Robert Yale Shulman: The Hicksville Serial Killer
Background and Crimes
Robert Yale Shulman was an American serial killer who murdered five women in New York between 1991 and 1995. Born on March 28, 1954, Shulman lived in Hicksville on Long Island and worked for the United States Postal Service. His ordinary employment and quiet public appearance concealed a series of violent crimes committed inside his rented apartment on Glow Lane.
Shulman primarily targeted women involved in street-level sex work along Jamaica Avenue in Queens. He would approach women while driving an older blue Cadillac and invite them back to his apartment. According to his later confessions, he sometimes smoked crack cocaine with the women before attacking them. His victims were struck repeatedly with heavy objects, including barbells, dumbbells, hammers and baseball bats.
After killing the women, Shulman dismembered several of their bodies in an attempt to conceal their identities and prevent investigators from connecting the crimes. He removed hands from multiple victims so that fingerprints could not be used for identification. The remains were wrapped in plastic bags, placed in containers or sleeping bags and abandoned in dumpsters, industrial areas and along roads in different parts of New York.
Known Victims
The exact dates on which several victims were killed could not be conclusively established. The dates below identify verified discovery dates or, where available, the last date on which a victim was known to be alive.
- Lori Vasquez, 24: Vasquez was a Brooklyn resident whose remains were found in a dumpster on Belknap Avenue in Yonkers on August 31, 1991. Shulman admitted that he killed her in late August 1991. Her exact date of death was not publicly established. His brother, Barry Shulman, helped dispose of her remains.
- Meresa Hammonds, 31: Hammonds was living in New Jersey and was the mother of two sons. She had previously lived in Kentucky, California and Michigan and had worked as a fashion model with her sister. Her dismembered remains were discovered in black garbage bags inside a Yonkers dumpster on June 27, 1992. Her exact date of death remains uncertain. For nearly three decades she was known only as the Yonkers Jane Doe before DNA and forensic genealogy led to her identification in 2021.
- Medford Jane Doe: The unidentified woman’s remains were discovered on December 7, 1994, inside a blue Rubbermaid garbage can along Long Island Avenue between Yaphank and Medford in Suffolk County. She was believed to have been between 20 and 30 years old. She had reddish-brown hair and a distinctive tattoo on her left arm depicting a red heart and a banner bearing the name “Adrian.” Her exact date of death is unknown, and she remains publicly unidentified.
- Lisa Ann Warner, 18: Warner lived in Jamaica, Queens. Her remains were discovered on April 6, 1995, on a conveyor belt at a Brooklyn recycling plant. Investigators determined that the bags containing her remains had originally been placed in a dumpster in Nassau County and were later transported to the plant by a garbage truck. Her exact date of death was not established.
- Kelly Sue Bunting, 28: Bunting lived in Hollis, Queens, and was also known by the name “Melani.” She was last seen alive on December 8, 1995, entering an older blue Cadillac driven by a white man near Jamaica Avenue. Her body was discovered on December 11, 1995, inside a dumpster behind a sheet-metal company on Old Walt Whitman Road in Melville. She had been wrapped in a sleeping bag and plastic garbage bags. Investigators identified her through her distinctive tattoos because her hands had been removed.
The Investigation
The discovery of Kelly Sue Bunting provided investigators with the most important clues in the case. Detectives interviewed women who worked along Jamaica Avenue, and several described a man who frequently approached women while driving a blue Cadillac. Two witnesses led police to a house in Hicksville where a Cadillac matching that description was parked.
The vehicle was registered to Robert Shulman’s younger brother, Barry, who lived in another apartment in the same building. Investigators also traced the type of sleeping bag in which Bunting had been found. The sleeping bag was sold by Sears, and records connected Robert Shulman to purchases from the store. Women familiar with the Jamaica Avenue area subsequently identified him as the man who drove the Cadillac.
Additional evidence connected Shulman’s home, vehicle and workplace to the victims. Cadaver dogs reacted to areas of the Cadillac, suggesting that human remains had been transported in it. Investigators also recovered fibers and other trace evidence consistent with material found around the bodies. The increasingly strong collection of physical evidence and witness accounts focused the investigation directly on Shulman.
