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Man Allegedly 'Laid In Wait' To Kill Pregnant Ex-Girlfriend In Murder-Suicide
The family of Cynthia Lynn Smith had only just learned of her unborn child’s gender.
A North Carolina woman who was expecting her first child was tragically killed by her ex-boyfriend earlier this week, who then took his own life, police say.
Officers with the Waynesville Police Department were called to a private residence on Tuesday morning in response to a report that two people had been found dead inside, authorities said in a news release obtained by Oxygen.com. After stating that the incident was a murder-suicide, police said in a later release that the two deceased individuals were Cynthia Lynn Smith, a 38-year-old Waynesville resident, and Robert Brian King, a 43-year-old Sylva resident.
At the time of her death, Smith was four months pregnant with a baby girl — who she’d decided to name Riley Quinn — police said. However, both mother and child had their lives cut tragically short; investigators say that surveillance footage captured by a neighbor showed the incident as it unfolded, with authorities alleging that King “murdered Smith and then intentionally took his own life.”
Smith and King had previously been in a relationship and he was the father of her unborn child, Interim Police Chief Brian Beck told the Asheville Citizen Times. Smith’s family had only found out the sex of her unborn child a week before King, who police alleged “laid in wait” for his ex, used a knife to murder Smith in an act police called “premeditated” before killing himself, Beck said.
Smith had ended her relationship with King “about a month or so ago,” and had moved in with her grandmother in an attempt to get away from him, her uncle Steve Goodson wrote in a Facebook post, according to the outlet.
“She was fearful of him, but he was sneaky and never done anything bad enough to have the authorities involved,” he reportedly said.
There were no prior reports of domestic violence involving Smith and King, Beck told the Citizen Times.
Smith, who worked as a teacher at Kid Connection Child Development Center, is survived by her remaining daughter, Kahlan, who chose the name Quinn for her baby sister, according to an online obituary. Smith — who was known as “Cindy” by her loved ones — is scheduled to be laid to rest on Saturday.
