Drive-Thru Murder ////// 926 | Forensic Files

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>> All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some
true crime. >> [music] >> The year was 1978. A time that now feels like a distant [music] memory for many.
In a small blue-collar town in western Ohio, life revolved around two central pillars, the Goodyear factory and high
school football. The town of Saint Marys was centrally located, yet connected to the wider
world only by a web of country roads, and it had a distinct character. It was a little more than 20 or so miles
from the industrial city of Lima, and a similar distance from the Indiana state line.
Goodyear, established in the late '40s or early '50s, was the largest employer, with nearly one in every four households
having someone on its payroll. The town's rhythm was set by factory hours, and the roar of crowds on Friday
nights, where the only passion that eclipsed local football was the fervent support for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
This was also a cruising town, a scene straight out of American Graffiti. On weekends, the main strip became a
bumper-to-bumper parade of cars filled with teenagers, a loop that often included a stop at a local drive-thru or
carryout for a beer run, a purchase a 17-year-old could make on occasion without getting carded.
Back then, Auglaize and Mercer counties were notorious for their high alcohol consumption. It was how many folks in
blue-collar communities spent their Friday nights and weekends back then. It was just part of the working-class
culture that fueled a thriving business for local carryouts. Downtown Saint Marys, a mere three blocks long, and at
one time, an old-timer recalled about 50 bars you could walk or boat to around nearby Grand Lake Saint Marys.
The town had a rowdy side, with bar fights common enough that a prospective police officer's ability to break up a
brawl was a key hiring criteria. At the center of this world was a drive-thru carryout on the west side of town.
An epicenter of a local commerce near Kmart and other major stores. Owned by two men, Roger and Larry, the
business was perpetually booming. It wasn't uncommon for the line of cars to snake out onto the street.
More than just a place for a six-pack, it was a one-stop shop for essentials, a hub of activity year-round.
It even catered to the hardier crowd, selling live bait and fishing tackle for those heading out to Grand Lake, just
two blocks away. Violent crime like homicide was a rarity, extremely rare, in fact, as the
county might go years without a single murder. And when one did occur, it was typically a domestic dispute or
crime where the suspect was quickly identified. This stark reality would make the events
of one cold winter night all the more jarring, creating a crime that would haunt the community for decades to come.
This is True Crime Garage, and this is the still unsolved murder case of Roger Parent Jr.
>> [music] [music] >> On the evening of Friday, December 29th, 1978, Roger Parent, a 33-year-old man, found
himself unexpectedly at his post at the drive-thru that he and a long-time friend together owned.
It was called the P&S Carryout, located in St. Marys, Ohio at 2111 Salina Road. The name P and S Carryout
stood for the owners, Roger Parent and Larry Sullivan, P and S. The business was a small white block building with a
large Pepsi sign painted on the side. Next to the door there is a large dark painted arrow pointing to the drive-thru
with the words drive-thru service in white. So the small structure included both a
drive-thru and a walk-in entrance to the business. Roger Parent Jr. wasn't originally
scheduled to work that night. So earlier that day at home he had received a call from his colleague, Joe
Hudson, who wanted to leave his shift at the drive-thru early that night. And an
arrangement was made, Captain, and Roger drove the short three-to-four-minute journey from his home to take over for
the night. Joe could take off a little early on this Friday night and Roger, one of the co-owners, would handle the
closing duties and lock up for the night at the end of the shift. Now that night,
my friends, wasn't just any old Friday night in Saint Mary's, Ohio. That night was the night of the 1978 Gator Bowl, a
collegiate football game. It was a bit of a down year for the Ohio State Buckeyes going 7-3-1
during the regular season, but the schedule meant playing seven nationally ranked teams that regular
season, going 3-3-1 against those ranked opponents. But the Bucks and legendary coach Woody Hayes
were coming off a 14-3 loss to rival Michigan, marking the the third straight loss to that team up
north, putting pressure on the team to secure a bowl victory, and even more on their coach, Woody
Hayes, to end the season on a high note. Their opponent, the Clemson Tigers, who
entered the match with a 9 and 1 regular season record. The 1978 Gator Bowl was televised nationally by ABC Sports,
featuring legendary announcer Keith Jackson. The game kicked off at 9:10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, but that was
exactly 933 miles away in Jacksonville, Florida. Back in St. Marys, Ohio, the air was
still with the quiet hum of a typical winter Friday evening. Many local residents were settled in
their homes, maybe with some popcorn or perhaps hosting a watch party at their homes. Whatever the location,
many folks most certainly were tuned in and their attention captured by the Ohio
State game flickering on television sets. Now, you can tell by today's show title that this story is going to be
all centered around this drive-thru, the P&S Carryout. And to be fair, it's a carryout/drive-thru, but I'm calling it
drive-thru for a few reasons. One, if you were to be driving through town for the first time,
I would believe that this is a drive-thru if I were driving through town. The words drive-thru are much more
dominant on all of the signage for the business, and the majority of the customers were drive-thru customers.
The carryout portion of the business was cool, and it worked like this. The folks
that walked up to the little store obviously used the carryout door, and sometimes folks would pull into the
business. They did have a little area there where a couple of cars could park, and you could park your car and then
walk in. But our listeners know when you have a great local drive-thru, it's the
best way and most convenient way to go and quickly and easily collect soda, beer, lottery,
snacks, and small items. Now, also we have owners Roger Parent and Larry Sullivan. These are long-time friends.
They grew up in the area. They knew each other since childhood. They went to grade school together.
Both Roger Parent and Larry Sullivan worked at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. This is a very large nearby
factory job that was putting most of the meat on the tables of families living in
this area. I talked to several folks who lived there in the 1970s and the '80s, and they described it as either someone
in your house worked at Goodyear or one of your neighbors did. I think it was something like one in every four
households had someone working at that Goodyear. >> Well, like you said, they both worked
there together, and they worked there as they also worked at the drive-thru. >> That's a lot of time together, my
friend, as you and I both know. Roger Parent was born October 28, 1945 in Akron, Ohio, and he served this greatest
of nations, serving in the US Army from 1965 to 1968, was a member of the VFW, the American Legion, the Eagles, and the
Bass Masters Association. So, both Roger Parent and Larry Sullivan were working at Goodyear. Larry Sullivan
was also working part-time at a local carryout when the owner at some point decides he wants to sell the business
and Larry Sullivan was working there wanted to take ownership of the little store. So he then approaches his buddy
Roger Parent and the two agreed to go in halves on the store. They would work at Goodyear
during the day and ran the store during their off hours, mostly splitting time there. Due to their careers at Goodyear,
they did have a handful of part-time employees that would help them run the store.
