed. Another
ad leaned into bizarre and exaggerated fantasies, reading, do you
(12:42):
dare enter the land of the giant tests where men
are crushed like bugs by those angry yet gorgeous gank goddesses.
Sharon offered customized bondage fantasies for one hundred dollars, and
even ventured into selling her used underwear, posting messages such
as anyone out there interested in buying my warm panties.
(13:04):
Despite her claims, investigators found no concrete evidence that Sharon
had ever produced or delivered these videos. Before her disappearance,
she had addressed accusations from disgruntled buyers who called her
advertisements fraudulent. Frustrated, Sharon had written, I'm just one person
trying to fill all these orders, I don't even have
(13:24):
time to have a life. While her customer's harbored lured fantasies,
Sharon's own desires were equally, if not more on settling.
She was an act of participant in online chat rooms,
engaging in discussions about necrophilia, bondage fetishes, and satto masochism.
In these anonymous spaces, Sharon could shed her real life
(13:46):
identity and assume any persona she desired. Sometimes she'd portrayed
herself as a three hundred pound dominatrix. Other times she
became a petit five foot six woman weighing one hundred
and twenty one pounds. But Sharon's online activity escalated in
November of nineteen ninety six, when she revealed the disturbing fixation.
(14:09):
She confessed to having a fascination with torturing until death
and expressed her ultimate fantasy to be tortured and killed.
For Sharon, this wasn't a fleeting day dream. It was
a desire that she actively sought to fulfill. She began
posting inn aline form, searching for some one who could
make her grim fantasy a reality. Her requests were explicit,
(14:34):
leaving no doubt about her intent. While many men initially
replied to her posts, they withdrew once they realized that
she wasn't joking. Sharon was deadly serious. Then she met
Robert Glass. Glass, who frequented the same fetish chat rooms,
went by the user name slow Hand, while Charon used Nancy.
(14:56):
He had his own dark desires, which he detailed with
unnerving decision in the forms. When Sharon approached him with
her fantasy, Glass didn't hesitate to respond. Their correspondence quickly escalated,
with Sharon asking him to fulfill her ultimate desire to
be bound and strangled at the moment of orgasm. Robert
(15:18):
Glass agreed, describing in graphic detail the pain and degradation
he would inflict. He assured Sharon that he could deliver
everything she wanted a more, telling her, I will kill
you very slowly in a drawn out orgy of sex
and pain that will give you the ultimate orgasm as
you slip over from life to death. He promised a blindfold,
(15:41):
bat whip, and mutilate her. He detailed how he would
force her to beg for mercy, taunting her with the
weapons a gun, a machee, and even a knife. For Sharon,
Glass's words, were a promise of fulfillment, the culmination of
her darkest desire. For Glass, it was an opportunity to
indulge in his own. As their correspondence stepened, it became
(16:05):
clear that Sharon's fantasy and Glass' willingness to carry it
out were propelling them towards an inevitable and horrifying encounter.
Neither of them seemed intent on turning back. What began
as an anonymous connection in an online chat room was
about to spiral into something far darker and far more
(16:25):
real than anybody could have imagined. Detectives investigating Sharon the
Packet's disappearance faced a perplexing and unsettling case. The damning
emails between herself and Robert Glass painted a disturbing picture,
(16:47):
but the idea that a woman could solicit her own
murder seemed incomprehensible. Detectives turned their attention to Glass, setting
up a surveillance at his mobile home in North Carolina.
He went about his daily routine, commuting to and from
his job as computer programmer for the local government. His
(17:08):
behavior was ordinary, even mundane. There was no sign of Sharon,
no indication that anything was amiss, but sharm was still missing,
and she had made arrangements to meet with class. Believing
that answers might lie within Glasses home, they secured a
search warrant and moved in while he was at work.
(17:28):
What they found inside the unassuming mobile home confirmed their
worst fears. The interior was littered with ominous items, bondage gear,
drug paraphernalia, a pistol, and a collection of pornographic magazines.
Among these artifacts were items that didn't belong to Glass,
items detectives quickly realized belonged to Sharon. It was clear
(17:50):
that she had been there. As they combed through the property,
one detective noticed something peculiar just outside the mobile home.
A mind of freshly disturbed earth caught his attention. It
was unmistakingly out of place, and its shape was hauntingly familiar.
It matched the length of a human body. Grabbing shovels,
(18:12):
detectives began to excavate the mound. About two feet down,
a shovel struck something hard. They continued digging until the
object came clear it was a human knee. What they
onearthed necks confirmed their fears. Sharon the pack. His lifeless
body lay buried beneath the dirt. Her hands and feet
(18:34):
were borne tightly with rope, and a nylon cord was
wrapped around her neck, leaving no doubt about the cause
of her death. There were scrape marks to her neck
and breasts. Detectives had found their victim, and they knew
the suspect. Later that evening, Robert Glass was arrested at
his workplace. Just the next day, Glass was officially charged
(19:04):
with the first degree murder of Sharon Lepaca. At a
press conference announcing the arrest, Sheriff Roger Hutchins outlined the
bizarre circumstances leading up to the crime. He stated they
had just exchanged messages on the computer until she set
up a visit with him this month. This was the
first time they'd seen each other in person. Despite the
(19:27):
damning emails. In the methodical way Sharon's body had been
disposed of, Glass insisted that her death was nothing more
than a tragic accident. During his interrogation, he claimed that
he and Sharon had been engaged in consensual sexual activity
when he tightened a rope around her neck. He had
no intention of killing her. He told detectives he simply
(19:49):
hadn't realized how much pressure he was applying until it
was too late. He stated, I don't know how much
I pulled on that rope. I never wanted to kill her.
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That's better Help hlp dot com slash Morbidology. Glass recounted
what he had done after realizing that Sharon had died.
