Robert “Bobby” Lozano

Robert “Bobby” Lozano had it all.  A beautiful home, a loving wife, and a burgeoning career as a police detective when the unthinkable happens. Was it a terrible accident, suicide, or murder?  Why did it take 7 years and a right to know request to get this case solved?

Denton Texas

The city is within the Dallas Fort Worth metro area. It has a population of approximately 130,000. Denton was named one of the best places to live in Texas and has a highly rated school system.

The case was the subject of a Dateline episode “Behind the Badge” in January 2010 and a Oxygen episode Accident, Suicide or Murder episode which ran in April 2019.

Bobby Lozano was a detective with the Denton Police Department and was married to Virginia “Viki” Farish. Viki was a 5th-grade school teacher. They started seeing each other the summer after Viki graduated from high school.  Bobby was slightly older than her by two years and had been working at his parent’s gas station

According to friends, they saw Viki blossom from a quiet, shy, slightly overweight girl to a beautiful young woman. They married on July 5, 1986, when Viki was 20 and Bobby 22.

Viki’s father passed away in 1995. Viki, Bobby, and her mother, Anna Farish decided to pool their resources and build Viki and Bobby’s dream home. Anna would live with them in another wing of the house. This home was 5,000 square feet and cost ½ a million dollars. It was located in the affluent Del Sur Montecito neighborhood

By all accounts, it appeared that they had a good marriage. Bobby Lozano regularly came to Viki’s school to bring her lunch and appeared to be a doting husband and father.

Their son, Monty, was born in 2001

July 5, 2002 – Anniversary Celebration

*all of this information is from Bobby’s written statement that was part of the record on one of his appeals*

Viki and Bobby had gone out to dinner to celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary. They came home and played with Monty, who was now 11 months old. Eventually, the family settled down and went to bed. Bobby Lozano left their home around midnight saying that he needed to go to work for a while.  Bobby would return home approximately two hours later.

July 6, 2002 – Bobby Cleans His Gun

The next day, Bobby and Viki, who are now in their mid-thirties and Monty took a trip to Target and arrived home around 4:30 pm.  Monty was put to bed around 7 pm. Bobby Lozano went to play a computer puzzle game in another room. He said that he was there for about an hour while Viki went to bed to watch tv, claiming that she was not feeling well.

About an hour later, Bobby came into the room and set up to clean his service weapon, a Glock 9mm handgun, on the bed. Bobby and Viki had planned to go to the PD firing range the next day. He went to the kitchen and got a section from the day’s newspaper, went back to the bedroom, and put a single sheet on the bed opposite from where Viki was laying. Bobby Lozano placed the gun cleaning kit onto the newspaper then removed his gun from his duty shoulder holster.  He removed the fully loaded magazine from the gun and placed it on top of the paper

He then removed the live round and left the gun on the paper with its slide lock open

Bobby Goes to Tan

Bobby asked Viki if she wouldn’t mind if he left for a bit to go tanning as it was nearing 8:30 pm. Viki offered to clean Bobby’s gun while he was gone so that they could have more time together when he returned.

Bobby told her not to worry about it. It would only take a few minutes to do and he already started working on it. He changed his mind since he didn’t want any cleaning residue on his hand while tanning. Viki offered again, but Bobby told her just to relax and he left shortly before 8:30 pm.

Bobby arrived at the tanning studio and tanned for 20 minutes. He stopped at the front desk on his way out and asked the attendant how his 4th of July was.

Bobby Return Home

Bobby Lozano returned home at approximately 9 pm. When he entered the bedroom, Bobby noticed Viki was lying awkwardly on their bed. She was upright but bent over face down and slightly to the left of her left hip. He asked if she was okay.

Bobby noticed the cleaning box and newspaper were not where he left them as he walked around the bed.

He then went to Viki and observed her tongue was hanging out of her mouth. She was extremely pale and her body appeared listless when he tried to get her to sit up. That is when he noticed a large amount of blood pooled underneath her body and a hole in the middle of her nightgown.

Bobby Dials 911

Bobby Lozano ran to the phone and dialed 911 asking for emergency services shortly after 9 pm. He then ran to his son’s room located across the hall.  Monty was asleep but he roused him when he picked him up. Bobby raced back across the hall and picked up the phone to continue talking to the 911 dispatcher. The dispatcher asked him about performing CPR.

Bobby put down the phone and Monty and ran to Viki. He placed his leg over her for better leverage. Bobby was not fully straddling her and started to massage her chest and blow air into her mouth.