Both Roger and Larry had family so they couldn't spend every waking hour working
at one of the two businesses. >> Well, I'm guessing the dream was eventually just to work
the drive-thru or possibly buy more drive-thrus. >> Yeah, so back then, especially back
then, these larger outfits like Goodyear, Goodyear was a major operation, still is. And back then I
would imagine the idea would be, hey, let's put it you put in your time there, 20 years, 25 years,
>> get a good pension. >> Get a good pension, fairly early retirement, but you're still young
enough that you want to do something and here you have this entrepreneurship where you could run your local store and
this was like a a cool local store. This was a favorite of the locals. And so they had a lot of traffic through
there and they were both well-known in town because they worked with everybody at Goodyear and then people knew them
from the drive-thru as well. >> And also it's nice to know the people at the drive-thru.
>> Now, shout out to the hardworking men and women of the Auglaize County Sheriff's Department and specifically
Sheriff Michael Vorhees who runs that fine outfit. The Auglaize Sheriff's Department is in Wapakoneta, Ohio, a
beautiful town that is famous for Do Captain? >> I have no >> Deep down I know you know. Neil
Armstrong, the first man on the moon grew up in Wapakoneta. >> Well, if you buy that story, yeah.
>> And some don't. But, to the credit of the Sheriff's Department, Auglaize County has
one one single outstanding cold case homicide. The murder of Roger Parent Jr. They
solve violent crimes committed there. They get the bad guys. They lock them up. This case has been worked to the
bone, my friends. Roger's case is revisited at least once or twice every year with
an all-hands-on-deck approach. This year they chose to meet with us, True Crime Garage, so that we could cover the
story. So, they don't mind thinking outside of the box. They have held case presentations in the county over the
years to meet with people in the community, sharing the facts and some of the evidence in the case with the
public. They have pushed to keep the story in the media as well with an open communication policy with the news and
the papers. And now utilizing what I believe to be the best form of media when it comes to true crime and cold
cases, podcast. So, here we are today talking about this cold case. Now, as we said in the trailer, this is a rather
low crime area for the most part, even today, especially violent crime. However,
listeners of this show and followers of true crime know businesses that stay open late at night
in the '70s and still to this day sometimes are an easy target for bad guys looking to make a quick score.
There was and had been one previous robbery in 1974 that took place at this particular store.
Okay, so that would be several years before our case that we're talking about here today. But that robbery, Captain,
in 1974 had prompted the owners to implement a policy of having two employees on duty at closing time. So
that '74 robbery did take place near closing time as well. Now, on this particular night, the night
in question, for reasons lost to time, it seems like that rule was broken. Joe Hudson, who was working that night at
the P&S Carryout, left his shift at the drive-thru early that night around 11:35 p.m., leaving
Roger Parent alone to manage the final stretch. >> Well, sometimes this happens, right?
It's a slow night. You have an employee there, but you're the owner trying to be the good guy. Hey,
we're a little slow. If you want to get out of here, I can close up. No big deal.
>> Factor in a couple things, too. There's a short window of time here between the
time that Joe Hudson would leave and closing time, and Roger Parent is in his early to mid-30s, and he's he's from the
army. He can take care of himself, right? It's It's a half hour alone. So the bars were having their last rushes
around this time. People were making their final beer runs before heading home. As midnight approached, the flow
of drive-thru customers was slowing down around this time, now that we're down to
one worker. Within a short window of time, a local man who we will call customer number one
pulled into the drive-thru. As he approached, he noticed a vehicle parked off to the side of the building.
He says a man was standing near this car or this vehicle, briefly kneeling down before standing up again as customer
number one's vehicle passed. A moment later, as customer number one was at the window speaking with Roger
about the football game, he says he saw that same man now inside the carryout. And at the time, this man,
this person is a seemingly innocuous figure in the background. Customer number one completed his
purchase of beer and soda and then drove away, unaware that he was to be possibly
the last person to see Roger Parent alive. The cash register tape would later corroborate his purchase, customer
number one's purchase. Customer number one says that he left the drive-thru and then drove to the
nearby La Grand pizza place to pick up a pizza pie there. What happened in the minutes that
followed is a vortex of speculation and sparse evidence. The man that customer number one saw, he described as a white
male, around 35 to 40 years old, about 5' 8" tall, and weighing 160 to 170 lb. He had curly, sandy-colored hair,
and was wearing blue jeans, a brown or tan jacket, and most notably, a gray hat.
Describing the hat as like the kind that old men wore to church. >> Yeah, I almost say like a old detective hat, but
he also had no facial hair, no glasses, and was a stranger to this eyewitness. >> Yes, and I think that's key here. So,
customer number one noted that the man kept his hands in his pockets the entire time, a detail suggesting that
>> He was playing pocket pool. >> He was concealing weapon. >> Okay. >> The witness did not
>> recognize this man as you had said there Captain, which in a town like Saint Mary's
>> Yeah. >> is significant. >> This was my initial thought, too, as you go, "Well, is he wearing this type of
hat to conceal his identity?" But, he's not wearing any glasses or anything else. So, I wonder if this is
just a part of his persona. >> The official timeline suggests the murder took place in a very narrow
window of time, sometime around 11:45 p.m. The motive appeared to be robbery. The weapon
a 12-gauge shotgun, but the execution is puzzling. So, the killer confronted Roger.
Remember, he has a military background. >> Right. >> And by all accounts is a level-headed
man, but also not one to start fights. There is no sign of a struggle at this murder scene.
It seems Roger was either taken completely by surprise or even possibly had his back turned when a 12-gauge
shotgun was fired at very close range directly on or just inches from his back. Roger Parent was wearing his Bass
Masters jacket, a testament to his passion for fishing, which would initially conceal the full
extent of the level of bloodshed at the scene. So, the cash register tape logged just
one more transaction after customer number one's purchase. Remember, customer number one purchased beer and
soda before leaving to go pick up a pizza. After that purchase and after customer
number one had left the drive-thru, a single pack of cigarettes was logged as a transaction on the
register. >> Does it show that it was paid for? Cuz I remember back in the day you'd pull into
the drive-thru. They would take your order. You go, "Give me a pack of Marlboro Lights. Give
me a six-pack. Give me a can of Coke." They'd go to the register, normally type something in,
and then come back to give you the items, and then also to collect the payment. Correct.
