WBTA's Dan Fischer spoke with the daughter of Robert Kirkup this morning following Kirkup's sentencing of 5 to 15 years in prison for killing his wife in Genesee County during a camping trip 16 years ago. Lawler asked the court to give her father the maximum sentence. You can hear why daughter Susan Lawler suspected all along that her father was responsible for the death of her mother, Janet Kirkup. Listen to the audio clip here.
Kirkup told the court that he regretted choking his wife to death and then burying her in a shallow grave in the town of Darien, which has not yet been found.
Kirkup was transferred to Genesee County in June following the resurrection of the investigation by a cold case team from California, where Kirkup was then located. In court on August 12, Kirkup said that he killed his wife in self defense.
Dan Fischer reports:
Susan Lawler said she will now turn her attention to finding her mother’s remains. Kirkup had three daughters. Susan was the only one to speak at this morning’s sentencing. His oldest daughter submitted a letter to the court supporting her father.
In other news, a house fire in South Byron required the efforts of six fire crews to battle the blaze that was still burning at noon today. No injuries were yet reported, according to Dan Fischer. Byron, South Byron, Bergen, Elba, Stafford and Le Roy departments responded to the fire at East Main Road at the corner of Mechanic Street.
