On 21/8/1998, Andrea Cincotta enjoyed a rare day off, starting with her favorite activity, swimming, followed by a visit to the public library. Around 11:00 a.m., the 52-year-old librarian returned to the two-bedroom apartment she shared with her fiance, Chris Johnson, in Arlington County, Virginia.
Chris had to work that day. Andrea planned to have lunch with a friend, but she didn't show up for the 1:00 p.m. appointment.
Chris told authorities that when he got home from work at dinner time, he didn't see Andrea, her car, and the apartment door was unlocked.
Chris recounted that he had a snack, showered, and did laundry while waiting for Andrea to return. He also called Andrea's son, Kevin Cincotta, some of her friends, and local hospitals to inquire about her whereabouts.
Chris dozed off around 11:30 p.m. and woke up two hours later, realizing the bedroom closet door was almost completely closed, even though Andrea always left it open. He said he opened the closet door to find his "cold" fiancee inside.
"I thought my girlfriend was missing. I didn't see her. We had a date tonight," Chris calmly explained to a 911 dispatcher in an unusual call. He then added, "But I think she's dead."
Strange behavior
In addition to Andrea's missing car, Chris told police that a stack of coins, a coin jar, and several of Andrea's wallets were missing from the apartment. He also noticed that the apartment looked like it had just been vacuumed.
The Arlington County Police Department focused their investigation on Chris after noticing his unusually calm tone during the 911 call. Chris was also the one who found Andrea's car abandoned on the side of an interstate highway about 14 km from the apartment. The clutch was burned out, but authorities didn't find any fingerprints or DNA samples inside.
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Chris Johnson was interrogated by police for hours after discovering his fiancee's body. Photo: Arlington Circuit Court |
Chris Johnson was interrogated by police for hours after discovering his fiancee's body. Photo: Arlington Circuit Court
Chris was interrogated for 25 hours over the next three days without requesting a lawyer. Legally, detectives are allowed to lie to suspects, so they told Chris that his fingerprints were found on Andrea's body and that the medical examiner determined she was killed sometime after he got home from work.
Chris then made a series of strange statements to police during the recorded interrogation.
"Did you put Andrea in that closet?", the detective asked. "I don't remember putting her in the closet," Chris replied after a long silence. "Based on what I've been told in this building, I can't come to any other conclusion, like I must have put her in the closet, because they said my fingerprints are on her body."
In another part of the interrogation, after detectives told Chris to imagine himself committing the crime, he said in an almost trance-like state that he had "hit her in the neck, causing her to fall and hit her head."
However, the autopsy revealed that Andrea didn't suffer a significant head injury and died from strangulation. Authorities determined she died before 1:00 p.m., while Chris was at work.
An overlooked suspect
Kevin, 24, didn't believe that Chris, who had been dating his mother for 10 years, could have taken her life. Kevin told detectives that the first person he suspected was someone who had met Andrea a few weeks before her death.
At the time, Andrea was carrying an old computer out of the apartment to throw away when she encountered a man from the garbage collection company in the parking lot. He said the company didn't recycle computers, but added that he wanted it for personal use, then followed Andrea inside to get the computer and printer.
Andrea even called the man a few days later because he was having trouble installing the computer, and Chris spoke with him as well.
Kevin tried to demonstrate that authorities needed to take a closer look at the man. But they seemed focused solely on Chris. They identified the man who had asked for the computer and questioned him, but later told Kevin that he had been cleared as a suspect because his DNA and fingerprints weren't found in the apartment.
Undeterred, Kevin hired a private investigator and identified the man as Bobby Joe Leonard.
Bobby was a registered sex offender who had been in and out of prison for robbery and assault. Less than a week after Andrea's death, Bobby was arrested for assaulting his wife. After two months in jail, he was arrested again for the rape and attempted murder of a 13-year-old girl. This case had an eerie similarity to Andrea's: the victim was strangled and left in a closet. Bobby was sentenced to life in prison for these two crimes.
Meanwhile, Andrea's case stalled. Kevin continued to pursue justice for his mother and maintained a friendship with Chris, even after he married his new love.
An unexpected confession
In 2018, 20 years after Andrea's murder, the case was reopened. Like the original detectives, the new detective in charge of the case believed Chris might be involved and showed Kevin the video of Chris's interrogation. Chris's strange statements were enough to convince Kevin that the man he once respected might be involved, and he agreed to wear a wire while talking to Chris.
"At least you know what happened... I don't know anything," Kevin told Chris in a discussion that lasted almost two hours. "I can't tell you anything. Kevin, I didn't kill your mother. And I'm sorry for making you think I did," Chris said.
The plan ended without much new information, so the detective shifted his attention to Bobby. He agreed to provide information in exchange for not facing the death penalty.
Bobby admitted to returning to Andrea's apartment and attacking her when she went to get him a drink. He said he strangled her, causing her to fall, with no struggle or resistance. He also admitted to stealing Andrea's car and abandoning it along the road after it broke down.
However, Bobby surprised investigators by claiming that a "gentleman" he had talked to about the computer had asked him to kill Andrea. The man never revealed his name, but Bobby knew it was Andrea's boyfriend, who promised him $5,000, left in a shoe in the closet, if he carried out the request.
But Bobby said he didn't find any money in the closet and couldn't follow up because he was arrested shortly after for assaulting his wife.
In 8/2021, authorities believed they had enough evidence to arrest Chris for murder-for-hire.
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Chris Johnson (left) and Andrea Cincotta. Photo: ABC |
Chris Johnson (left) and Andrea Cincotta. Photo: ABC
Chris went to trial in 10/2022. Prosecutors asked the jury to listen to the 911 call recording and watch the video of Chris's interrogation, but their accusations relied primarily on testimony from Bobby.
The defense argued that there was no forensic evidence or financial records linking Chris to Bobby's accusations. They claimed Bobby, a convicted violent criminal, was only implicating Chris to exchange testimony for a chance to be transferred to a lower-security prison.
"Would he believe someone on the phone promising to leave $5,000 in a closet if he took the job, even though he'd never met them? It doesn't make any sense," Chris's lawyer said.
The jury agreed with the defense's argument. They took less than an hour to acquit Chris.
"I'm relieved, but still very sad that she's gone," Chris told the media as he left the courthouse.
Bobby was sentenced to life in prison for the second time, after pleading guilty to Andrea's murder.
Tue Anh (According to Oxygen, ABC News)
