Robert Sylvester Alston

Serial Killer

Robert Sylvester Alston: The Greensboro Serial Killer

Robert Sylvester Alston is an American serial killer responsible for the murders of at least four women in Greensboro, North Carolina, between 1991 and 1993. His crimes involved strangulation, sexual violence in at least some cases, and the concealment or mutilation of victims' bodies. For years, the murders were investigated separately while Greensboro police tried to determine whether a single offender was targeting women in the city. Alston was eventually convicted of four murders, while investigators also considered him a suspect in additional unsolved killings. Alston's confirmed victims were JoAnne Robinson, Sharon Martin, Shameca Warren, and Lois Elizabeth Williams. The available historical record establishes the month or general period of death for some of the women but does not reliably establish an exact calendar day in every case. For that reason, dates should not be made more precise than the surviving records support. In other cases, such as Lois Williams, the date her body was discovered is well established.

Early Life

Robert Sylvester Alston was born on May 19, 1969, in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was the son of Jack and Dorothy Alston and grew up with a sibling in Greensboro. Accounts from people who knew the family described the household as financially modest but stable and respected. Alston, however, was remembered as unusually withdrawn and socially isolated. He attended Grimsley High School and graduated in 1987. He briefly attended a junior college in Georgia but left after his first semester. Alston later entered a relationship and became the father of two children. For a period he lived in Wilmington, Delaware, before the relationship ended and he returned to Greensboro. During the early 1990s he worked a succession of relatively low-paying jobs and was employed as a dishwasher at the Rock-Ola Cafe on Battleground Avenue around the time of his arrest.

The Beginning of the Murders

Alston's first confirmed murder occurred in April 1991, not long after his return to Greensboro. His victim was 23-year-old JoAnne Robinson. Robinson was strangled, and her body was abandoned in eastern Greensboro only a short distance from the neighborhood where Alston was living. The killing would later become important because investigators discovered that several women murdered during the following years had been found within the same general section of the city. Approximately six months later, 26-year-old Sharon Martin was killed. Her murder was particularly disturbing because her body was dismembered after death and the remains were separated. Portions of Martin's body were discovered at different locations in Greensboro. By late November 1991, utility workers had discovered her head and a hand in a wooded area near Jackson Middle School. The dispersal of her remains made the investigation considerably more difficult and left her family without all of her remains for burial. ...

Confirmed Victims: (4)

JoAnne Robinson Age: (23), Date of Death: 1991-04

Suspected Victims:

Denise Bernice Robinson Age: (22), Date of Death: 1992-09-22

Cheryl Lynn Mason Age: (35), Date of Death: 1991

Robert Sylvester Alston - Wikipedia