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I wonder if Robert Cooper came the the US for education at CU. Perhaps students can be cross-referenced with the family names related through ancestral DNA?
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In a Youtube documentary on the murder, witnesses said he spoke with a Romanian or South Slavic accent.I believe the oxygen channel had a show about this a few months ago. Law-enforcement believes he might be from the middle east area of the world and yes there are organizations that use foot torture and the show stated that the police we’re going to try the same DNA method they used to catch the Golden State killer and hoped they could catch this guy.
In a Youtube documentary on the murder, witnesses said he spoke with a Romanian or South Slavic accent.
I was thinking that he just made a mistake giving himself a laceration or gave one to himself on purpose for some reason. After all this Robert Cooper guy clearly knows what he’s doing and is not stupid.Regarding the theories that the killer was Israel Keyes wearing a disguise - I'm thinking that it's possible that one of Keyes' unidentified victims spoke with a Romanian accent, and that Keyes feigned this accent and purposely planted a drop of their blood at the crime scene to throw off investigators.
Robert Cooper seems to be an abnormally competent and smart criminal, considering him sterilizing the stuff he touched, knowing how long it takes for security camera footage to be wiped so there’s no footage of him buying the prepaid phone, and leaving said cellphone in a place where many homeless people frequent.This might not make sense given this case is almost 20 years old but i wonder if police ever thought about in 2004 or 2005 staging a way to find the killer meaning they would have someone probably a local or retired police officer or detective who could defend themselves place an Ad similar to what Al Kite did and specifically say they were looking for a male tenant for a shared property they own in the area to see if someone who matched Robert Cooper description would respond wanting to look at or rent the place. This way they might be able to find out who this guy is since it was reported he saw other property owners before and more likely after meeting and killing Al Kite.
I agree. It would likely be a new mo. He's too clever but I do think he's committed additional crimes. Knowing he's such a skilled conman, makes absolutely anything possible. He derived real pleasure from what he did to Al Kite. Imo, he's the creepiest and most frightening killer I can think of. Torture is another level of violence.Robert Cooper seems to be an abnormally competent and smart criminal, considering him sterilizing the stuff he touched, knowing how long it takes for security camera footage to be wiped so there’s no footage of him buying the prepaid phone, and leaving said cellphone in a place where many homeless people frequent.
There’s even speculation that he faked the Romanian accent and placed the drop of blood of a victim of Romanian descent at the scene just to dupe investigators into believing it was his and throw them off.
I doubt he’d go about renting under an alias again to find another victim.
This crime was very well premeditated and I believe all of those are worth considering. RC seems to be a thrill seeking malignant narcissist; him sleeping in his bed is something that would leave a ton of clues behind. Have they determined if he laundered the bed sheets, pillowcases, etc?I'm intrigued by the idea that the drop of blood they found isn't actually the killer's but somebody else's he may have carried to plant a false trail.
I'm not a medical expert, but when examining splattered blood is it possible to pinpoint how long ago it left the body? That could tell us if the blood came out of the killer at the time of the murder, or if it could have come from a vial of blood the killer may have carried with him in order to intentionally deposit at the crime scene.
I've never been convinced of the romanian connection. As mentioned by another poster above, accents are easily faked, and a good faker could probably fool even a language professor, especially if they only heard him speak a few brief sentences.
Regarding the relatives in the balkans they supposedly found, have they mentioned whether those relatives are actually in romania, or another balkan country?
They mentioned he slept in Al's bed after the murder. Did they find any hairs in the bed, or anywhere else in the house? If not it may indicate the killer had a shaved head, and wore a wig as a disguise.
Robert Cooper is evidently neither stupid nor incompetent, which is assuredly among the reasons this case went cold. But with this 41% match, perhaps it could be solved within the next few years maybe? They could possibly reach out to authorities and DNA profilers in Romania/Turkey/or wherever.Surprisingly, I found new info in an two-part episode covering the case on The Deck podcast (Part 1, Part 2). I consider it reliable because it is coming directly from an Aurora police agent, Tom Sobieski, who is interviewed extensively in the episodes.
First, Agent Sobieski notes that they do not believe the suspect slept at Al Kite's house (this has been mistakenly spread on the internet). They do believe he spent a significant amount of time in the home, however.
Second, as noted, the English professor identified a Romanian accent from the suspect. In 2017, this was confirmed through phenotyping and genetic genealogy via Parabon Nanolabs. They could not find any traces of the suspects family using genealogy, which further confirmed to Agent Sobieski that the suspects family is likely from outside the US.
Third, they are making additional progress in genealogy. In 2021, Agent Sobieski retired. In 2022, Jason McDonald was hired as a cold case detective and took on Al's case. Using United Data Connect (a local company that uses to DNA to solve cold cases), they started digging further into the suspects genealogy. They have identified a high value match (41%), which indicates some relation. The suspect and this person are likely 3rd or 4th cousins, sharing the same great great grandparents. They are actively working on mapping this family tree.
This seems promising, and that we could likely see resolution in this case in the near future.
Witness statements place the age range 40-50.Hi everyone.
What do we think, or has it been mentioned, the highest age we think for the suspect?
What is possible by what we know? If anything?