The Murders Of Randy Row,Tabitha and Josh Cornellier

 On February 10, 1992, in Boise Idaho, authorities received a call regarding a house fire at a duplex. Inside they discovered 34-year-old Randy Row (A blue collar worker) laying motionless on his bed, a few feet away from Randy was his 8-year-old stepdaughter Tabitha Cornellier in another bedroom they found Tabitha’s 10-year-old brother Josh on his bed. Despite the efforts of rescue workers, all 3 victims were pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy report report would confirm that all 3 victims died of smoke inhalation. Fire investigators found that the fire primarily started where the apartment joined the garage and that a second fire was started in some clothes piled in the living room.  They determined that a flammable, liquid accelerant was used to ignite the fire, and found that the smoke detector in the residence had been disabled before the fire started. The power to the upstairs was shut off at the circuit breaker. Plus the furnace fan was set to full on and run continuously, feeding the flames and circulating smoke quickly through the home. As a result of the disconnected smoke alarm, the victims were not alerted to the fire which caused their deaths. Investigators were convinced that all 3 victims died as a result of foul play. The neighbor who reported the fire confirmed the identity of the victims but didn’t know the whereabouts of Randy’s wife Robin. But while processing the scene 2 women appeared at the scene. One of the women, 35-year-old Robin Row started to run towards the fire but was restrained by first responders and just started wailing “My children”, “My children”… When Detective Gary Rainey (lead detective) questioned Robin, red flags were raised, due to her lack of emotion. "It was not normal, even for a mother," he said. She claimed that Randy was abusive and that she was staying at a friend's house the night of the fire. The responding EMTs  were also suspicious of Robin when she repeatedly asked why the smoke detectors didn't go off when they haven't even brought up the issue yet.

They also questioned Robin's friend Joan Mchugh (the other woman who was with Robin when she arrived at the crime scene). She confirmed that Robin was a victim of domestic violence and that she was at her house on the night of the fire.

But upon questioning family and friends of Randy Row, they all contradicted Robin's claim of being abused by Randy and considered Randy as a good father figure to Josh and Tabitha (Whom he treated as his own). However they did confirm that the marriage was a disaster and that Randy was thinking about divorcing Robin due to their constant fighting over their financial problems and other personal issues. Randy they said wasn't a violent man (as Robin claimed) and that he was unable to work after getting into a motorcycle accident in 1989 (Which left him with some serious disabilities). They also stated that the children were more comfortable with Randy than their own mother (whom they were afraid of) and didn't want him to leave.

She also told police that the money from the bingo proceeds had been destroyed in the fire. A box with all the bingo proceeds were found intact. It was discovered that Robin Row had been stealing bingo money for months and that the money and proceeds were found in a storage unit.. In addition to the stolen bingo money, they also recovered insurance policies on the lives of Randy, Joshua, and Tabitha that totaled over $275,000; Robin Row was the beneficiary of these policies, the last of which had been purchased by her only a few weeks before the fire. 

It soon became apparent (from interviews with family members and friends of the victims) that Row's claims of abuse were either largely or entirely fabricated. For instance, there were no official reports of arrests or charges against Randy, and state welfare agents had never been to the home to give Randy tranquilizing shots after domestic disturbances, as Row had claimed. Investigators later discovered that Row had an affair with Joan McHugh's adult son, John Blackwell, in the weeks before the fire. On February 13, 1992, Robin Row was arrested and charged with grand theft.

When police did a background check on Robin Row ( Born Robin Lee Cornellier), they discovered that she was no stranger to law enforcement. In 1978 she was wanted in the state of North Carolina for parole violation after serving a year in prison for check fraud. Then in 1982 while living in CA, she served 9 months for embezzlement and got probation. She had also lost 2 other children under suspicious circumstances and was also suspected for a string of arson for profit schemes.  

But what was also telling to investigators that in 1980 Robin's 6-year-old son Keith had also died in a fire and had collected $28,000 from his death. According to the reports, the fire that killed Keith was caused by a portable heater that was pushed up on his blankets (igniting the fire) and that he died trying to get to a window (Since the bedroom door was locked)   

  Just 4 years earlier, in 1976 Robin (then 19) had lost her fifteen month old daughter, Christina  while they were living in New Hampshire. At the time of her death it was listed as SIDS. If Christina were to die today it is likely that a more extensive medical examination of her body would occur considering that while it is not impossible, it is more uncommon for a child of this age to die of SIDS. The prime time for a child to suffer from SIDS is between the ages of four and six months and most parent are told the risk greatly reduces once the child is a year old, which obviously Christina had surpassed. However Rainey suspected that the child may have been suffocated although there was no way to prove it.

Hoping to trip Robin up, Detective Rainey convinces Joan to take part in a sting operation. The plan was for Joan to lie and tell Robin that early on the morning of the fire, she had woken up and gone downstairs, only to find that Robin wasn't there. Robin first told Joan McHugh that she couldn't remember where she was, according to the recordings, but said in a phone call later that day that she'd been talking with her psychiatrist in a car outside the apartment. When McHugh pointed out that the psychiatrist could serve as an alibi, proving Row didn't commit the murders, Row "did not seem enthused about the fact that she would have an alibi and refused to tell her psychiatrist's name," according to Detective Rainey's report. Joan was devastated and gave the recording to Detective Rainey. On March 23, Robin Row was charged with murder and arson. Based on the evidence investigators believed that Robin slipped out of Joan's apartment and drove back to her house. Once she arrived, she first headed for the circuit box to shut off the power to the smoke alarms. Then she went into the house, placed a pile of clothes next to an air vent, doused them and the with a flammable liquid, switched on the heater and ignited the blaze. She then headed back to Joan's house to establish her alibi. On March 5, 1993, following a jury trial, the jury returned verdicts of guilty on the murder and arson charges. Just 9 months later on December 16, she was sentenced to death by lethal injection.

All of her appeals had been denied and remains as the only female inmate on Idaho's death row.