M. William Phelps

Inside now, everything has this awfully and eerily quiet vibe to it.

The neighbor senses right away that something is off.

There's a sour, steely, metallic smell mixed with the feeling of something even more alarming.

Death.

He takes one step into the kitchen and there is Dr. Schwartz.

Now, Dr. Schwartz's neighbor is no forensic expert, but even to him, it's clear this wasn't some kind of robbery.

There's no forced entry.

Whoever had murdered Dr. Robert Schwartz walked into the house without resistance, as if someone invited them in.

Investigators from the Loudoun County Virginia Sheriff's Office secure the crime scene and begin taking stock of the gruesome attack.

Blood is everywhere.

On the floor, walls, countertops, smeared along the wooden floor.

As a working true crime journalist for over 25 years, I have written about and studied hundreds of crime scenes, and I can tell you that the brutality of this murder went beyond a crime of passion.

Schwartz had one arm sticking out, his eyes wide open like a doll, a large pool of blood around his head and torso.

And there are even droplets of cooked blood inside a frying pan on the stove.

Here's one of the investigators involved early on, Detective Greg Locke.

In total, Schwartz was stabbed 31 times.

31 times.

Delving into this case years ago, interviewing over 50 people for a book I was working on, I had so many questions about the crime scene alone.

Clearly, Dr. Schwartz's murder was fueled by an enormous amount of rage.

And yet, looking deeper into it, I began to wonder if something far more sinister was going on here.