The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm Ali.
And I'm Eli.
Welcome back everyone.
We are on episode 97 this week.
Yes, this is episode 97.
I hope everyone's having a great summer.
We're cruising right into August, so I think we should just go ahead and get into this
case.
Could you remind myself and the listeners?
Is this a cold case or missing person case this week?
We're on a cold case this week.
All right, well let's get into it.
Today we are talking about the cold case of Connie Hiner.
And this takes place in January of 1996 in Ruston, Virginia, which is just outside of
Washington, D.C.
But first, a little bit about Connie.
Connie's full name was Constance, but she went by Connie and that's how everyone knew
her, and she had recently just celebrated her 48th birthday a few weeks prior to the
new year of 1996.
Connie had built herself from the ground up.
She had had several failed marriages by the time that she met her current husband, Bob
Hiner.
When Connie was in her early 20s, she found herself with a baby girl, her only daughter,
Brittany, and needing to start her life over.
With only a high school diploma, she got a job working as a secretary and would occasionally
bartend on the evenings for extra cash.
She put herself through real estate school and got her real estate license.
From there, she went on to college and got an accounting degree and eventually a master's
in business.
She married again and got a job working for low income housing and was eventually a vice
president of the company.
It's here that she met Bob Hiner.
The two were discreet, but eventually Connie left her marriage to marry Bob.
Folks at work were shocked when the two turned up married because they had hid their feelings
so well.
Connie, around this time, also finds herself involved in Landmark.
Landmark is a self-help program that some folks claim really works and transform their
lives.
Others have called Landmark, at best, a pyramid scheme and at worst, a cult.
There is a French documentary about Landmark called Voyage au Père au Nouveau Gros, which,
pardon my French if that is incorrect, but it translates roughly to The Journey to the
Land of the New Gurus.
The documentary is from 2004 and Landmark attempted to get it scrubbed off of the internet,
but eventually they dropped the case and it can still be found if you look for it.
For Connie, Landmark had really worked.
She took most of 1995 off on a sabbatical so she could focus on her training courses
and bettering herself.
As the new year approached, Connie landed her dream job.
She was hired as the Vice President of Finance for a real estate trust in Columbus, Ohio.
The job would require her to fly to Ohio every week.
She had rented a two-bedroom apartment there, but on weekends she would come home to be
with Bob.
The commute was a lot, but this was her dream job.
She was going to get the chance to run a company and would be on her way to becoming a millionaire.
And now a timeline of events.
On Sunday, January 1, 1996, Connie and Bob attended New Year's Dinner Party.
According to friends, the couple were happy and content with each other.
Connie was her usual bright and bubbly self.
She was excited and telling their friends about her new job.
She said that she had about a month of clothes currently packed.
Her dream was to be able to fly without suitcases in the future.
She was just planning on having everything she needed at the apartment.
Her friends joked with Bob, quote, well, she's coming back, isn't she?
End quote.
To which Bob responded, quote, oh, yes, of course.
End quote.
On Monday, January 2, 1996, Bob gets up to get ready for work.
As Bob gets ready to leave, Connie is still asleep despite her needing to leave for the
airport in an hour.
According to Bob, she wanted just a few more minutes of sleep.
Neighbors saw Bob leave around 710 that morning.
He got into his Mercedes Benz and drove off.
He had a work meeting that morning.
The person that he met with said that she didn't notice anything off or different about
him.
Connie had ordered a taxi to take her to the airport that morning.
The taxi driver arrived just a few minutes after eight.
He idled for a minute outside.
And when no one came out, he went up to the door to knock.
When he didn't get a response, he knocks again.
Still no answer.
The taxi driver makes one last attempt by trying to call the house number from his car
phone.
No one picks up.
Slightly annoyed, the taxi driver heads off, assuming that she had arranged another ride
and forgot to cancel.
Around noon that day, Bob returns home from lunch.
He walks into a massacre.
He finds Connie face down on their bedroom floor next to the bed.
She was in a pool of her own blood and nude.
Bob immediately calls the police, who swarm the upscale neighborhood.
Neighbors are shocked as nothing like this had ever happened there before.
Police begin to process the scene.
There are no signs of forced entry and nothing of value appeared to be missing.
Her purse was still there, her car was parked in the garage, and her suitcase still packed.
