Background: Police investigate the crime scene on Green Cedar Lane in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where the remains of Cynthia Capps were found in October 2020 (WAVY/YouTube). Inset: Hagen Roberts (Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office).
A man is set to spend the rest of his life inside a prison for stabbing a woman in Virginia more than 90 times and then packing her remains into a toolbox.
Hagen Lawrence Roberts, 41, was sentenced to life in prison plus five years, the City of Virginia Beach announced. He was convicted in November of first-degree murder and stabbing in the commission of a felony in the death of 63-year-old Cynthia Capps.
Prosecutors recounted that on Oct. 8, 2020, Capps’ husband called 911 and told them that he had taken a shower and when he came out, he was unable to find his wife. When he searched around the home and discovered “a single drop of blood on their kitchen floor,” he decided to call the police.
Officers with the Virginia Beach Police Department responded to the home and investigated. They were told that Capps and her husband rented a room in their home to Roberts, and when they tried to enter his bedroom, they noticed it was locked.
The cops “breached the door and found Roberts lying on his bed,” the police department said, finding that he “appeared to be wet from recently taking a shower and had a cut on his right hand that was wrapped in a black bandana.” As officers continued to search the property, they “discovered blood stains in the backyard.”
Investigators found Capps’ remains “in a toolbox with trauma to her head and face.” An analysis of her body “determined that Capps had been stabbed over 90 times on the head, face, and neck” with forensic evidence finding that a “metal shard, which appeared to be the tip of a knife, was removed from Capps’ skull.”
Inside Roberts’ room, officers found a “black folding knife with a broken tip covered in dried blood,” as well as blood-covered clothes in the outside trash can and bloodstains throughout the house. The metal shard was also found to be a “direct match” to the folding knife found in the room.
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DNA from both Capps and Roberts was found on the knife, the clothing, and in the bloodstains, prosecutors added. Roberts was arrested, though he maintained his innocence.
“The picture you’re painting of me as a menace to society, and a killer with no remorse, is not true,” Roberts said, according to The Virginia-Pilot. “I do have remorse. But I can’t lie and admit to something I didn’t do.”
The presiding judge in the case, however, called the evidence against Roberts “overwhelming,” and the defendant was given the maximum sentence possible. City of Virginia Beach officials did not mention a suspected motive in their press releases announcing Roberts’ conviction and sentencing.
Capps’ obituary says she was a “dedicated mother and wife.” It adds: “Throughout her life she overcame huge obstacles. She was and is deeply loved and cherished.”
