Episode 166: Tiffany Foster – Bite-Sized Crime

When a woman disappears while running errands, the investigation uncovers a web of conspiracy. What happened to Tiffany Foster?

Episode Media

Tiffany Nicole Starks Foster *(NBC News)*

Reginald Robertson *(Coweta County Sheriff’s Office)*

Episode Sources

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Bite-Sized Crime. This week I’m bringing you a case that sadly may feel all too familiar. This episode discusses sensitive topics, so listener discretion is advised.

In the spring of 2021, 35-year-old Tiffany Starks Foster was living in Newnan, Georgia, a town about 40 miles south of Atlanta. Tiffany had three children that she adored – two sons and a daughter. One of four sisters, Tiffany had leaned on family her entire life. They supported her dreams and ambitions – one of which was to pursue a career in law enforcement.

Tiffany was studying criminal justice at Georgia Military College and was getting close to graduation. She was working as a security guard to pay the bills and was looking forward to applying for jobs in her chosen field. Everything was going according to plan.

On the afternoon of Monday, March 1, 2021, Tiffany left her apartment on Lakeside Way to go run errands. At some point, she texted her 15-year-old daughter to see if she needed anything from the store. Her family expected her to be home at any moment.

But hours passed, and Tiffany didn’t come home. Her fiancé, Reginald Robertson, started to get worried when Tiffany wasn’t answering her messages and all his calls were going to voicemail. It was getting late, and it wasn’t like Tiffany to be gone for this long without contacting anyone. Around 11pm, Reginald dozed off while waiting for Tiffany to come home, but when he awoke a few hours later, she still wasn’t there. Something was very wrong.

On Tuesday, Tiffany’s daughter reached out to her grandmother to tell her that Tiffany hadn’t come home the night before. The family called around to see if anyone had heard from Tiffany. It was then they learned that Tiffany hadn’t shown up for class that day. This was extremely out of character and prompted them to contact the police.

The Coweta County Sheriff’s Office filed a missing persons report for Tiffany Foster and put out an alert for her vehicle, a blue 2020 Nissan Altima. Investigators were able to determine that Tiffany’s phone had last pinged around 3pm on Monday near an industrial park a few miles north of her apartment complex. But searches in the area turned up no sign of Tiffany.

Days passed, and Tiffany’s phone continued to go to voicemail. There were no posts on her social media, no activity on her bank accounts, and she didn’t show up for her shift at work on Friday. Her family tried to think of any reason why Tiffany would suddenly disappear, but it just didn’t make sense. Her sister Kimberly told People Magazine that in the days leading up to her disappearance, Tiffany had been a little quieter than usual, but it hadn’t raised any red flags. However, she wished she had asked more questions. “I feel like I should have probed more and dug more to kind of see what was going on with her.”

On March 8th, one week after Tiffany had last been seen, her car was found abandoned in the town of College Park, 30 miles north of Newnan and not far from the Atlanta airport. Inside the vehicle’s trunk, investigators found Tiffany’s keys, purse, work jacket, and debit card, but not her cell phone. They wouldn’t say if any other evidence had been recovered.

At first, everyone wondered if Tiffany had decided to leave town – maybe even leave the state. She had already booked a trip to Texas on March 11th. Had she decided to leave earlier than that? But the 11th came and went, and Tiffany didn’t board that plane. There was no record of her boarding any plane in the days and weeks following her disappearance. It was another dead end.

Finally, on March 23rd, the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office held a press conference to inform the public about Tiffany’s case. Investigator Scott Kilgore told reporters that they believed Tiffany may have encountered someone or something that put her in danger. “All that based on her lifestyle, the no communication with family, and the personal effects found in the car would lead us to believe that there may have been some type of foul play.”

Tiffany’s sister Kimberly asked anyone with information to contact the sheriff’s office. “I’m asking if anyone has heard or seen anything, no matter how big or small you may think it is, please come forward. Please come forward so that our family can have the peace of knowing what is going on with my sister, where she is, and her condition.”

