UPDATE: Missing Kent State Stark student’s remains identified

Kelsey Husnick

Carmilla Robinson answers questions during the press conference about her daughter Taylor Robinson, Sept. 11. Taylor’s bones were found Monday in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Photo by Chelsae Ketchum.

Updated: 8:24 p.m.

Closure, at least a small measure of it, was found today for the family of 19-year-old Taylor Robinson when the Summit County Medical Examiner’s office positively identified her remains. Robinson, a student at Kent State Stark, went missing from Akron four months ago.

Timothy Dimoff, a private detective on the case announced at a press conference outside the Robinson home Wednesday, “They definitely confirmed the dental records to the body found in the Cuyahoga Valley Park definitely to be a match to Taylor Robinson.“

Hikers found skeletal remains, including parts a jawbone, scattered in the woods Monday night in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Robinson went missing May 3 from the home she was staying at while working as a home health-care aide, said Dimoff. When Taylor Robinson’s mother, Carmilla Robinson arrived to pick her up the next morning, she was gone, leaving her coat and shoes behind, but with no sign of struggle inside the house.

Carmilla Robinson spoke at the press conference, thanking the Akron Police Department, Accurate Investigative Services and the hikers who called in the remains for finding her daughter.

“Now we have an answer,” Carmilla Robinson said. “We were in limbo, but now we have closure. She’s found – she’s not a lost child anymore.”

“It wasn’t the way that we anticipated or that we hoped for, but you brought our baby home,” she said.

Carmilla Robinson described how her daughter worked in a daycare and with mentally challenged people, went to church and was active in volleyball and softball. Her family and friends gathered at her house after the news of her remains being found was released.

“Taylor, she was real cool. She was always real happy, and hyper,” said Lashawnda Carter, a childhood friend.

“She was the type of person who would be in a room and would just bust out laughing [for no reason],” said Tyasia Savage, another friend from middle school.

Carmilla Robinson, still wearing a dress with a “Bring Our Baby Home” poster pressed onto it, said at the press conference, “She wasn’t a child that deserved to have her body end up in a park.”

Dimoff stressed at the press conference that the search for the person responsible for Taylor Robinson’s death was not over.

“I just want to say to the person that did this, you’re looking at someone who’s like a dog on a bone,” he said. “We’re not quitting, We’re going to look for this individual or individuals that were responsible for this.“

The suspect list cannot be released, but Dimoff, who specializes in creating criminal profiles, said he believes a close friend of Taylor Robinson’s committed the homicide. He said the act might have been an accidental result of an argument and physical altercation gone wrong, followed by a panic.

The official time and cause of death of Taylor Robinson are still unknown, but skeletal remains are being sent to Mercyhurst University in Pa. for further examination.

Contact Kelsey Husnick at [email protected].

Original post

The Summit County Medical Examiner’s office has identified remains found near the Cuyahoga Valley National Park on Monday as a Kent State student.

Taylor Robinson, 19, went missing May 3. She attended Kent State Stark campus in Fall 2012, Director of Media Relations Emily Vincent said.

“The entire Kent State community is saddened by the loss of Taylor Robinson,” Vincent said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Taylor’s family friends and those who knew and loved her as they struggle with such an overwhelming loss.”

Robinson’s family has been working with Accurate Investigative Services, a private investigation company. Investigators thought they had found a lead in August, as previously reported on KentWired. The company’s search dogs found a T-shirt and disturbed soil, but Akron Police determined it was not a burial site. Accurate Investigative Services had no comment.

Taylor Robinson’s mother, Camilla Robinson, will hold a press conference at her house at 5 p.m.

Kentwired will be updated as more information is known.

UPDATE: A candle light vigil will be at the Robinson’s house tonight at 7:30 at 344 Archwood Avenue in Akron for Taylor.