Hagen Lawrence Roberts, 41, received life plus five years for the 2020 stabbing death of Cynthia Capps in Virginia Beach.
Crime Discovery
On October 8, 2020, Capps’ husband returned from a shower to find her missing, spotting a single drop of blood on the kitchen floor. Police traced it to Roberts, a roommate “wet from showering” with a bandaged hand cut. They breached his locked room, found backyard bloodstains, and her body stuffed in a toolbox—stabbed 90+ times in head/face/neck, knife tip shard in skull.
Evidence and Trial
Matching bloody broken-tip knife, bloodied clothes, and DNA tied Roberts to the scene. Jury convicted him of first-degree murder and felony stabbing in November 2025 after three-day trial. Judge Stephen C. Mahan deemed evidence “overwhelming” for the “savage” act, exceeding guidelines.
Sentencing Reaction
Roberts protested innocence: “I have remorse but can’t admit what I didn’t do.” Victim’s brother Cavan evoked Hitchcock’s Psycho: “Worse than anything on TV.” Case highlights persistence—one blood drop cracked it after five years.