>> Now, the unfortunately, I've had I've had the opportunity to review the register tape
from that night. That is part of the evidence that was collected that night. It doesn't read that way. So, it doesn't
read as cash received or even change given. It's simply each transaction is typed in,
and it's money received, put in the register, and and like I said, what what the register tape is taking inventory of
is simply the sale. And keep in mind the time period that we're talking about. We
have folks that that run cash registers today, and they can be quite complicated
with the computer screens and everything, but back then it was even more work to run a register. Because often times
the machine isn't generating the the change that you are to give for them. Here with this cash register, who knows
how old this thing was. My guess is they had this cash register it came with the
store when they bought it years prior. And it was simply you didn't type in Budweiser six-pack, and then it came up
with the price of it. No, you you had memorized, or you would review the price tag on the side of the item, and you
would simply type in the cost of those goods, the dollar amount. So, the register doesn't read Budweiser, Pepsi,
pack of Marlboros. It doesn't read like that. It simply reads the dollar amount.
The one thing that it does do automatically is it will add the tax for the person running the register and
based off of the portion of the register tape that I reviewed, it looks like either the register doesn't provide for
you the amount of change that you are to give or the operator is just calculating
that in their head and doing it themselves. So, if you you come through the the drive-thru there, Captain, your
purchase is $5.50, you hand me a 10, I can quickly say $4.50 is your change and make change for
you. What we do know is based off of the prices of the items in the drive-thru, it's very it lines up with customer
number one's story that they bought beer and soda and then left. The reason why the thought is that a single pack of
cigarettes >> [snorts] >> was the next purchase is based off of the price. It was the same price as a
pack of cigarettes what they were selling them for. And some evidence that would later be found at the scene as
well. So, the the other part of this that they find a pack of cigarettes outside nearby,
unopened. Okay, so one thing they don't find is they interviewed everybody who claimed to have been there that night,
to have claimed to have come through the drive-thru within that hour or even the hour before the
homicide took place. No one interviewed ever claimed to buy a pack of cigarettes
and then lost them or threw them down right that night. So, the idea here, it's presumably the killer requested a pack
of cigarettes. Roger then recorded the purchase on the register. The killer shot Rogers
Roger in the back. Roger collapsed. The killer took $95 from the register, then fled the scene.
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the air. Cheers to the people in the back. >> And sorry, if you are tuning in for the
first time to our little garage show, do know that we discussed a solved case and a
unsolved case last week, and next week we have another unsolved case, a true crime story from Georgia. So, make sure
that you hit that subscribe button. Now, that night, the silence of the night was broken, but not by the gunshot.
Because that squatty little solid block building sealed the sound, muffled the sound Yeah. of that gunshot. So, the
silence of that late Friday night was broken by a chilling discovery. A woman who we will call customer number two
lived in the surrounding neighborhood. There's a neighborhood that surrounds the store backs up to this neighborhood
is better way to describe it. >> Well, sometimes the drive-throughs would become walk-throughs.
>> Well, and we know this from where we grew up. We would we had little local stores that we would often ride our
bikes to. They were short distance from the house and a lot of times on summer days you would just use it as something
to do to pass the time or to to get some kind of snack or treat. This customer number two who lives nearby decided to
make a last-minute trip to the drive-thru carryout to collect a late-night snack, a bag of potato chips.
Customer number two having been inside the carryout countless times before, she likely called out for whoever was
working or you know, a quick hello or maybe even to Roger as she walked in expecting a familiar greeting.
Instead, she says there's nobody in there. She's met with unnerving silence. She walked through the side door and
toward the main counter. As she approached the counter, she peered over the counter and then her heart froze.
There on the floor lying in a pool of blood was Roger. She panicked. She turned and
at the same time she threw the bag of chips and fled back to the neighborhood screaming. She was
looking for help and looking for it fast. She needed to get Roger help, but she wasn't going to go back into the
store alone. So, she ran to the first neighbor that she could think of. Let's call him neighbor number one. She tells
neighbor number one what she had found, Roger lying in a pool of blood behind the counter at the carryout {slash}
drive-thru. Neighbor number one rushed back to the carryout with customer number two, knelt beside Roger,
checked for a pulse. This is a desperate futile gesture. Roger, by neighbor number one's account, was
probably already gone by this point. Confirming their worst fears, neighbor number one ran back to his house to call
for help. This is an era before 911. So, he called the fire department for EMS and then the local police or
sheriff's office. After making the calls, he returns on foot to the scene, pulls down the large drive-thru door.
This is a quick, but grim attempt to secure the area while they waited for authorities.
I mean, you're there. You have a great idea, unfortunately, of what happened, right? It's a late-night drive-thru
carryout. Owner dead on the floor. You don't know where the perpetrator is. Is he coming
back? >> And you don't know if the perpetrator was on foot or if he drove through.
And then also, if the if those doors are open and the lights are on, it's a drive-thru. You have to drive through
the building, which would then disturb your scene. So, it's it's pretty smart to go, "Hey, let's
shut these doors. Let's make sure nobody can drive through our crime scene." >> Yeah, and the bars and the pizza places
and all those businesses that are going to stay open late for a Friday night, they're all closing around this time.
Same as what they were attempting to do with the drive-thru. So, you could get people on their way home. Oh, the
drive-thru's still open. Swing through. So, this quiet night was pierced by the wail of of sirens.
>> The sirens or silence? >> Sirens. Police sirens. >> Sirens. You're not saying that word completely
correct. >> Sirens? >> Sirens. That's better. >> I don't know what you were hearing, but
I was saying sirens. >> I'm telling you the listeners they heard it. >> Hopefully you can delete this portion in
post. >> No. >> So the quiet night was pierced by the wail of sirens. Police sirens, we're going to have fire
department and so on. The call went out and law enforcement began to converge on
the scene. The crime had occurred just outside of St. Mary's city limits, but the community considered it part of
their town. We have a designated township deputy, a man named Marsh, was known to be close
by. This is due to the high concentration of bars around this area. This is a lake
community. According to one of the firefighters who arrived at 12:03 a.m., Deputy Marsh had already beaten them to
the location. Customer number two and neighbor number one who had discovered the body had to open the door for him,
granting the first official access. It wasn't until Rogers body was moved that the true volume of blood became
apparent. >> Yeah. >> His glasses were found on the floor near his head. A brand new unopened pack of Marlboro
cigarettes was found on the ground just outside of the store. It's exact location
nearby. It It looks to me that either someone simply dropped them. I mean, there's there is
a chance that these cigarettes have little to nothing to do with the case at all.
