A call of hope, followed by husband's 911

Dec. 20, 2006 Morning

The screeching telephone stopped Mary Beth Pedlow before she reached her front door. She was already late for her appointment. But as the mother of four, ages 9 to 16, MacBeth, as her friends liked to call her, knew better than to ignore any calls.

"Hi, MB. You're home! . . ." exclaimed Ellen Robb.

"I was on my way out. . . . What's up?"

"Do you have anything in Avon? I need a couple more gifts to take with me up to Boston."

"I have a couple of Avon gift boxes I know you will like. It's a great deal," said Mary Beth. "I'll drop them off on Thursday or Friday before you leave."

"OK, great," said Ellen.

Mary Beth knew that her friend loved a bargain. They had started their working careers together as management trainees at Bamberger's Department Store. And after they each married, it was Ellen who told MacBeth to check out the house for sale down the street. What could be better than having a best friend living nearby?

There was so much joy in her friend's voice that day that Mary Beth found herself sitting down just to listen. She gladly missed her appointment to hear her friend's good news.

For the next hour, Ellen talked excitedly. It was time to put an end to her loveless marriage to University of Pennsylvania professor Rafael Robb. She especially wanted their 12-year-old daughter, Olivia, to know that there was another way to live. For the last 10 years, Ellen and Rafael had lived separately in the same house, sleeping in separate bedrooms, keeping separate bank accounts and arguing - often over money. Rafi, as his friends called him, kept his bedroom door locked. Ellen feared he was hiding his money in foreign banks, but she needed his financial records to prove it. She had plans to hire a locksmith to force open the door.

"I'm turning 50, my life is changing," Ellen said. "I want a better life for me, and I want a better life for my daughter."

As a stay-at-home mom, Ellen was devoted to her daughter and volunteered regularly at her school. What disturbed her greatly was that Olivia was starting to turn on her - she was starting to mimic her father's demeaning ways.

Ellen was determined now to get out. Her brother, Gary Gregory, was coming down the next day from his home outside Boston. Their plan was to leave Friday with Ellen's mother, Mary Janette, for a big family Christmas and party to celebrate Ellen's 50th birthday on Dec. 26.

But one of the issues still up in the air was when Rafi would see Olivia. Their plan was to meet in New York on Dec. 27 so Rafi could spend a few days with Olivia. He really wanted her on Dec. 26, but Ellen had convinced him to let her keep her daughter on her birthday.

Ellen said Rafi was also talking about taking Olivia to Israel to see his dying mother. Ellen didn't mind Olivia going, but she was worried the girl would not return in time to start school on Jan. 3.

Robb didn't need to be back in Philadelphia until Jan. 8 for the start of the spring semester at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an economics professor and well-known expert in game theory - a discipline that blends economics, psychology and mathematics in order to make decisions by calculating what others might do.

Ellen had long been afraid that Rafi, 56, would make good on his threats to take their daughter to live with his family in Israel, and Ellen would never see her again.

"We'll work it out," Ellen declared to Mary Beth.

Ellen excitedly told her friend that a lawyer had told her she could expect to get about $4,000 per month from Robb, more than enough to lease a townhouse nearby. She and Olivia would move in around Jan. 1.

"It's easier for me to go out and start fresh."

Mary Beth pressed Ellen to know whether Robb had ever hurt her. "Is there anything he's done that we can get the police involved to get him out and change the locks?"

"No, I'd rather do it this way . . . I still love him."

"Is there any problem with Olivia?"

"No, Olivia is actually looking forward to moving in with me."

Ellen's voice was strong and broke out easily in laughter. She was excited by the new life that awaited her.

As she hung up the phone, Mary Beth couldn't help talking to herself: "Thank God I took that phone call. The old Ellen is back."

And talking to her was actually enjoyable. So different from the many depressing phone calls she had taken over the last couple of years from her friend. Mary Beth knew it: 2007 was going to be a great year for Ellen.

Dec. 22, 2006 1:45 p.m.

Rafael Robb walked through the garage to his car parked in the driveway. He reached in and retrieved his cell phone from the floor before punching in the 10-digit non-emergency number to summon the Upper Merion Police to his home in Wayne. "I just came home and found my wife murdered on the kitchen floor," he told dispatcher Matt Markland in his heavily accented English.

Hearing him say "murdered" sent a shiver through the young dispatcher as he recorded the details of Incident #06-27106. In five years on the job this was his first homicide, and he wanted to get it right. He needed to keep the caller safe and find out what the officers would encounter when they got there.

After getting the location, the dispatcher continued, "And what's the matter with your wife?"

"She is killed," Robb said.

"How can you tell?"

"I know, her head is cracked. . . . She's on the kitchen floor."

". . . Is there anyone in the house?"

"There is a broken window in the back."

"Sir, can you step outside for me?"

Robb did as Markland asked.

"OK, just calm down," Markland told Robb after getting him to spell his name and repeat his address. "Do you see anyone else around the house?"

"No, I don't see anything. . . ."

"OK, stay out front. There are police and an ambulance coming."

Within minutes, four Upper Merion Police cars converged on Forest Road. Officers Patrick Krouse, Jerry Davis, Mike Ballman and Andy Fidler met Robb in the driveway.

"Mike, you talk to him," shouted Krouse as he and Davis ducked into the garage toward the house. They noticed a trail of bloody footprints that continued into the den. Turning toward Robb, Krouse asked, "Is there anybody in there?"

"No," Robb answered. With their guns drawn, Davis, an eight-year patrol veteran, and Krouse, an officer for 12 years, walked through the garage and up the two steps into the family room and more stairs into the kitchen, where they saw Ellen Robb's body sprawled on the bloody floor, her feet pointing toward them. They braced so they could step over the body without disturbing anything. They were very cognizant about not adding or taking anything away from the murder scene.

Robb nervously looked at his watch. Olivia was due to return home any minute from Upper Merion Middle School, and he didn't want her to walk in on all of this.

Rather than take any chances, Ballman got on his radio and alerted dispatch. A supervisor directed Special Officer Kim O'Keefe to meet Olivia at the bus.

Robb began pacing nervously, his hand rubbing his upper right arm. "I'm feeling shoulder pain," he said.

Ballman couldn't tell whether this was an understandable anxiety attack or a heart attack in progress, but he wasn't taking any chances. He walked Robb to his squad car and called for an ambulance. Shortly - just 19 minutes after Robb first summoned police - he was inside an ambulance where paramedics checked his vital signs and gave him oxygen.

As the school bus made the turn toward her stop, Olivia could see the cluster of police cars near her house. She borrowed a cell phone from her friend, Brooke Dubin, and called home. No one answered.

Inside, the officers could hear her frantic message on the answering machine: "Mom, why are all the cops there? Is everything OK? Mom, why are the cops out front?" They had only minutes to stop the girl from walking in on the horrific scene.

That job fell to O'Keefe, who walked toward the bus stop just as Olivia was getting off the bus.

"What's going on?" Olivia asked O'Keefe. "What's happened to my mom? Where's my dad?" No one would answer her questions.

Tomorrow: Police go undercover to learn more about Rafael Robb.

Original publication from Cruel Games: A Brilliant Professor, a Loving Mother, a Brutal Murder, by Rose Ciotta, copyright 2009. Published by St. Martin's True Crime Library.