In the summer of 1992, 53-year-old Janet Sue Kirkup, a female from Jackson, Michigan, was on a road trip with her husband, Robert, in their recreational vehicle. The couple had been facing financial difficulties after a failed business venture and the repossession of their home in California. They embarked on an extended vacation in their RV, traveling east and visiting relatives along the way.
Janet, a woman with graying blonde hair and blue eyes, who often wore several rings and kept her fingernails long, maintained contact with her three daughters through phone calls and letters. However, after a visit to Robert's relatives in Genesee County, Michigan, all communication from Janet abruptly ceased. When her daughters tried to reach her, Robert would offer excuses as to why she was unavailable to speak with them.
For months, Janet's daughters were left to wonder about their mother's whereabouts. In January 1993, they received a six-page letter from their father, Robert, explaining that Janet had been missing for some time. He claimed that she had run off with a wealthy man in another RV and that he had last seen her at an airport hotel in Buffalo, New York. Initially, the story seemed plausible to her daughters, who knew of their mother's unhappiness with their financial situation and the frequent arguments between their parents during the RV trip. However, as time passed with no word from Janet, their attempts to locate her were unsuccessful. One of her daughters eventually filed a missing persons report.
The subsequent police investigation found no trace of Janet after the summer of 1992 and could not identify the man Robert claimed she had left with. Authorities began to suspect foul play. In 1999, they located Robert in Michigan and questioned him. He reiterated his story but made a slip by saying, 'I had nothing to do with her death.' After being pressed by investigators and one of his daughters, Robert confessed to killing Janet. He stated that on August 14, 1992, during a fight at a campground near Buffalo, New York, he strangled her after she allegedly tried to stab him. He claimed to have buried her body in a wooded area in New York but could not recall the exact location. Robert Kirkup was ultimately sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison for the murder of his wife. Despite his confession, Janet Kirkup's body has never been found. This case presents the painful reality of a family torn apart by domestic turmoil, culminating in a confession of homicide without the closure of a final resting place for the victim.
Janet Sue Kirkup, also known as Janet Sue Johnson, was a 53-year-old White woman when she disappeared during a cross-country trip connected to Jackson, Michigan, on August 5, 1992. She was traveling in a recreational vehicle with her husband, Robert Kirkup, but she never returned to her family and was never reliably seen alive again. Janet stood approximately five feet seven inches tall and weighed about 160 pounds. She had blue eyes and long blond hair that was beginning to turn gray. She was known for wearing her fingernails long and often wore numerous rings and other pieces of jewelry. What initially appeared to relatives to be the unexplained departure of a woman traveling with her husband eventually became a homicide investigation after Robert admitted that the story he had told the family was false.
Janet and Robert had been traveling together in their RV when communication from the couple took a disturbing turn. Robert wrote to family members and claimed that Janet had left him for another man. According to his account, he had last seen her after dropping her off at a hotel near an airport outside Buffalo, New York. The story suggested that Janet had voluntarily ended the trip, separated from her husband, and chosen to disappear into a new relationship. For those who cared about her, however, the explanation did not bring reassurance. Janet did not contact her daughters or other relatives to confirm that she was safe, and there was no dependable evidence that she had checked into a hotel, boarded a flight, or begun living with another person.
The airport-hotel account became the central version of events Robert offered to explain why Janet was gone. Yet it depended almost entirely on his word. The publicly available case information does not identify the hotel, the airport, the supposed man with whom Janet allegedly left, or any witness who saw her separate from Robert. No travel documentation, confirmed reservation, or later sighting established that Janet had voluntarily walked away. As the silence continued, the absence of any independent evidence supporting Robert’s story made his explanation increasingly difficult for investigators and family members to accept.
Law enforcement continued pressing Robert about Janet’s disappearance. One of the couple’s daughters also confronted him, seeking an honest explanation for what had happened to her mother. Under that pressure, Robert eventually abandoned the story that Janet had run away with another man. He confessed that he had strangled her and buried her body in a wooded area outside Buffalo. His admission changed the case from a suspicious disappearance into the acknowledged killing of a woman whose remains had been deliberately concealed far from her Michigan connections.
