Roberta Ann Elam, known as Robin, was 26 and a pre-novitiate candidate preparing to commit to religious life when she was raped and murdered near Mt. St. Joseph’s motherhouse in Wheeling, West Virginia. Described as vibrant and gregarious, she drove an orange sports car, enjoyed jogging and hiking, wrote poetry about the nearby mountains, and was the eldest of four children, having grown up in Minnesota and Illinois and attended graduate school at Fordham University in New York.

The attack occurred while she was reportedly praying on a bench at the top of a hill near the motherhouse. She was said to have been grabbed from behind, dragged into a wooded area about 30 feet away and out of view of the convent and the adjacent golf course.

Did anyone who knew Roberta or who was in that area that day notice anything that might help resolve what happened?