Killing of Sharon Lopatka

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2024-10-13 17:30:08

Sharon Rina Lopatka (née Denburg ; September 20, 1961 – October 16, 1996) was an Internet entrepreneur in Hampstead, Maryland, United States who was killed in a case of apparent consensual homicide. Lopatka was tortured and strangled to death on October 16, 1996, by Robert "Bobby" Frederick Glass, a computer analyst from North Carolina. The apparent purpose was mutual sexual gratification.

The case was reportedly the first where a police department arrested a murder suspect with evidence gathered primarily from email messages.[ 1] While Lopatka and Glass had initially planned a consensual homicide, Glass maintained that the death was an accident, which was corroborated by Lopatka's autopsy. However, police contended the death was intentional.

Sharon Rena Denburg was the first of four daughters born to Orthodox Jewish parents Mr. and Mrs. Abraham J. Denburg.[ 2] [ 3] They were members of the Beth Tfiloh Congregation, Abraham being a cantor at the synagogue.[ 2] Raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Sharon was allegedly considered by her classmates "as normal as you can get", wrote The News & Observer, and was a part of sport teams and her school's choir club.[ 2] Graduating from Pikesville High School in 1979,[ 4] Lopatka married construction worker Victor Lopatka in Ellicott City, Maryland, in 1991, and relocated with him to a ranch-esque tract house in Hampstead, Maryland, during the early 1990s.[ 2] The marriage was described by a classmate of Lopatka as a "way of breaking away", and her parents did not approve of it.[ 2]