The Mother I Wish I Knew

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2:31Deborah Atropse was 30 years old. She was a young mother. I didn't get to have my mom growing up. It was this mystery that has never been solved.

2:54My name is Rihanna, and I am referred to in the story as the baby. The eight-month-old baby who lost her mom. Yeah. Hi, little mom. Hi.

3:13So you believe on November 29th, 1988, this was the last known location where she probably came? Mm-hmm. We believe that she drove alone on this very rural road, and that was the last drive that she took alive. The car is found on December 1st. I knew she was strangled and she was found in her trunk. There was just so much unknown. Who did this? Why did this happen? We focused pretty early on on Robert. Handsome. Like me? Yeah. Bob Atropse was married to Debbie Atropse. They had been married for a year or so, and they were struggling, having issues in their relationship, which caused them to separate.

4:02We continued to conduct additional interviews, follow up on various leads. And then it went dead. It was a tragedy. There were times when I wondered if we would ever make an arrest.

4:23Finally getting answers nearly 35 years later. as prosecutors say now 68-year-old Robert Elmer Atrops is the person responsible for the November 1988 murder of his estranged wife, Deborah Lee Atrops. I was just in shock. I couldn't believe it. They 1 ,000 % got it wrong. The mode of evidence is very, very strong. Debbie Atrops had a new romantic relationship with a man named John Pearson. They worked together. She was excited about it. but she was very concerned about Robert Atropes finding out about her relationship with John Pearson. The husband is often the obvious suspect. However, Debbie Atropes had a complicated life and kept a lot of secrets.

5:10We view this as a case of actual innocence. There is more evidence that suggests John Pearson was involved in Deborah Atropes' murder than there is Bob Atropes. They thoroughly interviewed John Pearson. Things were good between him and Debbie H. Rops. He had no motive to commit this crime. John Pearson did have motive to kill Debbie H. Rops. He said that in hindsight, he thinks that Debbie H. Rops was only with him because she was looking for somebody to pay the bills for her. That's plenty motive. Hello, Rihanna Lynn. My dad did not do this. I know my dad. I know his heart. And I know that he'd never be able to live with himself doing that.

6:01Natalie Morales reports, the mother of Bushangu.

6:09It was Thursday, December 1st, 1988, when Deborah Atrop, known as Debbie, was found murdered in her car next to a construction site here in Beaverton, Oregon. Debbie had been reported missing two days earlier by her estranged husband, Bob Atrops, who lived about five miles away on this rural road. So where are we in relation to the Atrops case? Right here is Southwest Consulman Road in Sherwood, and this is where Bob Atrops was living at the time of Debbie's murder. On the night she went missing, Bob says Debbie, who was then 30 years old, never arrived to pick up their baby Rihanna as expected.

6:52I think that it's important for everyone to know that just because a case goes unsolved doesn't mean that it's forgotten. Allison Brown is a senior deputy district attorney in Washington County, Oregon. Here's our exhibit list. Who, along with attorney Chris Luman, joined a team of investigators working on Debbie's unsolved murder. Brown says they hope talking to the original detectives, witnesses... We've got videos, this is from the scene. ...and looking at the evidence again... Phone calls from 1988. ...might give the old investigation new momentum. There were opportunities for forensic analysis that were not available in 1988.

7:35Debbie Atrop's was last seen alive on Tuesday, November 29, 1988. Bob Aitrops called the Tigard, Oregon police that night at 9 40 p.m. Who's the Tigard police going to help you? My wife is running about three hours overdue from a care appointment. I was getting a little concerned. She lived in Sherwood. Okay, what's her name? Deborah Aitrops. Okay, and what kind of vehicle would you have been buying? It'd be a black Honda on board. Bob told the dispatcher Debbie hadn't shown up after an appointment in Tigard about eight miles from his house at a hair salon called Razzmatazz.

8:25Bob says he drove the route and saw no sign of Debbie. He called Tygard police back at 1025 p.m.

8:40Bob did call back a third time at 11 29 p.m. Yeah, this is Bobby Cops again. Have you heard anything? No, and the guys have gone out. It's real foggy out, but they have checked around the area. Did you go to Rasmapaz and see if her car was there at all? There's no car. There's no friends or anything she might have gone to visit? Sex. All everyone had to think of. But the one call Bob did not make that night was to Debbie. Okay, sir, we have checked around the Sherwood area. We can't find her car at all. The dispatcher suggested Bob call the Washington County Sheriff, which he did at 11.34 p.m., and they opened a missing persons case the next morning.

