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Marjorie Orbin: The Showgirl and the Death of a Salesman | Part 2 of 2

Blonde woman in Arizona desert in a pink bikini and handcuffs
Blonde woman in Arizona desert in a pink bikini and handcuffs


Glitter to Gavel: The Arrests, the Delays, and the Verdict


The Knock at Marjorie Orbin's Door

The Rubbermaid tub changed everything. Once the torso was identified as Jay Orbin, the “missing husband” narrative collapsed into a homicide case with a center of gravity: the Orbin home—and the people orbiting Marjorie.


Detectives moved on two fronts. They took Marjorie into custody and brought in her lover, Larry Weisberg, the man who’d slid into Jay’s life-space while Jay was “missing.” Larry had answers, and more importantly, leverage. Faced with the machinery of a murder prosecution, he did what witnesses do when the walls inch closer: he cooperated.


The Lover’s Deal

Larry Weisberg struck a deal—immunity in exchange for testimony. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t romantic, but it was prosecutable. Under oath, Larry would paint the domestic theater the jury needed to see: the affair; the life inside the Orbin home; the post-disappearance behavior; the odd explanations; the choreography of a cover-up. The immunity agreement didn’t make him virtuous; it made him useful.


Building the Case Against Marjorie

Police and prosecutors built their narrative with the relentlessness of bricklayers:

  • Opportunity & Motive: Marital fracture, money disputes, jealousy, and an affair in full flame.

  • Behavioral Evidence: A spouse disturbingly unperturbed by her husband’s vanishing act, coupled with quick pivots in lifestyle and relationships.

  • Forensics & Trace: The torso in the desert, the storage container, keys and casing—each item less dramatic than a TV twist, but more devastating in aggregate.

  • Witnesses: Friends, family, business associates, and finally Larry—each adding an angle of incidence; together, a spotlight.

Ten Delays and a Drumbeat That Wouldn’t Stop

Justice is a marathon with bad weather. The trial was delayed ten times. Motions. Discovery fights. A prosecutor who excused himself due to illness. A lead detective under investigation. The court record began to look like a topographical map—peaks of activity, valleys of waiting. Each continuance kept the public on a knife’s edge and the family in suspended animation. For prosecutors, the delays hardened the case; for the defense, they were breathing room.


The Courtroom Script

When the curtain finally rose, the trial delivered the cold theater of consequence.

  • Opening Statements: The State promised a case of planning, concealment, and a wife who chose freedom over fidelity, money over marriage. The defense pushed back—no eyewitness, no full body, reasonable doubt everywhere. And, Marjorie blamed the one man who couldn't be prosecuted. Larry Weisberg.

  • Evidence Parade: Jurors met the Rubbermaid tub by photograph; they heard about the torso and decomposition; they traced Jay’s final movements by phone ping and habit. Experts translated the science; detectives translated the patterns.

  • Larry on the Stand: Immunity secured, he testified—about Marjorie, the home, the days of Jay’s absence, and the months before and after. The defense carved at his credibility; the State reminded jurors that immunity doesn’t invent facts—it exposes them.

  • Marjorie’s Performance: No stage lights now, just fluorescents and a jury box. Her composure—sometimes icy, sometimes brittle—was testimony of its own. But she never too the stand. Something she now says she regrets.


Verdict: Murder in the First Degree

After weeks of testimony and years of procedural drift, the jury returned with their answer. Guilty of first-degree murder. The room exhaled; the headlines wrote themselves. The showgirl-turned-Scottsdale-suburbanite had become the State’s kind of star—a defendant with a verdict that would echo far beyond Phoenix.


Sentence: Life Without Parole

The judge’s words were spare and final. Life in prison, without the possibility of parole. No curtain call. No third act reversal. Just a sentence that outlives the glitter.


What the Case Leaves Behind

  • A Son in the Middle: Noah grows up with documents and clippings where birthdays should be.

  • A Businessman Erased: Jay Orbin’s legacy is now carried by memories and a case file.

  • A Community’s Cautionary Tale: Glamour sells, but evidence convicts.

  • A Deal That Did Its Job: Larry’s immunity didn’t absolve him in public opinion; it did help deliver a verdict.


Part Two Timeline (Arrest to Verdict)

  • Post-ID: Marjorie detained; Larry Weisberg brought in.

  • Immunity Deal: Larry flips; agrees to testify.

  • Pre-trial: Motions, discovery, experts—ten delays in all.

  • Trial: Forensics, witness testimony, Larry’s account, defense challenges.

  • Verdict: Guilty—Murder 1.

  • Sentence: Life without parole.


Final Word

The Marjorie and Jay Orbin case is not a whodunit; it’s a how-do-you-prove-it—a prosecution stitched from fragments: a torso, a tub, a timeline, and the testimony of a lover who chose immunity over silence. It’s what happens when performance collides with evidence and the court decides which story holds up under the weight of law.


Sources used for this Podcast:

Photos (reference images/venues)


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