186: The Murder of Robert Schwartz & a Mystery in Miami

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When a utility worker came across Inna Budnytska, he initially thought she was dead. She’d been severely beaten and abandoned in a vacant lot in Miami. She was unconscious, and remained in that state until a team at Jackson Memorial Hospital nursed her back to health. The next day, when Inna felt well enough to communicate with police, she told them her name and asked to speak with her attorney. That struck detectives as odd. Suspicious, even. But the truth was that Inna had just survived a terrible crime. She was alone in America, and her attorney was one of the few people she knew.

Then Brandi tells us about Robert Schwartz, a celebrated scientist and founding member of the Virginia Biotechnology Association. Robert’s colleagues began to worry about him when he didn’t show up for work one Monday morning in December of 2001. A neighbor came to check on Robert in his rural home, and discovered a grizzly scene. Robert had been murdered two days earlier, just as he was preparing to sit down to eat dinner.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“The Case of the Vanishing Blonde,” by Mark Bowden for Vanity Fair
“The Woman in the Suitcase,” episode of 20/20
“Serial rapist was on the loose for years before an abandoned suitcase put a stop to his crimes,” by Chris Kilmer and Allie Yang for ABC News
“‘Suitcase rapist pleads guilty in New Orleans and sentenced to 45 years,” by Jim Mustian for The New Orleans Advocate

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Clara Schwartz” episode Snapped
“Clara Schwartz: A Deadly Game” by Katherine Ramsland, The Crime Library
“Schwartz v. Commonwealth” findlaw.com
“Fantasy, reality collide at murder trial” by Jon Echtenkamp, The Fairfax Times
“Clara Jane Schwartz” murderpedia.org
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