Fort Worth murder suspect made porn with woman he killed and his wife, affidavit says
A Texas woman whose body was found in Kentucky Lake was murdered by a Fort Worth man who was involved in a sexual relationship with her and his wife in which they produced pornography, according to an affidavit.
Jeffrey Rogers, 60, was arrested on June 24 in connection with the death of Traci Leigh Jones, 40, of Dublin, Texas. Her body was found four days earlier inside of a black 50-gallon tote box floating in the Kentucky Lake on the Kentucky side, though it’s believed it was dumped in Tennessee and drifted into the bordering state. The box was wrapped in zip ties and punctured with several holes from a drill.
The affidavit, provided to the Star-Telegram by the Erath County District Attorney’s Office, provides previously unknown details about the nature of their relationship, and the months of turmoil that preceded Jones’ grisly death.
Before she was killed, Jones had taken steps to publicly reveal details of the pornography they had been creating in private, the affidavit states. Jones, who was being paid to have sex with the husband and wife, had contacted a representative from the news station KXAS-TV as well as the Arlington Independent School District, where Rogers’ wife worked as an elementary school principal, the affidavit says.
His wife, Tammy Rogers, hasn’t been implicated in Jones’ death, and her husband has maintained she didn’t know what he was going to do. But she acknowledged to investigators the three of them had an agreement to produce porn, the affidavit states, and claimed she had been terminated from her job at Berry Elementary School on May 26 after Jones informed the school district.
Jeffrey Rogers is accused of killing Jones sometime before he left on June 17 with his wife for Kentucky to visit family, with the large black tote box in the back of his pickup truck, according to the affidavit. The Texas Ranger who filed the document concluded that he killed Jones by strangulation.
Rogers reportedly told investigators he wants to disclose “why and how I did it,” but not until Tennessee drops charges against him.
“I have the pieces to the puzzle you need,” Jeffrey Rogers told investigators, according to the affidavit.
Though questions remain about how he killed Jones before her body was discarded in a body of water several states away, authorities say they have obtained his confession and believe he is guilty.
He is being held in Tarrant County Jail on a fugitive charge, according to online jail records. In Tennessee, he is facing one count of abuse of a corpse and one count of tampering with evidence, according to media reports.
A spokesperson for the Arlington Independent School District said in an email on Thursday: “Tammy Rogers was employed by the Arlington ISD from August 1989 through May 2020 when she resigned from her position. “
Attempts to reach Tammy Rogers were unsuccessful.
A fractured relationship
On June 22, Texas Ranger Danny Briley was requested to assist Kentucky State Police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in their investigation of Jones’ death.
That same day, he wrote in the affidavit, he was able to obtain a document from a Stephenville attorney who had an attorney-client relationship with Jones. The document provided a glimpse into the relationship between Jones and the couple, and how that relationship had been deteriorating over time.
The attorney understood they were engaged in the production of pornography, according to the affidavit, and that Jones had recently made contact with KXAS-TV and with the Arlington school district. Because of this, the attorney believed Jones was afraid of Rogers and his wife, the affidavit states.
He also believed the two would have been motivated to harm Jones “for the purpose of preventing her from releasing information they held in confidence between the three of them,” according to the document.
Tammy Rogers, who didn’t admit to knowledge of the murder and isn’t charged with a crime, told Briley during an interview that she and Jeffrey Rogers had entered into an agreement with Jones to produce pornography through Circle V Entertainment, a business owned by her husband. She was being paid to have sex with them through Venmo and shared a Wells Fargo account with Jeff Rogers, according to the affidavit.
The pornography ended with the demise of their relationship, but Jones continued to have sex with Jeffrey Rogers, the affidavit states.
Jones had lived with the couple in their RV until she relocated to Dublin, Texas, where was living with a friend.
Recently, Jones had been “constantly threatening to call the news media to expose the porn company,” according to the affidavit. Tammy Rogers was also upset her husband was continuing his sexual relationship with Jones, the document says, “constantly paying her more and more money.”
