Case #17: The Murder of Mona Lisa Abney

 On January 28th, 1978, crime scene Technician Scott Boatright was called to a homicide at a Holiday Inn in Tysons Corner, Virginia. 

The victim was 25-year-old Mona Lisa Abney. Her body was discovered when the maid entered the hotel room in order to clean it. Mona's hotel room had been ransacked, and her cash, credit cards, and jewelry were all missing. 

However, something Scott Boatright would notice was that the ransacking had been staged. Boatright had also noted that the killer may have wanted it to look like there was a bigger struggle than what had actually occurred. 

The medical examiner would go on to determine that Mona Lisa Abney had been raped and strangled. This does seem to match up with how she was found. She was found laying on her back, almost named from her waist down. 

The investigators (mainly a man named Ron Yeager) actually began working their way through the hotel. One of the people they talked to was a maid who claimed to have let a man into Mona's room. The maid had reportedly done this because the man said he didn't have his key and didn't want to wake Mona. What I find strange is that this happened an hour after Mona checked in. 

The maid described this man as a white male who was about 6 feet tall, and had a stocky build. This is important because, among the evidence collected at the crime scene, was a hair that was determined to have belonged to a caucasian male, as well as semen. 

While investigators were going through Mona's hotel room, her phone rang. On the other end was her husband, Wilbert Abney. Something investigators took note of was the fact the Wilbert did not appear emotional at all when he was told his wife was dead.  

Now, If I were to play devil's advocate, I could say that it may have been something that was sprung on him, and he didn't know how to react.

However, this was not the only strange behavior Wilbert displayed. Investigators, as well as friends and family all noted that Wilbert's demeanor appeared cold and emotionless. Adding on to that a little bit, Mona's friend Patricia said that Wilbert seemed relaxed when he told her that Mona was dead. 

What's even more suspicious is that Wilbert tried to collect an insurance policy. The investigation turned toward trying to find out if Abney hired someone to kill his wife. 

Another curious piece investigators uncovered was that Abney was having an affair. Wilbert had called his girlfriend to tell her his wife was dead roughly an hour before he had been informed of her death by the police. This means he had knowledge of her death prior to his conversation with the police. 

Where investigators would always come up short is the fact that they didn't have a way to place him in the hotel room, something Abney seemed to know, and possibly thought of ahead of time.   

But, things seemed to come a little more into place while investigators hunted for the mysterious white male. A suspect came up by the name of Michael Grotto. Grotto was being held in another county for assault charges, and looks very similar to a police sketch that was composed of this unknown white male. 

To add on that, the maid I mentioned earlier actually pointed Grotto out in a line up as the man she let into Mona's hotel room. 

But, things seemed hit a stone wall again. A search warrant was issued for Grotto's hair. Forensics experts said the hair sample had a lot of similarities to the hair in Mona's hotel room, but it ultimately wasn't a match. 

At this point, Mona's case was shelved for about two decades. 

Fast forward to 2004. Two cold case detectives found a box of untouched evidence from this case. The evidence that they realized could potentially help them the most was actually a rape kit. Evidence was still on the swabs. 

The evidence was then sent to a forensic scientist named Mary Green. 

She was able to detect the presence of semen on one of the swabs, and was also able to extract a DNA profile. 

This was the first break in the case for the cold case detectives. 

The cold case detectives circle back to Michael Grotto. Grotto had a history of forcible rapes. He was also known to hang around that Holiday Inn. 

But, even with much more advanced DNA sampling, Grotto was still eliminated as a suspect. At this point, the cold case detectives believe that the maid simply made a mistake in identifying Grotto. 

At this point, I want to point out that (as many people already know) eyewitness testimony is incredibly unreliable. 

So, Michael Grotto was officially crossed off of the suspect list. Again. From here, investigators found their way back to Mona's husband, Wilbert Abney. 

Not long before Mona's death, Wilbert had taken out a life insurance policy on his wife. 

It was also believed that Wilbert Abney was most likely having at least one affair while he was married. 

Investigators decided they wanted to talk to Abney. By this time, Abney had a new wife. The two were living with Abney's mother. 

When investigators went to Abney's house, his reaction to the news that they were re-opening his wife's murder case tipped them off that something was wrong. 

They said his reaction was something to the effect of: "Why would you do that?" 

To make things even worse for him, he refused when the cold case detectives asked him for a sample of his DNA.

But, Abney's current wife convinced him to give them his DNA. 

Abney's DNA was sent to Mary Green at the crime lab. 

In case you haven't guessed yet, Abney's DNA was indeed a match to the DNA from the crime scene. 

And now, we will be talking a little bit about Michael Clark. 

Clark was Abney's former neighbor. Clark had received a call not long after Mona's death. Abney asked Clark to go with him to identify her body, on the condition that Clark drives. Clark agreed. During the drive, Abney started talking about spending a bunch of life insurance money, and how he was going to be rich. 

As the two began nearing a bridge, Abney rolled down his window and tossed what Clark said looked like latex gloves over the bridge railing. 

Clark had stated that the entire time he was in the car with Abney, he felt uncomfortable. 

Two months later, the cold case investigators returned to Abney's home. They told Abney the DNA was a match. Abney immediately began to deny killing his wife, but didn't offer any explanation for how his DNA was at the crime scene (probably because he didn't know how to lie his way out of that situation). 

He did agree to take a polygraph test, and failed it. 

After this, Abney called the police several times, fishing for information about what he would be charged with "if he did it," how much time would he serve "if he did it," where would be imprisoned "if he did it." 

After a month of Abney asking police all of these questions, he finally decided he was ready to tell his story, or at least, a story. 

He claimed he went to the Holiday Inn that night. He said he and Mona had rough sex, and that she asked him to choke her with his belt, and then he accidentally killed her. 

However, Abney blundered. In his story, he didn't account for Mona's missing valuables. Oops. 

Wilbert Abney was arrested and indicted for murder. Wilbert's trial lasted four days. Shockingly, the jury didn't believe his story about accidentally killing Mona during rough sex, and he was found guilty, and sentenced to 28 years in prison. 

Side Note:

I did try to find any update on Wilbert Abney. I wasn't able to, so it looks like he is still serving his prison time. 

Sources: 

“Cold Case Files - A Knock at the Door/Shattered.” Season 5, episode 22.