In the early summer of 1976, the life of 22-year-old Mary C. Robinson was marked by personal turmoil. On June 10th of that year, she was last seen in her hometown of Rochester, New York. At the time of her disappearance, she was in a difficult personal situation; though still legally married, her husband had left her for her own sister. Having previously worked as a waitress, she had recently become involved in sex work in the weeks leading up to when she went missing.
On the night she vanished, she was wearing a black dress with red trim, a black vest also with red trim, and white open-toed shoes, carrying a white vinyl purse. The last known contact with her was a phone call she made to her husband and sister at 1:30 a.m. on June 10th. After that call, she was never heard from or seen again.
The investigation into Mary Robinson's disappearance took a significant turn in February 1979. A man named Leonard Lipsky, who was in custody in Provo, Utah, for an unrelated assault charge, confessed to a social worker and a probation officer that he had strangled Robinson in his Rochester apartment. He claimed to have disposed of her body in a gully about three hours south of the city. Following this confession, Rochester police reopened her case. After the case was publicized, Lipsky's former girlfriend came forward and gave the police Robinson's purse, identification, and footwear, which she had found in his apartment back in 1976. Investigators also discovered a poem written by Lipsky that contained the line, 'by my hand one has died.'
Based on this evidence, Leonard Lipsky was convicted of second-degree murder in February 1980, a rare conviction in New York State at the time without the victim's body having been found. However, this conviction would not be the final word in the case. The verdict was overturned in April 1980 due to a lack of evidence. Although the conviction was reinstated on appeal in December 1981, it was ultimately overturned again in July 1984. To this day, Mary Robinson's body has never been recovered, and foul play is strongly suspected in her disappearance. The case officially remains an unsolved and heart-wrenching mystery, leaving her loved ones without answers and her fate unknown.Last Seen: Jun 10, 1976
