It was August 2006. A hot, humid night in Washington, D.C. Robert Wone, a sharp, well-liked 32-year-old attorney, decided to stay over at a friend’s townhouse in the upscale Dupont Circle neighborhood instead of trekking all the way back to Oakton, Virginia. He was dead within an hour of arriving.
If you are looking for where to watch Who Killed Robert Wone, the two-part documentary is currently streaming on Peacock.
The story is bizarre. It’s uncomfortable. Honestly, it’s the kind of case that makes you question how much we can ever really know about the people we call friends. When the paramedics arrived at 1509 Swann Street, they found a scene that looked less like a frantic struggle and more like a staged play. Robert was on a guest bed, neatly tucked in, with three precise stab wounds to his chest. No defensive wounds. No blood on the bedsheets. No sign of a break-in.
The Streaming Home of the Swann Street Mystery
You can find the documentary, simply titled Who Killed Robert Wone?, exclusively on the Peacock streaming service. Since it's a Peacock Original, it doesn't tend to hop around to Netflix or Hulu very often.
If you're outside the United States, your mileage may vary. In the UK, Sky Documentaries or NOW usually carry Peacock’s true crime slate. In Canada, it often lands on ShowCase or the Global TV app.
Why watch it? Because the documentary does something rare. It doesn't just rehash the police reports; it brings in the actual investigators and even the paramedics who were first on the scene. It focuses heavily on the "three-way" relationship of the men living in the house: Victor Zaborsky, Joe Price, and Dylan Ward. They were the only ones there. They claimed an intruder did it. The evidence—or rather, the lack of it—suggested something far more intimate and terrifying.
What Actually Happened at 1509 Swann Street?
Robert Wone wasn't supposed to die that night. He was a success story, a man who had just landed a job as general counsel for Radio Free Asia.
He arrived at the home around 10:30 PM. By 11:49 PM, a 911 call was placed. In those 79 minutes, something happened that silenced Robert forever. The documentary dives deep into the forensic anomalies. For instance, the coroner found semen in Robert's body that didn't belong to him, yet there were no signs of sexual assault. He appeared to have been incapacitated—possibly paralized by a drug—but the toxicology reports came back clean for common "date rape" drugs.
It’s the "how" that keeps people up at night.
The three residents were eventually charged, but not with murder. They were charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and tampering with evidence. Prosecutors argued that the men had cleaned the crime scene and redressed the body before calling the police. A judge eventually found them not guilty on those specific charges, citing that while the circumstances were deeply suspicious, the burden of proof hadn't been met.
Why This Case Refuses to Fade Away
True crime fans are obsessed with this one for a reason. It's a "locked-room mystery" in real life.
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The documentary features some heavy hitters in the investigative world. You get to hear from Glenn Kirschner, the former federal prosecutor who has become a household name in legal commentary. He doesn't hold back. The frustration of the legal team is palpable throughout the episodes. They knew something was wrong. They just couldn't prove exactly what it was.
The Missing Evidence Problem
- The Knife: A bloody knife was found on the nightstand, but it didn't match the wounds perfectly. Some experts believe a different, much sharper set of medical-grade tools might have been used.
- The Shower: One of the residents appeared to have freshly showered when police arrived, despite claiming he had just been woken up by the chaos.
- The Towel: There was a blood-soaked towel, but the bed where Robert lay was pristine. It defied the laws of physics.
Most documentaries take a side. This one feels more like a tragedy in two parts. It spends a lot of time with Robert’s widow, Kathy Wone. Her dignity in the face of such a weird, public nightmare is staggering. She eventually settled a wrongful death lawsuit against the three men in 2011, but money doesn't answer the question of what happened in those 79 minutes.
Legal Nuance and the "Beyond Reasonable Doubt" Wall
The 2010 trial was a masterclass in how a defense can dismantle a circumstantial case. Judge Lynn Leibovitz, who presided over the bench trial, admitted that she believed the men knew who killed Robert. However, she couldn't convict them because the prosecution couldn't prove the specific "conspiracy" to cover it up beyond a reasonable doubt.
It's a bitter pill.
The documentary explores the cultural tensions of the time too. There were accusations that the investigation was botched because the police were uncomfortable or biased regarding the polyamorous lifestyle of the three men in the house. Conversely, there were arguments that the men used their status and legal knowledge to outmaneuver a sloppy police department.
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Watching the Documentary with a Critical Eye
When you sit down to watch Who Killed Robert Wone, keep an eye on the "interrogation" footage.
The body language is fascinating. True crime isn't just about the "who did it" part; it's about the "how do people react under pressure" part. The three men remained a united front. They never turned on each other. That kind of loyalty is either the sign of three innocent people who experienced a trauma together, or a very, very tight pact of silence.
The film does an excellent job of visualizing the layout of the house. You see how small the space was. You see how impossible it would have been for an intruder to climb the back fence, enter the house, find a knife, kill a man without leaving a trace of a struggle, and vanish into the D.C. night—all without any of the three residents hearing a thing until it was too late.
Actionable Steps for True Crime Researchers
If you want to go deeper than the Peacock documentary, there are ways to see the raw data of this case. It’s one of the most well-documented "cold" cases in D.C. history.
- Read the Affidavit: The original 2008 affidavit for the arrest of Dylan Ward is publicly available online. It contains gruesome and specific details that the documentary sometimes glosses over for time.
- Check the "Who Killed Robert Wone" Blog: There is a dedicated group of citizen sleuths who have maintained a blog for years, archiving every court transcript and news clipping related to the case.
- Analyze the Paramedic Testimony: Pay close attention to the testimony of the EMTs. They were the first "outsiders" in the house, and their observations about the "stillness" of the scene are arguably the most damning evidence against the intruder theory.
Robert Wone’s story deserves to be told because he wasn't just a victim in a "weird" case. He was a son, a husband, and a friend who by all accounts was a brilliant light in the legal community. Watching the documentary is a way to keep his memory alive while grappling with the reality that sometimes, the legal system isn't designed to give us the "truth"—it's designed to test the evidence. And in this case, the evidence was washed away long before the police ever knocked on the door.