Monica White was looking for companionship on a dating app when she crossed paths with Anthony Robinson — who would go on to kill at least two women
Credit: Cheriss May
NEED TO KNOW
- Monica White was a mother going through a painful divorce when she created profiles on various dating apps and websites
- The then-53-year-old came across Anthony Robinson’s profile, and they initially hit it off before a series of concerning events took place
- Robinson was later convicted of killing two women and is suspected of killing four more
Monica White was looking to find love after divorce when she started unknowingly dating a serial killer.
In late 2020, White had been divorced for three years and wanted to give love another shot, so she downloaded the dating app Tagged. She matched with a man named Anthony Robinson — who told her he had a daughter and worked in waste management — and they started chatting online.
“I wasn’t really thinking romantically. It was just companionship,” White told PEOPLE in February 2024. “I thought he was normal.”
However, things quickly started to deteriorate when they met in real life in January 2021. White recalled noticing immediate “red flags,” but she decided to give him a chance. He made her uncomfortable in intimate scenarios, but she allowed him to visit once more the following month for her birthday.
Robinson arrived a week early and claimed he had a job offer in the area. After more uncomfortable situations — including him “snapping” at her — White told Robinson that she didn’t want to see him again.
Just a few months later, Robinson committed a killing spree, meeting victims on dating apps and killing them in motels in late 2021. While he has been convicted of killing two women, he is the primary suspect in four other deaths.
White’s story of surviving a soon-to-be serial killer were dramatized for the Lifetime movie, The Dating App Killer: The Monica White Story, which hit Netflix on Aug. 15. White is portrayed by Lela Rochon.
Here’s everything to know about where Monica White is now.
Who is Monica White?
Credit: Cheriss May
White is a mother who was going through a painful divorce in the fall of 2020. She was 53 years old at the time and living outside Harrisburg, Pa., when she created profiles on various dating apps and sites — including Tagged.
There, she met a man named Robinson who messaged her, “Hi beautiful. I’d like to get to know you better,” as she told The Washington Post in 2022.
White recalled feeling flattered by Robinson’s messages, which often revolved around how he found her attractive. She claimed that Robinson told her he used to be a preschool teacher and was working in waste management. He further claimed that he had been engaged at one point and had a young daughter.
White initially believed all was well with Robinson, who allegedly told her he liked that she was older, more mature and confident. Eventually, the messages turned into video chats.
“From the video calls, I couldn’t tell who he was as a person,” White told PEOPLE. “What he seemed like on the video calls was just a young man trying to make money.”
After a while, White felt that he was calling too much and claimed, “Some days I wouldn’t even want to answer the phone.”
What happened when White met Robinson?
Credit: Harrisonburg Police Department via AP
In January 2021, Robinson traveled to White’s home in Mechanicsburg, Pa., to meet her face-to-face, but she quickly started to notice some “red flags.”
“Oh my God, he was totally different,” White told PEOPLE. “He was nice that first visit — but there were things that went up as red flags.”
White recalled Robinson telling her, “‘Please don’t judge me straight off the bat. Let’s get to know each other. I don’t like when women reject me.’ So that was a red flag right there.”
Despite the odd first encounter, White decided to give him a chance because of their history on the dating app and video chats. She brought him to her home, introduced him to her adult son, ordered food and they had sex — which led to concerning behavior, according to White.
“We had intercourse together. But he started doing something crazy during the intercourse to where I just had to cut him off,” she alleged to PEOPLE. “I woke up in the middle of the night and this man was up staring at me because I was rejecting him. I would not allow him to be with me intimately. After that one time, I would not allow him.”
White further claimed that Robinson “tried to tie me up” and “grabbed me by my neck.”
“I don’t think he was trying to kill me, but I think that he’s into some freaky, crazy stuff,” she said. In addition to his alleged behavior in bed, Robinson also allegedly told White that he wanted to move in, to which she replied that he was “moving too fast.”
Although she had some hesitations about Robinson, she allowed him to visit once more in February 2021 for her 54th birthday. He arrived one week early and told her that he bought himself a one-way bus ticket, because he received job offers near her home. When it came time for her party, things only got worse.
“He was drinking. Then not only that, harassing the kids, flirting with the boys,” she claimed.
White said that she didn’t want to have sex with him, but claimed he “ended up peeing in my bed.” The entire ordeal led her to cut things off completely, which resulted in a fight.
“He started snapping,” White recalled. “I’m like, ‘Get your stuff and let’s go.’ ”
She proceeded to give him $20 to get to the train in hopes that she’d be done with him for good. However, Robinson did not leave and went to a gas station and called her cousins to cry to them “all night long.”
Instead of moving on, Robinson moved to a motel in Harrisburg and continued messaging White, asking her to meet him. He told her, “I will give you whatever you want,” even offering her $500, but she still refused. About a month later, White saw Robinson one final time outside his motel.
“He looked like a totally different man. Something snapped in him. I don’t know whether he was doing drugs, and ended up totally flipping out,” she recalled. “It was like I seen a ghost, a monster.”
What did Robinson do after dating White?
Around eight months after Robinson and White met in person, he was arrested for killing two women: 54-year-old Allene “Beth” Redmon and 39-year-old Tonita Smith.
Police had located their remains in a field next to a motel in Harrisonburg, Va., and reviewed surveillance footage of him interacting with both victims at the property before exiting his room with items in a shopping cart, per surveillance footage.
The following month, police discovered the bodies of two more women — 29-year-old Cheyenne Brown and 48-year-old Stephanie Harrison — in a vacant lot near the Moon Inn Hotel in Alexandria, Va., about 130 miles from Harrisonburg. Just like the other two women, there was a shopping cart near the dump site.
“He’s killed four victims already,” Fairfax County police chief Kevin Davis said at a press conference in December 2021. “We suspect that he has more.”
Robinson was convicted of Redmon and Smith’s murders in 2025 and was sentenced the following year to two life sentences plus 10 years and approximately $205,000 in fines, according to Rocktown Now. Meanwhile, Robinson is the primary suspect in Brown and Harrison’s deaths, as well the deaths of 40-year-old Sonya Champ and his former fiancée Skye Allen, 30.
Where is Monica White now?
Credit: Cheriss May
White found out about her ex’s charges when her cousin passed along a news story featuring Robinson’s arrest and mugshot.
“Once I started putting the puzzle together, of course, when the pieces fit, they fit,” White remembered feeling.
White admitted that she worried her rejection of Robinson could have ignited his killing spree.
“I felt like I might’ve been the reason why he might have snapped,” she reflected. “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? He’s an insane, weird, crazy person. Something snapped.”
White continued, “I don’t need a man to love myself. I had to learn that. In order to make myself happy, I didn’t need a man. All I needed was God.”
White told PEOPLE in 2024 that she hadn’t gone back on a dating app since, and has since kept a low profile.
“I don’t need to search for love. Love will find me. I’m patient now,” White said.
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