True Crime Society - One man, two dead women

Today we are going to discuss the deaths of two women, Grace Holland in 2020 and Sarah Sweeney in 2024. Both of these women died in the home of Fire Captain Robert Daus in St Louis, Missouri.

We will start with some background into Grace. In 2020, she was 35 years old. Grace had four daughters to a previous marriage at the time of her death. After her relationship breakdown, Grace met Robert Daus, the Maryland Heights Fire Captain. I believe they met around four years prior to Grace’s death, so around 2016. They became engaged around 2018. Grace was impressed as he drove a Porsche and was well liked and well known in their local community.

Robert has a son of his own from a prior relationship. Rob comes from a family of first responders, with his father Robert Sr being the previous fire captain. His family also owns Liberty Art Works which is a company that makes memorials for first responders.

Grace’s family have said that the relationship between her and Rob was abusive. Grace was pressured to work for Rob’s family company so that he could control her money. She was never added to the payroll and was paid ‘under the table.’

They bought a house together, but because Rob controlled the money, Grace was left off the deed. They had just picked out a new house together on Conway Road. They had been living at a house on Fairways Circle for most of their relationship.

On June 9, 2020, Grace recorded a video of an argument between her and Rob.

Rob can be heard in the video talking about Grace ‘making problems with me.’ Grace responded with ‘You don’t want me to die so don’t say that.” Rob responded ‘I wish you’d just go away but I realize that’s not going to happen.”

That same month, Grace reported that Rob pushed, shoved and dragged her down the hallway. He also pulled her clothes off. Grace had bruises on her arms, thighs and spine after this incident and she photographed her injuries.

At one point, Grace contacted the Maryland Heights Fire Deputy Chief Medical Officer Mark Russell and raised concern about Robert’s behavior because he was ‘blowing up at home.’ Nothing came of this concern as Mark is one of Rob’s closest friends.

Things really seemed to escalate in June 2020. Grace called her mother Patricia during an incident where Rob was yelling at her and throwing things in the yard. Patricia told Grace to call the police and she then heard Rob say “My brothers in blue are not going to do anything to me. I’ve already taken care of that. You’re the crazy girlfriend, remember?”

Patricia tried to get Grace to leave the house, but Grace said she couldn’t do that while Robert was in such a state.

Grace’s children told Patricia that Robert was shoving their mom and that he was always yelling at her. Robert scared the kids by throwing a phone across the dinner table while they were sitting there. They also said that he lost his temper over minor issues such as the couch touching the curtain in the living room and silverware being out of place.

Grace captured another conversation on video and in this one, Rob went on a rant about being in a ‘forced fucking marriage’ and said he would do anything to ‘spend as little time with you as possible.’

Grace responded calmly by telling Rob that she loved him. Rob responded with you. ‘Fuck yourself, fuck you, fuck you, fuck your cunt mother. Get the fuck out of my house.’

Rob reportedly offered Grace $600 via text to abort a pregnancy.

On July 16, 2020, Grace texted him ‘I love you. Please be safe.’ Rob replied with ‘I do not want to get married. I told you this over and over. All you do is keep pushing. Move on with your life. This is over.’

He wrote a few minutes later ‘ Get out of my house. I don’t want to be married. I don’t want a baby. I don’t want to live with your girls.’

Grace responded with ‘I love you. Have a good first day back. Please be safe.’

Rob replied ‘Fuck off.’

At some point after this, according to articles, it appears that Grace suffered a miscarriage.

The following day, July 17, 2020, Rob texted Grace as if the previous day’s conversations had not happened. He asked if Grace wanted to meet up with some friends and they then had a discussion about their home. Despite their conversation being seemingly mundane, Rob ended it with ‘I absolutely cannot be with you. I’m not marrying you. You and your fucking kids. Fuck you.’

This continued on for days. On July 19, 2020, Rob texted Grace ‘I’ve asked you to leave. Several times. I don’t want you there. I don’t want you or your kids. I want away. I’ve asked you to leave. Take your Jeep, your things and leave. I’m done.

But despite all this, later that day they had a discussion about faucets they wanted to buy for their future home.

On July 20, 2020, Robert went nuts again. He wrote ‘I want you out of my life. You did not but ruin my first night staying at Conway. The thought of you sleeping in that house makes me want to vomit. That’s how much I hate you.’