9:28But Debbie Aitrops would not be a missing person for long. Even though I've been retired for years, it still kind of hung over me. Washington County Sheriff's Detective Michael O 'Connell remembers responding to the scene when Debbie's car was found. The license plates had been taken off. The window was open. And the keys were inside. O 'Connell's partner called Bob Aitrops. You being the husband, we need permission. We'd like to search the car. And I'd like to know if that would be all right with you. A few minutes later, police found Debbie's body face down in the trunk. She was nicely dressed, still had her coat on, looked like she'd been placed somewhat carefully in the trunk.

10:21Police say Debbie had been strangled and there were no signs of sexual assault. There was mud on her coat and shoes, the front passenger tire, and the steering wheel of the car. Law enforcement scoured her vehicle for evidence. It looked like someone may have tried to wipe down the hood. There were, like, broad clothing swipes, like someone maybe was trying to destroy fingerprints. O 'Connell and his partner went to Bob's house to tell him they had found his wife's body. A witness who saw Bob later that day told the cold case team he was very calm, much more calm than I would expect. It wasn't consistent with a grieving, estranged husband.

11:11Debbie's stepfather, Ed Holland, says her mother, Gloria, who was close to Debbie, was overwhelmed with grief. She broke down. And I held her and that's all I could do. She just laid there sobbing. Police searched outside Bob's home for any further clues. The driveway was a mix of mud, dirt, and gravel, and it looked like her car may have driven through some of the mud. Bobbitt said Debbie was last there about a week before her murder. Police took photos of the tire tracks outside his house and collected soil from his driveway and lawn. Just to make sure we weren't missing anything. Police never found any tire tracks that matched Debbie's car on Bob's property.

12:01Yet Bob Aitrop's was an obvious suspect. But he wasn't the only man in Debbie's life. Since she had moved out five months before, Debbie had been dating, and those relationships were complicated. Debbie had very good taste and was a good judge of people, but a terrible judge of men. every man that she seemed to hook up with was a problem.

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15:46So you're always sort of by his side, right? Always. It was great growing up with my dad. He was an amazing dad. From your little girl. Did you get this? Do you have memories of him being hands-on? Yeah, my dad was very hands-on. I knew that I was his number one. Thank you for being the nicest daddy there could ever be. I remember being at my grandpa's house with my cousin, going through old photo albums, and finding a picture of this woman. And I was like, who's that? And she just kind of was like, that's your mom. From that point on, I always remember knowing the story. Debbie Aitrop's daughter, Rihanna Stevens, says she learned about her mother's murder when she was six or seven years old.

16:37She says growing up, her dad only shared fond memories of her mom. I didn't know that they had separated. Anything that I had ever heard about her was always good from him. But things were not always good in Bob and Debbie's marriage. Debbie's stepfather, Ed Holland, remembers meeting Bob, a construction product salesman, and talking to Debbie's mother about how quickly Bob and Debbie walked down the aisle. They were still in a courtship when they got married. I said to Gloria, I said, this is way too fast. She says, well, if they're in love, why not? Debbie's friend Darlene Lufkin says, like Ed, she was not confident the relationship had a strong foundation.

17:24How long did they know each other? Just a few months, it seems like. It takes time to get to know someone and I don't think she really knew Bob yet. Bob and Debbie got married in June 1987 and adopted Rihanna the following March.

17:42Because of conflicts in their marriage, just a few months after bringing Rihanna home, Debbie moved into her own apartment in Salem, 30 miles away from Bob. Investigators say Debbie had soon reconnected with an old boyfriend, girlfriend, Jeff Freeberg. You said he was the one for her, perhaps. That's the one she kept wanting to go back to. She really, really liked him. And I don't think he was just ready for that kind of relationship yet. By September 1988, Debbie had a new boyfriend, a man she met at work named John Pearson. John was separated from his wife and had two young boys. But I remember she was on the phone at my house once with him.

18:24She handed me the phone and he said how much she was looking forward to meeting me and the girls. When Debbie was seeing people, for some reason, she wanted them to meet me and my girls. Darlene says she and Debbie had grown close in their 20s when Darlene was a single mom. She's really the only friend I had that enjoyed spending time with my daughters, and I treasured that. In that autumn of 1988, although Debbie was dating John, she stayed in touch with Jeff Freeberg, and he loaned Debbie$8 ,000. He had lent her money to buy a car. Could there have been motive in that? He was wealthy, so I think he was happy to help Debbie.

