ARLINGTON -- Jerry Roberts' parents hold out hope that their son, missing since May, will come home.
Roberts' nephew Mark Cone doesn't share that optimism."I'm like, 'He's not coming home,'" Cone said.In his heart, Cone believes that Roberts has been dead since May 6, when Cone and his brother broke into Roberts' home after their uncle failed to show up for work at Cone's trucking business.Inside they found that the refrigerator was missing -- its contents dumped into a trash can and the shelves and drawers left behind in the kitchen. The bed had been stripped of everything but a single sheet.Cone said he's relieved that police have two people -- Roberts' female roommate and her boyfriend -- in custody in Colorado in connection with his uncle's presumed death.And he's hopeful that the body that was found inside the refrigerator -- it was found earlier this month in Ellis County -- will be identified as his uncle so that his grandparents can come to accept the grim truth."Hopefully we can get his body and bury it," Cone said.Signs of foul playA Vietnam veteran, Roberts, 62, had lived most his life in the area, spending his free time building and racing cars.Family members describe Roberts, who is divorced, as a dependable man who had worked for his nephew Phillip Cone about 15 years driving trucks before starting work about a year and half ago for Cone's younger brother, Mark.That, Cone said, is why he was so he concerned when his uncle did not show up for work on May 6.He drove by his uncle's house on West Sanford Street, just a short walk from busy Cooper Street. Roberts' black GMC pickup was gone and nobody answered the door.Later in the day, about 2 p.m., Cone and his brother returned to the house and broke in the back door.What they found inside the house immediately pointed to foul play.Besides the missing refrigerator, sheets covered the windows, preventing people from seeing inside."They disconnected the icemaker and the water shut-off didn't work so the kitchen was flooding," Cone recalled.The brothers found the door leading from the home into the garage had been damaged."The trim was laying there where they had to make the door wider to get the refrigerator out, and there was a scratch on the wooden ramp where they took it out," Cone said.Cone said when he found his uncle's tennis shoes -- his sole pair that he wore every day -- he knew Roberts was dead."He didn't have a lot of stuff he didn't need," Cone said. "He was the kind of person who would wear his shoes until they wore out and only then get another pair."Later, walking through the house again with a neighbor, Cone said he pulled a blanket off his uncle's chair, revealing what appeared to be a bloodstain on the seat and on both arms.Criminal backgroundsThe investigation quickly pointed to Erin Leanne Guthrie, a 38-year-old woman who family members say had been staying with Roberts for a couple of months before his disappearance.Cone said his uncle had met Guthrie through a friend. The friend, Cone said, had gone to prison and asked Roberts if Guthrie could stay with him, falsely claiming that she was his sister."I think he had gotten kind of lonely being single and befriended some people he shouldn't have been hanging out with," Cone said.A witness told police she had seen Guthrie and Roberts arguing on the night before Roberts disappeared."At the end of this heated argument, Roberts ordered Guthrie out of the house," according to an arrest warrant affidavit. "Guthrie refused and told Roberts he would need to evict her if he wanted her gone."Police later obtained surveillance footage showing Guthrie using Roberts' debit card at a Fort Worth convenience store on the morning of May 6. Cone said his uncle's bank account was emptied of about $400 and about $200 was charged on his company credit card at a Walmart and a Dollar General store.Police later observed video footage showing Guthrie's boyfriend, Thomas Eugene Dunham, pawning a cordless drill taken from Roberts' house in Livingston in East Texas. Cone said his uncle's shotgun was also pawned.Both Guthrie and Dunham have criminal backgrounds.Texas Department of Criminal Justice records show Dunham was released from prison on June 30, 2009, after serving an eight-year sentence for attempted murder out of Johnson County.Guthrie served a seven-month stint in a Texas prison beginning in December 2004 for evading arrest out of Polk County and also has two misdemeanor theft convictions out of Tarrant County and a DWI conviction out of Polk County, records show.In a search of Roberts' home, detectives found handwritten notes by Guthrie in a plastic sack in the garage.According to the affidavit, the notes documented the recent arguments with Roberts and stated that Dunham had asked Guthrie to "set up" Roberts.'Nothing to do with it'Guthrie and Dunham were using fake names when they were arrested in Alamosa, Colo., on June 7, a city of about 9,000 in the San Luis Valley in the southern part of the state.Dunham, according to Alamosa court records, had been driving Roberts' pickup when he flagged down a police officer, identified himself as William Piper Edwards and asked for directions to the Alamosa parole office.The officer ran the truck's plate and learned it was associated with a possible abduction out of Arlington involving Roberts. It listed Guthrie and Dunham as "persons of interest."Because the pickup had not been reported stolen, Dunham was released.He told the officer, however, that he was staying temporarily at a homeless shelter and was looking for a job, according to an affidavit.A short time later, the officer spoke with an Arlington detective and learned that "Edwards" matched the description of Dunham.The officer located the man, who this time admitted he was Dunham and said he had a warrant and was afraid of going back to jail. Dunham told the officer that the identification he had previously shown him had been found in a backpack.Dunham, who records show used to run a plumbing business in Alvarado and goes by the nickname "King Kong," was arrested on suspicion of identity theft, criminal impersonation and possession of stolen property.While being booked into jail, he told the officer, "I had nothing to do with it and she did what she had to do because he tried to rape her," the affidavit states.Police also found Guthrie at the homeless shelter. She identified herself as Savannah Edwards although fingerprints later revealed her true identity. She was arrested on suspicion of criminal impersonation and identity theft.The truck was impounded and has since been released back to Roberts' family.Police say blood was found in the back of Roberts' pickup.Murder chargesAccording to the affidavit, Arlington investigators interviewed Dunham in jail. He said he was called by Guthrie because she needed help but refused to elaborate and quickly ended the interview.Guthrie denied killing Roberts and said she had not even been aware he had disappeared. She told detectives she had last seen Roberts on the day of his disappearance when he had returned home with a woman named Denise. Guthrie said Roberts gave her the keys to his pickup and told her to leave them alone.She said she called Dunham and the two left in Roberts' truck for several hours. She said when they returned to Roberts' house, he and Denise were gone. After waiting at the house for several hours, Guthrie said she and her boyfriend took some of Roberts' property, including a shotgun and his wallet, and left, the affidavit states.She admitted using his debit and credit cards but claimed she'd been given previous consent.Despite Roberts' whereabouts remaining unknown, Arlington police filed murder charges on June 28 against Dunham and Guthrie -- for which they've since been indicted.On July 4, a father and son using metal detectors came upon an abandoned refrigerator in western Ellis County, and found a body inside it.The remains have been sent to the Tarrant County medical examiner's office for positive identification and to determine a cause of death.Family members have been told DNA tests to determine if the body is that of Roberts could take more than a month.Cone is convinced that it is."The policeman told me it had stickers from an Arlington business close to my uncle's house," Cone said. "I mean, how many bodies do you find in refrigerators?"Deanna Boyd, 817-390-7655Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