Arrest and Confessions
Robert Shulman was arrested near his Hicksville home on April 6, 1996, exactly one year after Lisa Ann Warner’s remains had been discovered. During questioning, Shulman confessed to killing Warner, Bunting and the unidentified Medford woman. He later admitted responsibility for the killings of Lori Vasquez and the woman then known as the Yonkers Jane Doe, who was identified many years later as Meresa Hammonds.
When police searched Shulman’s apartment, they found extensive evidence of violence. Investigators detected numerous bloodstains throughout his room, including stains on walls, furniture and other surfaces. Forensic testing connected blood and trace evidence recovered from the apartment to several of the victims. The condition of the residence supported Shulman’s confession that the women had been killed and dismembered there.
Shulman described using heavy objects to beat his victims. He then attempted to erase evidence of their identities by removing body parts and cleaning or covering the remains with substances such as baking soda or calcium carbonate. His decision to dump the victims in several jurisdictions initially made it difficult for investigators to recognize that the cases were connected.
Barry Shulman’s Involvement
During questioning, Barry Shulman admitted that he had helped his brother remove and dispose of remains on several occasions. Barry maintained that he had not participated in the killings, but he acknowledged that he knew Robert was committing serious crimes and nevertheless helped conceal the evidence.
Barry was arrested and charged with assisting his brother. He was eventually convicted of helping dispose of the victims’ bodies and received a two-year prison sentence. The relatively brief sentence angered prosecutors and members of the victims’ families, who believed his repeated assistance had allowed Robert Shulman’s crimes to remain undetected for years.
Suffolk County Trial
Shulman was tried in Suffolk County for the murders of Lisa Ann Warner, Kelly Sue Bunting and Medford Jane Doe. His defense attorneys attempted to challenge the reliability of his confession and suggested that Barry might have been responsible for the killings. Prosecutors countered with Shulman’s detailed admissions, witness identifications and forensic evidence recovered from his apartment, vehicle and workplace.
On March 5, 1999, a jury found Robert Shulman guilty of murdering all three women. Because the crimes had been committed in a similar manner and one occurred after New York reinstated capital punishment, prosecutors sought the death penalty. The jury voted to impose death, and Shulman was formally sentenced to execution by lethal injection on July 13, 1999.
Westchester County Convictions
The killings of Lori Vasquez and Meresa Hammonds were prosecuted separately in Westchester County because both bodies had been abandoned in Yonkers. On January 4, 2000, Shulman pleaded guilty to murdering the two women. Since those crimes occurred before New York’s revised death-penalty law took effect, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison rather than death for those convictions.
Shulman was therefore legally held responsible for five murders. Investigators considered the possibility that he had killed additional women, particularly because he had targeted people whose disappearances might not immediately be reported. However, no additional murders were conclusively attributed to him in court.
Death Sentence Overturned
Shulman remained on New York’s death row while his convictions and sentence were reviewed. In 2004, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s death-penalty sentencing procedure was unconstitutional. On October 25, 2005, the court affirmed Shulman’s murder convictions but set aside his death sentence.
His sentence was ultimately converted to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. He was transferred to Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, where he continued serving his sentences for the five murders.
Death and Legacy of the Case
In April 2006, Shulman became seriously ill and was transported from prison for medical treatment. His condition deteriorated, and he was transferred to Albany Medical Center. Robert Yale Shulman died there from natural causes on April 13, 2006, at the age of 52.
The case demonstrated how vulnerable victims could be targeted repeatedly before authorities recognized a common pattern. Shulman attempted to hide the identities of the women by dismembering their bodies and disposing of them in different counties, but witness cooperation, forensic evidence and determined police work eventually connected the crimes.
The 2021 identification of Meresa Hammonds restored a name to a woman who had been known as a Jane Doe for nearly 30 years. Medford Jane Doe, however, remains unidentified. Her distinctive “Adrian” tattoo and physical description continue to represent the hope that she may one day be identified and returned to her family under her true name.