Conway is the new house that the couple had picked out together.

On July 21, 2020, at around 10pm, Grace took selfies of her and Robert in bed at the new house. Grace was smiling in the photos.

What happened after that is unclear, but seven hours later, Grace was dead at their previous Fairways home.

Robert has apparently never given an explanation about anything that happened that night.

Grace died from a gunshot wound to her left temple. The shooting happened at around 5am on July 22, 2020. Police officers arrived on the scene a few minutes later. Detectives arrived on the scene at around 7am.

At 7.25am (so just 25 minutes after they arrived on the scene), a detective contacted the Medical Examiner and reported:

Holland came into the living room to give Robert a hug and she went back into the bedroom without speaking to him. Shortly after, Robert heard a single gunshot and located Holland in the bedroom with a gun and apparently blood beneath her head.

Later that same day, Rob went to the police department with a lawyer. The statement he gave then was entirely different to what the detective told the Medical Examiner.

Rob’s original interview tape ended up being somehow destroyed by police. “The original interview tape, recorded when he worked on his written statement, has inadvertently been destroyed by the Creve Coeur police department, in violation of Missouri state statutes.”

Grace’s sister Laura found out about her sister’s death via Facebook. Someone sent her a message on July 22, 2020 saying ‘Is it true your sister is dead?”

That message was from a teacher at Laura’s niece’s school. The teacher had heard the news of a parent’s death from the school’s resource officer.

“I was in shock,” says Laura. She called her other sister who works in drug rehabilitation and who put her on the phone with a crisis counselor. She called her parents and heard men’s muffled voices in the background. She knew they had just been told the news. Laura remembers hearing her mother’s voice on the phone, begging her over and over: “Don’t drive anywhere.”

At Grace’s funeral, she had no friends show up. “How many adult friends showed up at her funeral? Zero,” said her sister Laura. “She was no longer allowed to have friendships.”

Grace’s friends had cut ties with her based on Robert’s behavior.

Grace’s family have said that Rob never reached out to them or asked to be part of the funeral process. He totally cut ties with Grace’s children.

Police ended up ruling Grace’s death a suicide.

In 2021, police interviewed Rob about Grace’s missing engagement ring. The ring was worth $20k and had gone missing after her death.

Grace was seen wearing the ring in crime scene photos but Rob said that this was a fake ring made for traveling.

Rob told police that Grace had given the real ring back to him. Text messages were found though that indicate Robert eventually gave the ring back to Grace again.

Robert eventually claimed the ring was lost and he filed an insurance claim. Robert was unable to provide any documentation to prove there was ever a fake ring purchased and he also failed to produce any insurance claim information.

Grace’s sister Laura has written an open letter to the Creve Coeur Police Department, outlining 20 points of failure in the case.

“Creve Coeur police have failed us at every level since Grace’s death and their failure to collect evidence means we will likely never get answers,” writes Laura in the letter.

Excerpts from the letter have been copied below, including the ways investigators have allegedly mishandled the investigation:

1. They failed to correctly identify an entry vs exit wound; which also means these wounds do not correlate with the position of the body.

2. They misinformed the medical examiners’ office as to the location and position of Robert Daus at the moment of her death. He was, by his own admission, standing next to her.

3. They failed to call crimes against persons.

4. They failed to remove friends of Captain Daus from the police investigation.

5. They closed the crime scene before reaching out to our family.

6. They failed to investigate her stolen property and lied about not investigating it.

7. They allowed Captain Daus to be present when picking up her property despite saying otherwise to the family.

8. They failed to collect and bag evidence properly – such as bagging her hands, testing Captain Daus’ hands for residue, and collecting his clothing.

9. They failed to address the large pool of blood on the right side of her head and identify the cause of that injury.

10. They failed to address the bruises on her body shown in the autopsy photographs.

11. They managed to “lose” multiple video recordings.

12. Personal police cellphones were used and not recorded. One officer refused to supply his phone records as part of a sunshine law request.

13. They failed to collect Captain Daus’ phones stating: “he needed them for work”.

14. I was told by a Creve Coeur Police detective that if I wanted answers I needed to hire a lawyer.

15. They extended “professional courtesy“ to Captain Daus well beyond what any other citizen would be given.

16. They failed to verify her handwriting in a suicide note written with language outside her recursive writing patterns.

