By SCOTT CANON
Kansas City Star
June 27, 2000
Web posted at: 4:22 PM EDT (2022 GMT)

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Kansas City Star) -- Tiffany Lynn Stasi, who disappeared 15 years ago as a 4-month-old baby after her mother crossed paths with accused serial killer John E. Robinson Sr., is believed to be alive, The Kansas City Star has learned.

Police are investigating whether Tiffany is living under another name in a tidy suburban neighborhood in a Midwestern state. Sources knowledgeable of the investigation say she could have been raised by a couple known to Robinson without ever being legally adopted.

The Kansas City Star contacted the household and was told "no comment" by a woman who came to the door Monday. A lawyer retained by the family would only say they are "cooperating fully with all law enforcement."

The case presents legal and ethical issues because the teen-age girl, who recently finished her freshman year in public high school, is still a minor.

Similar discoveries in other parts of the nation have set off tangled custody disputes between the families who raised such children and their relatives by birth.

The case also could be complicated by the possibility that her biological mother was a victim of foul play and that any adoption appears to have been off the books, according to Missouri records.

Born at Truman Medical Center, Tiffany is the daughter of Lisa Stasi, a young woman who was told she could begin a new life under an "Outreach" program for young single mothers set up by Robinson in 1985.

Robinson, whose program turned out to be a fraud, was charged this month with five counts of capital murder after the discovery of barrels containing the remains of women. Those victims appear to have died in recent years.

But at least three other women, including Lisa Stasi, disappeared in the mid-1980s after becoming involved with Robinson. He faces no charges involving those women.

Accused serial killer John E. Robinson
Accused serial killer John E. Robinson 

The current prosecution has sparked fresh interest in the older missing persons cases and brought new questions about the fate of Tiffany. Authorities and family members are highly reluctant to discuss it, but sources close to the investigation confirmed that family members have been questioned about the possibility that Robinson turned Tiffany over to a childless couple he knew.

That couple, one source said, was "surprised and terrified" by the developments following Robinson's arrest.

Carl Stasi, Tiffany's father, said Monday he has had no indication that investigators may have news of his daughter. Kathy Klinginsmith, Lisa Stasi's sister-in-law who lives in Lenexa, also said Monday police had not been in touch with her regarding Tiffany.

The Robinson connection

Lisa Stasi was 19 and in a troubled marriage in 1985 when she met Robinson while staying at the Hope House shelter for battered women, according to investigators' reports filed at the time.

Staffers at social agencies recall that Robinson had frequented hospitals and agencies looking for young women for his Kansas City Outreach Program, sponsored by his Equi-II umbrella consulting company. Background checks by vigilant social workers found that he had falsified aspects of his program.

A man that police believe was Robinson pledged to train her in Texas as a silkscreen printer, land her an $800-a-month stipend, set her up with baby-sitting and give her an apartment. She was told, investigative reports say, jobs opportunities awaited her later in Chicago, Denver or Kansas City.

On Jan. 8, 1985, she and her baby were at an Overland Park Rodeway Inn, where a "John Osborne" had checked her in. Her room was paid for with a credit card issued to Equi-II. She checked out two days later, and her family has not heard from her since.

Klinginsmith reported her missing soon after. Klinginsmith's husband told police he visited the offices of Equi-II, an Overland Park management consulting business owned by Robinson, on Jan. 12, 1985. He said a man pushed him out of the office after he had identified himself as Stasi's relative.

Later, a man calling himself "Father Martin" with City Union Mission telephoned the brother-in-law to say Stasi and the infant were fine. The man left a telephone number, but it led to a private home. No priests worked at City Union Mission.

Two days after the brother-in-law's visit, an attorney representing Robinson told police that Stasi had "made arrangements for her self-keeping on her own." Robinson, he said, had not seen the mother or daughter for several days.

Investigators' reports at the time indicate Robinson produced typewritten farewell notes signed by Stasi and told police she had left for Denver with a man named Bill.

At that time, Robinson's parole officer in Missouri wondered whether Robinson could be involved in a black market for healthy babies. Court documents indicate that despite the disappearance of Stasi and her daughter, the FBI had no evidence of such a ring.

Steve Haymes, the parole officer, was aware that Paula Godfrey, a high school graduate from Olathe who apparently worked for the Stanley, Kan., businessman, had dropped out of sight in the summer of 1984. Later, police would learn that Catherine Clampitt also supposedly was working for Robinson's Equi-II before she was reported missing in 1987.

Carl Stasi is critical of Overland Park police for not investigating the disappearance of the two 15 years ago. He also is angry with Truman Medical Center, where Tiffany was born, because he believes Robinson made contact with Lisa there.

"I've really just been taking it from day to day," he said. "Nobody's called."

Stasi said investigators told him they have routinely asked for blood samples from the relatives of the dead and missing women tied to the Robinson case. Those blood samples can form the basis of DNA tests to confirm identities.

Carl Stasi's attorney, Seth Shumaker, said early this month that he told his client not to give authorities a blood sample until he's told they believe they have found Lisa or Tiffany Stasi.

"I don't see any reason for putting my client through a blood test if you don't have anybody," Shumaker said. "As soon as you come up with a person or a body that you believe to be Tiffany, then it becomes appropriate."


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