Avis Robinson was 31 when her life ended on May 1, 1988. Her body was found inside a vacant apartment and investigators determined she had been strangled, triggering a homicide investigation focused on a killing that occurred inside an unoccupied residence.

Clifton Cousins ultimately admitted to murdering Robinson, providing information that tied him to her strangulation. Prosecutors later tried Cousins for two homicides; court records identify Assistant Prosecutor Steven Dever as the prosecutor and confirm that both Robinson and another victim, 21-year-old Sonseearay Harris (killed in 1989), were strangled. Cousins was convicted and received life sentences, and later records describe him as serving two life terms in Ohio custody.

Cousins made additional, sometimes retracted, confessions over the years and claimed responsibility for many other killings, but Robinson’s case stands apart as one of the two for which he was actually prosecuted and sentenced. Did anyone who knew Avis or remembers her in 1988 have information that could add detail to her story?