(21:18):
He said that he dug a four foot deep hole
beside his mobile home, then brought a hand truck home
from his workplace. Under the cover of darkness. He secured
Sharon's body to the hand truck, wheeled her outside, and
then buried her in the shallow grave just steps away
from his front door. As the case made headlines, Glass
was assigned a defense attorney, Neil Beach, who wasted no
(21:41):
time in defending his client in the media. Beach argued
that Sharon's autopsy revealed no evidence of torture, directly contradicting
the narrative that Glass had held her captive and subjected
her to prolonged suffering. He stated, it's hard for me
to believe that woman was tortured for three days if
the medical Examiner of North Carolina couldn't find any indication
(22:04):
of that, and during that time this man is going
to work. It's much easier to understand or picture an
accident occurring during sexual activity than it is to conjure
up an image of this man as a cold blooded,
premeditated killer, But detectives were far from convinced. Sheriff Captain
Danny Barlow dismissed Glass's explanation outright, making his stance clear,
(22:28):
as he said, tightening a rope around someone's neck even
during sex, I wouldn't consider that to be an accident.
By this stage of the investigation, detectives had managed to
piece together a rough timeline of Sharon's final days. They
determined that on the morning of the thirteenth of October,
Sharon had boarded the nine to fifteen a M train
(22:51):
bound for Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a long journey,
nearly twelve hours, but she never wavered from her plan.
At the station, waiting amidst the swirl of arriving passengers
was Robert Glass. Together they left the bright cityscape of
Charlotte behind, merging into the darkened back roads of Caldwell County.
(23:14):
It was an eighty mile drive into isolation. The neon
signs and bustling highways faded into a landscape of dense
woods and forgotten roads. By the time they arrived in
Glasses Home on Mulberry Court Road, the night had fully set.
In Glasses Home was little more than a dilapidated mobile unit,
(23:35):
its once wide exterior faded and stained with time, The
yard was a graveyard of abandoned relics, a rustling swing,
said overturned bicycles, half swallowed by Wade's remnants of a
family life that had long since fallen apart. What happened
inside that trailer remains the subject of speculation. Detectives believed
(23:58):
that Sharon was subjected to ours, possibly days of torture.
The trailer itself, they discovered, had been transformed into something
of a makeshift sex dungeon. Ropes, wire, rubber restraints, and
bondage gear littered the space. Detectives theorized that for approximately
sixty hours, Sharon endured the full extent of glasses depraved
(24:21):
fantasies before he ultimately ended her life. She was strangled
before being dragged outside and hastily buried in a shallow
grave just beyond the front steps. Detective Danny Barlow summed
up the disturbing nature of the crime in an interview
with the press. He stated, it was like dial M
(24:42):
for murder, only they did it by computer instead of phone.
We'll never know whether this was a genuine death wish
or a fantasy gone too far. One way or another,
Sharon Lepadka had set her own tragic fate into motion.
The question that haunted detectives was whether she had truly
wanted to die, or if, in the end, she had
(25:03):
changed her mind too late. The murder of Sharon the
Packet was unlike anything the world had ever seen before.
People struggled to comprehend how a woman could solicit her
own murder, and perhaps even more disturbingly, why. According to
Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorder Clinic,
(25:27):
Sharon likely suffered from extreme sexual masochism. He explained, We're
not sure what causes it, but certainly in my clinical experience,
all the women who are having these masochists cravings were
themselves abused sexually during childhood. The feelings of sexual excitement
can become confused with abuse. But beyond the psychology of
(25:49):
Sharon's desires, there was something else at play, something that
society was only beginning to understand. The Internet. At the
time of Sharon's murder, the Internet was still in its infancy.
The average household was just beginning to explore the World
Wide Web, unaware of the dark corners lurking beneath the surface.
Online chat rooms, newsgroups, and forums allowed people to connect
(26:13):
in ways never before possible. But as doctor Alvin Cooper,
director of the San Jose Marital and Sexuality Center, pointed out,
they also became a gathering place for those with extreme
and sometimes dangerous fantasies. He stated, the Internet was attracting
people with a variety of fetishes to chat rooms. There
(26:35):
definitely are predators lurking about sexual predators who know these
sites are going to pull in people with specific sex interests,
and again, you don't have any sense of whether the
person has any contact with reality or it's totally out there.
Jarn wasn't the only woman seeking out such extreme encounters.
(26:55):
On newsgroups such as alt dot Torture, there were postings
with disturbing head headlines such as women who fantasize about hanging,
female beasting, torture, and female impealing done safe. To the
average person, these discussions were horrifying, but to those who
shared those dark desires, they were an invitation. The Internet
(27:19):
also allowed for anonymity. It gave people like Sharon the
ability to indulge in fantasies without fear of judgment, but
it also created a dangerous illusion that the people on
the other side of the screen were safe. Sharon had
found Robert Glass through one of these forms. She believed
he would give her the experience that she wanted. What
(27:41):
she didn't know was whether she could trust him or
whether when the moment came, she would change her mind.
As the details of Sharon's death flooded headlines, those who
knew her were stifle and Diane so Far, who had
(28:02):
worked with her on a home decorating guide, struggled to
reconcile the bubbly woman she knew with the person described
in the media. She insisted, what I want people to
know is the woman I knew was not crazy in
the slightest. She was always a happy person, always bubbly.
Even this person who was killed was not the person
I knew. Those who knew Robert Glass were equally blindsided.
(28:27):
Jack Chandler, a longtime family friend, couldn't believe it, he
commented in the media. He seemed to be a right
nice boy. He'd always been a quiet boy. Even his
ex wife, Sherry, who had once found disturbing emails on
his computer, never thought he was capable of murder. She
(28:48):
said to reporters. He's the kind of person that would
do anything for anybody. Yet now she was forced to
confront the reality she never imagined. The whispers followed her
every In an interview with The Washington Time, she revealed
the daily humiliation she endured. She said, I face it
(29:08):
every day at work. Always there's somebody whispering where I
can hear it. There's the internet. Murderer's wife. Her children
too were affected. They kept asking her what had happened,
but Cherry didn't have the heart to tell them. In
(29:30):
early March, Robert Glass appeared in court to enter his plea.
