Episode 48 - The Robinson Family

In February last year police, after receiving a 911 call, found Linda Robinson and her 12 year old son Sebastian shot dead in their home. They had been killed by husband and father Andrew Robinson who had also taken their own life.

This is the story of Linda and Sebastian Robinson. 

Information and support 

·       Samaritans UK Contact Us | Samaritans 

·       National Domestic Violence Helpline UK 0808 2000 247 

·       Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA) Home - AAFDA 

·       Women’s Aid www.womensaid.org.uk  

·       Mental health support USA I'm looking for mental health help for myself | Mental Health America (mhanational.org) 

·       Domestic abuse helpline USA 1.800.799.SAFE Domestic Violence Support | National Domestic Violence Hotline (thehotline.org) 

References 

Who Is Andrew Robinson? Andover Father Suspected of Murdering Wife and Son - Newsweek

Andover Tragedy as Family of Three Found Shot Dead - Newsweek

Linda C. Robinson - CR Lyons & Sons Funeral Directors

Sebastian J. Robinson - CR Lyons & Sons Funeral Directors

Robinson Suffering From Depression Before Andover Murder-Suicide: DA | Andover, MA Patch

Vigils held for Andover family killed in apparent murder-suicide - CBS Boston

Credits 

Hosted and created by Clare Laxton @ladylaxton 

Produced by: Clare Laxton  

Killer in the family podcast (buzzsprout.com)

Music from Pixabay. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Family Tragedy
• 7:37 Unanswered Questions Surrounding Family Tragedy

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi there and welcome to Killer in the Family podcast. I'm your host, claire Laxton. Welcome to episode 48 of the podcast and don't forget that you can send me messages through the fan mail link in the episode notes. So I actually got a message this week asking if the pod was available anywhere ad free. Thank you so much for your message and, as this listener and you guys may have noticed, recently there have been some adverts in the podcast. It's a way to generate a bit of money from the podcast, though I haven't made any actual profit yet. So I made about ten dollars from the adverts and it cost me twenty dollars a month to host the podcast, so anyway, anyway. So yeah, no profit has been made yet, but it is a little way to generate some money from it. So at the moment, the podcast isn't available ad free. In the future, I might create like a subscription option where you can get it ad free. So please do watch this space, but in the meantime, I just wanted to say how much I really appreciate all of you brilliant listeners for subscribing, sharing, downloading and for all your support as well. Also, just to let you know that after this episode, I'll be taking a few weeks break from the podcast as it's my birthday, so my husband has organised a bit of a party and we're going away, so just taking a bit of time for some R&R. After that, I'll be back for some episodes before the Christmas break too, and I can't believe that we're near episode 50. Amazing.

Speaker 1: 1:54

So let's get straight into this. In February last year, police, after receiving a 911 call, found Linda Robinson and her 12-year-old son, sebastian, shot dead in their home. They'd been killed by husband and father, andrew Robinson, who had also taken his own life. This is the story of Linda and Sebastian Robinson. This is going to be a tough, tough listen team. There is information and links in the episode notes if you need any support, and for this episode I've relied mostly on news articles from the Boston Globe and other sources. It happened quite recently, so there's not loads of stuff out there, but as usual, all my sources are linked in the episode notes.

Speaker 1: 2:59

So let's start by talking about Linda. She was born Linda Hachet on the 25th of July 1967 in a town called Lynn in Massachusetts, america, and she was born to parents Joseph and Claudette. She apparently spent her childhood in both the US and Canada and graduated in 1985 from Lynn English High School. Now, apparently, at high school Linda was a member of the yearbook team so compiled the sort of end of year year yearbook. She was in the maths team and the drama club, which apparently she loved, so you know, real high achiever there.

