Shooting victim ID'd as Little Rock woman 23 years after body found

Sgt. Mike Blain of the Pulaski County sheriff’s office shows a fingerprint comparison in a homicide case from February 2014.
Sgt. Mike Blain of the Pulaski County sheriff’s office shows a fingerprint comparison in a homicide case from February 2014.

The marks from her thumb resembled an inkblot or an ultrasound image more than a fingerprint.

They were splotchy and had few of the unique curves and ridges that might allow investigators to determine her identity. Two fishermen had found her body on Feb. 18, 1994, in a creek just east of the Arkansas River in northwest Pulaski County. She'd been shot to death a few days earlier.

The sheriff's office distributed pictures of her clothing and jewelry, hoping someone might recognize them. They examined dental records in search of a match. And they reviewed missing persons cases, looking for anything that might lead them to the woman's identity.

But the woman in the creek remained nameless for decades.

Until now.

The Pulaski County sheriff's office announced Friday that the FBI had used advanced fingerprint analysis to identify the woman as Cynthia Robinson, 35, of Little Rock. She had two children.

Sgt. Mike Blain, speaking to reporters Friday, said the sheriff's office had notified Robinson's family members that her body had been found and identified. He said her family was happy to finally have some closure in the case.

Blain said that Robinson worked as a prostitute along Asher Avenue in Little Rock when she was killed 23 years ago. Her life on the streets frequently led to jail stints, so her family never reported her as missing.

Court records show she also used the aliases Cynthia Davis, Carolyn Jones and Carla Reed.

"Because of her lifestyle, it was not uncommon for her to not be seen for extended periods of time," Blain said.

The sheriff's office submitted its splotchy, partial fingerprints from the woman in the creek to a national database in 2001. The agency also sent the prints to the FBI.

In 2009, the woman's fingerprints were entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, along with images of her clothing and jewelry. She was wearing an orange and red Lizwear sweater and a star-shaped bracelet when she was killed.

Years continued to pass.

Then in March, the FBI notified the sheriff's office that it had matched the fingerprints to Robinson.

Sheriff's office spokesman Lt. Cody Burk, one of the original investigators in the case, said Friday that he was relieved that the woman had finally been identified. He said he'd wondered for years who she was and where she came from.

"I never understood why we never had any leads. ... We had the sweater, we had this and that," he said. "I was just thinking it might not have been a local person. Because somebody would've known, a relative or something like that."

The FBI identified the woman as Robinson through its Next Generation Identification system, which it developed in 2011. The system uses a fingerprint analysis algorithm that has increased matching accuracy from 92 percent to more than 99 percent, according to the agency.

The FBI also uses the powerful biometric technology to identify and hunt terrorists.

Authorities have identified Robinson, but the question of who killed her remains unanswered.

Blain said investigators have no leads. Robinson's body was found in the area of Settlement Road and Arkansas 365, but the sheriff's office believe she was slain elsewhere. The gun used in her killing hasn't been found. And there are no known witnesses.

"Unfortunately in this case, the only piece of evidence we have is Ms. Robinson," Blain said.

Burk said the sheriff's office is looking into whether Robinson's death is connected to a string of unsolved homicides in the Little Rock area in the early 1990s.

The five victims, like Robinson, were black women in their 30s with a history of prostitution arrests. They were each slain between 1991 and 1994. Four of the bodies were dumped in Little Rock. One was found in Jacksonville.

In each case, investigators found evidence that the women were killed somewhere other than where their bodies were discovered.

Burk said the similarities between those cases and Robinson's were glaring. But he noted a few differences. Robinson was shot to death. The other women were strangled or beaten.

And unlike Robinson, most of the other women's bodies were dumped inside the Little Rock city limits.

"That was one [of] the things that didn't really seem the same," Burk said. "We're still looking at that, though. We haven't ruled that out."

photo

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Pulaski County Sheriff's Office handout photo of Cynthia Robinson.

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Metro on 09/30/2017

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