Tiffany’s fiancé Reginald looked into the cameras and gave a message to Tiffany: “If you’re out there, we’re still looking for you, come on home. We miss you. We miss you very much.”

Tiffany’s family continued to hold out hope that she would come home soon. They organized community rallies in Newnan and College Park, talking to residents and passing out flyers. Lieutenant Edwin Rivera told the gathered crowds that they were working hard on Tiffany’s case. “We will not give up. We want to do the best we can for the family. We are going to use every resource possible and make every effort possible.”

On April 6th, the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office made a shocking announcement – they had arrested 44-year-old Reginald Robertson and charged him with theft. Investigators said they had evidence that Reginald had moved Tiffany’s car after she had been reported missing and had left it in College Park. However, they also stated that Reginald was not a suspect in Tiffany’s disappearance, an assertion that left many wondering. Tiffany had been driving her car the day she disappeared; how had Reginald found it and why had he moved it? There had to be more to the story, but investigators were keeping their cards close to the vest.

Two weeks later, more charges were laid against Reginald Robertson. This time, he was charged with aggravated assault and kidnapping for an incident dating back to November 13, 2020. On that day, Tiffany had called 911 from an abandoned house on Lower Fayetteville Road in Newnan. The dispatcher heard Tiffany say, “Reggie, you’re scaring me. You’ve got a gun,” before the call dropped. Police traced the call, which led them to conduct a traffic stop on Reginald’s vehicle. They found Tiffany crying hysterically in the passenger seat. When police tried to talk to her, she would only say, “He’ll kill me if I say anything.” Ultimately, the officers let Reginald and Tiffany go.

It’s unclear why police waited so long to charge Reginald in relation to that incident, but it seems likely that this was now a chance for them to hold him in custody while they continued to investigate Tiffany’s disappearance.

After Reginald’s arrest, Kimberly told CBS 46 that she believed Reginald knew more about her sister’s disappearance than he was saying. “I would never want to accuse someone of something that they did not do, but my feeling says he knows.”

Unfortunately, Reginald wasn’t talking. He had invoked his fifth amendment right and declined to cooperate with investigators while in jail.

In spite of this, investigators were still hard at work behind the scenes. On April 21st, investigators with the Coweta District Attorney’s Office visited the site of the November incident, the abandoned house on Lower Fayetteville Road. Inside the house, they found a spent 9mm shell casing and a matching hole in the ceiling. They also found an upturned chair and zip ties scattered on the floor. Outside, they discovered several piles of woodchips on the property. Several items were entered into evidence and sent for forensic analysis.

Meanwhile, Tiffany’s family waited for answers. In May, they announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to her recovery. Kimberly told 11Alive that not having her sister just didn’t seem real. “I think it’s the not knowing that’s driving us crazy because it leads your mind to think of so many things on the spectrum from the worst case scenario to OK, she’s going to walk through the door… until I get that evidence, in my mind, she’s alive.”

In March of 2022, on the one year anniversary of Tiffany’s disappearance, her mother Katrina told the Newnan Times-Herald that they were still hoping that someone would come forward with the information that would bring her daughter home. “We need to find Tiffany and everything else will fall into place. We are begging people – if they know something, say something. If they saw something, say something. Because no family needs to go through this.”

In the year since Tiffany disappeared, the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office had continued to work the case. Their public information officer told the Times-Herald that they had executed over 50 search warrants and court orders since March of 2021 and had sent 152 pieces of evidence for testing. “All credible leads are being followed to their conclusion.”

Finally, in August of 2023, the sheriff’s office announced that they were charging Reginald Robertson with felony murder in the death of Tiffany Foster. Although her body had not been found, they had enough evidence pointing to the fact that she was no longer alive.

Kimberly spoke to 11Alive about the devastating news, saying that although the charges brought the family some closure, they still wanted to know why Tiffany had been taken from them. “He ripped away a light in our family… It’s like we’re walking around with a scar; we won’t be the same.”