>> But like you said, it matches. >> Maybe somebody purchased them there and dropped them on accident. Maybe somebody
had them on their lap when they got out of their po- out of their car and they fell to
the ground. But it seems to stand to reason or at least basic logic that when you
have this purchase of what would be the exact cost of Marlboro cigarettes as the
last recorded transaction on the register and the cigarettes found outside that either A, the killer
did this to distract Roger Parent or actually wanted the cigarettes and and dropped them on his way fleeing the
scene. >> Well, and I don't know if we have evidence if the killer drove through the
drive-thru or if they walked through because to me, if you're going to commit this
crime, it'd just be easier to walk in, commit the crime because if you're going to take money, if the motive is to take
money from the cash register, then if you just walk in, you don't have to get out of your vehicle, if that
makes any sense. >> Well, exactly. You would pull up and then the problem you would have if you chose
to exit go into the drive-thru, exit your vehicle, and get the money, regardless of where
you shoot the clerk, you have the potential of somebody pulling up behind you, reading your
license plate, seeing you getting back in the car, and then once they figure out that uh there's a robbery homicide
here, you're if you were trying to conceal your identity, now you have a big problem. Your your car is sitting
under lights for a great description. Your plate would be easily visible to anybody
behind you. So, it it it stands to reason that the person would want to come inside if this was something that
they had thought through and had a general understanding of the store. This also goes along with what
customer number one is saying. Right? He's saying when when I approached the drive-thru, I'm in my
vehicle. I drove past the guy that he was near he was near a vehicle parked off to the
side. And then once I'm in the drive-thru and talking to Roger, I then see the man in the background, that same
man. He's he's on foot inside the carryout waiting for me and Roger to be done talking.
And then I left. Everything was normal when I left. So, back to that item at the scene, a brand new unopened pack of
Marlboro cigarettes found outside just outside that it's assumed to be the very pack from the final ghost
purchase of the night. Had Roger rung up the cigarettes and handed them over before being shot or was the request a
diversion to get close without raising suspicion? >> Well, and sometimes people rob locations
and they they don't have a full understanding of the business. So, they go, "Okay, well, I'm going to
rob them towards the end of the night the end of the night because that's when they're going to have the most money."
>> Mhm. >> But, sometimes people rob a business and without the understanding that they're
not going to have a lot of cash on them. So, you go, "Well, they didn't score that much cash." So, that makes this
motive seem a little flimsy. But, if I'm an investigator, I'm going, "Okay, well, is this
to establish a motive? And is this killing based on something else? And so, I think you have to look
at the individuals in Roger's life. What kind of relationships friend-wise does he have? And And what kind of
relationships, maybe, does he have romantically? >> Yes, and I agree with you, it's not a
great score. Um 95 bucks. 95 bucks back then would be roughly about $500 today. >> Yeah, but it could be enough money get
you from point A to point B. >> Oh, I would think $500, you know, 95 bucks gets you a good stretch if you
needed to get from point A to point >> And we don't have a ton of evidence, but we do have this eyewitness that says, "I
didn't know the guy. >> Mhm. >> Here's what the guy looked like, and I didn't know him." That doesn't mean he's
not local, but there is a good possibility that he isn't local, because that's another
thing, too. We have eyewitnesses seeing this this uh camper van, a a red camper truck.
>> Yeah, we should point out that customer number one is not the only potential eyewitness for this night.
>> Right. >> Back to something you said, though, we do know a lot about customer number one.
Okay, we're choosing not to identify these people because it's an unsolved homicide from a small area. With
customer number one, who grew up in the area, >> Yeah. >> saying, "I didn't recognize the guy,"
you're exactly right, Captain. Doesn't mean that the guy's not local, but what it does mean is that it
severely decreases the chance that he is local. Customer number one knows, growing up there, knows most of
the people in in that area. Now, when investigators began to process the scene, they were
met with some puzzling set of clues. Look, motive here obviously would appear to be
straight robbery. It's late at night, the owner-operator is working alone, potential witnesses before and after the
crime, but no one else present in the drive-thru during the robbery or the murder. But there
there is some holdback information here, and we all know that the devil hides in
those details. That information was discussed when I met with the detectives and the sheriff, and we all agree that
there holdback information well, I should say I should say I agree, Captain. It's highly suggestive of two things.
One, the killer probably did not know Roger. Or if he did, he didn't know him extremely well.
And two, I believe that the killer had been in P&S Carryout on a prior occasion or on prior occasions, but I don't think
that the killer worked there or at least never worked there during the time that
Roger Parent and Larry Sullivan owned the business. >> Yeah, and just to be clear, it's a it's
a complete honor that any law enforcement would reach out to us and share information about cases.
They prefer to share the information with you. And most law enforcement officers say,
"Well, we'll share the information with the Colonel. We don't need to hear any dick jokes."
>> So now in our timeline, Captain, it's after midnight. Roger was transported to a local
hospital, but by the way things looked, it was already too late. When he was found on the floor behind the counter
by customer number two and then neighbor number one. The Gator Bowl was coming to
a close and the score was tight. With the game on the line, it was third and five for the Buckeyes who were
trailing 17 to 15 with just two minutes left in the game. Ohio State had the ball on Clemson's
24-yard line. OSU quarterback Art Schlichter was having one hell of a game. He had two rushing touchdowns and had
completed 16 of 19 passes. So, legendary coach Woody Hayes decided to keep the ball in the hands of his
star QB. On that third and five, he called a pass play. Ohio State quarterback Art
Schlichter then threw a short pass that was intercepted by Clemson nose guard Charlie Bowman.
Bowman avoided several tackles gaining 12 yards. Bowman was finally shoved out of bounds on the Ohio State sideline and
after he got up, Ohio State coach Woody Hayes grabbed his jersey and punched him
in the throat. OSU players pulled Hayes away and back behind the sideline. The player thankfully was unaffected by
Hayes's attack. But the incident sparked a brief, intense, bench-clearing fight between
players of both teams. But in the end, the Clemson Tigers had the ball and the lead and they held both until time
expired. The game concluded at prac- at approximately 12:28 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. The final score,
Clemson 17, Ohio State 15. >> Well, just to be clear for the listeners out there that don't like
sports, you're not allowed to punch the other team's players if you're a coach. That's not allowed.
