Ivy League professor Rafael Robb was an expert in game theory, a complex melding of psychology, human behavior and economics -- all aimed at determining what one's adversary will do next.
With that background, police say, Robb may have thought he could outsmart them.
Robb, who is originally from Israel, was charged this week with bludgeoning his wife to death after what police called a bungled attempt to make it look like a burglary.
"The efforts to throw police off were amateurish," District Attorney Bruce Castor said.
Police said the 56-year-old tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania killed his wife in the kitchen of their suburban home Dec. 22 because he feared a ruinous divorce.
Crime scene investigators realized that glass from a broken window had not been trampled on. The family dog, which had been locked in a bedroom, did not bark. And Robb's alibi -- that he was in Philadelphia -- did not entirely check out.
And, police added, no stranger would have beaten the stay-at-home mother beyond recognition.
Punishment
"This was an attack that was designed to punish somebody who was threatening him," the district attorney said.
Police believe Robb feared a divorce would wreck him financially and harm his relationship with his 12-year-old daughter. The divorce lawyer had told Ellen Robb she could expect about US$4,000 a month for 10 to 15 years.
If convicted of murder, Robb could get life in prison.
Friends knew the couple kept separate bedrooms, and could see the tension between husband and wife.
"I, unfortunately, in the last couple years, did not have any conversations with her because she was withdrawn so much," said Becky Best, who was maid of honor at the couple's wedding in 1990.
The couple had met through a dating service a few years before their marriage, she said.
The couple's fragile equilibrium started to break last year, when Ellen Robb hired a divorce lawyer, leased an apartment and confided to a friend that Robb had struck her, authorities said. She planned to move out on Jan. 1.
Four days before her 50th birthday, Ellen Robb was beaten as she wrapped presents in the kitchen. Robb told police he discovered her body after dropping off his semester grades at Penn.
Response
Police questioned Robb's supposed response to finding the body. Robb said he touched his wife's body and brought his briefcase and laptop computer up-stairs. He then checked on the family dog, stopped in the bathroom and laundry room, and walked to his car before calling for help from a cellphone, according to court papers.
Defense lawyer Francis Genovese said police still have no physical evidence to tie Robb to the crime, even after searching his home, office and car and taking blood and fingerprint samples.
Penn officials declined to comment, noting only that someone else would be taking over Robb's coursework this semester.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
RSS