Anthony Eugene Robinson: The “Shopping Cart Killer”
Overview
Anthony Eugene Robinson is an American serial killer whose crimes became associated with motels, online dating websites and the use of shopping carts to transport and conceal the bodies of his victims. Robinson operated primarily in Virginia and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area during 2021. Investigators determined that he contacted women through dating platforms, arranged to meet them and brought them to inexpensive motel rooms where they were later killed.
The unusual method Robinson used to dispose of the bodies led Fairfax County police officials to describe him publicly as the “Shopping Cart Killer.” Surveillance recordings showed him pushing shopping carts containing large objects wrapped in motel bedding. The bodies of four women were eventually recovered near motels where Robinson had stayed. He was convicted of murdering two of those women, while authorities identified him as a suspect or person of interest in several additional deaths.
The Harrisonburg Murders
Robinson was staying at a Howard Johnson motel on South Main Street in Harrisonburg, Virginia, while working in the area during the fall of 2021. Prosecutors said he separately brought Allene Elizabeth “Beth” Redmon and Tonita Lorice Smith into his motel room. Neither woman was seen alive again after entering the room.
Security cameras became a central part of the investigation. Recordings showed Redmon arriving at Robinson’s room on October 24, 2021. Hours later, Robinson was recorded pushing a shopping cart from the motel with a large object wrapped in sheets and bedding. He moved the object to an undeveloped lot beside the motel. Investigators later concluded that the object was Redmon’s body.
Less than a month later, Tonita Smith entered the same motel and met Robinson. Surveillance recordings again showed Robinson using a shopping cart to remove a large, covered object from his room. Smith’s blood was found on bedding inside the room, and her remains were recovered from the same vacant property where Redmon had been concealed.
Redmon and Smith were not killed together. Their bodies had been placed approximately 15 feet apart after two separate encounters with Robinson. The repeated pattern involving the motel room, the shopping cart and the nearby disposal site gave detectives compelling evidence that the same offender was responsible for both deaths.
Confirmed Victims
- Allene Elizabeth “Beth” Redmon, 54: Redmon was killed on or about October 24, 2021, after entering Robinson’s room at the Howard Johnson motel in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She had reportedly told relatives that she planned to meet a man known as “Ant.” Surveillance footage showed Robinson moving a sheet-wrapped object in a shopping cart during the early morning of October 25. Her bound remains were recovered on November 23, 2021, in an undeveloped lot beside the motel.
- Tonita Lorice Smith, 39: Smith was killed on or about November 19, 2021, at the Howard Johnson motel in Harrisonburg. She was a Charlottesville-area mother of six who was believed to have communicated with Robinson through an online dating service. Her remains were recovered on November 23, 2021, approximately 15 feet from Redmon’s body. Blood and other evidence inside Robinson’s motel room connected him to her death.
The Fairfax County Victims
After Robinson’s arrest, detectives in Fairfax County began examining the disappearance of Cheyenne Brown, a pregnant 29-year-old woman from Washington, D.C. Brown had communicated with Robinson through a dating application and had last been traced to the area surrounding the Moon Inn motel on Richmond Highway in Alexandria, Virginia.
Investigators searched the motel property and an adjacent vacant lot. On December 15, 2021, they discovered a large plastic container near an abandoned shopping cart. Inside were the severely decomposed remains of two women. One was identified as Brown through a distinctive tattoo. The other was eventually identified as Stephanie Harrison, a visitor from Redding, California.
Robinson had stayed at the Moon Inn during the period in which both women disappeared. Police found similarities between the Fairfax County discoveries and the Harrisonburg murders, including the motel setting, the disposal of multiple women in one location and the presence of a shopping cart beside the remains. Authorities publicly described Robinson as the leading suspect, although he had not been convicted of the Fairfax County killings as of 2026.
Additional Victims Connected to the Investigation
- Cheyenne Brown, 29: Brown was last seen alive on September 30, 2021, in Washington, D.C., and investigators believe she was killed in early October 2021. She was pregnant and the mother of a young son. Her telephone was traced to the Moon Inn area in Alexandria, Virginia, on October 4. Her remains were discovered on December 15, 2021, in a container in a vacant lot beside the motel. Robinson has been identified as a suspect but has not been convicted of her killing.