He was dressed in an orange jumpsuit with his beard
on kemped. He showed little emotion as he listened to
the proceedings. When asked how he pleaded to the charge
of first degree murder, he simply responded, not guilty. During
the hearing, prosecutor's announced they would take the death penalty
(29:52):
of Glass were convicted. District Attorney David Flahherday stated that
the murder of Sharon Lupaca was especially heenus atrocious and
cruel criteria that justified capital punishment under state law. The
case had already drawn significant media attention, but a new
development the following year added an even darker layer. During
(30:15):
the investigation, detectives analyzing Glass's computer discovered a collection of
child sexual abuse images and videos. As a result, he
was further charged with possession of illegal media, a federal offense.
With this new charge, the case against Robert Glass became
even more complex. While his defense team continued to argue
(30:36):
that Sharon's death had been the result of consensual but
dangerous activity gone wrong, prosecutors pointed to the disturbing material
found on his computer as further evidence of his depravity.
The legal battle ahead promised to be lengthy, but one
thing was clear. The case was no longer just about
the death of Sharon Lupaca. It was about who Robert
(30:59):
Glass truly won. He wasn't the friendly family man that
his neighbors and colleagues had believed he was. As both
the prosecution and defense prepared for the upcoming murder trial,
Robert Glass unexpectedly pleaded guilty to a federal charge of
possessing child sexual abuse media. The plea resulted in a
sentence of twenty seven months in federal prison, followed by
(31:21):
three years of supervised released to mandatory participation in a
sex offender treatment program. With this conviction, the murder case
against Glass remained unresolved. Prosecutors announced that the murder trial
was scheduled to begin in March of two thousand, nearly
three and a half years after his arrest. However, that
trial would never materialize. In late January, Robert Glass appeared
(31:46):
in court and formally changed his plea, opting to plead
guilty to voluntary manslaughter. It was part of a plea
deal that removed the death penalty from consideration. As part
of the agreement, Glass was sentenced to us up to
eight years and ten months in prison. He additionally pleaded
guilty to six counts of second degree sexual exploitation of
(32:07):
a minor, stemming from explicit images and videos found on
his computer. The pla agreement was reached after prosecutors expressed
concerns about how jurors, many of whom lacked experience with
the Internet, might interpret the graphic email exchanges between Glass
and Sharon. There were also fears that the defense could
(32:28):
shift focus on too Sharon's online activity, potentially complicating the case.
Glass's attorney, Neil Beach, defended the plea deal, stating Glass
understood that, based on the evidence the state had, he
did run the risk of being convicted of a serious crime,
and he felt this was his best opportunity. Under the
circumstances any case involving sexual matters, it's very difficult to
(32:52):
know how a jury is going to view it. During
the hearing, prosecutors outlined their theory of events regarding what
trans barred at Glass's home. According to their account, little
happened on the first night, but over the next two nights,
Glass and Charon engaged in sex, during which he physically
assaulted her. On the third night, prosecutors claimed the two
(33:15):
spoke about backing out, that Sharon no longer wanted to
die and Glass no longer wanted to kill her. However,
on the fourth night, Glass strangled Sharon to death with
a nylon cord while they were engaged in sexual activity.
Sharon's family were present in court as the sentence was
handed down and delivered emotional victim impact statements. Her sister
(33:39):
Wendy told Judge Claude Stittton that the family never believed
her death was accidental, but had accepted the plea deal
to avoid further media attention. Jaren's husband, Victor, echoed this sentiment, stating,
we just want to end it. In a final statement,
Sharon's family criticized glasses actions, steering Robert Glass did not care.
(34:04):
He took advantage of her situation. He could have walked away.
He debased not only her, but her body after she
was dead. The plea deal marked a shocking conclusion to
a case that had horrified the nation. To most, eight
years from murder seemed unthinkable. With the additional charges factored in,
(34:26):
Robert Glass would serve a maximum of eight years and
ten months, a sentence that felt shockingly lenient for the
brutal death of Sharon. Even Glass his own defense attorney,
Neil Bage, admitted the deal left much to be desired,
steering It's probably a case in which neither side is
completely satisfied, but both sides think that it was appropriate.
(34:50):
Prosecutor David Flaherty was even more blunt. Speaking to the media,
he acknowledged that he hadn't wanted the play deal, but
felt that he had no other choice. The complexities of
the case, the unchartered legal waters of Internet facilitated crime,
and the risk of jury uncertainty made a conviction far
from guaranteed. I can see a jury not all twelve
(35:13):
of them not agreeing with me, he admitted. Described as
the first murder of the Internet. The case exposed the
legal system's struggle with the rapidly evolving digital world. Detectives
were navigating uncharted territory, trying to build a case around
emails and chat room messages, evidence that was difficult to
authenticate at the time. Detectives from the FBI, North Carolina
(35:38):
State Bureau of Investigation, and the Maryland State Police were
all enlisted to track the online exchanges between Glass and Sharon. However,
they had quickly realized the challenges of proving ownership of
digital communications in the early days of the Internet. Beyond
the technical barriers, there was also another troubling challenge the
(35:58):
nature of the emails themselves. While Glass had explicitly promised
to kill Sharon, the chatlogs also contained fantastical and exaggerated
sexual discussions, many of which never came to fruition. The
defense was prepared to argue that these messages were nothing
more than bizarre role play, dismissing them as two people
(36:20):
talking crazy. Even Prosecutor Flaherty conceded that the legal battle
would have been an uphill climb, stating both sides had
good arguments. In the end, jurors unfamiliarity with the Internet,
combined with the novelty of online crimes, created too much
uncertainty for the prosecution to risk a trial. As defense
(36:42):
attorney Beach put it, the Internet is a wondrous thing.