Tiffany’s mom told WBRL that the loss of her daughter was unlike anything she had ever experienced. “You can’t describe how you feel because it’s more like a ton of bricks fell on top of your head. You can’t get up, you can’t breathe, you can’t do anything. But by me being the woman that I am, I know I have to get out here and do what I can for my daughter, along with trying to make sure that my other daughters and my grandchildren are okay.”

It would be two more years before Reginald Robertson would face justice. On October 22, 2025, his trial began. He was officially facing charges of malice murder, rape, kidnapping, concealing the death of another, theft by taking, burglary in the first degree, forgery in the first degree, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and financial transaction card fraud. On trial alongside him was his alleged accomplice, Jeremy Walker, Sr., charged with theft and concealing the death of another.

The prosecution told the jury about Reginald’s long history of domestic abuse, including the November 2020 incident where he had kidnapped Tiffany. Jurors listened to her 911 call and were shown text messages between Tiffany and Reginald detailing a pattern of abuse throughout their relationship. At one point, Tiffany had texted a friend, “If something happens to me, Reggie did it.”

The prosecution also laid out the evidence against Reginald. Surveillance video showed Reginald and Jeremy Walker using Tiffany’s debit card at an ATM on March 1st, the day she disappeared, then visiting two hardware stores where they purchased a shovel and bolt cutters. Reginald later drove Tiffany’s car to visit his brother, telling him, “Tiffany is not coming back.” Weeks later, the officers who arrested Reginald found Tiffany’s debit card and driver’s license in his wallet.

The prosecution said that on March 3rd, Reginald and Jeremy took Tiffany’s car to College Park and left it in a mall parking lot. Reginald then asked a security guard if he could see the surveillance footage from the lot and was visibly relieved when he didn’t see himself on it.

Prosecutors also spoke to the fact that Tiffany’s body had never been found. They stated that there was an abundance of evidence pointing to the fact that she was deceased. Perhaps the most damning evidence was found during a search of a property near Cofield Road. There, cadaver dogs had discovered a wood chipper that appeared to have been set on fire. Inside, investigators found a burned glove and three bone fragments. In the surrounding soil, they uncovered the sole of a shoe and several burned buttons. There was also evidence that someone had used a bag of hydrated lime to mask the scent of decomposition. Phone records and internet search history showed that both Reginald and Jeremy had sought out equipment rentals in the area on March 1st.

During the two-week trial, multiple experts testified about the physical evidence, while Tiffany’s friends and family testified about her relationship with Reginald. Together, it all painted a picture of violence and abuse that had tragically ended in murder.

Reginald’s attorney argued that the evidence was circumstantial and that the state had failed to prove that he was responsible for Tiffany’s disappearance. Jeremy Walker’s attorney claimed that their client was merely a puppet and had been manipulated by Reginald Robertson, completely unaware that he was assisting in a crime.

Ultimately, the jury believed the evidence. Reginald Robertson was found guilty on all counts and was given three life sentences without the possibility of parole plus eighty years. Jeremy Walker was acquitted of concealing the death of another but found guilty of theft and sentenced to ten years in prison.

In 2024, Georgia Military College awarded Tiffany a posthumous degree, saying, “Her death has deeply affected the GMC community, and the college is committed to honoring her memory and academic achievements.”

In the end, there was justice for Tiffany Foster. Her family and friends remember her as someone who was full of light. Kimberly told the Times-Herald that her sister was everything to her. “She is a kind and loving person, beautiful inside and out. She’s my best friend.”

Kimberly has also spoken about her hope that Tiffany’s death will not be in vain, that other women in her position can find safety and support. She told 11Alive, “When someone is not treating you right, when someone is abusive to you – get out. Because whatever they could possibly do, it’s not just going to affect you.”

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788 for free and confidential help. You don’t have to suffer alone.