19:04Back in 1988, detectives had asked Freeberg for his alibi on the night Debbie was last seen alive. And he said he was home, except for going out briefly to get some dinner. He seemed very straightforward. Didn't hesitate to answer our questions. Didn't seem to be hiding anything. Police had also questioned John Pearson, who said he was with his children and his estranged wife that night. Pearson knew about Debbie's hair appointment and gave detectives a detailed description of many items inside her car. John Pearson told police back then that there was a Burger King bag as well as a box with cranberries and a child car seat.

19:48Seems like a lot of details about the car. Pearson also said there wasn't enough room in the trunk for a body and that stuff would have to be taken out. But Detective O 'Connell says Pearson had seemed truthful back in 1988. It was mostly accessible. Didn't appear to be trying to throw us off or anything. And prosecutors Chris Luman and Alison Brown say there is an innocent reason John Pearson knew so much about Debbie's car. They were seeing each other every day. I mean, something to look into for sure, which is why they did multiple interviews of John Pearson and a polygraph in 1988. Did he pass the polygraph?

20:28He did. And he was willing to do it and basically do everything that they asked him to do. Bob Atrop's hired a lawyer a week after Debbie's body was found and declined to take a polygraph. Detective O 'Connell says Bob did not seem very worried about finding out who killed his wife. He was kind of removed, just kind of distant. O 'Connell and his partner looked into the calls Bob said he made the night Debbie went missing. There were no friends or anything she might have gone to?

21:05Bob told detectives he called the babysitter, Debbie's boss, and her parents while he was home waiting for her. They all confirmed he did call them that night, but there was a hitch. Those three calls were long distance and should have shown up on his phone bill. That was a problem. Those phone calls were not there. By now, detectives suspected Bob had killed Debbie. They thought there was no record of those three phone calls because Bob was out of the house that evening, disposing of Debbie's car and her body. Police began looking for evidence Bob made those calls from somewhere else. It involved checking pay phones.

21:47We looked at every angle. We struck out. They did not find proof that Bob was lying or evidence connecting him to Debbie's murder. I didn't like the thought of it just remaining unsolved. O 'Connell and his partner had a final meeting with Bob in 1990, asking him to account for those missing calls or to admit he had killed his wife. But Bob maintained his innocence. And then it kind of went dead. When the cold case team next interviewed Bob in 2022, they asked again about those phone calls and heard a very different story. I'll be honest with you, Bob. Your story that you're telling us today is significantly different than what you told investigators back in the day.

22:41And so my question is, what really did happen?

23:08We spent a lot of time together. We took the girls to the beach. Went to music in the park with picnic dinners. It's been more than 30 years since Darlene Lufkin last saw her friend Debbie Aitropse, but she says she still feels the loss. It sounds like you have really fond memories of Debbie. I miss her every day still. Darlene, like many in Debbie's life, longed for answers. And in 2022, she got one step closer when the cold case team sent Debbie's coat and those soil samples for testing. The soil was sent to the FBI lab. The DNA was sent. While they waited, the cold case team continued to examine Bob's behavior back in 1988, which prosecutors say was suspicious from that first call.

24:01He calls law enforcement within, you know, probably 20 minutes of calling the friends and family. And to us, that seemed a little quick. So we believe he was attempting to get his story out there and to portray himself as a concerned husband and try to develop that narrative that he wanted to early on. Detective O 'Connell says he had the same feeling. Remember, Bob had called police four times that night. What's the Shakespeare quote? He protests too much. It was interesting to us that he was calling so frequently and so soon. It didn't seem normal. The cold case team also turned their attention to the road where Debbie's car was found, next to that construction site.

24:50Bob's former boss at Allied Building Products told them he believed Bob had a connection there. He was selling roofing products. We knew, I knew that he was selling products in that area. In 2022, the results from those DNA tests came back. The lab said they found a mixture of DNA on the collar and shoulder of Debbie's coat. They swapped that area for coat because if you're strangled, that would be the area you'd have contact with. The lab compared that sample from Debbie's coat to her boyfriend at the time, John Pearson. It's not present. And neither was her ex-boyfriend, Jeff Reberg. Jeff Reberg, not present.

25:32But the lab said Bob Atrop's could not be excluded as a contributor to that DNA mixture. We can't say it's a match. It's just, it's moderate support that it's more likely Mr. Atrop's than an unknown individual. Prosecutors admit while the DNA from Debbie's coat excludes Freeberg and Pearson, it does not make a complete case against Bob A. Trops. I think it's another piece. There are many, many different pieces. It was a very fact-intensive case. Another one of those pieces, they say, is the mud. This murder was connected to mud. Her body was covered in mud. There was mud on the outside of the car, on the inside of the car.