Florida Serial Killers Charged in a Pair of 1983 Rape and Murder Cold Cases

A pair of serial killers were indicted Thursday for the 1983 cold case rapes and murders of two women in Tampa, Florida — after an innocent man was exonerated, authorities announced.

Amos Robinson, 58, and Abron Scott, 57, who are serving life sentences for another murder, are now charged in the gruesome killings of Barbara Grams, 19, and Linda Lansen, 41.

Abron Scott, Amos Robinson. Barbara Grams and Linda Lansen

“We now know these two men carried out a sinister spree of rape and murder in Tampa Bay in the summer and fall of 1983,” said Andrew Warren, whom Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended earlier Thursday as the state attorney for Hillsborough County.

Two years ago, Tampa’s Conviction Review Unit located DNA evidence from a rape kit that led to the exoneration of Robert DuBoise, who had wrongfully served 37 years in prison for the slaying of Grams.

Robert DuBoise

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Officials submitted the DNA sample found on Grams’ body to a national database, and Robinson and Scott were matches. Investigators also tied the two men to the unsolved murder of Lansen through a DNA sample found in her rape kit.

Robinson and Scott are currently serving life sentences for kidnapping and beating Carlos Orellana — then running him over with his own car on Oct. 22, 1983. {snip}

“In July, Linda Lansen was found at the end of Memorial Highway in Town and County. She had been raped, shot in the head and dumped in the bushes,” Warren said at a press conference. “In August, Barbara Grams was found behind a dental office in Tampa Heights. She had been beaten to death and raped.”

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