Police are able to tell immediately that this was a violent crime.
Later they'll refer to it as a crime of passion.
Police are able to tell that she was bludgeoned with something and stabbed.
Police do say that they're able to locate what they believe is the murder weapon.
Investigators will never officially say what it is that they took from the home.
Police believe that she was attacked while she was asleep.
As police collect evidence from around the house, they collect a lot.
They collect ashes from the fireplace, computers, date books.
There's a lot taken from the home.
One thing that they do notice is that despite the heavy rain that day, police didn't find
any evidence that someone had tracked something in.
No wet leaves, no mud, no shoe prints.
While police are gathering evidence at the Hiner home, investigators have taken Bob
to the station for an interview.
According to police, he was very calm and businesslike.
He was unable to provide any leads to police.
When they asked him why would someone want to kill your wife, reports say that he responded
with quote, it's a Washington thing, just crime in general, end quote.
When asked outright if he had anything to do with the death of his wife, Bob said no.
The next day, Tuesday, January 3rd, Connie's autopsy is conducted.
It confirms that she was stabbed and bludgeoned with something.
Most of the trauma was to her upper body.
Despite being found in the nude, she had not been sexually assaulted.
Police tell the media that they do have a strong lead, but again, decline to go into
detail about what that strong lead is.
Detective Dick Klein says quote, this was a crime of passion.
It was not your random burglary or execution or robbery.
This appeared to be personal.
Whoever did this was very, very angry.
No doubt about that, end quote.
I personally believe that one of the strong leads that police were pursuing at this time
is one of Connie's ex-husbands.
He'll later tell the Washington Post quote, I was being looked at as a candidate for suspect
hood.
I was a good suspect.
The ex-husband, I lived alone.
I had no alibi.
I was alone in my truck driving to work that morning.
No one would remember seeing me, end quote.
Four days after Connie's murder, on January 5th, Connie's wake is held.
This is where Connie's mother and sisters find out that she had been cremated and they're
upset.
Connie had grown up as a strong Catholic and they do not believe that Connie would have
wanted that.
However, in more recent years, Connie had drifted away from the Catholic faith and she
was more into New Age religion in the last years of her life.
She would regularly connect with psychics as well for guidance.
Brittany, Connie's daughter, will later tell the media that her mother did want to be cremated.
Connie's mother and sisters become suspicious of Bob, but Brittany insists that Bob could
not have done it.
It is noted that around 25 people from the Landmark organization come to the funeral
to pay their respects.
Some of the family are suspicious of them as well.
The next day, January 6th, Connie's funeral was supposed to be held, but a snowstorm forces
Bob to cancel it.
It's never rescheduled.
Years later, Brittany will say, quote, Bob and I asked the crematorium to dispose of
the ashes.
Then we lied and told everyone I was going to keep them.
Bob had the right to make that decision.
We didn't want to carry them around.
I didn't want to be 60 years old and carrying them around.
I didn't want them buried.
I didn't want a stone.
I didn't want to go to Kentucky to visit a grave.
I didn't want to have to take my kids there to visit a stone.
End quote.
Eventually, Connie's mother will convince Brittany to send her the ashes and she does
bury them in Kentucky.
In August of 1996, so it's been about eight months since the murder of Connie, police
make a plea to the public for any information in the murder.
Police say that Connie had no enemies and she was well liked by everyone in her life,
but investigators say they also haven't been able to rule anyone out as a suspect.
A thousand dollar reward is offered for information.
Connie's case will fall out of the media until 1998.
At this point, it's been two and a half years since her murder.
Police say that Bob is still a person of interest.
He has never been named a suspect officially in the case.
According to police, he hasn't done anything to help clear himself.
Detective Dick Klein says, quote, when a survivor doesn't call you ever to ask what I can do
to help, that is out of the norm.
That is a big red flag.
End quote.
However, Bob and his lawyer refute this.
They point out that Bob handed over everything to the police that they asked for and let
them search the home without a court order.
Brittany remains close to Bob and has cut people out of her life that questioned him,
including her grandmother and aunts.
She does reveal that shortly after the murder, when her and Bob were still living in the
home, one morning Bob was looking for a knife that they used to cut bagels with.
He couldn't find it.