In many respects, it has a dark sight. Robert Glass
was escorted from the courtroom to begin serving his sentence,
(37:03):
one that many considered woefully inadequate. By two thousand and two,
his release date loomed, with just weeks remaining before he
would walk free. But Robert Glass would never leave prison.
In February of two thousand and two, just two weeks
before his scheduled release, Robert Glass died suddenly of a
(37:23):
heart attack at the Avery Mitchell Correctionals Institution. There would
be no parole, no reintegration into society. He never served
his full sentence. For some, his death felt like a
form of justice, a fate that spared him from the
freedom he had been counting down the days toward. But
(37:44):
for others, it was yet another unresolved chapter in a
case that never truly delivered justice. Sharon Lapaca was still
gone and Robert Glass had evaded true punishment. Both in
Court and inn life. Well, Bestie's that is it for
(38:20):
this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so much
for listening. This is the first episode I've recorded since
welcoming a baby girl, Ember into the world in December.
It's been an absolute whirlwind since then, but I'm finally
back to recording episodes. A lot of thank you, Zren
order for my new supporters up on Patreon, including Tracy, Karen,
(38:43):
Beth Arie, Melissa, Elaine, Renee, James, Ryan, Lisa, Moira, Emilye, Sharon,
and Tricia. So if you'd like to join us up
on Patreon, the link is in the show notes, or
you can just search for Morbidology on the Patreon app
or on their website. I'd also like to thank you
all for listening to Morebidology over the past five years.
(39:05):
It's amazing that as a new mother, I'm able to
work from home, and I'd just like to say thank
you all so much. Remember to check us out at
more biology dot com for more information about this episode
and to read some true crime articles. Until next time,
take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.
Lenoir, North Carolina, is a town with deep roots in
American history. Nettled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains,
it was originally inhabited by the Cherokee before European settlers
arrived in the eighteenth century. The town was officially established
in eighteen forty one and named after Revolutionary War officer
William Lenore. For much of its history, the nor thrived
(01:02):
as the center of furniture manufacturing and textiles, with factories
dotting the landscape and providing steady jobs for generations. But
as industries shifted overseas in the late twentieth century, the
town faced economic decline. Once bustling factories stood empty, and
neighborhoods that had flourished in better times began to show
signs of neglect. Just beyond the town limits, done an
(01:25):
unpaved road choked with weeds, stood a weathered mobile home,
its windows dark and its metal siding rusted from years
of exposure. The yard was littered with discarded toys, broken furniture,
and overgrown grass, giving the eerie impression of a life abandoned.
Were interrupted. In nineteen ninety six, this unassuming mobile home
(01:46):
became the focus of an investigation that ultimately exposed the
grim and hitting corners of the Internet. The World Wide
Web was in its infancy that this case would expose
a world where fantasy met reality in the most horrific
way possible. Sharon Lepaca was the eldest of four daughters
(02:17):
born to Abraham and mag De Denburg, a devout Orthodox
Jewish couple in Baltimore, Maryland. Sharon was raised in the
close knit Jewish community of Pikesville, Stevenson's neighborhood, and her
childhood was steeped in tradition in faith. Her father, Abraham,
served as the cantor for the Beth t Fellow Congregation
for over three decades, With the family living in a
(02:39):
neat brick ranch less than two hundred feet away. Sharon
and her three sisters often joined him in performing Hebrew's standards,
their voices harmonizing in what many saw as a reflection
of the family steep connection to their heritage. Though she
kept kosher and honored the Sabbath, Sharon possessed an undeniable
strike of rebellion et cetera. Part Friends only described her
(03:02):
as a free spirit, somebody who seemed to dance on
the edge of the rigid lines drawn by her upbringing.
One classmate, John Burham, said of her, she wasn't very
popular or much of a skilled leader. I think she
resented being watched so closely because of her father. After
graduating from Pikesville High School in nineteen seventy nine, Sharon
(03:23):
took a bold step away from her insular world. She
married Victor Lupatka, a construction worker from outside the faith.
The wedding was a simple affair, held in Victor's home,
with none of the grandeur her parents might have envisioned.
To Abraham and Magde, this marriage was an act of defiance,
a break from the path they had hoped she would follow.
(03:45):
But for Sharon it was liberation, a declaration of independence
from the constraints of her orthodox upbringing. In nineteen eighty nine,
Sharon and Victor packed up their lives into boxes and
moved to Hampstead and Maryland. They purchased around home at
the bottom of a hill in a subdivision valued at
just over one hundred thousand dollars. Their new chapter was
(04:07):
a fresh start, but it wasn't without challenges. Victor's construction
job provided stability, but Sharon's restless energy and sharp mind
drove her to seek something more. In nineteen ninety five,
she turned her attention to the burgeoning world of the Internet,
seeing its untapped potential as a platform for entrepreneurship. Her
(04:27):
first venture was a website called House of Dion. It
was a modest foray into the world of online business.
Sharon co wrote and sold home decoor guides with her
collaborator Diane so Far under the title Deyon's Secret of
Home Decorating. For just seven dollars plus three dollars postage,
customers could receive decorating advice inspired by Diane's experiences touring Europe,
(04:51):
the Middle East and affluent homes in Beverly Hills and Boston.
We're targeting the stay at home mum or the working
person who doesn't want to hire an interior decorator, Diane
explained in an interview with The Sun. She described her
friend Sharon as a sensible and conservative woman, somebody with
a good head on her shoulders. But Ouce of day
(05:13):
On was only the beginning for Sharon. Sharron then founded
Classified Concepts Unlimited, a small marketing business where she rewrote
ad copy for fifty dollars apiece. Her ability to adapt
to the evolving digital landscape was impressive, and she quickly
expanded her reach, managing several websites that offered psychic ratings
and other premium rate services. Sharn earned her persentage from
(05:37):
every sale, leveraging the Internet to tap into niche markets
and build a steady stream of income. On the thirteenth
of October nineteen ninety six, Sharon Lupaka left her family home,
(05:58):
telling her husband Victor, she was heading to North Carolina
to visit friends for a week. It seemed like an
ordinary trip, and Victor didn't think much of it when
he didn't hear from her over the following days. Sharon
had always been fiercely independent, so her silence wasn't cause
for alarm. He assumed she'd return home as promised, her
(06:19):
week away just another chapter in her mundane life. But
one afternoon, Victor stumbled upon a note that Sharon had
left behind. The content sent a chill down his spine.