>> I don't think anybody's allowed to punch the other team's players. Roger Parent,
a guy who everyone knew, not just because he was a good dude, but also because he had worked for years at the
factory that was very much the backbone of the community, and he co-owned the best drive-thru and carryout in town,
was pronounced dead at the hospital. OSU coach Woody Hayes was fired the next morning and since that day for the folks
of St. Marys in Auglaize County, those two events have always been tied together.
>> Right. >> It will always be the night that Woody Hayes punched that Clemson player and
the night that someone walked into the P&S Carryout and shot Roger Parent in cold blood.
>> Well, when you said that this individual the killer might have been seen at the drive-thru previously,
it makes me wonder because some of these towns we know they have the the rubber factory, right? So
>> We should we should clear that up. I didn't say that he had been s- You mean right before the murder or on a
previous occasion? >> Previous occasion. >> Okay, we we should clear that up. My
it's my opinion. Uh there's no witness to say that they had seen this person in the carryout
before that night. It's my opinion based off of the evidence that was reviewed with the
sheriff's department that I believe the perpetrator had been in the carryout prior to that night on at least one
occasion. >> No, and that's interesting because like I said the these towns would be known to
have these factories and sometimes s- especially more back in the day, people would
would drive a distance to get a job like this because hey, it's going to cost me a little bit more
in gas, but it's a solid job with a solid retirement plan. >> I believe that the guy was probably
local, but not local local. I think he was like next town over local. I think that it was an individual that probably
had been there before and knew that they stayed open late and that there would likely be only one person in I think it
was somebody going straight for a robbery. And straight to look to take whatever
was in that register. >> And and they might have also had knowledge that this game was going to be
on. I mean, this would have been a big deal game, especially around this time period.
Well, heck, I mean, back then, it's like, once it hit dark, there was just not that many people on the roads.
>> A crucial detail from the autopsy report, Roger was shot once in the back with a
sawed-off shotgun. So, they were able to determine that it was a sawed-off shotgun fired at very, very close range.
I know we described some of that prior, but what they did was a grease test on his jacket and the wadding from the
shell that had passed through his body had helped determine the proximity of the
weapon at the time that it was fired. Right. A sawed-off shotgun would have been easily concealable under a coat.
This may explain why the individual in the carryout witnessed by a couple of people
uh outside and then inside by customer number one was seen without a weapon and is in fact the murderer.
So, again, the the whole thing here is, and it goes back to something that you were saying
earlier, but it's it's the round table discussion of well, did he shoot Roger first? If he
did, how did he manage to get the register open? But, the more practical side of
this says that he probably requested the cigarettes. We don't know if if if that was actually
paid for, if he handed over any money, and he requested the cigarettes, giving him just enough time to have the victim
turn away so he could pull out the weapon. Either the weapon wasn't present and he
asked Roger for another item and Roger turns his back, or the weapon is present and Roger turns his back to
turn away from the gun and then is shot. >> Which makes a lot of sense. It also makes me wonder, too, is does
Roger have the pack of cigarettes and when he turns kind of tosses them, or do they fall on
the ground, and then the killer, when he turns to get away, kicks them by accident?
>> The cigarettes >> it's a nothingburger, but it's this this is an interesting scene.
>> It is. And And I I'm glad that you want to stick with this for a minute, because
the cigarettes to me are uh troubling, okay? Because think of the scenario. What would the killer the It's
suggestive that the based off the register tape and the cigarettes being found outside,
unopened, that the killer gets these cigarettes and then in the course of fleeing either
drops them or throws them down cuz he's not even a smoker, gets in his car, drives off with $95
cash and a smoking hot gun. But what did I just say there? He also has cash and the gun. A guy
doesn't have three hands. >> Right. >> And the cigarettes, if they were the ones that were rang up, made their way
outside of the drive-thru carryout. >> I mean, it's possible he has three hands, but the eyewitness never stated
that he saw a man with three hands. >> I'm just saying the likelihood that that the cigarettes fell out of a pocket seem
much less to me than if they were just tossed or or he dropped them. But in his hands, presumably at this time, he's got
three things: the gun, the cash, and the cigarettes. >> Yeah, but this seems so violent to me
that it's that makes me wonder Okay, if he's not a smoker, then picking out that as a item is a ruse. Is that
the only ruse? And would you kill somebody over 95 bucks? Or is there another motive and
because this makes sense to me. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to go, "Hey, I want this guy dead for whatever
reason. I will go to his place of work where I have easy access to go in and out. I will ask to purchase a a
pack of cigarettes and then I will shoot him and I'll rob him and then people will assume
that this was just a just a robbery that went bad." And so I really want to know what was
going on in his personal life. >> Well, there's Yeah, but there's also the old adage of leave no witness, right?
Well, regardless if you know the individual or not and and you're This has really the the ongoing theories
for investigators here have time and time again that they're forced to revisit are two
primary scenarios for the murder. First, like you said, a robbery gone bad. The perpetrator
didn't intend to kill Roger, but was startled, nervous, perhaps Roger reached for the cigarettes and the shotgun goes
off. The second was an an intentional premeditated murder where it could be either A, like you say, maybe there's a
reason for this individual to want to kill Roger Parent or it's just simply premeditated in the sense that the
killer waited for other employees to be gone, Joe to leave knowing that the cash
register would potentially be at its fullest at the end of the night, goes in there to collect goes in there
to collect the money and decides I'm leaving no witness. And so the >> Right there. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
Hold on a second right there. Because that to me would suggest he he doesn't have to be local local, but that would
suggest he's local on some capacity because if you're from a whole different state,
what would it matter that he saw you? You're going to take the 95 bucks and within an hour you're in a different
state. So, but if you're local, then you would be worried about him identifying you.
>> Or someone else seeing you. And that that's one thing that the investigators discussed was if it were an intentional
murder, they then that would obviously point more toward a local person. Someone who knew Roger, knew his
routine. Maybe it wasn't personal in nature. Maybe it had everything to do with the robbery. But it would be
somebody that didn't want to be identified. An out-of-towner, as you just reasoned and others would it
makes sense, wouldn't care as much about being seen. So, this all leads back to the description
of the potential suspect. Was that just what he was wearing? Some kind of his you know, his normal getup?