He noticed the gun on the bed and tossed it to the side. Then he began CPR with her lying on the bed. After a short time, Bobby got back on the phone and said Viki was neither breathing nor conscious.

He opened the front door and turned on the outside lights. When first responders arrived he greeted them at the front door holding his son. In his written statement, Bobby believed Viki’s death was an accident and that Viki was not suicidal.  “She had no reason to be.”

First Responders

One of those first responders was Captain Luke Scholl a paramedic and firefighter who arrived at 9:09 pm.  He noticed that Bobby Lozano did not seem out of breath or perspired. This was unusual for someone who had been performing CPR for five minutes as he was told en route by the 911 dispatcher.  Scholl observed Bobby was calm and had no signs of blood on his hands or clothing

He noticed the chest wound Viki had was directly where the palm of the hand would go when performing CPR. When he entered the bedroom Captain Scholl found Viki lying on her back. There was blood in the middle of her chest and her right leg hanging off the side of the bed.  Viki was not conscious or breathing. She was cold to the touch and had a waxy appearance which indicated she had been dead for some time.

He also noticed that Viki had lividity in her right foot around the ankle area. Lividity is the pooling of blood that starts 30 to 45 minutes after death. It gives the body a molting or blanched look and it begins in the lowest part of the body, which indicates the body has begun to break down.

He felt the body had been lying there a lot longer than an hour. It didn’t seem to fit the ½ hour time frame that Bobby Lozano gave that he had been gone from the house. Brandon Galbraith, another paramedic firefighter, also reported to the scene. Based upon Viki’s lividity, skin temperature, and appearance he determined that she had been dead longer than an hour. He also felt that CPR was not performed.

Richard Godoy’s Observations

Richard Godoy, a police social worker with the Denton PD, was a friend and co-worker of Bobby. He noticed that Bobby looked “real polished.” Bobby’s nickname was “Mr. GQ” and it looked like he just got out of the shower.

Bobby Lozano made statements to him about “you know how Viki liked to tinker with things and she’s always doing things for me and maybe she wanted to clean my gun for me while I was gone.” Bobby also told him that he had tried to revive Viki with CPR seemed inconsistent with his clean appearance

Chief Howell’s Observations

Chief Deputy Sheriff Lee Howell, was a lieutenant and supervisor to Bobby.  He contacted the Texas Rangers to conduct the investigation due to Bobby’s position with the Denton PD. Chief Howell observed the scene and noticed a single sheet of newspaper, a Glock pistol, a brown box that contained gun cleaning supplies, a dish towel, and a pair of white athletic socks.

He felt the scene had been staged. Howell felt it was unusual for someone to clean their gun on a bed and not a hard surface. He also noticed Viki’s hands. They did not look like she had cleaned a gun or even sprayed it down with oil. Her hand did not look to have any gun residue on them. The only way for that not to happen is if she had been wearing gloves. No gloves were found in the bedroom.

Chief Howell also noted inconsistencies with Bobby’s written statement, which was given two days after the murder and that of the crime scene evidence. When Chief Howell testified he admitted that he would have done things differently. Such as impounding Bobby’s car and sealing off the house if he hadn’t been one of their own.

Bobby’s hands were not tested for gunshot residue nor were any photos taken of his hands

Somethings Not Right

From the time the first responders arrived, they had their suspicions that something wasn’t right.  Besides Bobby not having any blood on him or his clothing they found Bobby’s gun had been dripping in oil, but none of that had gotten on Viki.

It also looked as his Viki had been lying on her left side when she had been shot. Not bent over to the left as Bobby Lozano had said she was when he arrived home. If that was the case she should have had signs of lividity in her face. There were only signs in her back and right foot that had been hanging off the bed.

The other issue was where was the shell casing? Investigators could not find it prior to moving anything in the room.  After Viki’s body was moved, investigators began taking items off the bed layer by layer. They finally found the casing underneath the gun cleaning kit. Meaning that someone had placed the cleaning kit on top of the casing after the shooting.

There was also no forced entry into the home.

Texas Ranger has Reservations

Texas Ranger, Tracy Murphee, had arrived on the scene at 11 pm. He felt that it was absurd that someone would clean their gun in a bed especially with only one sheet of newspaper. He felt it would take 15 to 20 minutes to do a decent job of cleaning a gun and 30 minutes or more to get it really clean. 