It wasn't just a letter. It appeared to be a
suicide note. As cryptic as it was. On settling, she
(06:39):
asked Victor not to pursue her killer and concluded with
an ominous line, If my body is never retrieved, don't worry,
know that I am at peace. Confused, an alarmed Victor
turned to Sharon's computer, hoping it might offer some clues.
Sharon was practically glued to the screen most day running
(07:00):
her online businesses, perhaps had held the answers that he sought.
What he found, however, was far beyond anything he could
have imagined. Digging through her emails, Victor discovered a correspondence
(07:21):
with a man named Robert Glass. The emails revealed a plan,
one that contradicted Sharon's claim of visiting friends. Instead, Sharon
had arranged to meet this stranger, A forty five year
old man from North Carolina, Robert Glass had a modest background,
Much like Sharon. He'd grown up in Caldwell County near
(07:43):
Lenore on a family farm. His father, Joseph, worked in maintenance,
while his mother, Myrtle, was a public school teacher. Glass
and his sister Joan had been raised with strong work ethics,
and he excelled in school, eventually earning a gatry from
North Carolina State Universe Today, but Glass's life had taken
a sharp turn from those promising beginnings. He was now
(08:06):
a divorced father of free Struggling to pay seven hundred
and fifty dollars a month in child support, he worked
as a computer programmer for the Catawba County government, designing
systems to track tax re seats and election results. On paper,
Robert Glass's life was respectable, even unremarkable. However, there was
(08:26):
a darker side to Robert Glass, one that had driven
his wife, Sherry to leave him earlier that year. After
fourteen years of marriage, Cherry had grown tired of competing
with her husband's computer for his attention, but her frustrations
went far beyond neglect. One afternoon, she accessed his computer
and found a trove of disturbing emails. They were violent, explicit,
(08:51):
and deeply unsettling, revealing a part of Glass that she
never knew and didn't want to know. Horrified, Sherry packed
up their three children and left him, severing ties with
the man she thought she knew. Now, Sharon Lapac has
husband Victor, found himself staring at similar emails filled with
the same disturbing undertones. Sharon and Glass had been emailing
(09:22):
back and forth, and it was clear they had arranged
to meet up the day that Sharon had disappeared. Victor
contacted police to report his wife missing, sharing everything he
had uncovered on her computer. The note, the lies about
her destination, and the correspondence with Glass all pointed to
something sinister. They say, the consistency is key, whether it's
(09:47):
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slash morbidology. Get quip quip dot com slash morbidology. Detectives
immediately launched an investigation. Their first step was to retrace
Sharon's movements. They found her car abandoned at Baltimore, Pennsylvania Station,
(11:13):
a stark indication that she had boarded a train, but
to where As they scared through her digital trail, they
unearthed even more emails between Sharon and Robert Glass. The
case took a sharp, terrifying turn when detectives pieced together
the contents of those emails. It wasn't just a missing
(11:33):
person investigation anymore. It was something far more disturbing. Detectives
knew they needed to act fast, but what they didn't
know yet was just how deeply twisted this case would become.
(11:53):
At the time of Sharon Lapaca's disappearance, few who knew
her suspected the secret life she had built online. Beneath
the surface of her suburban existence. Sharon had created an
alternate persona that the loud heard explore the darkest corners
of her imagination. Operating under the pseudonym Nancy Carlson, Sharon
advertised pornographic videos on the Internet, but these weren't ordinary videos.
(12:19):
They were sadistic in nature, allegedly featuring unconscious women subjected
to various scenarios. In one advertisement, Sharon had claimed, I
just made a video of actual women willing and unwilling
to be knocked out, drugged, under hypnosis, and chloroformed. Another
ad leaned into bizarre and exaggerated fantasies, reading, do you
(12:42):
dare enter the land of the giant tests where men
are crushed like bugs by those angry yet gorgeous gank goddesses.
Sharon offered customized bondage fantasies for one hundred dollars, and
even ventured into selling her used underwear, posting messages such
as anyone out there interested in buying my warm panties.
(13:04):
Despite her claims, investigators found no concrete evidence that Sharon
had ever produced or delivered these videos. Before her disappearance,
she had addressed accusations from disgruntled buyers who called her
advertisements fraudulent. Frustrated, Sharon had written, I'm just one person
trying to fill all these orders, I don't even have
(13:24):
time to have a life. While her customer's harbored lured fantasies,
Sharon's own desires were equally, if not more on settling.
She was an act of participant in online chat rooms,
engaging in discussions about necrophilia, bondage fetishes, and satto masochism.
In these anonymous spaces, Sharon could shed her real life
(13:46):
identity and assume any persona she desired. Sometimes she'd portrayed
herself as a three hundred pound dominatrix. Other times she
became a petit five foot six woman weighing one hundred
and twenty one pounds. But Sharon's online activity escalated in
November of nineteen ninety six, when she revealed the disturbing fixation.
(14:09):
She confessed to having a fascination with torturing until death
and expressed her ultimate fantasy to be tortured and killed.
For Sharon, this wasn't a fleeting day dream. It was
a desire that she actively sought to fulfill. She began
posting inn aline form, searching for some one who could
make her grim fantasy a reality. Her requests were explicit,
(14:34):
leaving no doubt about her intent. While many men initially
replied to her posts, they withdrew once they realized that
she wasn't joking. Sharon was deadly serious. Then she met
Robert Glass. Glass, who frequented the same fetish chat rooms,
went by the user name slow Hand, while Charon used Nancy.
