For eighteen years, the murder of Rita Payne remained a cold case, a source of private grief for her loved ones and an unsolved file in the records of the Cleveland Police Department. The 47-year-old woman’s life was brutally taken on May 15, 1997, leaving behind questions that would not be answered for nearly two decades. Her case is a somber reminder of how forensic technology can reach back in time to deliver justice, long after hope seems lost.
On that Thursday in May, Rita's body was discovered inside a locked employee restroom at a Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) bus turnaround facility located at East 83rd Street and Central Avenue. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled. The initial investigation by Cleveland police was extensive, but with no witnesses and limited evidence, the trail went cold. No suspects were immediately identified, and for years, the case remained stagnant, one of many unsolved homicides in the city.
The breakthrough came in 2015, a result of advancements in DNA profiling. Investigators were able to match DNA evidence collected from the 1997 crime scene to a man named Robert Gene Rembert Jr. At the time of Rita's murder, Rembert was an RTA bus driver and would have had access to the code for the locked restroom where her body was found. His DNA was entered into law enforcement databases following a more recent arrest, creating the link that had eluded detectives for so long.
The investigation into Rembert quickly revealed a history of extreme violence. Just months after killing Rita, in December 1997, he shot and killed 24-year-old Dadren Lewis in a parking lot. In that case, Rembert pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 1998 and was sentenced to six years in prison. He was released in 2004 and found work as a truck driver, a job that took him across Ohio and into Pennsylvania.
In 2015, as police zeroed in on him for Rita’s murder, Rembert was actively committing other heinous crimes. On June 10, 2015, the body of 31-year-old Kimberly Hall was found in a field on Cleveland's east side; she had been beaten, raped, and strangled in a manner terrifyingly similar to Rita Payne. Later, on September 20, 2015, police discovered the bodies of Rembert's own cousin, 52-year-old Jerry Rembert, and 26-year-old Morgan Nietzel in the Cleveland home they all shared. Both had been shot in the head.
Robert Rembert was arrested the next day at a truck stop in Medina County after he was found in possession of Nietzel's car. During questioning, he confessed to the murders of his cousin and Nietzel. The DNA evidence subsequently linked him conclusively to the murders of both Rita Payne and Kimberly Hall. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty publicly labeled Rembert a serial killer.
In October 2015, a grand jury indicted Rembert on 25 counts, including multiple charges of aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape, and aggravated robbery for the four killings. To avoid the death penalty, Rembert accepted a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to the murders of Rita Payne, Kimberly Hall, Jerry Rembert, and Morgan Nietzel. In 2018, he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. During his sentencing, he offered an apology to the families of his victims.
The case of Rita Payne is officially closed, with her killer behind bars. As of October 2018, law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, were continuing to investigate Rembert's activities as a long-haul truck driver to determine if he was connected to other unsolved homicides in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or elsewhere.
