A new Investigation Discovery series will tell stories of passion, betrayal and tragedy.
The first episode of the network’s Fatal Affairs: Lessons in Lust focuses on the clandestine relationship between Baton Rouge schoolteacher Lyntell Washington and vice principal Robert Marks, and the deadly love triangle that ensued.
The illicit affair ended with the gruesome murder of Washington, who was pregnant and whose only witness was her young son.
Washington, 40, was a single mother when she started working at Brookstown Middle Magnet School in Louisiana in 2015, and immediately hit it off with Marks, who was conducting the interview with her.
The teacher, who grew up in an abusive home and married young to get out of her strict household, had a troubled upbringing and relationship history that saw her constantly falling for men who couldn’t look after her and her daughter.
Robert Marks, pictured middle, murdered Baton Rouge schoolteacher Lyntell Washington in 2016
She and her ex-boyfriend, Darren Glasper, split up when she was eight months pregnant, leaving her to raise their daughter alone; and after dating broke, uneducated men, she was desperate for stability, and that’s when she met Marks.
According to students and colleagues, Marks was “a really nice guy,” very polite and “well respected” in the city. Colleagues reported that he was going through a separation from his wife Kayla, but was a loving father to his two children.
“He was one of those teachers who, when we saw him in the hallway, he would say hello, make jokes and ask if we wanted ice cream,” recalled Saleah Payne, a former student.
Jamicia Pink-Fisher, who was also an assistant principal at Brookstown, added that he seemed interested in finding someone to share “true love” with.
Marks and Washington began their passionate romance shortly after she got the job; the assistant principal told the teacher that he and his wife had separated and were going through a divorce, but were living together in a two-story house, each with a floor to themselves.
“She would tell me how (Marks) would shower her with attention and praise,” Washington’s friend Melissa Mason recalled.
“Sometimes he would sit in the back of the classroom and watch her,” Mason said, adding that she expressed some concerns about him starting to date girls again before their divorce was finalized.
“He’s getting out of this marriage and moving on to something very quickly,” Mason recalled telling Washington, who replied that his marriage had been over for some time.
Washington (pictured) was pregnant with Marks’ child when he killed her and dumped her body in a ditch in 2016.
Marks was married to his wife Kayla at the time and the couple has two children. He had told Washington that they were divorcing.
Jamicia Pink-Fisher (pictured), who was also an assistant principal at Brookstown, added that Marks seemed interested in finding someone to share “true love” with.
Washington’s friend, Melissa Mason, said Marks would shower Washington with attention at school.
Washington realized that Marks was on a cruise with his wife and that they had not divorced, and angrily went to confront him.
A man found Washington’s daughter wandering around the parking lot the morning after she went to meet Marks.
“(She said) this is not fast for him,” Mason explained. “He was regaining his sense of happiness.”
The couple continued their secret relationship, unbeknownst to their colleagues, and the relationship became increasingly serious, to the point where Marks would take Washington and her three-year-old daughter on trips.
In June 2016, Washington discovered she was pregnant and told Mason that Marks was thrilled with the news.
‘(Marks) expressed how much he was in love with her,’ he said.
However, things began to fall apart over the summer while Washington was working summer school, when Mason received a frantic call from the pregnant mother saying she hadn’t heard from Marks in two days.
Typically, she noted, he was extremely attentive and always responded to her.
Washington looked on Facebook and found a photo of Marks and his wife on a cruise, still very much married.
Pink-Fisher said Washington was determined to let Kayla know that her husband was having an affair and that she was pregnant with his child.
Shortly afterward, Mason received a phone call from a hysterical Washington, informing him that the pregnant mother had come to his house and discovered that he was living in a trailer and had lied about the house he lived in with his wife.
Determined to meet Marks face to face, she confronted him when he returned from his cruise and drove to meet him on June 8.
The couple met at a Walmart 20 minutes north of Baton Rouge, which was the opposite end of the city from where Washington lived.
The next morning, a man in the parking lot saw a little girl walking with a pillow and blood on her foot, not noticing that there were any adults around.
The girl was unresponsive and he called 911, also noticing blood on the front seat of the car near which she was standing while talking on the phone.
Counselors at the Children’s Advocacy Center interviewed the girl and asked her who had hurt her mother. She constantly mentioned “Mr. Robbie,” her name for Marks.
Police questioned Washington’s friends, linking Robbie to Marks, and interrogated him.
He admitted that he had seen Washington the night she disappeared, leading police to believe they were dealing with a homicide.
Police got their big break soon after, when they saw footage on a nearby security camera of a woman picking up Marks at a gas station.
Washington’s body was found in a sugar cane field after being dumped in a ditch
Counselors at the Children’s Advocacy Center interviewed the girl and asked her who hurt her mother. She constantly mentioned “Mr. Robbie,” her name for Marks.
“I think Kayla Marks may have done something,” Mason admitted.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, my wife is furious.'”
However, it was not Kayla who picked up Marks after Washington disappeared, but a third woman with whom he was also having an affair, unbeknownst to either of them.
Washington’s body was found three weeks later in a sugarcane field, too decomposed to be properly identified. However, DNA tests proved that it was Washington’s and that the boy was Marks’ son.
During the trial, it was revealed that he had been looking into how to kill his pregnant girlfriend, after pretending to be ecstatic about the news of the baby.
After shooting her with a gun and dumping her body in a ditch near a sugarcane field, he drove his Toyota Corolla near her apartment with Washington’s daughter still in the car.
He also left his cell phone, which recorded where he traveled that night.
At trial, the jury found Marks guilty in 30 minutes, with testimony from Washington’s daughter providing particularly compelling information.
Marks was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, feticide and other charges and sentenced to life in prison without parole in February 2021.
Washington’s daughter, now 10, lives with her father, Darren.
ID’s new series, Fatal Affairs, premieres Monday, July 22 at 9/8c on ID.
(tags to translate)dailymail
