Murders of Dr. Beth Potter and Robin Carre

Murders of Dr. Beth Potter and Robin Carre
Victims Dr. Beth Potter and Robin Carre
Location	Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Date	March 30, 2020 shortly after 11:00 PM
Attack type	Murder
Weapon	Firearm
Victims	Dr. Beth Potter, 52-year-old white female Robin Carre, 57-year-old white male
Assailants	Khari Sanford, black male Ali'jah Larrue, black male

Incident

The murdered couple's adopted Guatemalan daughter, Miriam "Mimi" Potter Carre

The murder of Dr. Beth Potter, a professor at UW-Madison's medical school and her husband Robin Carre began when the couple told their Guatemalan adopted daughter Miriam "Mimi" Potter Carre and her boyfriend that they had to move out of their home due to their inability to follow social distancing protocols due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Potter was at higher risk for the virus due to a medication she was taking and her husband had been diligently self-quarantining to protect her.

Due to Mimi's non-compliance, Potter and Carre opted to rent an Airbnb for their daughter to live in, and helped her to move out.

The timeline continues:

The minivan lent to Mimi Potter-Carre

A vehicle resembling the minivan caught on traffic cameras around the timeframe of the murders

Dr. Beth Potter
Born	(1967-11-28)November 28, 1967
Died	March 31, 2020(2020-03-31) (aged 52)

Robin Carre
Born	(1962-10-17)October 17, 1962
Died	March 30, 2020(2020-03-30) (aged 52)

[Mimi] said she and Sanford, her boyfriend, were living at her current temporary residence, and "he had also been staying at her parents' residence for two weeks prior to her moving out." She said "that she loved her boyfriend, and she was extremely loyal to him."

She said her parents had allowed her to use their Volkswagen minivan for two weeks since she moved out of the home. She said she was with Sanford the entire night of March 30 through the morning of March 31 and neither of them had left the Airbnb after 10:15 p.m.

She said they watched the movie Hangover 2 before going to sleep together in the Airbnb.

However, authorities reviewed City of Madison traffic cameras and noted that in the evening on March 30 and early morning hours of March 31, a vehicle matching the description of the victims’ vehicle had been observed numerous times in the area of the victims’ residence and other areas.

The van had a unique combination of five bumper stickers on the rear hatch.

Authorities also did a forensic search of Potter Carre’s cellular telephone, and the data "contradicted Miriam’s statement that she was with Khari Sanford and in possession of the white van for the entire evening of March 30," the complaint says.

Messages described in the complaint included:

A missed call from Miriam to contact Khari Sanford at 9:48 p.m.

A text to Sanford at 11:02 p.m.: "At least bring back the car and have someone get you here. I don’t feel safe here."

At 11:13 p.m., a text to Sanford: "Why would you put me in this position."

11:19 p.m., text to another person, "I hear him I think tho" and other comments.

11:22 p.m., a text to the other person, "His friend got into a situation" and at 11:26 p.m., "I wanna cry rn but I’m also in a apartment w them and it’s literally 2 and a half rooms so that is fun."

On April 4, authorities interviewed a friend of Potter Carre and Sanford who was a classmate at Madison West High School. He said he overheard a discussion between Potter Carre and Sanford in a ceramics class at West shortly before school was canceled in March 2020, during which "Miriam discussed with Khari the idea of how they could get money."

He reported hearing Potter Carre tell Sanford that her parents were rich and had "bands" of money, which he took to mean thousands of dollars in cash, the complaint says.

A search of Potter Carre’s cell phone revealed a photo on March 8 showing Sanford pointing what the authorities believe to be a Glock handgun.

The second suspect, Alijah Larrue, went by the name Huncho. The West student said Sanford told him Huncho was with him the night of March 30.

Authorities obtained Larrue’s phone and extracted GPS data from it. The phone data tracked multiple movements, including multiple points in the area of the Potter/Carre home on Rowley Avenue and multiple drive-bys at the residence, according to the complaint.

At 10:57 p.m., Larrue’s phone GPS plots near the intersection of North Wingra Drive and Vilas Park Drive near the entrance to the Arboretum, says the complaint, adding that police also obtained surveillance video from a church and spotted a white van consistent with the van registered to Carre traveling past the Potter/Carre residence multiple times that evening.

On April 4, a citizen witness told authorities that on March 31, Sanford stopped by his house and seemed somewhat "excited and frantic."

He was pacing around the room and sweating and made a call to Larrue and said to Larrue that he "had heard on the social media that one of the victims in the Arboretum shooting was in the hospital and possibly alive," the complaint alleges.

According to the complaint, the witness heard Sanford say, "I swear I hit them how did they survive" and was "excessively sweating." He "made statements on the phone indicating he was scared that a victim could have survived that would implicate him in the homicide," says the complaint.

