Netflix added “The Dating App Killer: The Monica White Story” to its US library on Aug. 15, 2026, after the film first aired on Lifetime on Feb. 14, 2026. It’s a scripted drama, not a documentary, built around the Virginia murder case involving Allene “Beth” Redmon and Tonita Lorice Smith, and the Pennsylvania woman who dated Robinson in early 2021.
Key facts
- Convicted: Anthony Eugene Robinson found guilty on all six counts he faced on Jan. 30, 2025
- Sentenced May 22, 2026, to two life terms plus 10 years, after two first-degree murder counts were merged into the aggravated-murder counts
- Victims: Allene “Beth” Redmon, 54, and Tonita Lorice Smith, 39, found near a Harrisonburg, Virginia, motel in November 2021
- Monica White dated Robinson in early 2021, before the killings — no source reviewed here identifies her as a victim in Robinson’s criminal case or as a target of attempted murder, despite Wikipedia’s “attempted victim” label
- The film aired on Lifetime Feb. 14, 2026, and arrived on Netflix’s US library Aug. 15, 2026
Who Anthony Robinson is, and what he was convicted of
The man behind the story is Anthony Eugene Robinson, of Washington, D.C. He was arrested in November 2021 after the bodies of two women — Allene “Beth” Redmon, 54, of Harrisonburg, and Tonita Lorice Smith, 39, of Charlottesville — were found in an undeveloped lot near a Howard Johnson motel in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Both women had met Robinson through dating apps and gone to his room at the motel, where he was staying for his job with Pilgrim’s Pride.
A jury found him guilty on all six counts he faced — two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated murder, and two counts of concealing a dead body — on Jan. 30, 2025, after less than an hour of deliberation.
At sentencing on May 22, 2026, the judge vacated the two first-degree murder convictions, merging each one into its matching aggravated-murder conviction; he noted those convictions could be reinstated later through the appeals process. What Robinson is actually serving now: two life sentences, one on each aggravated murder count, plus 10 years — five years apiece — for concealing the two women’s bodies.
He was also ordered to pay restitution to the two families, but reports differ: one described $200,000 for the murders plus more than $5,000 for concealing the bodies, while another reported more than $205,000 in restitution. Garst argued at sentencing that “there should be no opportunity for the defendant to ever walk free.” His defense said at sentencing that it intends to appeal.
Investigators nicknamed him the “Shopping Cart Killer” after hotel surveillance video showed him moving one victim’s body from his motel room in a shopping cart covered by a sheet; his defense has publicly argued the case’s lead investigator coined the nickname to draw media attention. At trial, prosecutors presented DNA recovered from a shopping cart — with a likelihood ratio, a measure of how many times more likely the DNA was his than a random stranger’s, that they put at 1 in 22 nonillion (a nonillion is a 1 followed by 30 zeros) — along with cell phone records and surveillance footage; Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst told the jury, “He’s a hunter and a predator of women.” Police have also named Robinson, without charging him, as a suspect in three further deaths: Sonya Champ, whose remains were found in Washington, D.C. in September 2021 and whose death was ruled a homicide in June 2022, and Stephanie Harrison and Cheyenne Brown, whose remains were found together in Fairfax County, Virginia, in December 2021.
How Monica White fits into the story
White met Robinson on the dating app Tagged in late 2020 — before the killings he was later convicted of. He visited her in Pennsylvania at least twice, in January and February 2021. By her account, given afterward to The Washington Post and to People, his behavior turned physically aggressive during those visits: she has described him restraining her and grabbing her by the neck. At her birthday party, she has said, he got drunk and made sexually suggestive remarks toward her son and a friend’s teenage son — behavior that led her to call police to remove him from her home. She ended the relationship in early 2021. Robinson wasn’t arrested until that November — and the arrest was over the killings of two other women, Redmon and Smith, whom he apparently did not meet until after he and White had split.
One widely circulated online summary — Wikipedia’s page on Robinson — labels White an “attempted victim.” But no source reviewed here identifies her in a criminal charge or official court finding as a target of attempted murder, and the reviewed news coverage describes her as a former dating partner who cut off contact before Robinson’s killings came to light — not as one of his victims.
The film itself
- Lela Rochon plays Monica White; Jarod Joseph plays Anthony Robinson
- Directed by Elisabeth Röhm
- Written by Miriam Van Emst and David Weaver
Lifetime’s own promotional synopsis puts it this way: “Monica meets Anthony online, and believes she’s finally found a real connection. She then decides to meet Anthony in person but is unaware Anthony harbors a dangerous secret — he’s a serial killer preying on women through dating apps.” That’s the network’s marketing language; it isn’t this article’s own characterization, and it does not establish charges or convictions in the separate cases mentioned above.
Whether the real Monica White cooperated with, consented to, or was consulted on the production hasn’t been established one way or the other. The film is a scripted dramatization, and no source establishes that it is White’s own telling. No source reviewed here reports that White has commented publicly on the film itself, either around its February Lifetime premiere or its August 2026 arrival on Netflix.
Timeline
- Late 2020 — Monica White meets Anthony Robinson on the dating app Tagged
- January–February 2021 — Robinson visits White in Pennsylvania twice; by her account his behavior turns aggressive
- Early 2021 — White ends the relationship
- September 2021 — Remains later identified as Sonya Champ are found in Washington, D.C.
- November 2021 — Robinson is arrested after the bodies of Allene “Beth” Redmon and Tonita Lorice Smith are found near a Harrisonburg, Virginia, motel
- December 2021 — Remains of Stephanie Harrison and Cheyenne Brown are found together in Fairfax County, Virginia
- June 2022 — Sonya Champ’s death is ruled a homicide
- Jan. 30, 2025 — A jury convicts Robinson on all six counts he faced
- Feb. 14, 2026 — “The Dating App Killer: The Monica White Story” airs on Lifetime
- May 22, 2026 — Robinson is sentenced to two life terms plus 10 years; the two first-degree murder convictions are merged into the aggravated-murder counts
- Aug. 15, 2026 — The film is added to Netflix’s US library
What’s still open
The trial-level case is finished — Robinson was convicted in January 2025 and sentenced in May 2026 — but it isn’t entirely settled. His planned appeal could still restore the two vacated first-degree murder convictions, or leave the current sentence as it stands. Separately, the investigations into the deaths of Sonya Champ, Stephanie Harrison and Cheyenne Brown remain open, with no charges filed against Robinson or anyone else in those cases.