And when they both searched for it, neither one of them could find it.
They think that this was the murder weapon that police took with them.
She also says that police recovered a hammer as well.
Brittany at this point is trying to move on with her life.
She's a mother now and her focus is on her child.
She tells the Washington Post, quote, I often talk to Bob about not caring to know what
happened because to me, it was not about what happened.
It was about her being gone.
The desire to put the pieces together, to find out, was never important to me.
It was not going to bring me closure to know who did it.
If they caught him, I couldn't sit through a trial and hear described what happened.
It would be too incredibly painful.
I'd have a face.
How scary would that be?
They'd have a face.
For me, it's much easier this way.
I don't have to be afraid to turn around and see that face.
End quote.
And after this, the case truly falls out of the media.
There doesn't seem to be any updates until the next time that her case is mentioned is
2020, when Fairfax police launch a new cold case website and Connie's case is one of
the first ones they feature.
Connie's case is the only unsolved murder from 1996 for Fairfax County.
So with that, if you know anything about the murder of Connie Hiner in January of 1996,
please call the Fairfax County police at 703-246-7511.
So that is the case of Connie Hiner.
I found myself writing down multiple times.
I somewhat understand Connie's daughter's reaction, having now lost my mother myself.
Granted it was in a very different way.
I just really understood where she was coming from in terms of the ashes and just the after
parts of what happens after you lose someone.
And again, the tragic ending to her mother's death was very different from my own mother's,
but there I think probably when you go through this and maybe some of our listeners feel
the same or agree in some way.
Yeah, I just, I was glad that she said something and felt firm in it and was like even vocalized
afterwards about she didn't want to put a face to this person, you know, in full belief
that it was not Connie's husband.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's really sad.
It was difficult to listen to because you could just really sense that the trajectory
of all of the lives affected by this, that they were changed forever.
And that's always really heartbreaking because it's at the core of cases like these is the
heartbreak of the people who are left behind.
Absolutely.
And I just wanted to take a moment to kind of address why I chose to cover this case
since you know that quote I kind of read at the end and you even referenced it of Brittany
not wanting to know like it wouldn't help bring her closure.
I really wrestled with if I should cover this case since that's kind of Brittany's thought
and I always try to keep the family at the front of everything I do and always trying
to be respectful to the family.
And with Connie's case, I feel that Brittany clearly has very strong boundaries, personal
boundaries in her life.
And I imagine she still has those today.
But there are still people in Connie's life like her mother and sisters who do want to
know what happened to her.
And ultimately, somebody should have to answer for what happened to Connie.
They shouldn't just be able to get away with it.
So that is why I ultimately chose to cover Connie's case because I really couldn't find
that many like podcasts or recent media about her.
So I wanted to get her name out there again.
Totally.
And I know you obviously and know that you treat every case with the utmost respect and
honestly tenderness always of how you approach it, how you investigate.
So I know that about you.
But just a second voice to echo what Ali said.
There's always a delicate line to walk when we choose to engage with any case.
And I also know that you weren't saying anything in a disparaging way towards her daughter
not wanting to put a face to the person who committed this crime, to the person who ended
her mother's life.
Yeah, it's very, it's heartbreakingly complicated.
But yes, at the end of the day, a crime was committed.
That person should be held responsible and the people who want answers deserve to have
them.
Exactly.
My question for you is to kind of circle back right to the beginning to January 2.
How tight is that timeline from when Bob leaves for work until he comes home for lunch?
So neighbors saw Bob leave around 710 a.m. that morning.
And we know he gets to work.
He has work meetings that morning.
People see him.
The taxi arrives just a few minutes after 8 and Connie doesn't come out.
There's no answer.
He doesn't see any movement in the house.
And then Bob returns home for lunch right around noon.
Okay, so that's about five hours.
My initial thought with that timeline was, oh, it does give time to, at least to me,
it does give time to make it look like no one ever came in or came out.
If you localize the crime to one room, had the ability as someone who's committing this
type of crime, like a breaking and entering, if you have the ability to make it look like
nothing was broken to get in, you know, take your shoes off, I guess what I'm trying to
say is I thought it was plausible that it would still be someone who did not live in
the home, I guess is what I want to say, to take the eyes off of her husband.
And I guess I wanted to know what your thoughts were.
