Podcast Focuses on 30-Year Cold Case from Carmel

By Holly Crocco

More than 30 years after 17-year-old Robin Murphy vanished from Carmel, her case is again in the spotlight as a Hudson Valley podcaster highlights the man who he believes may be behind the mystery.

After the success of season one of “The Devil’s Quarry,” which highlighted the 1994 murder of 12-year-old Josette Wright of Carmel and the cases of Anthony DiPippo and Andrew Kirvak, “Rolling Stone” journalist Paul Solotaroff is back with season two, which focuses on Howard Gombert.

Murphy vanished April 9, 1995, and her disappearance remains a cold case. According to various news reports, she was last seen at 7:30 p.m., leaving the ShopRite shopping center, which was about a mile from her home and where she worked after dropping out of high school. She had borrowed her mother’s red Oldsmobile to meet her boyfriend, Matt Esposito, for dinner, but never arrived. The car was found in the parking lot.

Several days later, her keys, wallet, purse, and checkbook were allegedly discovered in a marshy area behind the shopping center.

Esposito was questioned and cleared.

In 2000, Howard Gombert Jr., was arrested on sexual assault and child endangerment charges. During that investigation, police allegedly found underwear in a suitcase at his girlfriend’s house that had Murphy’s DNA on it.

According to www.thecharleyproject.org, Gombert, a former Carmel resident, said he was Murphy’s “best friend” and that the two had spoken that day. He worked at a laundromat in the same plaza as ShopRite and said he collected clothes left behind by customers and would donate them.

He was never charged in the case.

The same year Murphy went missing, the remains of 12-year-old Josette Wright of Carmel were discovered in a wooded area off a dirt road not far from Route 311 in Patterson. She had gone missing the year before.

DiPippo and Krivak were found guilty of her murder, but after 20 years were exonerated after separate retrials overturned their convictions.

During those retrials, it was reported that an inmate in Connecticut prison claimed Gombert confessed that he was Wright’s killer.

With Gombert’s release approaching in December, Solotaroff returns to Carmel to investigate Murphy’s final days, track down people who have remained silent for decades, and pursue new information.

Solotaroff has collaborated with The Innocence Project as a “social justice avenger.” The first season of his podcast focused on alleged “horrific police misconduct” and “crooked cops.” After delegating himself to help get Krivak out of prison, he said, “Every time I peeled a layer back, the onion smelled worse.”

That’s when he started looking into Gombert, saying, “I’ve never met anyone as remarkably evil as that man.”

Solotaroff said he is appalled that, after being convicted of a brutal sexual attack on a 7-year-old, Gombert will be walking away a free man at the end of the year.

“That S-O-B got 30 years from a Connecticut judge,” said Solotaroff. “Why he wasn’t tried for rape in the first is known only to the morons in the Connecticut criminal justice system.”

The vigilante reporter said listeners can expect to hear “fireworks” in the eight-part podcast series. It can be heard on all steaming platforms, including iTunes, IHeartRadio, Spotify.