Ranger Murphee would testify that Viki left side exit wound was shored – meaning she was lying against something (like a mattress) when the bullet exited her skin and that gunpowder residue was found only on the right side of her face, not on her left consistent with her being on her left side when the gun was fired.

If the scene raised questions about what Bobby Lozano was saying and what the evidence showed you can add a red flag with the last words Bobby said to Viki as she was being taken out of the house by the coroner’s office.  He asked to see her one more time. Once the body bag was unzipped, Bobby said, “well, take care” then turns and walks back into the house. This was done in front of her co-worker, Richard Godoy.

Those on the scene did not feel Bobby Lozano was acting like a grieving husband. With that in mind, not everyone grieves the same, it could have been shock or it could have been because he’s a detective and he was compartmentalizing.

Lozano Investigation

Viki’s mother was not at home at the time of the shooting and felt that it may have been one of the many little dogs Viki owned that perhaps had jumped up on the bed and caused the gun to discharge.

Anna Farish was adamant that Viki’s shooting was an accident and stood by Bobby’s version of events.

The issue of suicide was investigated. Bobby Lozano was asked if Viki had been depressed. Bobby claimed that she had been depressed over the passing of her father several years prior.  He also claimed that she suffered from a condition that involved long days of fatigue, listlessness, and an arthritic condition.

Bobby claimed that Viki was a “free bleeder” and had been concerned about surviving childbirth. He told investigators that Viki had gotten a 4 to 6-inch tear in her vaginal canal and had to be bedridden for 2 months after Monty’s birth since she had been too weak for surgery.

Friends told investigators about concerns they had with Viki and Bobby’s relationship.  At first, they thought it was endearing, but the more they thought about it it came off as controlling. He wanted to know what she was eating because her weight was a big issue for Bobby.  He would even weigh her at the gym. Bobby would make Viki carry a picture of herself from her teenage years when she was overweight and didn’t want her to get pregnant because he feared she would become fat again.  That is why she didn’t have Monty until later in life.

Bobby Lozano was also obsessed with his appearance.  He was always well-groomed, tanned, and even waxed his eyebrows.  He wore high-end clothing.

Autopsy Results

An autopsy was done on Viki where they found popcorn residue in Viki’s mouth and stomach, inside her shirt and in the bedding. This indicated she had been eating while in bed, but no bowl was found.

Based on the chest wound, pathologist Dr. Gary Sisler felt the gun had been held 3 to 6 inches from her chest and traveled through Viki’s left lung, diaphragm, and spleen before it exited her left side.  The gun had no direct contact with her skin as in about 97-99% of suicides. It’s also inconsistent to clean a gun prior to committing suicide. In addition, there was no oil or grease on Viki’s hands.

On Monday, July 8th, Denton PD Detective Cynthia Waters went to her supervisors and informed them that she and Bobby had been in a relationship. 

Cynthia & Bobby

Cynthia Waters began working at the Denton PD in 1994 and by 2001 she had been promoted to detective. In February 2001, she and Bobby began dating although both of them had been married at the time. Waters had two children and Bobby had been expecting his first.

Bobby Lozano told Cynthia that his relationship with Viki was more of a friendship than a sexual one and that they did not get along well. He also told her that they had been planning on splitting up a year after Monty’s birth in August 2002. In December 2001 Bobby gave Cynthia a promise ring and in February 2002 he gave her a card that stated “Happy Anniversary to My Wife.”

Also in February 2002, Bobby took out a $350,000 life insurance out on Viki.  This was in addition to the $750,000 policy he had taken out in 1999 on Viki.  Cynthia reported she was not aware at the time of these policies.

That same month Bobby and Cynthia began looking at houses in the $350,000 to $500,000 range where they could live as a family although they could not afford such a home on two police salaries. Bobby told Cynthia that he had approximately $700,000 in Mexico that would not be involved in the divorce proceedings.

Cynthia knew that Viki’s family had a lot of money and that her father had left her a trust fund that Viki would receive the bulk of when she turned 36. Cynthia had also been told by co-workers that Bobby would never leave Viki because of the money.

March & April 2002 – Bobby’s Lies

Bobby told Cynthia that he and Viki had agreed to separate and he would be moving out in June and that Viki would file for divorce in April and it would be finalized by July.