Yeah, the timeline is very critical here.
Police have mentioned that they think the crime took place after Bob left and before
the taxi driver arrived.
So that would make the timeline around 50 minutes.
I don't know exactly what supports them in that.
Like if they have the evidence, if it's coming from the medical examiner, as far as like
a time of death, if they were able to kind of put that within a few hours, or if it's
just the simplest and she didn't get in the taxi, they assumed she was already dead by
that point.
For me, it is a very complicated case.
According to you know, Bob and his lawyer, they have been very forthcoming with information
anything that was asked, Bob turned it over, he turned over the house, he didn't ask for
warrants or anything, and immediately went down to the police station to answer questions.
Police appear to have been suspicious of him from the beginning.
Again, police always have to look at the spouse and kind of rule them out first.
And it doesn't seem like they've ever really been able to rule Bob out.
So, that's complicated for sure.
I will say as far as like, could a stranger have committed this crime?
According to investigators, they do believe that this was like a crime of passion and
that this was personal.
That's some language that they used right at the beginning of the investigation.
But Bob's lawyer also pointed out that there was construction crews down the street that
were already working that morning when Bob had left and there was a utility worker next
door who was also around throughout the morning who didn't hear anything or see anything.
So, there is a lot of opportunity for just a random act of violence to have happened.
But with all that being said, I think that just it all boils down to like, we don't know.
We don't really know who did this.
We don't know what the motivation was.
Nothing was stolen.
There was no sexual assault.
It just was a murder.
I would be curious to know what the police know and what came out through interviews.
And if there was anybody, if they did interview the construction workers and the utility worker,
what did they see?
What did they hear?
I would be curious to know all that to see if it points anywhere.
Yeah, I think first and foremost, just you bringing it to our podcast and getting her
name back out there again.
This didn't happen that long ago.
And as we know with cases that, especially cases that have happened within the last 30
years, there is the possibility that if someone knows something, they are still alive.
And I think that that's completely possible in this case as well, given the dates that
this crime fall within.
So I think really, you know, just you doing the investigative work of an unknown case
and bringing it here will hopefully shake some information out.
And I don't mean directly, I just mean with more people listening, hopefully more people
talking about it, people talking about it on Reddit, maybe more podcasts cover Connie's
case.
And, you know, that's always the goal here.
Yeah.
Because ultimately, this was just a very horrific crime.
And whoever did this doesn't need to be out amongst other people until there's been a
chance for rehabilitation and some correction there.
Because if this crime lacked any motive, it was just a random act of violence, like that's
scary.
And that person needs to answer for what they did to Connie.
They don't just get to live their life without having to admit to what they did.
I think that the true, like best case scenario here is a true balance of both peace and justice.
Like what the justice system is supposed to do in cases like this is to bring peace to
the people who so desperately deserve it.
And justice do where justices do, you know?
Absolutely.
So again, if you know anything about the murder of Connie Hiner in January of 1996, please
call the Fairfax County Police at 703-246-7511.
Until you are listening to this episode as you reach the end, please, please, please,
if you haven't yet already, leave us a review, especially if you are in Apple podcasts.
And a rating right along with that at five stars would be great as well.
We love reading the reviews every week.
Oftentimes I will be brushing my teeth or shaving or usually doing something in the
bathroom and Allie will run in and tell me something lovely that one of you has written
for us in your review, which we always appreciate.
We also have our Instagram, which I make all the graphics for.
You can find us on Instagram at Cold and Missing.
We'll have photos of Connie up there this week and we also post other active missing
person cases or other podcasts that are covering cold cases or missing people.
So if you're not following us, please check us out.
It's a great resource for what's happening in the true crime community as well as what's
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And if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, we have transcripts on our website,
www.coldandmissing.com.
I do know Apple just came out with their new transcript feature.
I don't have any control over that right now.
It's just like an AI generated thing.
So it's not always correct.
Sometimes it doesn't spell the names correctly or it doesn't quite pick up what I'm saying
correctly.
So if you want the corrected transcripts, you can find those at www.coldandmissing.com.
You can also review us there.
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There's a lot of resources over there.
So check us out.
But that is all I have.
Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host Allie.
And I'm your cohost Eli.
Have a great week and stay safe, y'all.
Stay safe, y'all.