(14:56):
He had his own dark desires, which he detailed with
unnerving decision in the forms. When Sharon approached him with
her fantasy, Glass didn't hesitate to respond. Their correspondence quickly escalated,
with Sharon asking him to fulfill her ultimate desire to
be bound and strangled at the moment of orgasm. Robert
(15:18):
Glass agreed, describing in graphic detail the pain and degradation
he would inflict. He assured Sharon that he could deliver
everything she wanted a more, telling her, I will kill
you very slowly in a drawn out orgy of sex
and pain that will give you the ultimate orgasm as
you slip over from life to death. He promised a blindfold,
(15:41):
bat whip, and mutilate her. He detailed how he would
force her to beg for mercy, taunting her with the
weapons a gun, a machee, and even a knife. For Sharon,
Glass's words, were a promise of fulfillment, the culmination of
her darkest desire. For Glass, it was an opportunity to
indulge in his own. As their correspondence stepened, it became
(16:05):
clear that Sharon's fantasy and Glass' willingness to carry it
out were propelling them towards an inevitable and horrifying encounter.
Neither of them seemed intent on turning back. What began
as an anonymous connection in an online chat room was
about to spiral into something far darker and far more
(16:25):
real than anybody could have imagined. Detectives investigating Sharon the
Packet's disappearance faced a perplexing and unsettling case. The damning
emails between herself and Robert Glass painted a disturbing picture,
(16:47):
but the idea that a woman could solicit her own
murder seemed incomprehensible. Detectives turned their attention to Glass, setting
up a surveillance at his mobile home in North Carolina.
He went about his daily routine, commuting to and from
his job as computer programmer for the local government. His
(17:08):
behavior was ordinary, even mundane. There was no sign of Sharon,
no indication that anything was amiss, but sharm was still missing,
and she had made arrangements to meet with class. Believing
that answers might lie within Glasses home, they secured a
search warrant and moved in while he was at work.
(17:28):
What they found inside the unassuming mobile home confirmed their
worst fears. The interior was littered with ominous items, bondage gear,
drug paraphernalia, a pistol, and a collection of pornographic magazines.
Among these artifacts were items that didn't belong to Glass,
items detectives quickly realized belonged to Sharon. It was clear
(17:50):
that she had been there. As they combed through the property,
one detective noticed something peculiar just outside the mobile home.
A mind of freshly disturbed earth caught his attention. It
was unmistakingly out of place, and its shape was hauntingly familiar.
It matched the length of a human body. Grabbing shovels,
(18:12):
detectives began to excavate the mound. About two feet down,
a shovel struck something hard. They continued digging until the
object came clear it was a human knee. What they
onearthed necks confirmed their fears. Sharon the pack. His lifeless
body lay buried beneath the dirt. Her hands and feet
(18:34):
were borne tightly with rope, and a nylon cord was
wrapped around her neck, leaving no doubt about the cause
of her death. There were scrape marks to her neck
and breasts. Detectives had found their victim, and they knew
the suspect. Later that evening, Robert Glass was arrested at
his workplace. Just the next day, Glass was officially charged
(19:04):
with the first degree murder of Sharon Lepaca. At a
press conference announcing the arrest, Sheriff Roger Hutchins outlined the
bizarre circumstances leading up to the crime. He stated they
had just exchanged messages on the computer until she set
up a visit with him this month. This was the
first time they'd seen each other in person. Despite the
(19:27):
damning emails. In the methodical way Sharon's body had been
disposed of, Glass insisted that her death was nothing more
than a tragic accident. During his interrogation, he claimed that
he and Sharon had been engaged in consensual sexual activity
when he tightened a rope around her neck. He had
no intention of killing her. He told detectives he simply
(19:49):
hadn't realized how much pressure he was applying until it
was too late. He stated, I don't know how much
I pulled on that rope. I never wanted to kill her.
She ended up dead. Today's episode is sponsored by Better Help.
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That's better Help hlp dot com slash Morbidology. Glass recounted
what he had done after realizing that Sharon had died.
(21:18):
He said that he dug a four foot deep hole
beside his mobile home, then brought a hand truck home
from his workplace. Under the cover of darkness. He secured
Sharon's body to the hand truck, wheeled her outside, and
then buried her in the shallow grave just steps away
from his front door. As the case made headlines, Glass
was assigned a defense attorney, Neil Beach, who wasted no
(21:41):
time in defending his client in the media. Beach argued
that Sharon's autopsy revealed no evidence of torture, directly contradicting
the narrative that Glass had held her captive and subjected
her to prolonged suffering. He stated, it's hard for me
to believe that woman was tortured for three days if
the medical Examiner of North Carolina couldn't find any indication
(22:04):
of that, and during that time this man is going
to work. It's much easier to understand or picture an
accident occurring during sexual activity than it is to conjure
up an image of this man as a cold blooded,
premeditated killer, But detectives were far from convinced. Sheriff Captain
Danny Barlow dismissed Glass's explanation outright, making his stance clear,
(22:28):
as he said, tightening a rope around someone's neck even
during sex, I wouldn't consider that to be an accident.
By this stage of the investigation, detectives had managed to
piece together a rough timeline of Sharon's final days. They
determined that on the morning of the thirteenth of October,
Sharon had boarded the nine to fifteen a M train
(22:51):
bound for Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a long journey,
nearly twelve hours, but she never wavered from her plan.
At the station, waiting amidst the swirl of arriving passengers
was Robert Glass. Together they left the bright cityscape of
Charlotte behind, merging into the darkened back roads of Caldwell County.
(23:14):
It was an eighty mile drive into isolation. The neon
signs and bustling highways faded into a landscape of dense
woods and forgotten roads. By the time they arrived in
Glasses Home on Mulberry Court Road, the night had fully set.