Bobby told her that he had rented an apartment to move into after the divorce. At one point, he had told Cynthia that divorce papers had been filed, but Viki’s mother had paid to have the records sealed. Cynthia would later come to find out that those papers had never been filed 

By mid-June, Cynthia found out that Bobby had lied to her about a trip he had taken. He told her that he went to visit some relatives, but in actuality, he had gone with Viki, Monty, and his mother-in-law.

Cynthia Wants to End Relationship

Cynthia had intended to end their relationship after that, but Bobby asked for another chance.  He told her that if he was not moved out by June 30th, he would understand if she wanted to end their relationship. On June 30th Bobby told Cynthia that he couldn’t move out because he and Viki had gotten into a fight and he slapped her and didn’t know if she would press charges or not.  At that point, he returned all of the cards Cynthia had given to him over the course of their relationship. He told Cynthia that Viki was unstable and thought she was poisoning him. He even said that Viki was purposely giving Monty milk which Monty was allergic to.

At that point, Cynthia told Bobby that their relationship had to end, but they remained in contact. In the early morning hours of July 6th, Bobby had gone over to Cynthia’s house the night he and Viki had gone out to celebrate their 12th-anniversary dinner.

A few days after Viki’s death, Bobby and Cynthia met up and he told her that he had come home after tanning and found Viki on the bed shot.  He claimed that he moved Viki to the floor and began CPR, which was protocol. The first responders found Viki was still on the bed when they arrived.

Ongoing Lozano Investigation

Three weeks after Viki’s death Bobby Lozano resigned his position with Denton PD as did Cynthia Waters. During the ongoing investigation, investigators discovered that Bobby had had a number of relationships during the time he and Viki had been dating, engaged, and through the time they had been married.

One woman had a sexual relationship with Bobby with the promise of getting a check-cashing charge dismissed.  After she had sex with him he failed to contact her for two weeks. When he did it was just to tell her that they could not be together. He was a cop and she a criminal. His boss knew and he didn’t want to lose his job over her.

From Donna Fieder’s book Lady Killer. Six months after Viki’s death a grand jury indicted Bobby Lozano for the murder of Viki Lozano.  He was released on $125,000 bail and returned to the home he shared with Anna. A year-and-a-half later on July 14, 2004, the DA, Bruce Issacs (1991-2006) had all charges dropped against Bobby Lozano. He claimed the reason was that the original coroner (Dr. Sisler) changed the cause of death from undetermined to suicide.  He also indicated that he contacted another coroner from Chicago to look over the file. Their opinion was that Viki had died by suicide.

And that might be the end of the story if not for a journalist by the name of Donna Fielder for the Denton Record Chronicle who had gotten ahold of the evidence in the case thanks to the Texas Open Record Act and wrote an article entitled, Sex, Lies & Bloodshed in September 2008. 

In 2008 a new DA, Paul Johnson, was elected and due to the questions raised in Donn’s article began a re-investigation.

New Investigation

Dr. Sisler was contacted and he claims that he never changed Viki’s original cause of death from undetermined to suicide and they found out that the coroner from Cooks County in Chicago had also agreed with Dr. Sisler’s finding of “undetermined.”

In July 2009, Bobby was charged once again with murder, and married prosecutors, Carry and Susan Piel were assigned to the circumstantial case.  There was no DNA evidence, no physical evidence, an undetermined cause of death, and the victim’s mother backed the defendant.

Susan Piel looked at this case and most murder cases by asking two questions:  Why did they do it? (money) and Why did they do it now? (Viki got access to trust fund). Susan on a Dateline segment stated that she feels “Bobby was a selfish man and that all murders are committed by selfish people.”

Bobby Is A Serial Adulterer

The DA’s theory was that with the pressure Cynthia Waters was placing on Bobby to get a divorce and the $1 million life insurance policy Bobby decided to kill Viki instead of getting a divorce and losing out on her inheritance. Bobby and Cynthia were no longer together.  He married another woman and started a real estate business with her. He was still living in the home he had shared with Viki along with Anna.

The prosecutors put up witnesses that showed Bobby was a serial adulterer. This included a woman who came to the police asking for help after being sexually assaulted.

Cynthia Waters testified about their affair and produced correspondence they shared. One example was a card where Bobby wrote to Cynthia “my wife, soon to be, but not soon enough”. It was written in February 2002.

All of the investigators testified as to their observations of Bobby’s demeanor that evening and the lack of blood on his clothing.

A computer expert testified that the family computer had not been used between the hours of 6 and 9 pm on the night of the shooting. Any claim that a computer game was played on it between 7 and 8 pm was false.