Or could be could could that have been a disguise? >> Right. >> And like we said, there it's believed
that there was more than one person to have seen this individual that night, but not necessarily inside the building.
We do know that he was also spotted by customer number one out in the parking lot for a very very brief time.
Customer number one, let's call him the key witness here, worked with a sketch artist
and also with the Identikit that was popular back then. That's where you kind of go through and
you pick out the the nose that looks the best, you pick out the hat that looks the best, and by the time you go through
picking everything out, you have your complete description of the individual. One thing we're going to be releasing
that has not been widespread to this point, there are the suspect composite sketches,
uh a profile picture as well as a I shouldn't say picture, a profile sketch, >> Right.
>> as well as a front view sketch, but there there's also that Identikit. That's not been widespread to this
point. And the sheriff's department and I, we all agree that needs to be thrown out there as much as the
the sketch itself, because to me they don't they look very very similar, but they don't look the same.
And I think that the other one could trigger hopefully trigger someone's memory better than what the sketch has
for all this time. The other part of this though too, that's interesting, is this this stupid
hat, okay? The image of the suspect depicts a man in a hat. >> Yeah. >> And you described it a little
differently than I did. I think both of them >> stupider hats. >> I think both of our descriptions are
good. I also think that the one uh one of the witnesses' descriptions of uh well, what kind of hat was it? He didn't
he didn't name it what kind of hat it was. He says, "Oh, it's the kind that, you know, old men might wear to church
on Sunday." >> Yeah. >> Then others seeing the the hat, the drawing of the hat, have described it as
a fedora. Then this is interesting, because with all these cases, especially these
old ones, what's one of the things that we like the most here in the garage? Talk to the local people and and hear
their suspicions and hear what the rumors were that they were hearing at the time, because we've seen this, not
every case, but many many cases, that something that was said by the locals early on
ends up being true. There's some truth to it once the solution is presented for the mystery. So, one thing that the
local old-timers have suggested to the sheriff's department in this case One thing we need to keep in mind, 1978
none of the guys working the case today were on the sheriff's department at that
time. In fact, the meeting that we had a room full of 10 people there was one individual that was old enough to to
know the area and the people at the time in that meeting. He was like eight at the time of the murder.
>> Right. >> Some locals, when they presented this case to the public, like I said, they've
they've gone to the public many times and presented the case to the the public. Some of the local old-timers
have told the sheriff's office this hat might not have been a fedora, might not have been a dress type hat. It could
have been a bucket hat. And the old-timers have a few reasons for the suspicion. One
it actually was a popular style of hat worn by Goodyear workers at the time when they were at work to
keep soot out of their hair during their shifts. >> Yeah, again it goes back to that
what was his personal relationships? Is there a possibility that he had a co-worker that he had run-ins with? And
so, it could be a fedora hat. It could be a bucket hat or what I call a fisherman's hat. Or possibly could be
something like a pork pie hat. But I lean towards the the first two options. >> The other part of that is
to extend on what you're saying here, a fisherman's hat, this is a lake community. Yep. Fishing is a big
time shared hobby here. I live near a lake. I see 9 months out of the year, if I go 1 mile to the east,
I will see something that is suggestive of fishing. I will see a boat, fishing rods, a person who is dressed as they're
going fishing, a person purchasing bait. I >> Scuba Steve. >> Every you just see it all the time.
So, the the bucket hat makes a lot of sense there. It's not described or depicted as
such in the sketches or the identikit, but it's something to keep in mind, and it's something that makes a whole lot of
sense. >> Yeah, and if we're trying to connect the dots, you go fisherman hat and this red camper truck,
lake community, to me, you go, well, it could point to somebody going there to to go camping, to take a little
break. And it's also it's around the New Year's time, so you would assume that people would have
time off of work. I mean, we know it was a Saturday, but I'm just saying, does that make sense?
Depending on where when New Year's falls. >> going into Saturday. >> Yeah, and so, depending on when New
Year's falls, the person would have time. So, we see a lot of these crimes take place during these holiday
weekends. >> Initially here, the hope of the individual depicted in the sketch and the
identikit, it I mean, it was the hope that this was just an innocent bystander, that he
could be another potential witness, or have information that would help the sheriff's office.
>> Right. >> However, it's been over 40 years, this guy has not come forward and said, "Oh,
yeah, that's me in the sketch." Or that's me that had that vehicle that was described as being outside. That
person's never come forward, and you've heard us talk about this, if you're [clears throat] a long time listener,
you've heard us talk about this aspect of cases many many times. >> just to be clear, there's there was more
than one witness that saw this individual, right? >> Customer number one by far has the most
detailed description of the man and the most detailed description of the potential vehicle that he could be
linked to. We need to keep in mind one big part of the story is he's while he may have been spotted kneeling down next
to a vehicle, he's never seen getting in or out of a vehicle by any witness at all.
>> Yeah, so his vehicle could have been parked somewhere else. >> Or he could have been on foot. I mean,
we just said it backed up to the There the possibilities here are So, one of the possibilities that I thought was
crazy on its surface doesn't seem so crazy after the fact because we talked about
and we're going to get into these rumors some of the rumors here, but one of the
rumors was that a local bad guy was at one of the nearby bars. They're super busy. It's Friday night.
Nobody's really keeping tabs on everybody and keeping check on who's here and who's not. They were saying
like, "Look, it it wouldn't be crazy. It's not out of the realm of possibility that this dude gets up from his seat at
the bar and says, "I'm going to the bathroom." or the place is busy and disappears for
15 minutes. The Somebody could have presumably walked from one of those bars. Quick jog over to the carryout, go
inside, shoot the guy, take the money, and then you're back on your barstool in 15-20
minutes. >> Yeah, and what happens when you start drinking? You want to start smoking.