17. They failed to question Captain Daus at the time and have yet to question him 14 months later.

18. They failed to contact her therapist.

19. Creve Coeur detectives took almost 2 hours to arrive at the crime scene.

A recently article also alleges that the gun Grace allegedly used to take her life was never tested.

No gunshot residue tests were completed on Daus the day of Holland’s death, and no one tested her gun for DNA, KMOV reported.

CCPD Chief Hartman countered that gunshot residue tests are inaccurate and that a DNA test wouldn’t be helpful as Daus had access to Holland’s gun.

Grace’s death has received a lot of media attention recently for reasons we will get into shortly.

On January 31, 2024, it was announced that Grace’s death was still being investigated by St Louis police and they also said that her death was considered ‘suspicious.’

At this point, the case is still classified as a suspicious death and remains active. It will be incumbent upon the prosecutor’s office to decide if any further action is required or if any criminal charges will be filed.

— Sgt. Tracy Panus, St. Louis County Police Department

Sarah Sweeney was born in Huntington, WV on November 2, 1984 to Stephen and Teresa Sweeney.

Sarah was diagnosed with Perthes Disease when she was 6 years old.

Perthes’ disease is an uncommon condition that affects children between the ages of three and 11 years. Blood supply to the head of the thigh bone is disrupted which causes the bone to deteriorate. This can cause pain, limping and limited movement of the hip joint.

Sarah graduated from East Forsyth High School in 2003 and went on to attend North Carolina State University. She graduated in 2007 with degrees in Microbiology and Biological Sciences. She received a minor in Biochemistry.

Sarah was a member of the Delta Zeta Sorority during her time at the University.

Sarah then attended Barry University School of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery in Miami Shores, Florida. She got her Doctor of Podiatric Medicine degree in 2012 and she completed her surgical residency at hospitals in Miami.

Sarah lived in Texas for awhile, before moving to St Louis, Missouri. She opened up her own practice in Creve Coeur.

Sarah’s family said that she was vibrant and outgoing. They also said she loved animals, was an excellent pianist and a talented artist. She loved purses, fashion and jewelry.

At one point, Sarah was also diagnosed with mast cell activation syndrome.

People with a mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) experience repeated episodes of symptoms due to release of mast cell mediators. Symptoms are variable and can include hives, wheeze, gastrointestinal upset, low blood pressure, and anaphylaxis. High levels of mast cell mediators are released during these episodes.

Sarah met Robert shortly after she moved to St Louis. The couple became engaged. I haven’t been able to find a timeline for their relationship but I believe it happened soon after Grace died.

Sarah’s family eventually found out what happened to Grace and they sent her news articles and information. By November 2021, however, Sarah had stopped answering messages from her mother and stepfather.

“She was a grown adult, a doctor and a woman. We didn’t know what to do,” her mother Teresa Sweeney Light said.

At 6.39am on January 13, 2024, Sarah was found dead at the Conway home owned by Robert. There were “no apparent signs of trauma” on the body, the Frontenac Police Department told Fox News Digital.

An attorney for Grace Holland’s family, Javad Khazaeli, sent First Alert Four a statement saying: “We are saddened to learn of another death, especially of such a young person. We hope that the Frontenac Police do what the Creve Coeur Police and the County Medical Examiner didn’t do in the past and fully investigate this tragedy.”

Sarah’s attorney spoke to the media after her death and said that she “absolutely had a life-threatening” condition. The attorney also said that she had been hospitalized and intubated in 2021.

After this statement though, articles have been released stating that Sarah was fearful of Robert.

Now, federal court filings reviewed by DailyMail.com, have revealed that Sweeney lived in fear of Daus and described him as ‘suspected of murdering a previous girlfriend.’

A text that Sarah sent to a friend has been released.

This text was released as part of court filings from a suit that Sarah brought against her former employers in 2022.

Sarah alleged in the suit that she was subjected to gender discrimination, disability discrimination and sexual harassment as well as health insurance violations and lack of compensation for work done.

Lawyers for BFF wanted to subpoena several people including Robert himself and a friend and colleague of Sarah’s.

Sarah’s attorneys pushed back at these subpoenas prompting BFF attorney Mark Murphy to file a memorandum in support of his request to which several exhibits were attached. The text was one.