As the man who caught the infamous “Dating Game” killer Christopher Petersen, Ret. Detective Craig Robison is finally sharing his side of the story in a new interview.
It was June 1978 and Petersen, a 22-year-old who won a date with a woman on the popular TV game show, went on a mountain camping trip with his pregnant wife and their 7-year-old daughter. They were never seen again, and their disappearance sparked a massive search effort.
Robison, who was then a rookie detective, was part of the team tasked with finding the missing family. But what seemed like a straightforward case of a family gone missing, turned out to be a complex and chilling murder investigation.
“There were so many twists and turns, it was like a rollercoaster ride,” Robison recalls. “First, we thought it was just a family gone missing, then it turned out to be a woman who won a date on a TV show, and then it became a murder investigation.”
As the lead detective, Robison worked tirelessly to uncover the truth behind the cold-blooded murder. He selflessly spent countless hours poring over evidence, interviewing witnesses, and following leads, which eventually led him to a surprising suspect – Jerry Whitworth.
The 39-year-old Whitworth, a married 19-year-old mother of two, was found with Petersen’s blood on her clothes, but it wasn’t for another six months before she was arrested for the crime.
Whitworth, who prosecutors say was a shapeshifter, had been leading a double life, pretending to be a woman named Sawyer, and had been involved in the murder. Her modus operandi, as later revealed, was to strike up romantic relationships with men, then strike when the time was right.
Despite the brutal case, Robison’s tireless work ethic and dedication paid off. He was ultimately able to put the pieces together, and Whitworth was convicted of the heinous crime. As he looks back on the “Dating Game” killer case, he remembers the pain and trauma it caused, but also the lesson learned: that not everyone is who they seem to be.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘How could someone be so brazen? So evil?'” he says, “But what I learned from that case is that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to justice. Everyone tells a different story, and you have to listen carefully to uncover the truth.”