>> Again, it goes back to the idea this guy never coming forward that it's prob-
this is probably your guy. This is probably your suspect. And the part that we're talking about now has been
a little bit of a a point of confusion, right? So, we have customer number one who saw a car parked on the side of the
building. We have earlier notes about a red and white camper truck. Then, we have
something about a teletype came in. It was circulating about an orange Pinto that was urging officers to be on the
lookout for an orange Pinto, but use caution. As the way that the the case file reads today,
40 years later, almost 50 years later, there's no clear explanation as to what this orange Pinto may or may not mean to
the investigation, but it is something that is in the case file. Turn of the year, New Year's comes. By January 1979,
the community buzzed with rumors as they tried to piece together this puzzle. The randomness or possible randomness of
this crime was a reoccurring theme of those rumors. Was a reoccurring theme to the locals who were trying to come up
with their best theory as to who and why this was done. The carryout, the drive-thru, was highly visible. It's a
high-traffic area. And so, what you cannot completely dismiss, it's possible the killer was an
out-of-towner who had been at one of the nearby bars like the Surf Club, just a short walk across
an open field. But, there were other theories, Captain, and other rumors that swirled much closer to home. So, within
a few months of the murder, two local men died by suicide. The rumor mill immediately connected them individually,
separately to the crime. One name in particular kept surfacing, Mike Sampson. So, this is a name, this is a story that
has remained and is persistently linked to the Roger Parent homicide over the years, but to be perfectly clear, it
lacks in both details and more importantly evidence. So, as the story goes, in February of 1979,
overwhelmed with guilt, Samson killed himself in his bedroom, leaving a note that explicitly confesses to the crime.
It the the rumor is that the note said something as simple as I killed Roger. Now, according to that local rumor, the
father discovered the scene and destroys the note to protect his family's reputation.
Investigators looked into this theory time and time again, actually. They've revisited this theory.
But, the official reports on Samson's death contain no mention of a note. So, either A, the father was successful
in destroying that >> Right. >> evidence and cleaned up the suicide scene a little bit before
folks got there to document what took place, or the other option is the note never
existed, and this was something >> Yeah. >> something that was made up. It was something that was made up to reconcile
both of these events. >> Well, and this would go against the eyewitness reports, right? I mean, the
I'm assuming that this guy was younger than 35 to 40. >> Yeah, actually, you're you're spot on
with that. He would have been in his early 20s, and I asked the um the older gentleman to describe this
individual that was in our meeting. And now, again, he was 8 years old at this time, but it's an area where everybody
practically knows everybody. And he said that in in the others in the room agreed with him based off of what
they've heard over the years that this individual, unfortunately, who who did take his own life, regardless of the
circumstances, was described to me as somebody that wasn't functioning on a normal level.
They were hesitant to give a diagnosis, but did say that today this individual would have There would have been a
certain term for for why he was not functioning on a normal level. Uh he was somebody that never lived outside of his
parents' home. Uh he was somebody that did get into trouble on occasion, got into trouble
fairly regularly as an adult. But they they're suspicious that that it was more of his
more in regard of his condition rather than being just an evil, terrible human being.
>> But still could be responsible for heinous crime. >> Yeah. Another that other suicide
uh occurred the same year, 1979. This also drew the attention of investigators at the time and of course
the locals. This individual uh his name is Alan Hockenball. He took his own life shortly
after the murder. His wife says that she believed that it that it was because he
knew who killed Roger. >> Right. >> Um n- maybe not that he did it. She says that
um the the sheriff's department has a bit of an issue with this story because there was a lot of turmoil
in this marriage. So she they're not living together at the time that Alan takes his life.
They suspect that that is probably why he took his life, that his his marriage and his family had completely fallen
apart mostly by his own wrongdoing. But >> can be a big stressor. >> He the as the story goes or as the rumor
has always been, he called his soon-to-be ex-wife and said, "I know who did it." Naming the person
that was responsible. Then he takes his own life. So, the investigators agreed at
the time of a couple of things. It was easy to see the problems with this air quotes confession, but they
also found the lead to be very compelling, viewing his statements almost as a confession without confessing. Possibly
that he was the individual responsible, but on the phone call claiming to know who was responsible.
But it not being him. >> Did he not give a name to his >> The the rumor as the story goes is that
he gave a name to the wife and this name was passed along to investigators. The name has never surfaced though.
>> Interesting. >> And it it is it's something that the sheriff's office are are well well aware
of, but >> Blink twice if you know the name. >> I if I if I do I did know the name and I
don't know it today. Sometimes I purposely forget things. It's in the interest of the It's in the
best interest of the case for me to forget things. Another suspicion, and this is it's very
close to home. So, as the years passed, Roger Parrott's brother, the victim's brother,
his name is Larry, not to be confused with Larry Sullivan who was co-owner. So, as this story goes, Roger's brother
Larry, who was at a party the night of the murder, began to form his own suspicion. So, he was at a
football party that night. He shared a story about another one of the brothers, Louis Parrott.
He says, "Look, Louis owned a lot of guns, a lot of shotguns. He was known to associate at the time
with a very, what he referred to as a rough crowd, and he was always in need of money."
So, Larry believed that Louis might have been involved in the 1974 robbery at the
carryout and drive-thru. The most suspicious part for Larry in regard to his brother Louie
was not evidence, but complete silence. He says that from the day that Roger Parent was shot, Larry
never saw nor heard from his brother Louie again. He simply vanished. >> That's suspicious.
>> Now, the last known trace of this individual was a report that he was living somewhere in a he's sleeping in a camper
in someone's backyard outside of Tampa, Florida. >> Is it a red camper? >> I don't have any information beyond
>> bizarre your your brother is murdered. Seems like the motive might have been robbery. But
you're non-existent to your family afterwards. That's a pretty bizarre. >> Well, and obviously Roger would be able
to identify his own brother. Therefore, needs to be killed. >> Absolutely. >> One one part that we should point out in
Louie's defense, one thing I do know about Louie and am well aware of is that it wasn't all peaches and cream with him
with the family before Roger was killed. It's not like he you know, the brother says it's complete
silence. He never saw him again after Roger's killed, but it's not like they were hanging out and they were all
chummy beforehand. He was already on the outs with the family prior to this. Again, he was running
with a bad crowd. He was always need in need of money. He wasn't somebody in the
family that the family members were looking forward to seeing or kept in regular contact with.
>> Well, and also you can go down a rabbit hole of maybe this brother knew what happened to
his brother and knew that those guys or that guy was a bad individual and he had to get out
of town. >> Decades later, the murder of Roger Parent remains unsolved. The physical
evidence, the pack of Marlboros, was collected. Modern forensic analysis has, unfortunately, yielded nothing
on that. We do have a single fingerprint that was found on the pack of cigarettes. It's been checked
against databases for years, but never produced a match. They also have the slug and the wad from
the shotgun collected by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, BCI. That remains as well.