The available information does not fully describe the circumstances that led to the strangulation. It does not identify the exact location where the couple stopped, what argument or confrontation preceded the killing, or whether the violence occurred inside the RV or somewhere outdoors. It is also unclear whether the wooded burial site was near a road, campground, rest area, or other location visited during the journey. Those missing details became critically important because a broad reference to woods outside Buffalo covered an enormous region of forests, rural land, parks, and undeveloped property.
Although Robert confessed, locating Janet proved far more difficult. The publicly available record does not indicate that he supplied a sufficiently precise burial location or that any search resulted in the recovery of her remains. A wooded area can change rapidly as vegetation grows, trees fall, property is developed, and landmarks disappear. If the grave was shallow or placed in an isolated location unfamiliar to the family, years of weather and natural disturbance could further conceal it. Without an exact point to search, investigators were left trying to locate one hidden place across a large area in western New York.
Janet’s case illustrates the painful difference between learning that a loved one was killed and being able to bring that person home. Robert’s confession provided an explanation for her prolonged silence and exposed the original story as an attempt to conceal what he had done. It did not, however, give Janet’s daughters the physical certainty that would come from recovering and identifying her. Her body remained missing, leaving the family without a grave, a complete forensic account of her death, or the opportunity to hold a proper burial.
The public case record does not specify whether Robert was prosecuted or convicted for Janet’s killing. A confession is powerful evidence, but a criminal case may still depend on corroborating details, jurisdictional questions, the admissibility of statements, and proof showing where and how the crime occurred. Because Janet and Robert had been traveling, investigators also had to determine which agency and state had authority over the homicide. The exact location of her death and burial would have been central to those legal and investigative decisions.
Investigators retained Janet’s physical description and photograph because her remains could still be discovered without an immediate connection to her name. Her height, estimated weight, long graying blond hair, and habit of wearing numerous rings and other jewelry could help distinguish her from another unidentified woman. Her long fingernails were another personal characteristic remembered by those who knew her. Any jewelry recovered with remains might also provide important clues, although the public information does not state what pieces she was wearing during the trip.
DNA reference samples were later obtained from Janet’s daughters. One sample was processed through the California Department of Justice’s Jan Bashinski DNA Laboratory, while another was handled by the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification. The available records indicate that standard DNA profiles from two daughters were developed, along with mitochondrial DNA information from one of them. These profiles provide a scientific means of comparing unidentified remains with Janet’s biological family.
The development of family DNA is especially important because Janet may have been buried outside Michigan in a place where those who found her would not know to connect her with a Jackson-area missing-person investigation. If remains were recovered near Buffalo or elsewhere along the couple’s travel route, investigators could compare the genetic profile with national missing-person data. DNA can establish identity even after clothing, facial features, and other visual characteristics have been lost to time.
The Michigan State Police’s Jackson Post remains associated with Janet’s case. The investigation spans more than one state and began with a misleading story told to relatives from the road. Robert first claimed Janet had chosen another man and had been left near an airport hotel, then admitted that he had strangled her and concealed her body in woods outside Buffalo. Despite that confession, the location of Janet’s remains has never been publicly established.
For Janet’s family, the case has been a prolonged journey from confusion to devastating knowledge. They first had to wonder why she had supposedly left without speaking to them, then confront the man who had been traveling beside her, and finally absorb his admission that she had not abandoned them at all. She had been killed and hidden, while the person responsible attempted to make her absence appear voluntary. The truth answered why Janet never called, but it did not answer where she was.
In overview, Janet Sue Kirkup disappeared while traveling with her husband on August 5, 1992. Robert Kirkup initially told the family that he had dropped her at an airport-area hotel outside Buffalo after she decided to leave with another man. When questioned and confronted, he confessed that he had strangled Janet and buried her in a wooded location near Buffalo. Her remains have never been publicly reported as recovered, leaving the case as both an admitted homicide and an unfinished search for a mother whose family knows that she was murdered but is still waiting for her to be found and returned home.Last Seen: Aug 5, 1992