In Glasses Home was little more than a dilapidated mobile unit,
(23:35):
its once wide exterior faded and stained with time, The
yard was a graveyard of abandoned relics, a rustling swing,
said overturned bicycles, half swallowed by Wade's remnants of a
family life that had long since fallen apart. What happened
inside that trailer remains the subject of speculation. Detectives believed
(23:58):
that Sharon was subjected to ours, possibly days of torture.
The trailer itself, they discovered, had been transformed into something
of a makeshift sex dungeon. Ropes, wire, rubber restraints, and
bondage gear littered the space. Detectives theorized that for approximately
sixty hours, Sharon endured the full extent of glasses depraved
(24:21):
fantasies before he ultimately ended her life. She was strangled
before being dragged outside and hastily buried in a shallow
grave just beyond the front steps. Detective Danny Barlow summed
up the disturbing nature of the crime in an interview
with the press. He stated, it was like dial M
(24:42):
for murder, only they did it by computer instead of phone.
We'll never know whether this was a genuine death wish
or a fantasy gone too far. One way or another,
Sharon Lepadka had set her own tragic fate into motion.
The question that haunted detectives was whether she had truly
wanted to die, or if, in the end, she had
(25:03):
changed her mind too late. The murder of Sharon the
Packet was unlike anything the world had ever seen before.
People struggled to comprehend how a woman could solicit her
own murder, and perhaps even more disturbingly, why. According to
Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorder Clinic,
(25:27):
Sharon likely suffered from extreme sexual masochism. He explained, We're
not sure what causes it, but certainly in my clinical experience,
all the women who are having these masochists cravings were
themselves abused sexually during childhood. The feelings of sexual excitement
can become confused with abuse. But beyond the psychology of
(25:49):
Sharon's desires, there was something else at play, something that
society was only beginning to understand. The Internet. At the
time of Sharon's murder, the Internet was still in its infancy.
The average household was just beginning to explore the World
Wide Web, unaware of the dark corners lurking beneath the surface.
Online chat rooms, newsgroups, and forums allowed people to connect
(26:13):
in ways never before possible. But as doctor Alvin Cooper,
director of the San Jose Marital and Sexuality Center, pointed out,
they also became a gathering place for those with extreme
and sometimes dangerous fantasies. He stated, the Internet was attracting
people with a variety of fetishes to chat rooms. There
(26:35):
definitely are predators lurking about sexual predators who know these
sites are going to pull in people with specific sex interests,
and again, you don't have any sense of whether the
person has any contact with reality or it's totally out there.
Jarn wasn't the only woman seeking out such extreme encounters.
(26:55):
On newsgroups such as alt dot Torture, there were postings
with disturbing head headlines such as women who fantasize about hanging,
female beasting, torture, and female impealing done safe. To the
average person, these discussions were horrifying, but to those who
shared those dark desires, they were an invitation. The Internet
(27:19):
also allowed for anonymity. It gave people like Sharon the
ability to indulge in fantasies without fear of judgment, but
it also created a dangerous illusion that the people on
the other side of the screen were safe. Sharon had
found Robert Glass through one of these forms. She believed
he would give her the experience that she wanted. What
(27:41):
she didn't know was whether she could trust him or
whether when the moment came, she would change her mind.
As the details of Sharon's death flooded headlines, those who
knew her were stifle and Diane so Far, who had
(28:02):
worked with her on a home decorating guide, struggled to
reconcile the bubbly woman she knew with the person described
in the media. She insisted, what I want people to
know is the woman I knew was not crazy in
the slightest. She was always a happy person, always bubbly.
Even this person who was killed was not the person
I knew. Those who knew Robert Glass were equally blindsided.
(28:27):
Jack Chandler, a longtime family friend, couldn't believe it, he
commented in the media. He seemed to be a right
nice boy. He'd always been a quiet boy. Even his
ex wife, Sherry, who had once found disturbing emails on
his computer, never thought he was capable of murder. She
(28:48):
said to reporters. He's the kind of person that would
do anything for anybody. Yet now she was forced to
confront the reality she never imagined. The whispers followed her
every In an interview with The Washington Time, she revealed
the daily humiliation she endured. She said, I face it
(29:08):
every day at work. Always there's somebody whispering where I
can hear it. There's the internet. Murderer's wife. Her children
too were affected. They kept asking her what had happened,
but Cherry didn't have the heart to tell them. In
(29:30):
early March, Robert Glass appeared in court to enter his plea.
He was dressed in an orange jumpsuit with his beard
on kemped. He showed little emotion as he listened to
the proceedings. When asked how he pleaded to the charge
of first degree murder, he simply responded, not guilty. During
the hearing, prosecutor's announced they would take the death penalty
(29:52):
of Glass were convicted. District Attorney David Flahherday stated that
the murder of Sharon Lupaca was especially heenus atrocious and
cruel criteria that justified capital punishment under state law. The
case had already drawn significant media attention, but a new
development the following year added an even darker layer. During
(30:15):
the investigation, detectives analyzing Glass's computer discovered a collection of
child sexual abuse images and videos. As a result, he
was further charged with possession of illegal media, a federal offense.
With this new charge, the case against Robert Glass became
even more complex. While his defense team continued to argue
(30:36):
that Sharon's death had been the result of consensual but
dangerous activity gone wrong, prosecutors pointed to the disturbing material
found on his computer as further evidence of his depravity.
