In the early morning hours of September 7, 2025, a violent sequence of events unfolded at a residence in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Robyn Jones, a 44-year-old female, had invited an acquaintance into her home located on the 4400 block of Minnesota Avenue. The two were reportedly downstairs in the kitchen listening to music together, creating an atmosphere that authorities later described as social and non-threatening initially.
However, the situation abruptly shifted when the visitor produced a firearm and shot Jones in the back of the head. Emergency medical services arrived at the scene shortly after the incident was reported around 1:30 a.m., but she had already succumbed to her injury and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The perpetrator, identified by law enforcement as 32-year-old Freddie Lee Sawyer, did not flee immediately after the shooting. Instead, he proceeded upstairs where he encountered a second woman. In a terrifying escalation, Sawyer physically assaulted this second victim, striking her repeatedly in the face, and sexually assaulted her at gunpoint. This brutality occurred while two children, aged 5 and 16, were present in the home. He threatened to kill the surviving woman if she made any noise. Sawyer eventually left the premises but returned a short time later to kick in the door and steal the cell phone of the woman he had assaulted, presumably to prevent her from contacting authorities.
Homicide detectives initiated an investigation that quickly zeroed in on Sawyer. The surviving victim and another witness inside the home were able to identify him in a police lineup. Additionally, investigators utilized cell phone tracking data which placed Sawyer at the residence during the time the crimes were committed. Court documents revealed that Sawyer was already on probation for prior offenses involving drugs, weapons, and resisting arrest at the time of the murder.
Police arrested Freddie Lee Sawyer days after the incident, and prosecutors subsequently filed a litany of severe charges against him. He was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree rape, sodomy, property damage, unlawful possession of a firearm, and three counts of armed criminal action. Following his arrest, a judge ordered that he be held without the possibility of bond as he awaited trial for the capital offense and the brutal assault on the surviving occupants of the home.
