Who Is Stephan Smerk & Where Is He Now? 2025 Update & Background

Stephan Smerk was born in 1971 and grew up in upstate New York. Not much is publicly known about his early childhood, but by the early 1990s, Smerk was serving in the United States Army. At the time of the 1994 murder of Robin Lawrence, he was stationed at what is now known as Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia.

Smerk was in his early 20s at the time—young, active-duty, and living in military barracks. While his military record has not been publicly scrutinized in detail, what has since emerged paints a disturbing picture of a man with violent urges. In a chilling confession decades later, Smerk admitted he left his barracks on the night of the murder with no specific target in mind but with the intent to kill. He later said, “I knew I was going to kill somebody. I didn’t know who.”

After committing the murder of Robin Lawrence in Springfield, Virginia, Smerk returned to his barracks and resumed life as if nothing had happened. In the years that followed, he left the military, married, had children, and worked as a software engineer. He eventually settled in Niskayuna, New York, a quiet suburb near Schenectady, where he lived a seemingly ordinary life for nearly 30 years—concealing a horrific secret.

• “Closing the Cold Case of Robin Lawrence”: 48 Hours Reports October 25 2025
• Who Was Robin Lawrence & What Happened to Her? 2025 Update & Background

The Confession and Where He Is Now

For decades, the brutal 1994 murder of Robin Lawrence remained unsolved. That changed in 2023 when cold case detectives in Fairfax County, Virginia, used forensic genealogy to identify a DNA match. The investigation had been reignited with help from Parabon NanoLabs, which generated a composite sketch and traced the suspect’s family tree using publicly available genetic data. This eventually led detectives to Smerk’s home in Niskayuna.

When they arrived to request a DNA sample, Smerk voluntarily complied. But just hours later, he turned himself in and confessed in detail. He admitted to entering the Lawrence home through a sliding glass door, cutting the phone line when Robin tried to call for help, and stabbing her 49 times. He also confessed to disposing of the murder weapon and clothing afterward. His motivation, he told police, was a psychological compulsion to kill.

In his recorded confession, Smerk declared, “I am a serial killer who only killed once,” and stated that if it weren’t for his wife and children, he likely would have committed more murders. When asked whether he had any remorse for the family of the victim, he responded bluntly: “I don’t feel anything for the family.”

In March 2025, Stephan Smerk was sentenced to 70 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder. The sentence was handed down by a judge in Fairfax County Circuit Court. Due to the crime occurring in 1994—prior to Virginia’s abolition of parole for such crimes—Smerk remains technically eligible for parole. Still, his sentence all but ensures he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Smerk is currently incarcerated in the Virginia Department of Corrections system, where he will serve out his sentence. His case stands as one of the starkest examples of forensic genealogy solving a cold case and exposing a violent offender who had successfully hidden in plain sight for decades.