Robert Wone Estate Disputes Unpaid Scholarship Funds 20 Years After D.C. Killing

Q: Why did the cleared suspects suddenly stop paying the memorial scholarship for their mysteriously murdered friend?

There is no confirmed public explanation from the cleared suspects for why they stopped paying. What is established is that Robert Wone’s estate says Joe Price and Victor Zaborsky were required under a 2011 wrongful-death settlement to fund the Robert E. Wone Memorial Trust in monthly installments over 20 years, and that they allegedly paid irregularly for years before stopping altogether in 2025. Court filings described the payment history as inconsistent: late payments, missed payments, and checks that allegedly bounced, before the payments ceased entirely. Price reportedly agreed to pay $85,500 and Zaborsky $66,000. The estate now wants the court to order the remaining balance paid immediately. Because neither Price nor Zaborsky has publicly answered the allegation in news reports, any motive for stopping is still speculative. The record now points to an alleged default on the settlement terms, not a proven reason. Outside commentary tied to the case has suggested the monthly payments were a continuing reminder of Wone’s unresolved killing, but that is not evidence from the men themselves. What is clear is that the stoppage has reopened a legal and symbolic wound in a case that remains unsolved nearly 20 years later. A D.C. Superior Court debt-collection hearing is scheduled for September 22, where the estate will try to recover what it says is still owed to the memorial scholarship trust.

1 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Aug 30

Twenty years after Robert Wone’s killing, his estate says former defendants in a wrongful-death suit failed to make agreed payments supporting a scholarship in his name.
The dispute revives scrutiny of a case that has long remained unresolved, centered on whether settlement-linked scholarship funding was fully paid.
Wone, a 32-year-old attorney, was fatally stabbed after arriving to stay overnight at a friend’s Dupont Circle townhouse, according to a 911 call made shortly afterward.
The new payment fight adds a fresh legal and financial chapter to one of Washington’s most notorious unsolved killings.