The Virginia woman was stabbed more than 90 times before her remains were stuffed into the toolbox, according to officials
Credit: Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office
NEED TO KNOW
- Police found a woman’s remains in a toolbox after her husband called 911 over a “single drop of blood,” according to City of Virginia Beach officials
- The woman, Cynthia Capps, “had been stabbed over 90 times on the head, face and neck,” officials said
- On Feb. 25, Hagen Lawrence Roberts was sentenced to life in prison, plus five years, for the October 2020 slaying of Capps
A Virginia woman was stabbed to death, placed in a toolbox and found thanks only to a “single drop of blood.” More than five years later, her killer was sentenced.
Hagen Lawrence Roberts, 41, was sentenced to life in prison, plus five years, in the stabbing death of Cynthia Capps on Wednesday, Feb. 25, the City of Virginia Beach announced in a news release.
The sentencing came more than three months after a jury found Roberts guilty on charges of first-degree murder and stabbing in the commission of a felony following a three-day trial in November 2025. Roberts — who maintained his innocence till the end, per The Virginian-Pilot — received the maximum sentence, city officials said.
Roberts’ sentence can be traced back to Oct. 8, 2020, when Capps’ husband was unable to find her.
The husband, whom the city did not identify by name, called 911 after he was unable to locate Capps after taking a shower. Concerned, he “searched their home and discovered a single drop of blood on their kitchen floor, which prompted him to contact police,” according to city officials.
Police officers with the Virginia Beach Police Department responded to the scene, the couple’s Green Cedar Lane residence, and searched for additional signs of foul play, which led them to Roberts, who was renting a room in the home, officials said.
Credit: Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty
The room was locked, so officers breached it to find Roberts on his bed, seemingly “wet from recently taking a shower” and sporting “a cut on his right hand that was wrapped in a black bandana,” according to city officials. More searching led police to more blood, this time stains in the backyard of the Virginia Beach property.
Then, they found Capps’ remains.
Police discovered her “deceased in a toolbox with trauma to her head and face,” according to the release. She “had been stabbed over 90 times on the head, face and neck,” according to a subsequent examination.
A “metal shard, which appeared to be the tip of a knife,” was also taken from her skull, city officials said. In Hagens' bedroom, police found “a black folding knife with a broken tip covered in dried blood,” which was later found to be a match with the shard.
Police also recovered blood-covered clothes that had been placed in a trash can, as well as more bloodstains throughout the property, according to the release. Following forensic analysis, DNA found on the knife, clothes and stains was identified as belonging to both Capps and Roberts, city officials said.
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At Roberts’ sentencing on Wednesday, Circuit Court Judge Stephen C. Mahan called the evidence connecting Roberts to the stabbing “overwhelming,” The Virginian-Pilot reported. Mahan also said that he thought the high end of the sentencing guidelines were not enough for the “savage” nature of the 2020 killing, according to the newspaper.
Roberts told the court ahead of the sentencing that he was sorry Capps was no longer alive, per The Virginian-Pilot.
“The picture you’re painting of me as a menace to society, and a killer with no remorse, is not true. I do have remorse,” the now-convicted killer said, according to the newspaper. “But I can’t lie and admit to something I didn’t do.”
One of Capps’ brothers, Cavan, spoke about her death at the sentencing — and compared it to one of the most well-known deaths in film history, per The Virginian-Pilot.
“Could you imagine living through the horror of looking at someone stabbing you and feeling the knife in your face?” he said. “Hitchcock’s Psycho isn’t that bad. It’s worse than anything you see on TV.”
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