Robert Lee Barnes, a seventeen-year-old junior at Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Virginia, killed his sixteen-year-old classmate Meghan Landowski on April 10, 2008. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to first-degree murder, attempted rape, aggravated sexual battery, abduction, and statutory burglary, and was sentenced to 42 years in prison. The Robert Barnes and Meghan Landowski murder case took roughly six months to solve and turned on a mishandled DNA sample and a tip generated by a memorial walk.
What Happened to Meghan Landowski
Meghan was a dancer and a magnet-program student at Churchland High. On the afternoon of April 10, 2008, her stepfather, Navy Hospital Corpsman Chris Shortt, arrived home just after 4:00 p.m. and found her body in the dining room of their Simonsdale home. She had been stabbed more than 40 times, with fatal wounds to her neck. Her hands were bound behind her back, tape covered her mouth, and she had been sexually assaulted.1The Virginian-Pilot. Landowski’s Mother Wanted Killer to Admit Responsibility
Detective Sgt. Robert McDaniel of the Portsmouth Police Department, who worked the case, later called it the worst he had ever encountered.2WTKR. Inside the Mind of a Killer: The Murder of 16-Year-Old Meghan Landowski
How Investigators Found Robert Barnes
The investigation ran for six months and was worked jointly by Portsmouth police and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. NCIS was already involved with the family: Meghan’s parents had previously reported that a Navy officer and family friend, Lt. j.g. Robert Hicke, had inappropriately touched her, and NCIS had been investigating those allegations. Hicke became the initial primary suspect but was cleared when his DNA and shoe prints did not match evidence from the scene. A youth center counselor at the Navy shipyard was also investigated after a Florida laboratory’s biogeographical ancestry analysis of blood from a storm door handle suggested the donor would likely self-identify as African American. His DNA did not match either.3CBS News. 48 Hours: NCIS — To Catch a Killer
By September 2008, investigators had conducted numerous interviews and collected more than 80 voluntary DNA samples without a match.4Oxygen. Robert Barnes Murder of Virginia Teen Meghan Landowski The case opened up after a memorial walk organized by Meghan’s dance teacher produced a new tip. The tipster pointed police to a former school bus driver who had transported Meghan during her freshman year. The driver identified Robert Barnes as a student who had been flirtatious with Meghan on the bus.3CBS News. 48 Hours: NCIS — To Catch a Killer
Barnes was a talented violinist who studied at the Governor’s School for the Arts and served as concertmaster of the Bay Youth Orchestra concert orchestra. He had no criminal record.5The Virginian-Pilot. Shock, Relief Over Arrest in Portsmouth Teen’s Slaying According to Detective McDaniel, Barnes had a romantic interest in Meghan and had been rejected by her before the murder.2WTKR. Inside the Mind of a Killer: The Murder of 16-Year-Old Meghan Landowski
The Evidence Against Him
When investigators approached Barnes at his high school, he agreed to provide a DNA sample by handing them a piece of chewing gum he had been chewing. Forensic testing showed the gum was contaminated with female DNA, meaning Barnes had tried to switch the sample. At a later meeting, investigators noticed him using his jacket sleeve to avoid leaving touch-DNA on a car door handle.3CBS News. 48 Hours: NCIS — To Catch a Killer
Under questioning, Barnes first described a masked gunman, then admitted he had entered Meghan’s home through a window and acted alone. He acknowledged that a bloody footprint at the scene came from his shoes. A court-ordered DNA sample taken after his arrest on October 23, 2008 matched the crime scene evidence within roughly eight hours.3CBS News. 48 Hours: NCIS — To Catch a Killer
Investigators also recovered material from Barnes’s computer, including fantasies about breaking into houses and committing rape, along with a doctored photo of himself inserted into a news article about a burglary and sexual assault.4Oxygen. Robert Barnes Murder of Virginia Teen Meghan Landowski
The Guilty Plea and 42-Year Sentence
On February 18, 2010, Barnes appeared before Portsmouth Circuit Court Judge James Hawks and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, attempted rape, aggravated sexual battery, abduction, and statutory burglary. Commonwealth’s Attorney Earle Mobley presented the plea arrangement.
Judge Hawks sentenced Barnes to 42 years in prison: 38 years for the murder and two years each for the burglary and sexual battery, to be served consecutively. He suspended more than 100 years of additional prison time.6The Virginian-Pilot. Teen Sentenced to 42 Years in High-Profile Murder Case Barnes’s earliest possible release date is approximately 2045.3CBS News. 48 Hours: NCIS — To Catch a Killer Because of the sexual offenses, he is registered as a Tier 3 sex offender in Virginia with lifetime registration requirements.7Virginia State Police Sex Offender Registry. Robert Lee Barnes Offender Details
Attempt to Withdraw the Plea
In February 2012, Barnes filed a handwritten habeas corpus petition from prison without an attorney. He argued that his lawyers had been ineffective for not moving to suppress his DNA, his statements to police, and crime scene drawings, and he alleged that police tactics had coerced his confession and that his mother had pressured him to cooperate.8The Virginian-Pilot. 4 Years Later, Portsmouth Killer Tries to Erase Guilty Plea
Mobley called the petition a collection of “legal loopholes” and said the case had “airtight evidence.” Barnes’s former attorneys had told him they saw no legal or factual basis for an appeal. On June 27, 2012, Circuit Judge Dean W. Sword Jr. denied and dismissed the petition. Barnes’s earlier petitions for appeal had already been denied by the Virginia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Virginia.9The Virginian-Pilot. Appeal Based on Unlawful Incarceration Denied
Where Barnes Is Today
As of reporting updated in 2024, Barnes remains incarcerated at Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn, Virginia.2WTKR. Inside the Mind of a Killer: The Murder of 16-Year-Old Meghan Landowski Meghan’s family established the Meghan N. Landowski Memorial Fund to accept contributions in her memory.10The Virginian-Pilot. Meghan Landowski Obituary
A Different Robert Barnes Murder Case
An unrelated Texas case sometimes gets confused with this one. In Cypress, Texas, a different man named Robert A. Barnes, then 37, shot and killed his 72-year-old mother, Lucila Rosita Barnes, on October 20, 2021, and dismembered her legs to fit her body into a homemade wooden crate.11ABC13. Robert Andrew Barnes Convicted in Cypress Mom’s Killing He pleaded guilty to murder on June 8, 2023, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.12Fox 26 Houston. Houston Crime: Son Sentenced to Prison for Shooting, Dismembering His Mother That case has no connection to the Portsmouth defendant or to Meghan Landowski.