Speaker 1: 3:36

In high school and after graduating, linda attended Merrimack College in Andover, which is also a town in Massachusetts, and studied accounting. She graduated in 1990. And it was at this college that Linda actually met her first husband, a guy called Sean Quinn. They went on to marry in 1998 and separated in the early 2000s. Their divorce was finalised in 2006. And I couldn't find anything to suggest that it was acrimonious and although they didn't speak often, when asked about Linda, sean told the Boston Globe quote the Linda that I was married to was a wonderful person. Now, after college, linda stayed and lived in Andover for more than 30 years, so she sort of stayed where. She went to university, basically, and she worked as a model and then went on to forge a really successful career in HR and finance and apparently she worked for 25 years at the same company, which was a company called SEMA4 Inc. And she eventually moved up to their finance director. Now, in 2020 she did leave her job as she was juggling sort of family life and her career and that became like quite a big challenge. So she did leave her job to just sort of concentrate on her family.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Now couldn't find any information about how Linda met her second husband, andrew Robinson but Robinson, sometimes in some sources I've seen called Andy or Drew also graduated high school Barrington High School in 1985. And according to the Boston Globe he was a great swimmer and set records with the swimming team in the high school. So again, quite a high achiever there. He went on to Dartmouth College and he graduated with a degree in psychology in 1989 and apparently he actually went back to his old high school to teach swimming again before starting a career in construction. So he worked for 20 years at a company called BWK Construction and sort of moved up the ranks to become a project manager. He worked both on residential and commercial projects. Before he killed his whole family he worked at a company called Channel Building Co but quit six months before the murders. Now, as I said, I couldn't find any information about how Linda and Robinson met, but according to the Boston Globe they married in 2007 and lived on Porter Road in Andover. Now, apparently, it was the second marriage for both of them. We've already talked about Linda's first husband, but I couldn't find any information at all about Robinson's first marriage, so the couple welcomed a son in 2010.

Speaker 1: 6:23

And Sebastian Gene Robinson was born on the 26th of June 2010. His middle name was dedicated to Linda's mother. Sebastian was just 12 years old when he was killed by his father and at this time, he was a sixth grade student at a school called St John's Preparatory School in Danvers. Now, apparently, sebastian loved books and writing, riding his bike and being around animals. His obituary says, quote he played the cello in the school string ensemble, treasured literature and was a gifted writer. He went the extra mile in all of his assignments and creativity, with a desire to learn and a sense of wonder. Sebastian was a quiet, bright light in a circle of friends who was compassionate, classmate to those around him. He adored animals, his bike and his extensive lego collection. When sebastian just sounds like such a joyful, happy child and there's a really nice picture of him, uh, are on some of the news articles of him sort of playing his cello and, according to Linda's family and friends, she just absolutely loved being a mother and Sebastian was really the light of her life. Now.

Speaker 1: 7:37

Linda and Robinson were also said to be a happy and devoted couple who had very outgoing lives. They had a large group of friends and seemed to enjoy life in their community. They attended the local church and, you know, just had a happy life really. But, like many, they apparently became very isolated during the COVID pandemic and subsequent lockdown and apparently retreated into themselves even after the lockdown ended. Some of Linda's family said that they'd barely seen her and her family since the pandemic. Also, linda's mother died during the pandemic, which I can imagine added to her isolation and the family's retreat into themselves. By 2023, a once very happy family could said to be isolated and if they were facing any troubles, I'm not sure their family and friends would have known it. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 8:56

At 3.09am on Thursday, 9th February 2023, the police answered a 911 call. The call came from the Robinsons' house in Andover and police believed that it was Andrew Robinson himself who called 911. In the background of the call, the police could hear a boy's voice, now believed to be Sebastian, shouting in the background, hear a boy's voice, now believed to be Sebastian, shouting in the background. They also heard loud crashing noises, now believed to be gunshots. Police were immediately dispatched at 3.10am and arrived at the Robinsons' house at 3.18am. They had never been called to the home before. When they arrived at the Robinsons' they found a quiet home with no one answering the doors. They went around the back and found a sliding door that was open and they saw inside and saw linda robinson injured on the floor. Now, what police found inside when they entered the sliding door will stay with them from for years to come, I'm sure.

Speaker 1: 10:03

They found 55 year old Linda Robinson in the hallway of the house, just off the kitchen. She had been shot and killed. They found 12 year old Sebastian Robinson on the kitchen floor, also shot and killed. They then found 56 yearold Andrew Robinson on the floor of the family room. He was also dead and had been killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police found a nine-millimeter gun next to him. There were also spent bullet casings and live rounds found in both rooms. Police believe that Robinson shot and killed his wife and son before taking his own life.

Speaker 1: 11:07

Needless to say that the news of the murders of Linda and Sebastian were greeted with pure shock and horror in their community and with their family and friends. Many people just couldn't get their heads around why Robinson did what he did. In the aftermath of the murders, the police chief, patrick Keefe, said quote we know the how. Now we are trying to figure out the why. Why did Andrew Robinson call the police three o'clock in the morning? Why was there shouting in the background? Why was this all happening so early in the morning or late at night in the house? What happened in the hours before, when the family had come home? There were so many questions for people to answer.