We have the sketch based on a man seen in the drive-thru shortly before the murder. A white man
aged 35 to 40 with a brimmed hat was seen by an unspecified number of witnesses at the P&S Carryout around the
time of Roger Parent's murder. And keep in mind that's such a short window, right?
With people going in and out of there that only closes that window and makes it even smaller. Witnesses described the
suspect as a Caucasian man between ages of 35 and 40, about 5 ft 8 in tall, 160 to 170 lb, curly, sandy-colored hair,
was wearing a man's old-fashioned wide-brimmed felt hat. Uh some say it was gray.
He was also wearing a light brown or tan 3/4 length coat and blue jeans, had no facial hair, no glasses,
was a stranger to our best witness, customer number one, kept his hands in his pockets the entire
time, and he was a walk-in customer and was not seen getting into or out of a vehicle. The identity of the man in the
sketch and the identikit has yet to be identified according to Auglaize County Sheriff's Department. Before we wrap
here today, we mentioned that Pinto was able to track down some more info on this Pinto and figuring out if it's
directly connected or not is difficult based on the case file, but that Pinto was also spotted as at a 7-Eleven.
And there were three people inside this vehicle. There was an individual that had a jacket on that had
the words Black Bull Inn on the back of that jacket and that would have been a business that would have been a town or
so over. It's referred to as kind of a legit biker bar, a hangout for bike clubs for,
you know, bike clubs like the Outlaws from Lima and the local Barbarians as they were called back in '78, '79.
The problem with this and how much weight do you put into this lead has always been that the suspect's
description did not match that of a typical biker or the people that would uh frequent that Black Bull Inn on a
Friday night. >> Right. >> So, it was really just it's an interesting lead. Uh I know that they have attempted to
follow up on it over the years and will continue to follow up on all these leads
that we've discussed here today. Uh but it's really truly it's just another piece of a very complex puzzle.
I do want to give a shout-out to Abigail Miller who wrote a great article. There's not while the Sheriff's
Department have kept in close contact with the media and given presentations to the community and the public over the
years on this case, there's not been a lot of media on this story in the 40 some years that have
gone by. And Abigail Miller's piece that she did titled Cold Case Who Killed This
Man from uh 2023 in the Daily Standard was the best one that I came across when looking for information outside of the
Sheriff's Department. And truly where the case sits today, I'm hopeful. I think that it could still
very likely be solved, but the case is a collection of persistent rumors, family
suspicions, and faded evidence. And then top that off with the specters of Mike Sampson, Louie Parent, Alan Meckstroth,
and the unidentified man in the hat continue to haunt the investigation leaving a community with more questions
than answers and a family without closure for a brutal, senseless act that stole a man's life on a cold December
night. Another shout-out is due to Detective and Lead Investigator Timothy Ramel and Chief Deputy Mike
Peterson and the team there at the Sheriff's Department that they put together to speak with us True Crime
Garage. This is a case that has been talked about a lot over the decades since Roger has been killed.
And we discussed a lot of the local rumors. A lot of people liked Roger Parent Jr. and wanted to do whatever
they could to try to help. So, the Sheriff's Department did receive a lot of information early on and that has
continued over the decades. We are hoping that everyone listening today will take the time to look at the
composite sketches, look at the identikit that we have for you of the suspect, and more importantly share
those images. If you have any information about the events that led to Roger Parent's murder, you should report
that information to the Auglaize County Sheriff's Office at 419-739-6565. Ask to speak with Detective Tim Ramel or
Chief Deputy Mike Peterson. Callers can remain anonymous and tips can also be sent in anonymously through the
Sheriff's Office's website. >> [music] [music] >> All right, I want to thank everybody for
joining us here in the garage each and every week. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother.
Your mom goes to college. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners?
>> Yes, we do, Captain. This week we are recommending Michael Rosenberg's book War As They Knew It. Woody Hayes, Bo
Schembechler, and America in the Time of Unrest. The late 1960s and early 70s were a time of total turmoil in America.
The country was being torn apart by a war most people didn't support. Young men were being taken away by the draft
and racial tensions were high. Nowhere was this turmoil more evident than on college campuses. The uncertain times
presented a challenge to two of the greatest football coaches of all time. Woody Hayes, the legendary coach of Ohio
State, feared for the future of America. His protege and rival Bo Schembechler of
the University of Michigan didn't want to be bothered by these distractions. Michael Rosenberg dramatically weaves
the campus unrest and political upheaval into the story of Hayes and Schembechler, a rivalry that began at
the height of the Vietnam War. War As They Knew it, Woody Hayes, Boshamer, Beckler and America in the time of
unrest by Michael Rosenberg is this week's recommended reading. You don't have to write that title down now. We
will have it for you on our website, truecrimegarage.com. >> Until next week, be good, [music] be
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Drive-Thru Murder ////// 926

Part 1 of 1

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Just before midnight, December 29, 1978 a man walked into a Drive-Thru / Carryout on the westside of St. Mary’s Ohio. That man is a suspect in Auglaize Counties only cold case - the murder of Roger Parent jr. Tonight in the Garage we walk through the basic facts of the Robbery/ Homicide case. Roger, only 33 years old, was the co-owner of P&S Carryout along with Larry Sullivan. He was discovered shot inside the carryout by a customer. He was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. The Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help to identify a man seen in the Drive-Thru / Carryout just before midnight that night. Images of the suspect can be found @TrueCrimeGarage on socials and on our website www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.truecrimegarage.com/)

Any information about the events that led to Parent's murder should be reported to the Auglaize County Sheriff's Office at 419-739-6565. Ask to speak with detective Tim Rammel, or chief deputy Mike Peterson. Callers can remain anonymous or tips can be sent in anonymously through the sheriff's office website.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved murder of Roger Parent Jr. in 1978, detailing the crime, investigation, and local theories.

Key points

The Unsolved Murder of Roger Parent Jr.. Explore the chilling details of a murder that shook a small Ohio town.
A Fatal Encounter. Roger is shot in the back after ringing up a sale, leading to a robbery gone wrong.
Chilling Discovery. A woman finds Roger lying in a pool of blood, prompting a frantic search for help.
The Killer's Intent. Investigators ponder whether the killer's request for cigarettes was a diversion.
The Ties That Bind. The tragic events of a night forever linked in the community's memory.
The Murder Weapon. Details emerge about the sawed-off shotgun used in the murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a crime that would haunt the community for decades to come.

Introduction to the unsolved case.

7:03WatchMay 7, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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