Disturbing And Fascinating Facts About The Consensual Killing Of Sharon Lopatka

In October 1996, Sharon Lopatka and Robert "Bobby" Frederick Glass's first in-person meeting ended in what several people have referred to as "consensual homicide," causing many to question whether or not someone can consent to their own murder. While Lopatka died after spending just three days at Glass's home, the pair had communicated for weeks prior to her death, having met in August 1996 in a pornographic online chat room.

After exchanging hundreds of messages in which they shared their darkest sexual desires, Glass agreed to fulfill Lopatka's fantasy of being tortured to death. What transpired between Lopatka and Glass once they met in person, as well as in the weeks before her death, shocked and horrified not only the people who knew both the victim and her killer, but also the members of their communities and citizens all around the world.

In August 1996, 34-year-old Sharon Lopatka met Robert Frederick Glass, a 45-year-old computer analyst in a pornographic online chat room. However, before Lopatka, an internet entrepreneur, met Glass, the man who eventually killed her, she posted messages in a variety of online groups, including one in which she wrote:  "I kind of have a fascination with torturing till death."

Through these messages, including one posted to a group about necrophilia, Lopatka met multiple people with whom she discussed her fantasies about being tortured to death. In fact, she actually went to New Jersey to meet one of these men in person, but when he realized Lopatka seriously wanted someone to torture her until she died, he refused to help her fulfill her macabre fantasy.

After Lopatka's husband found his wife's letter, he contacted the police. Law enforcement officials searched Lopatka's computer, and they discovered hundreds of disturbing messages she'd exchanged with Glass, including the ones in which they'd arranged their meeting.

After discovering these messages, authorities surveilled Glass's home for a number of days in hopes of spotting Lopatka alive. However, when they didn't see the missing woman, a judge issued a search warrant on October 25, 1996. While investigators found several alarming items inside Glass's trailer, buried just feet from his home was the most shocking find of all: Lopatka's decomposing corpse.

Initially, Glass was charged with first-degree murder for her death. However, the prosecution eventually changed this charge to voluntary manslaughter, and more than three years after Lopatka's death, Glass entered a guilty plea on January 27, 2000.

In addition to pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter, Glass also pleaded guilty to six counts related to the child pornography discovered on his computer. Glass was sentenced to serve 36 to 53 months for killing Lopatka and 21 to 26 months for multiple counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

While the medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Lopatka's corpse didn't find any signs to indicate she'd been tortured before she died, he did find evidence her death had probably been caused by asphyxiation. According to Glass, he didn't kill Lopatka intentionally, despite having communicated with her for weeks about her desire to be tortured to death.

Instead, Glass said they were engaged in erotic asphyxiation while having sex, and she died when he accidentally strangled her to death with a nylon cord. Interestingly, the medical examiner didn't find any marks or bruises on Lopatka's neck.

After traveling to North Carolina from Maryland, Glass picked Lopatka up from the train station and took her back to his trailer in Lenoir. According to the medical examiner who performed her autopsy, Lopatka most likely died after spending just three days at Glass's home.

While they had talked for weeks about Lopatka's desire to be tortured to death, the medical examiner didn't find any evidence she had been beaten or wounded before she died. To this day, no one knows for certain exactly what transpired between Lopatka and Glass in the time between when she arrived at his home and ended up dead.

In addition to discovering Lopatka's lifeless body buried under less than three feet of dirt just 25 yards from Glass's trailer, the search of the 45-year-old computer analyst's humble home yielded a number of other disturbing items. In Glass's home, investigators found bondage gear, drug paraphernalia, and a .357 Magnum pistol, as well as pornography, some of which featured children.

Glass - who had three young children at the time of the search - had pornographic images on his computer that depicted minors engaged in sexual activity. Eventually, Glass pleaded guilty to a federal charge for possession of child pornography, and he received a sentence of 27 months in prison.

In addition to selling pornographic videos online, Lopatka - claiming to be a beautiful blonde woman named Nancy - posted on a message board to see if anyone was interested in buying her worn underwear.

However, not all of Lopatka's online money-making schemes were pornographic in nature. She had one business where she offered her skills as a copywriter to companies that needed someone to write content for their internet advertisements, and Lopatka and a friend ran a website where they sold home decorating guides. Lopatka also advertised her services as a medium, using the name Vilado Dion to sell love potions and psychic readings.

On October 13, 1996, Lopatka left the home she shared with her husband Victor in rural Maryland and drove her car to the train station in Baltimore. Then Lopatka (who had told her husband she was traveling to Georgia to see some friends) took a 9:15 AM train to Charlotte, arriving at her destination just before 9:00 PM.

Glass picked Lopatka up from Charlotte and drove the two of them 80 miles north to his trailer in Lenoir, while back home in Maryland, Lopatka's husband Victor discovered a note his wife had left for him before she started her journey south. In the letter, Lopatka told Victor she would not be coming back to Maryland, and she asked her husband not to try to find the person she had asked to torture her to death. Instead, she told her husband: "If my body is never retrieved, don't worry: know that I'm at peace."

In addition to using the Internet - which was still novel in 1996 - to find people to help her fulfill her extreme sexual fantasies, Lopatka sold a number of different products and services online. In October 1996, shortly before she went to meet Glass in North Carolina, Lopatka posted an ad online - using the name Nancy Carlson - to promote pornographic videos of women being raped after they'd been drugged, hypnotized, or rendered unconscious with chloroform.

Lopatka advertised a number of other videos that catered to different sexual preferences, including foot fetishes, extreme weight gain, and large women crushing men. She also offered to create custom 30-minute videos in which she would fulfill any request for just $100.

After Lopatka (who lived in Hampstead, Maryland, with her husband) met Glass (who lived by himself in a trailer in Lenoir, North Carolina) in a chat room, the two started communicating via email.  Over the course of just six weeks, Lopatka and Glass exchanged nearly 900 emails with one another, many of which were sexually graphic and violent.

In the messages she sent to Glass, Lopatka told him she wanted to be tortured to death, and she even asked him if he would be willing fulfill her shocking fantasy. Glass responded to her bizarre request by agreeing to kill her, even telling Lopatka exactly how he would abuse her and end her life. After communicating through online chat and email for a month and a half, the pair agreed that Lopatka would travel more than 400 miles from Maryland to North Carolina to meet Glass in person.