The legal battle ahead promised to be lengthy, but one
thing was clear. The case was no longer just about
the death of Sharon Lupaca. It was about who Robert
(30:59):
Glass truly won. He wasn't the friendly family man that
his neighbors and colleagues had believed he was. As both
the prosecution and defense prepared for the upcoming murder trial,
Robert Glass unexpectedly pleaded guilty to a federal charge of
possessing child sexual abuse media. The plea resulted in a
sentence of twenty seven months in federal prison, followed by
(31:21):
three years of supervised released to mandatory participation in a
sex offender treatment program. With this conviction, the murder case
against Glass remained unresolved. Prosecutors announced that the murder trial
was scheduled to begin in March of two thousand, nearly
three and a half years after his arrest. However, that
trial would never materialize. In late January, Robert Glass appeared
(31:46):
in court and formally changed his plea, opting to plead
guilty to voluntary manslaughter. It was part of a plea
deal that removed the death penalty from consideration. As part
of the agreement, Glass was sentenced to us up to
eight years and ten months in prison. He additionally pleaded
guilty to six counts of second degree sexual exploitation of
(32:07):
a minor, stemming from explicit images and videos found on
his computer. The pla agreement was reached after prosecutors expressed
concerns about how jurors, many of whom lacked experience with
the Internet, might interpret the graphic email exchanges between Glass
and Sharon. There were also fears that the defense could
(32:28):
shift focus on too Sharon's online activity, potentially complicating the case.
Glass's attorney, Neil Beach, defended the plea deal, stating Glass
understood that, based on the evidence the state had, he
did run the risk of being convicted of a serious crime,
and he felt this was his best opportunity. Under the
circumstances any case involving sexual matters, it's very difficult to
(32:52):
know how a jury is going to view it. During
the hearing, prosecutors outlined their theory of events regarding what
trans barred at Glass's home. According to their account, little
happened on the first night, but over the next two nights,
Glass and Charon engaged in sex, during which he physically
assaulted her. On the third night, prosecutors claimed the two
(33:15):
spoke about backing out, that Sharon no longer wanted to
die and Glass no longer wanted to kill her. However,
on the fourth night, Glass strangled Sharon to death with
a nylon cord while they were engaged in sexual activity.
Sharon's family were present in court as the sentence was
handed down and delivered emotional victim impact statements. Her sister
(33:39):
Wendy told Judge Claude Stittton that the family never believed
her death was accidental, but had accepted the plea deal
to avoid further media attention. Jaren's husband, Victor, echoed this sentiment, stating,
we just want to end it. In a final statement,
Sharon's family criticized glasses actions, steering Robert Glass did not care.
(34:04):
He took advantage of her situation. He could have walked away.
He debased not only her, but her body after she
was dead. The plea deal marked a shocking conclusion to
a case that had horrified the nation. To most, eight
years from murder seemed unthinkable. With the additional charges factored in,
(34:26):
Robert Glass would serve a maximum of eight years and
ten months, a sentence that felt shockingly lenient for the
brutal death of Sharon. Even Glass his own defense attorney,
Neil Bage, admitted the deal left much to be desired,
steering It's probably a case in which neither side is
completely satisfied, but both sides think that it was appropriate.
(34:50):
Prosecutor David Flaherty was even more blunt. Speaking to the media,
he acknowledged that he hadn't wanted the play deal, but
felt that he had no other choice. The complexities of
the case, the unchartered legal waters of Internet facilitated crime,
and the risk of jury uncertainty made a conviction far
from guaranteed. I can see a jury not all twelve
(35:13):
of them not agreeing with me, he admitted. Described as
the first murder of the Internet. The case exposed the
legal system's struggle with the rapidly evolving digital world. Detectives
were navigating uncharted territory, trying to build a case around
emails and chat room messages, evidence that was difficult to
authenticate at the time. Detectives from the FBI, North Carolina
(35:38):
State Bureau of Investigation, and the Maryland State Police were
all enlisted to track the online exchanges between Glass and Sharon. However,
they had quickly realized the challenges of proving ownership of
digital communications in the early days of the Internet. Beyond
the technical barriers, there was also another troubling challenge the
(35:58):
nature of the emails themselves. While Glass had explicitly promised
to kill Sharon, the chatlogs also contained fantastical and exaggerated
sexual discussions, many of which never came to fruition. The
defense was prepared to argue that these messages were nothing
more than bizarre role play, dismissing them as two people
(36:20):
talking crazy. Even Prosecutor Flaherty conceded that the legal battle
would have been an uphill climb, stating both sides had
good arguments. In the end, jurors unfamiliarity with the Internet,
combined with the novelty of online crimes, created too much
uncertainty for the prosecution to risk a trial. As defense
(36:42):
attorney Beach put it, the Internet is a wondrous thing.
In many respects, it has a dark sight. Robert Glass
was escorted from the courtroom to begin serving his sentence,
(37:03):
one that many considered woefully inadequate. By two thousand and two,
his release date loomed, with just weeks remaining before he
would walk free. But Robert Glass would never leave prison.
In February of two thousand and two, just two weeks
before his scheduled release, Robert Glass died suddenly of a
(37:23):
heart attack at the Avery Mitchell Correctionals Institution. There would
be no parole, no reintegration into society. He never served
his full sentence. For some, his death felt like a
form of justice, a fate that spared him from the
freedom he had been counting down the days toward. But
(37:44):
for others, it was yet another unresolved chapter in a
case that never truly delivered justice. Sharon Lapaca was still
gone and Robert Glass had evaded true punishment. Both in
Court and inn life. Well, Bestie's that is it for
(38:20):
this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so much
for listening. This is the first episode I've recorded since
welcoming a baby girl, Ember into the world in December.
It's been an absolute whirlwind since then, but I'm finally
back to recording episodes. A lot of thank you, Zren
order for my new supporters up on Patreon, including Tracy, Karen,
(38:43):
Beth Arie, Melissa, Elaine, Renee, James, Ryan, Lisa, Moira, Emilye, Sharon,
and Tricia. So if you'd like to join us up
on Patreon, the link is in the show notes, or
you can just search for Morbidology on the Patreon app
or on their website. I'd also like to thank you
all for listening to Morebidology over the past five years.
(39:05):
It's amazing that as a new mother, I'm able to
work from home, and I'd just like to say thank
you all so much. Remember to check us out at
more biology dot com for more information about this episode
and to read some true crime articles. Until next time,
take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.
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