- Stephanie Harrison, 48: Harrison had traveled from Redding, California, to the Washington, D.C., area and was staying at the Moon Inn during the fall of 2021. Her exact date of death could not be established publicly because of the condition of her remains. She was believed to have died before her body was discovered with Brown’s remains on December 15, 2021, near the Moon Inn in Alexandria. Robinson has been investigated in connection with her death but has not been convicted of killing her.
- Sonya Champ, 40: Champ’s body was found in September 2021 in Washington, D.C. Her remains had been placed in a shopping cart and covered with a blanket. The medical examiner later classified her death as a homicide, and Robinson was named the sole person of interest. Prosecutors later disclosed that Robinson’s DNA had been detected on evidence associated with Champ. Her exact date of death was not publicly established, and no murder conviction has been entered against Robinson in her case.
The Questioned Death of Skye Allen
Investigators also reviewed the 2018 death of Robinson’s former fiancée, Skye Allen. Allen, 30, died in Prince George’s County, Maryland, after experiencing what was officially described as a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Her death was initially considered natural, and Robinson was not charged with causing it.
After the shopping-cart murders were uncovered, Allen’s relatives expressed suspicions about Robinson and asked authorities to reconsider the circumstances. Police examined the possible connection because Allen had reportedly met Robinson through an online dating platform, as several later victims had. However, the available evidence did not establish that Allen had been murdered, and she is not considered a confirmed victim.
Arrest and Evidence
Robinson was arrested on November 23, 2021, the same day investigators recovered the remains of Redmon and Smith. Police had obtained motel records, telephone information and extensive surveillance recordings showing his movements before and after the women disappeared.
During questioning, Robinson initially denied knowing either woman. After detectives confronted him with recordings showing the women entering his motel room, he changed his account. He claimed that Redmon and Smith had taken unknown pills and died while he was asleep. He admitted moving their bodies but denied intentionally killing them.
The physical and video evidence contradicted Robinson’s explanation. Prosecutors emphasized that the two deaths occurred weeks apart and followed nearly identical patterns. Each woman entered his room alive, remained there for hours and was removed in a shopping cart after she was dead. Robinson then concealed each body in the same isolated lot.
Trial and Conviction
Robinson’s murder trial began in Rockingham County Circuit Court in January 2025. Prosecutors presented surveillance footage, forensic evidence and testimony concerning his statements to detectives. They argued that Robinson deliberately targeted women, killed them in his motel room and treated their bodies as objects to be wrapped, transported and discarded.
The jury found Robinson guilty of murdering Redmon and Smith and of concealing their bodies. Jurors recommended four life sentences, additional imprisonment and substantial fines. Robinson’s defense challenged the evidence and sought to overturn the verdicts, but the convictions were upheld.
On May 22, 2026, Robinson was sentenced to life in prison for the Harrisonburg murders. The sentence ensured that he would remain incarcerated for the rest of his life. The Fairfax County and Washington, D.C., investigations remained legally separate because Robinson had not been convicted in the deaths of Brown, Harrison or Champ.
Pattern and Method
Robinson’s crimes followed a recognizable pattern. He used dating websites to make contact with women, many of whom were experiencing personal, emotional or financial difficulties. He arranged private meetings at motels where he could avoid attracting the attention that might have followed him to a permanent residence.
After killing the women, Robinson used ordinary shopping carts to transport their bodies from the motel rooms. Bedding, blankets or containers concealed the remains as he moved through parking lots and public areas. He selected nearby vacant lots where the bodies could remain hidden without requiring a vehicle or a long journey.
The shopping carts were not merely a nickname attached to the case. They became a repeated piece of evidence connecting geographically separated crime scenes. A cart was found near Redmon and Smith in Harrisonburg, another was discovered near Brown and Harrison in Fairfax County, and Champ’s body had also been left inside a cart in Washington, D.C.
Legacy of the Case
The investigation of Anthony Eugene Robinson demonstrated how an offender could use online dating services, temporary motel rooms and common public objects to conceal a series of violent crimes. The case expanded from two missing women in Harrisonburg into a regional investigation involving police agencies in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland.
Robinson is a convicted double murderer and is suspected of responsibility for additional deaths. Although his life sentence resolved the prosecutions involving Redmon and Smith, the families of Cheyenne Brown, Stephanie Harrison and Sonya Champ have continued to seek full legal accountability. The unresolved portions of the case also leave open the possibility that other women encountered Robinson before his arrest and that the complete number of his victims may never be known.