Monica Popov, MD, Viki’s obstetrician/gynecologist testified that Viki was concerned about having a bleeding disorder and she had a test run that showed all to be negative.  Viki had experienced a 2nd-degree tear during Monty’s birth, which is common in first-time births, but she had never order Viki to be on bed rest and there were no indications that Viki could not take care of herself or Monty. She testified that Bobby’s statements were not true including that Viki would not survive childbirth

More Damaging Testimony

The crime lab director, Ronald Singer, testified that the type of gun Bobby had would not fire upon being bumped, hit, dropped, or banged. It would only fire if you pulled the trigger to the rear of the weapon.

The prosecutors put on Karen Alexander, a former girlfriend that Bobby had dated from mid-1998 to March 2001.  Karen knew that Bobby was married but he told her he did not love his wife and at a “certain time” he would leave her. Bobby told her he and Viki were inheriting money from a trust fund that his wife’s father had established and he needed to stay with her until then. He also told her about the million-dollar life insurance policy he had on Viki

He would cry to her about his wife’s condition claiming she had leukemia and he wanted to end his wife’s pain.

Bobby had also given her a promise ring.

Timeline Is Questioned

The shell casing evidence was brought in as was the popcorn. The timeline was also questioned.  The tanning salon was a 10-minute drive from their home.  Bobby indicated that he had left close to 8:30 pm and returned home at 9 pm after a 20-minute tanning session.  He called 911 at 9:05 pm but the lividity doesn’t seem to match up as the state’s theory was that lividity indicates that she was dead before Bobby left for the tanning salon. 

Captain Jeff Wawro, Captain with the Denton PD, who has investigated 250 to 300 cases per year for 14 years. He testified that if Lozano’s statement is to be believed then Viki would have picked up the weapon, loaded it, put a round in the chamber, oiled the weapon excessively, and then laid down on her left side, all while eating popcorn.  She then pulled the trigger, shot herself, and then pulled the bedding back, pulled the newspaper over the bedding and pulled the gun kit over the casing, before dying in an upright position with blood pulling only out of her lower chest wound and not the upper part of the wound

Viki Was Aware of Bobby’s Affair

Anna Farish took the stand and testified that there were times that she had gone into Viki and Bobby’s bedroom and seen Bobby’s service weapon lying on the bed on top of a newspaper with the cleaning kit nearby. She claimed that Bobby saved Viki’s life as Viki had suffered from depression due to her weight and that their family had a history of suicide and that Viki’s life took a turn for the better after Bobby came into her life saying that Viki had been “pretty lonely, miserable girl until Bobby came along.”

She claims that Viki and Bobby had a happy marriage and that Viki was aware that Bobby was having an affair and that Viki had caused her own death.

The defense even brought a king-size bed into the courtroom to show the jury just how Viki could have sustained her fatal wound.  However, this worked in the prosecutor’s favor because they were able to show from the evidence it was impossible for Viki to be on the bed partially under the covers on her side and have the gun pointed at the angle it would need to be at to match with her bullet wound

Lozano Verdict

The jury of 10 women and 2 men took 5 hours to deliberate. They came back with a guilty verdict. The jury then deliberated for an hour and a half before sentencing him to 45 years in prison

He will need to serve 22 ½ years until he is eligible for parole in 2031.

Monty was 8 at the time of his father’s sentencing. He still lives with Anna and Bobby’s new wife and her three children in the house where his mother was murdered.

Lozano Appeal

Bobby Lozano appealed his conviction. However, the Texas Court of Appeals in Waco, Texas upheld his conviction.

Anna Farish died at the age of 82 on July 2, 2019. She taught music up until the week of her death.

Resources

• Watch Killer Detective | Accident, Suicide, or Murder
• Behind The Badge – Dateline NBC – Crime reports
• Court of Appeals of Texas, Waco, Robert Cruz Lozano Appellant
• Former Denton police detective sentenced to 45 years for wife’s 2002 murder
• Anna Montgomery Farish Obituary: View Anna Farish’s Obituary by Denton Record-Chronicle
• Virginia Kaye “Viki” Farish Lozano (1966-2002)
• The Dallas Morning News: 2009-07-19 – Ex-detective’s trial to begin in wife’s 2002 death
• Lady Killer by Donna Fielder. Penguin, March 6, 2012.
• [TX] WIFE-KILLER DET. LOZANO’S SENTENCING TO BEGIN
• [TX] Detective Lozano murder trial – 2009

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