Suspected serial killer, 69, linked to four unsolved murders including a couple's slaying and a woman's decapitation is jailed for 35 years for stalking massage parlor workers
Suspected serial killer Robert Gross, 69, has been sentenced to 35 years after being convicted on eight of the 10 charges that included stalking women who worked at massage parlors
A convicted criminal who federal prosecutors say they suspect in a Missouri decapitation killing and three other unsolved murders was sentenced on Tuesday to 35 years in prison for stalking Kansas massage parlor workers.
Senior US District Judge Gary Fenner told 69-year-old Robert Gross that his history of violence was 'extremely disturbing' in sentencing him for the stalking and firearms charges, reported The Kansas City Star.
Although he has not been charged with homicide, Assistant US Attorney Jess Michaelsen said Gross had long been suspected in the August 2016 killing of Ying Li, 52, whose mutilated body was found inside her burning Kansas City apartment. Federal law allows prosecutors to present information about uncharged crimes at sentencing.
Kansas City homicide detective Alane Booth said their investigation led them to conclude that Gross decapitated Li after he received a massage and had sex with her. Li was stabbed 18 times and her killer also cut off her fingers.
The victim's head and severed digits have not been recovered.
Gross' criminal history dates back to the 1960s and includes multiple allegations of murder, arson, burglary and assault in seven counties in both Kansas and Missouri, but he has never been charged with a homicide.
Gross has been tied to at least four unsolved murders in Kansas and Missouri over the past 40 years, but he has never been charged with a homicide
When massage parlor worker Wanda Conkling and her husband, William Cadwalader, were shot dead inside their Kansas City home in 1979, Gross was named a suspect but not charged, according to The Kansas City Star's six-part series Stalk. Murder. Repeat. that ran in 2018.
In 1981, Gross' acquaintance 31-year-old Cheryl Morris, who had rejected him after a just a couple of dates because of his sexual advances, vanished without a trace. Her decomposing body was discovered wrapped in old newspapers inside an abandoned cistern in rural Cass County, Missouri, six years later. A coroner determined she had been strangled.
Police reopened the investigation into Gross, but again no charges were filed against him in connection to Morris' murder, in part because of a scandal that broke out over evidence that allegedly had been falsified.
Gross was finally arrested in December 2017, after terrorizing a trio of massage parlors for more than two months and targeting its employees by making threats, vandalizing their cars, smashing windows and groping one of the women after she refused to comply with his demands for sexual favors.
'This armed and dangerous criminal, with a history of stalking and violence toward women, will spend the rest of his life in prison,' US Attorney Tim Garrison said in court on Tuesday.
Defense attorney John P. O’Connor declined to comment after the hearing, which lasted just under four hours.
In May 2019, Gross was found guilty on eight of the 10 charges that included stalking women who worked at massage parlors in Johnson County and in Lawrence.
Gross' criminal history encompasses five decades and includes allegations of arson, assault, burglary and stalking
He was also convicted of possessing guns as a convicted felon and other firearms violations. Gross was acquitted on two counts of stalking.
Video played to jurors at trial showed Gross walking around a Lawrence massage parlor in 2017, at times naked, while berating a worker. The women told police their cars were keyed, screws drilled into their tires and their windows smashed out.
Just before he announced the sentencing, Fenner asked Gross if he wanted to say anything.
After speaking with his lawyer, Gross said, 'Your honor I choose not to make a comment at this time.'