Prosecuting the menage-a-trois

In 2006, it looked like there might be some real leads. A series of search warrants with an escalating list of items of interest shows that police expected to find something that might link one or more of the occupants of the Swann Street townhouse to Robert Wone's death or a cover-up. Police were convinced that trace blood evidence showed that someone had tried to clean up after a bloody murder.

For a time, the investigation looked at Price's younger brother, Michael, a recovering drug abuser who'd been accused of burglarizing the trio's house months after the murder, and who'd missed his phlebotomy class the night Wone was killed. Investigators even obtained a warrant to gain access to the diaries of Louis Hinton, Michael's partner, in which Hinton stated that after Wone's murder Michael had suffered a relapse in his crack cocaine addiction.

Knife in evidence

To the public and the family, the investigation seemed to stall, but in October 2008, a grand jury finally charged the trio with conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and evidence tampering. This filing asserted that the three jointly or individually had cleaned up the crime scene and Wone himself, then made up the bed and placed him on top of it, along with a bloodied kitchen knife intended to support their story that an intruder had entered through the back door. It suggested that the men took the time to construct a story before calling 911, and that during the call Zaborsky had only pretended that Price was trying to stanch the flow of blood from Wone's wounds. It further alleged that the men deliberately misled police, including by neglecting to tell them Michael Price had in fact had keys to the townhouse.

At the same time, prosecutors put out an arrest warrant for Dylan Ward, then living in Florida. The three men were able to successfully petition for their immediate release.

A Notice of Uncharged Conduct issued in January 2010 again notes that the trio's intruder theory is implausible, and it notes Ward's electro-stimulation device, other sex toys and his sadomasochism and bondage books, as well as the ease of obtaining paralytic drugs. The document also shows that just a few months before the trial, prosecutors seemed to think that Michael Price may have been involved in the crime in some way, or that the trio thought he might be and wanted to protect him: It recounts the three men's reluctance to report their house's October 2006 burglary because they didn't want Michael to face legal action, and it notes that only at this time did Joseph Price finally admit to police that his brother had keys to the house.

With all of this widely discussed in the local press and online (www.whomurderedrobertwone.com was especially thorough) not a few people presumed the trio were guilty. The results of the trial would surprise them.