Speaker 1: 11:56

Now, what police did find on further investigation was that Robinson was living with mental health problems, including depression, and he also had some physical health problems and was having a lot of trouble sleeping. Now he had sought medical treatment for his issues and was taking medication for both his mental and physical health problems both his mental and physical health problems. There isn't loads of information out there about the issues he was facing, but I've said it before and I'll say it again Living with mental health problems is nothing to be ashamed of, and just because someone has mental health issues, it doesn't mean that they are the cause of something like homicide. It is clear that Robinson was living with a range of issues which may or may not have been factors in what he did to his wife and son. It's also a possibility there were other things going on that we just don't know about.

Speaker 1: 12:52

As usual, so much of the media focus after the murders has been on Andrew, all about him and his life, and I hope this episode and us talking about Linda and Sebastian can help redress some of that balance. But it really feels like, as soon as the sort of police talked about Andrew's mental and physical health problems, that, like they decided that was the reason that he did what he did and it was sort of case closed. So there was no further investigation or exploration of their family life or why he did what he did, and it feels like there really could have been some more investigation here. And also, turning to the gun that Robinson used to kill his wife and son and take his own life, it was a nine millimetre handgun, so he did buy it legally, but it turned out that on the 1st of February 2022, so a year before the murders the licence that Robinson had to carry that gun expired and I think it's a really reasonable question to ask about why he was still able to have, carry and use that gun if his license had expired. Now I absolutely do not know the system completely in America or Massachusetts, but it feels like a reasonable assumption to me that if someone's gun license has expired, the police should investigate if they still have the gun and if they need to review or renew their license or have the gun taken away. Now I know that gun ownership in the US is a very, very different debate than it is in the UK, where we have much more stringent gun control laws, but I still think it's a reasonable question and as far as I can see, no one has really addressed that in the investigation. That in the investigation.

Speaker 1: 14:44

And the other thing that I really feel like wasn't explored enough was it hasn't been talked about in a lot of the news articles, but it was the COVID pandemic and lockdown and how much they contributed to these murders. You know, not only at that time did families have to stay in, but if they they had children, their children were being homeschooled. It felt like a really stressful time for any family, but also for Linda and Robinson in particular. Their community ties and regular links and sort of social events with family and friends were broken. Add to that losing her mother during this time. I'm sure it was really tough for Linda and the rest of the family. I lost my dad during COVID and it made a time that was already tough on my mental health even tougher Now.

Speaker 1: 15:31

I have also seen a couple of articles by the Boston Globe describing Andrew Robinson as a control freak, and it didn't really talk about what that meant. Apart from he was very controlling over how his time was spent, and you know me, that to me was a bit of a red flag and you know it made me think is there more here that no one else is seeing or talking about here that no one else is seeing or talking about? Is there some controlling behaviour happening, and how much was that exacerbated by the COVID lockdown? Now we have talked a bit before about how domestic abuse did worsen so much during the lockdown and I worry that that is exactly what was happening in this family and either Robinson made sure it was kept hidden or nobody knew how or where to go to for help. Again, this really hasn't been talked about in any of the news articles that I've seen. You know how much did COVID, maybe Robinson's controlling behaviour, contribute to this absolute horrific tragedy? I'd really like to find out more about this.

Speaker 1: 16:46

On the night of the 9th of February, the church where all the family attended held a memorial service and a vigil to remember Linda and Sebastian. There was also a vigil held at Sebastian's school. The head of school, ed Hardman, said quote Sebastian was a wonderful young man. He was a kind and gentle presence, well loved by his teachers. One of his classmates said quote he definitely meant a lot to me and I just feel like it's very tragic that he's passed away. It does still feel like there are so many unanswered questions about not only what happened to Linda and Sebastian, but what were some of those contributing factors there and whether Andrew could have been stopped from doing what he was doing. Now, I cannot imagine what the early hours of that morning were like for Linda and Sebastian, but I'm definitely thinking of them as we finish this episode. This episode is dedicated to Linda and Sebastian, to their lives lived full of love and friendship, and to their potentials unrealised.

Speaker 1: 17:56

This has been Killer in the Family podcast written and produced by me, claire Laxton. I'll be back in three weeks, on Friday, the 22nd of November, with a new episode, so please subscribe. Wherever you get your podcasts, don't forget to send me any comments or questions to my Insta at Killer in the Family pod or through the text via link in the episode notes. Do let me know any stories you'd like me to cover as well. Also, don't forget you can buy me a coffee if you like the podcast and help support its running. The link is in the episode notes. Until then, I've been Claire Laxton. This is Killer in the Family podcast. Until next time, take care, thank you. Thank you.