He then got off the phone and told the witness he had shot the people in the Arboretum, shooting them in the "back of the head," and Larrue was with him during the shooting, according to the criminal complaint.

At that time, it was not publicly known that the victims were shot in the head.

Another citizen witness who lives next to the Airbnb where Potter Carre and Sanford were staying stated that video may show the two suspects returning to the Airbnb after the murder. The van entered the neighborhood and the individuals threw items into the woods, the complaint says. It adds that authorities searched the woods near the Airbnb and found a crumpled up piece of mail addressed to Potter and a cell phone that appears to have been purposefully broken."

After the shooting, two separate joggers called police and told them there were "two human bodies lying just off the shoulder of the roadway and were covered in blood."

[Dr. Potter] was "showing some signs of life" and was taken to the hospital. She was wearing pajamas and socks but no shoes. The temperature was 30 degrees.

A detective responded and found Carre lying facedown "with an obvious wound to his head," wearing only underwear. There were several spent .357 SIG shell casings in the area "around the male victim and where the female victim had been located." There was blood spatter and pooling "indicating a likelihood that the victims had been shot at that location."

Authorities found a woman nearby who had heard two gunshots, a pause for five seconds and then four to five more gunshots coming from the direction of the Arboretum between 11:02 p.m. and 11:12 p.m. on March 30, 2020.

Carre died of a gunshot "into the left side of the head near the ear" that appeared to be fired from close range. Potter died of gunshot wounds to the back of the head and to the upper arm, the complaint says.

Victims

The couple are survived by their biological children Ezra and Jonah, and the aforementioned adopted daughter Mimi.

Assailants

Khari Sanford
Born	(2001-05-22)May 22, 2001
Criminal charge	2 counts first-degree intentional homicide - party to a crime, use of a dangerous weapon enhancement

Ali'jah Larrue
Born	(2002-03-15)March 15, 2002
Other names	Huncho
Criminal charge	2 counts first-degree intentional homicide - party to a crime

Khari Sanford

Murderer Khari Sanford posing on his Facebook with a handgun

Madison mayor pictured with both murderers

Madison mayor pictured standing by Sanford

According to local news, Sanford was halfway through his senior year of high school, was the captain of the football team, was a scholarship-winning intern in the city council's office the year before the murder, and was active in a community group known as "the Brotherhood," "which organized sports for youth and served as a place for racial justice advocacy and mentoring for black teenage boys."

Sanford even helped plan a Brotherhood basketball game that the city of Madison mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway attended and gave a shout-out to him for. Sanford was pictured standing right next to the mayor, with fellow murderer Larrue also present and standing next to Sanford:

The 3 on 3 basketball tournament at Applied Park was terrific! Happy to join in with Katy Farrens and Khari Sanford for a great day. Special thanks to Katy and the Brotherhood for all their advocacy to get this full-sized court at the park. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/alliedpark?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#alliedpark</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brotherhood?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Brotherhood</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/playmadison?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@playmadison</a> <a href="https://t.co/Jeag9N8P68">pic.twitter.com/Jeag9N8P68</a>

— Mayor of Madison (@MayorOfMadison) <a href="https://twitter.com/MayorOfMadison/status/1155876764855492608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2019</a>

Local news also reports that Sanford was arrested the previous year for car theft and accepted into a deferred prosecution program.

Ali'jah Larrue

Beth Potter donated to Freedom, Inc. - the same organization that is helping to raise bail for one of her murderers

Larrue's mother was a patient of Dr. Potter's and told People magazine her thoughts on the murders:

Alice Larrue couldn’t help but grow emotional when she learned that her former physician, Dr. Beth Potter, and her husband, Robin Carre, had been found murdered on March 31.

"She was always very supportive," Larrue, 40, tells PEOPLE. "She had good energy. She was always smiling. She was a beautiful person. I was really hurt about it."

Larrue's grief turned to horror when she learned her son, Ali'jah Larrue, 18, along with his friend Khari Sanford, also 18, had been named as suspects in the couple's slayings.

"This is a nightmare," Larrue says in the new issue of PEOPLE.

...

Alice Larrue says she believes her son was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I know the type of kid he is," she says. "People always say he is an old soul," she says. "He loves his family. He loves his siblings. He is the joker of the family."

She says she "freaked out" when she heard her son was allegedly involved in the double homicide.

"This is not his character. I know deep down my son wouldn’t do anything like that."

Larrue's mother is working with Madison-based Freedom, Inc. to try to raise bail for Larrue. Ironically, Freedom Inc. is an organization that Beth Potter had donated to, according to her public Facebook profile.

See also

• List of black on white violent crimes