Jones’ friend who was letting her stay with her in Dublin told investigators she saw her walking south from her home on the evening of June 16, and it was the last time she saw her alive.
She believes Jeffrey Rogers picked her up somewhere on the road and drove away, according to the affidavit. She doesn’t know what happened after that point.
A cross-country trip
On June 15, the day before Rogers reportedly picked up Jones, he bought what looked like a black 50-gallon Craftsman tote box with a red lid at a Lowes in Burleson, investigators learned. It appeared to be an identical match for the one Jones was found inside.
Briley, the Texas Ranger leading the investigation, reviewed video of him leaving the store with the box, he wrote in the affidavit.
Tammy Rogers told investigators her husband told her he was leaving for Dublin around 5:30 p.m. on June 16 to pay Jones more money. Jeffrey Rogers left in his white 2017 RAM pickup truck, the affidavit states, and Tammy Rogers stayed up all night in their RV waiting for him to return. She said she sent him three text messages but he didn’t respond.
Around 4:10 a.m., the affidavit states, video evidence from Stephenville showed Jeffrey Rogers and Jones together, with Jones wearing the same clothes she was later found dead in.
He returned home around 6:45 the next morning and loaded several items into the truck, preparing to quickly turn around and depart for Kentucky, according to the affidavit. Tammy Rogers reportedly told police she knew there was a cooler in the truck bed with drinks but she never looked into the back of the truck.
Surveillance footage from Burleson taken on June 17 around 6 a.m. shows a black container with a red lid was visible in the back of Jeffrey Rogers’ pickup truck. He can be seen opening the camper shell hatch three times and touching the container, according to the affidavit. Tammy Rogers doesn’t access any of the doors.
The pickup with the container in the back of it was captured on security cameras again around 10 a.m. in Royse City. Briley identified them both inside the vehicle but noted Jeffrey Rogers was the only one accessing the camper shell hatch and the container.
The two of them arrived in Murray, Kentucky, around 8:45 p.m. to visit Tammy Rogers’ father, who had recently had open-heart surgery, she told investigators. They reportedly spent the night at his home.
Briley gave this information to Kentucky State Police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, he wrote in the affidavit, and the agencies searched the home on June 23. They seized drill bits and pieces of plastic that appeared to be consistent with the zip ties found on the tote box.
On June 18, Briley learned from the TBI that Jeffrey Rogers had rented a pontoon boat from Paris Landing Pontoon Rentals in Buchanan, Tennessee, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tammy Rogers told investigators he left that morning in his pickup and returned back around noon, according to the affidavit.
Surveillance footage from the rental facility shows him arriving at the marina around 8:45 a.m. before loading a container wrapped in a blanket into the front of the boat. Around 9:50 a.m., he sets out on the water, the affidavit states.
Investigators believe the covered container was the tote box with Jones’ body inside.
Arresting, interviewing Rogers
Authorities executed two Tennessee arrest warrants for Jeffrey Rogers at his Fort Worth residence on June 23, according to the affidavit. Briley reportedly observed the white pickup truck in question parked in front, and the suspect provided consent for investigators to search his vehicle.
About a week later, on July 1, Jeffrey Rogers met with Briley and another Texas Ranger at the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office at his own request.
He admitted the two went to a Holiday Inn in Stephenville and Jones was still alive when they left around 4:10 a.m. on June 17, according to the affidavit. But he became “scared” of the victim, he told investigators, and caused her death.
He held firm that his wife had no knowledge of what he did, according to the document.
“I own it, and Tammy had nothing to do with it,” he reportedly said.
He also admitted he had tried to “throw off” investigators by texting the victim after she was dead.
He told them, per the affidavit, he believed discarding her body in Tennessee was “dishonorable” but he wanted to be able to get rid of the charges in exchange for information about the victim’s death.
He said he had continued to pay Jones money and negotiate the terms of their relationship until her death, according to the affidavit.
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 6:38 PM.
