Robert Dean Weeks was convicted in April 1988 of murdering two women who had disappeared from his life in Nevada years apart: his former wife, Patricia Weeks, last seen in 1968, and Cynthia Jabour, a real estate agent he had dated, last seen in 1980. Neither woman's body was found. He was sentenced to life in prison and died in a Nevada prison on September 20, 1996.
Investigators also suspected him in two other cases that never reached a courtroom. A business associate, James Shaw, disappeared in Las Vegas in 1971 after an argument with him. In 1986 a San Diego nurse named Carol Ann Riley vanished on the day she had planned a dinner date with the man she was seeing, a man she knew as Robert Howard Smith. Detectives later learned that Smith was Weeks. Riley was found dead in Arizona in 1987 and was not identified until August 2025, when the Mohave County Sheriff's Office announced her name. Weeks was never charged in Riley's death or in Shaw's disappearance.
Little is known of Weeks's early life. What investigators described was a man with a long habit of false identities. When detectives looked into the man Carol Ann Riley had been dating, they found that "Robert Howard Smith" was an assumed name, that his real name was Robert Dean Weeks, and that he had a history of using other names.
Patricia Weeks was married to him until 1968. Their divorce had become final only a few weeks before April 25, 1968, the day she disappeared from Clark County, Nevada. Her body was not found. In 1988 her former husband was convicted in Nevada of her murder.
James Shaw did business with Weeks in Las Vegas. On May 5, 1971, after what police described as an argument between the two men, Shaw disappeared. His car was later found abandoned in Las Vegas. His body was not found. Weeks was never charged in connection with Shaw's disappearance, and he was not convicted of any offense involving him.
Cynthia Jabour was a real estate agent, and for a time she dated Weeks. She was last seen on October 5, 1980. According to the 2025 reports, she had planned to end the relationship at a dinner date with him, and she vanished on the day she meant to do it. Her body was not found either. In 1988 Weeks was convicted of her murder alongside that of Patricia Weeks.
Carol Ann Riley worked as a nurse at Scripps Clinic in San Diego. In 1986 she was dating the man she knew as Robert Howard Smith, and she had told friends she intended to break up with him. They had a dinner date planned for the day she disappeared. Afterward the man told police that Riley had canceled the date. Two days later he left town.
Riley's Pontiac was found abandoned in San Diego. She was reported missing that year.
In April 1987 the television program Unsolved Mysteries broadcast a segment about Weeks. Shortly afterward a viewer responded, and the tip led to his arrest in Tucson, Arizona, on fraud and embezzlement charges.
In April 1988 Weeks was convicted in Nevada of the murders of Patricia Weeks and Cynthia Jabour, although the body of neither woman had been found. He was sentenced to life in prison. He was not charged with the death of Carol Ann Riley, who had not yet been identified, or with the disappearance of James Shaw.
Weeks served his sentence in Nevada. He died in prison on September 20, 1996. Carol Ann Riley had not yet been identified.
In May 1987, about a year after Riley disappeared, an unidentified woman was found dead in Mohave County, Arizona. For decades she had no name. The Mohave County Sheriff's Office kept the case open, and from about 2020 tried to identify her through forensic genetic genealogy, without success.
The answer came from California. In July 2025 the Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit of the California Department of Justice matched her to Carol Ann Riley, a woman reported missing from San Diego. The identification was confirmed on July 15, 2025, and the sheriff's office announced it on August 5. Riley's death is now treated as a homicide.
Lori Miller, an investigator with the sheriff's office, described the identification as the kind of work the office existed to do. She said its motto is about "justice for the forgotten," and that the aim is to give unidentified people a name: "we never stop."
The legal record covers two deaths. His conviction in Nevada in April 1988 established that Weeks murdered Patricia Weeks and Cynthia Jabour. How either woman died has not been made public, and neither body has been found.
Everything else is suspicion. Investigators told reporters in 2025 that they believed Weeks killed Carol Ann Riley, and that they also held him responsible for the disappearance of James Shaw. He died in 1996, long before Riley was identified, and he was never charged in either case.
Accounts differ on small points. Riley's date of birth is given both as April 4, 1943, and as December 13, 1943. One San Diego account says Riley canceled the date herself; accounts from Arizona and Nevada say that was the story the man known as Smith gave police. One Las Vegas account calls Patricia Weeks his wife rather than his former wife, although the others agree the divorce had become final weeks before she disappeared.
1968: The divorce of Robert Dean Weeks and Patricia Weeks becomes final.
April 25, 1968: A few weeks after the divorce, Patricia Weeks disappears from Clark County, Nevada.
May 5, 1971: James Shaw, a business associate of Weeks, disappears after an argument with him; his car is later found abandoned in Las Vegas.
October 5, 1980: Cynthia Jabour, a real estate agent who had dated Weeks, is last seen.
1986: Carol Ann Riley, a Scripps Clinic nurse dating a man she knew as Robert Howard Smith, disappears in San Diego on the day of a planned dinner date; the man leaves town two days later.
April 1987: Unsolved Mysteries broadcasts a segment about Weeks; a viewer's tip leads to his arrest in Tucson, Arizona, on fraud and embezzlement charges.
May 1987: An unidentified woman is found dead in Mohave County, Arizona.
April 1988: Weeks is convicted in Nevada of the murders of Patricia Weeks and Cynthia Jabour and sentenced to life in prison.
September 20, 1996: Weeks dies in prison in Nevada.
About 2020: The Mohave County Sheriff's Office begins trying to identify the woman through forensic genetic genealogy.
July 15, 2025: The California Department of Justice identifies the woman as Carol Ann Riley.
August 5, 2025: The Mohave County Sheriff's Office announces the identification; Riley's death is treated as a homicide.