Months after Monica White ended her relationship with Anthony Robinson, he was arrested for murdering two women
Credit: Netflix; Cheriss May
NEED TO KNOW
- The Dating App Killer is based on Monica White’s real-life experience dating convicted murderer Anthony Robinson
- Robinson, dubbed the Shopping Cart Killer, is suspected of six murders but has only been convicted of two
- Director Elisabeth Röhm aimed to tell the story from White’s perspective to highlight her resilience and journey
There’s an unfortunate amount of truth behind The Dating App Killer: The Monica White Story.
Released in 2026, this Lifetime movie recounts the real-life experience of Monica White, a Pennsylvania woman who dated serial killer Anthony Robinson months before he murdered two women. They connected on a dating app in 2020 and corresponded for several months until she ended their relationship in February 2021 after he displayed multiple instances of inappropriate behavior in real life.
The remains of his first alleged victim, Sonya Champ, were found the following September. Though Robinson is suspected in connection with six total murders across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., he’s only been convicted of two.
“I felt like I might’ve been the reason why he might have snapped,” White told PEOPLE in February 2024. “I had actually allowed this man into my home, allowed him to stay overnight in my home. Then to find out later on, you started killing people?”
Here’s everything to know about the true story behind The Dating App Killer, including how accurately the film portrayed the real-life events.
The Dating App Killer is based on White’s real-life experience of dating a convicted serial killer
Credit: Netflix
Director and Law & Order alum Elisabeth Röhm told the Killer Thriller podcast in February 2026 that she was inspired to make the film after she read an article in PEOPLE about White’s experience with Robinson, who was dubbed the Shopping Cart Killer for how he transported the bodies of his victims.
In the interview, White recalled how she first met Robinson on the dating app Tagged in late 2020. He started calling and video chatting with her every day, and in January 2021, he traveled from Harrisonburg, Va., to Mechanicsburg, Penn., to meet her in person. Though they would go on to meet up a few more times, she told PEOPLE there were “red flags” from the very first visit — including how he allegedly asked to move in with her.
“I told him, ‘No. You’re moving too fast, man,’” White told PEOPLE in 2024.
That detail was included in The Dating App Killer, which aligned with Röhm’s goal of wanting to tell the story from White’s perspective.
“We’re not celebrating him, and we are not positioning him to become the most thrilling, sexy monster,” she explained on Killer Thriller. “It’s really her story.”
Robinson’s may have been connected to his former fiancée’s death in 2018
In The Dating App Killer, Robinson (played by Jarod Joseph) tells White (played by Lela Rochon) that he was previously engaged to a woman who died of cardiac arrhythmia. In real life, the convicted killer’s former fiancée, Skye Allen, did die of the heart condition in 2018, according to doctors. Her mother, Stacey Allen, found her barely breathing in her room after she spent the night with Robinson, and she was rushed to the hospital, where she died.
Police later looked into Robinson’s possible connection to Allen’s death, and Allen’s mother told NBC Washington in September 2022 that she had always believed Robinson had something to do with her daughter’s death, even asking him point-blank if he killed her. Like White and his other alleged victims, he met his fiancée on a dating app.
At the time, Prince George’s County Police told The Washington Post that the investigation into Allen’s death would be difficult since the agency “was not notified of her passing” and that her body was cremated.
No charges have been made in connection with her death.
Robinson went on a killing spree months after White ended their relationship
Credit: Netflix; Harrisonburg Police Department via AP
Though The Dating App Killer made it seem like Robinson was killing women while he was talking to White, that hasn’t been proven in real life. The victim of his first convicted murder, Allene Elizabeth “Beth” Redmon, was reported missing in October 2021, six months after White broke up with Robinson for inappropriate behavior he displayed at her 54th birthday party.
“He peed in my bed on my birthday,” she recalled to PEOPLE. “He was drinking. Then not only that, harassing the kids, flirting with the boys … He started snapping. I’m like, ‘Get your stuff and let’s go.’ ”
Though the earliest death Robinson is connected to dates back to 2018, the remains of his other five alleged victims were found between September and December 2021. Röhm told Killer Thriller that they decided to write the story “as a dual track” to put the viewers “in both worlds at the same time” and amp up the drama.
The Dating App Killer filmmakers worked with White to bring her story to the screen
Credit: Cheriss May
After Robinson’s trial — during which he was given two life sentences plus 10 years for the murders of Redmon and Tonita Smith — Röhm reached out to White so they could tell the story from a “positive point of
view of this hero’s journey.”
“As producers reaching out to a victim, we take it very seriously,” she explained on Killer Thriller. “They’ve been from, you know, through hell and back, and we want them to trust us and know that we’re going to portray with so much integrity that they can feel safe that their story is safe. So we spend some time with her.”
Though White hasn’t spoken out about The Dating App Killer, she has said that going through the experience taught her an invaluable lesson.
“I don’t need a man to love myself,” she told PEOPLE in 2024. “I had to learn that. In order to make myself happy, I didn’t need a man. All I needed was God.”
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