Barbara Grams was a 19‑year‑old white female who worked as an assistant manager—or server, depending on the account—at the Hot Potato restaurant in Tampa Bay Center, Florida. On the night of August 18, 1983, after finishing her shift, she began walking the approximately 2‑mile trip home through Tampa Heights. The following morning, her beaten and sexually assaulted body was discovered behind a dental office about ten blocks from her residence.
Investigators determined she had been brutally bludgeoned—likely with a piece of two‑by‑four lumber—and raped, and she also bore bite‑mark‑like wounds on her face at the time she was found.
Initial investigative efforts led to the arrest of 18‑year‑old Robert DuBoise in October 1983. He was convicted in 1985 for capital murder and attempted sexual battery, based largely on testimony about the bite‑mark evidence and a jailhouse informant. DuBoise was sentenced to death, later commuted to life without parole. DuBoise remained in prison for nearly 37 years, protesting his innocence. In 2020, the Hillsborough County Conviction Review Unit, working with modern DNA testing, reviewed the preserved rape kit evidence and concluded DuBoise’s DNA did not match the material from the crime scene. This exoneration marked one of the longest wrongful convictions overturned in Florida history.
With DuBoise cleared, investigators pursued other leads through national DNA databases. In early August 2022, state prosecutors announced that DNA evidence from the original rape kit positively matched two men: Amos Earl Robinson and Abron Scott. Both were already serving life sentences for other crimes, including the October 22, 1983, murder of Carlos Orellana, as well as earlier charges related to rape and homicide.
Robinson and Scott were formally indicted by a grand jury in early August 2022 on charges of first‑degree murder, rape, and related offenses concerning the death of Barbara Grams. Separate charges also connected them to the July 10, 1983, rape and shooting death of 41‑year‑old white freelance photographer Linda Toni Lansen—her body was found dumped in a ditch in Town ’n’ Country. Police believe the two crimes were part of a spree of rape and violence occurring during that summer in the Tampa Bay area.
In March 2024, Abron Scott pleaded guilty to the rapes and murders of both Barbara Grams and Linda Lansen. He was sentenced to two additional consecutive life terms—on top of his existing life sentence—bringing his total to three life sentences. Amos Robinson, meanwhile, remains in custody and is facing trial. Prosecutors have indicated he could face the death penalty.
To this day, Amos Robinson and Abron Scott remain the sole identified suspects officially charged with the rape and murder of Barbara Grams. No other arrests have been announced. Their cases are considered definitively solved by law enforcement, bringing long‑awaited closure to the families of both victims after nearly four decades.
