00:00:00
♪♪ -Deborah Atrops
was 30 years old. She was a young mother. -I didn't get to have
my mom growing up.
00:00:19
-Smile pumpkin. -It was this mystery
that has never been solved. -Rhi. Rhianna. -My name is Rhianna
00:00:33
and I am referred to
in the story as the baby. -Rhi Rhi. -The eight-month-old baby
who lost her mom.
00:00:42
-Yeah. -Hi, peanut. Hi. -So you believe
on November 29, 1988, this was the last known location
where she probably came.
00:00:58
-Mhm. We believe that she drove
alone on this very rural road, and that was the last drive
that she took alive.
00:01:07
The car is found
on December 1st. -I knew she was strangled,
and she was found in her trunk.
00:01:14
There was just so much unknown. Who did this? Why did this happen? -We focused pretty early
on on Robert.
00:01:27
-Bob Atrops was married
to Debe Atrops, they'd been married
for a year or so, and they were struggling,
00:01:35
having issues
in their relationship, which caused them to separate. -We continued to conduct
additional interviews,
00:01:43
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.
00:01:55
♪♪ -Finally getting answers
nearly 35 years later, as prosecutors say, now-68-year-old
Robert Elmer Atrops
00:02:08
is the person responsible
for the November 1988 murder of his estranged wife,
Deborah Lee Atrops.
00:02:17
-I was just in shock. I couldn't believe it. They 1,000% got it wrong. -The motive evidence is very,
very strong.
00:02:26
Debe Atrops had a new
romantic relationship with a man named John Pearson. They worked together.
00:02:32
She was excited about it, but she was very concerned
about Robert Atrops finding out
00:02:37
about her relationship
with John Pearson. -The husband is often
the obvious suspect.
00:02:43
However, Debe Atrops
had a complicated life and kept a lot of secrets. -We view this as a case
of actual innocence.
00:02:50
-There is more evidence
that suggests John Pearson was involved
in Deborah Atrops' murder
00:02:56
than there is Bob Atrops. -They thoroughly
interviewed John Pearson. Things were good between
him and Debe Atrops.
00:03:04
He had no motive
to commit this crime. -John Pearson did have
motive to kill Debe Atrops.
00:03:09
He said that in hindsight,
he thinks that Debe Atrops was only with him because
she was looking for somebody
00:03:15
to pay the bills for her. That's plenty of motive. -Hello, Rhianna Lynn. -My dad did not do this.
00:03:23
I know my dad. I know his heart. And I know that
he'd never be able to live with himself doing that.
00:03:30
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -It was Thursday,
December 1, 1988, when Deborah Atrops,
known as Debe,
00:04:25
was found murdered in her car next to a construction site
here in Beaverton, Oregon.
00:04:32
Debe had been reported
missing two days earlier by her estranged husband,
Bob Atrops,
00:04:38
who lived about five miles away
on this rural road. So where are we in relation
to the Atrops case?
00:04:45
-Right here is Southwest
Conzelmann Road in Sherwood, and this is where
Bob Atrops was living
00:04:50
at the time of Debe's murder. -On the night she went missing, Bob says Debe,
who was then 30 years old,
00:04:57
never arrived to pick up their
baby, Rhianna, as expected. -I think that it's important
for everyone to know
00:05:04
that just because a case
goes unsolved doesn't mean that
it's forgotten. -Allison Brown is a senior
deputy district attorney
00:05:12
in Washington County, Oregon. -Here's our exhibit list. -Who, along with
attorney Chris Lewman,
00:05:18
joined a team
of investigators working on
Debi's unsolved murder. Brown says they hope talking to
00:05:25
the original detectives,
witnesses... -We've got videos.
This is from the scene.
00:05:30
-...and looking at
the evidence again... -Phone calls from 1988. -...might give the old
investigation new momentum.
00:05:38
-There were opportunities
for forensic analysis that were not available in 1988.
00:05:44
-Debe Atrops was last seen alive
on Tuesday, November 29, 1988. Bob Atrops called
the Tigard, Oregon police
00:05:53
that night at 9:40 p.m. Bob told the dispatcher
Debe hadn't shown up after an appointment
in Tigard,
00:06:19
about eight miles from his house at a hair salon
called "Razz Ma Tazz." Bob says he drove the route
and saw no sign of Debe.
00:06:40
He called Tigard police back
at 10:25 p.m. Bob did call back
a third time at 11:29 p.m.
00:07:14
But the one call Bob did not
make that night was to Debe. The dispatcher
suggested Bob call
00:07:27
the Washington County sheriff. Which he did at 11:34 p.m., and they opened a missing
persons case the next morning.
00:07:38
But Debe Atrops would not be
a missing person for long. -Even though I've been
retired for years,
00:07:44
it's still kind of hung over me. -Washington County Sheriff's
Detective Michael O'Connell
00:07:50
remembers
responding to the scene when Debe's car was found. The license plates
had been taken off,
00:07:58
the window was open,
and the keys were inside. O'Connell's partner
called Bob Atrops.
00:08:14
-A few minutes later, police found Debe's body
face down in the trunk. -She was nicely dressed,
still had her coat on.
00:08:26
Looked like she'd been placed
somewhat carefully in the trunk. -Police say Debe
had been strangled
00:08:34
and there were no signs
of sexual assault. There was mud
on her coat and shoes, the front passenger tire,
00:08:43
and the steering wheel
of the car. Law enforcement scoured
her vehicle for evidence.
00:08:49
-It looked like
someone may have tried to wipe down the hood. There were, like,
broad clothing swipes.
00:08:58
Like someone maybe was trying
to destroy fingerprints. -O'Connell and his partner
went to Bob's house
00:09:05
to tell him they had found
his wife's body. A witness who saw Bob later that
day told the cold case team,
00:09:12
"He was very calm, much more calm
than I would expect." -It wasn't consistent with
a grieving, estranged husband.
00:09:20
-Debe's stepfather,
Ed Holland, says her mother, Gloria,
who was close to Debe, was overwhelmed with grief.
00:09:28
-She broke down and I held her,
and that's all I could do. She just laid there sobbing.
00:09:37
-Police searched
outside Bob's home for any further clues. -The driveway was a mix
of mud, dirt and gravel,
00:09:45
and it looked like
her car may have driven through some of the mud. -Bob had said Debe
was last there
00:09:52
about a week before her murder. Police took photos of the tire
tracks outside his house
00:09:58
and collected soil from
his driveway and lawn. -Just to make sure
we weren't missing anything.
00:10:05
-Police never found
any tire tracks that matched Debe's
car on Bob's property. Yet Bob Atrops was
an obvious suspect,
00:10:14
but he wasn't the only man
in Debe's life. Since she had moved out
five months before,
00:10:20
Debe had been dating -- and those relationships
were complicated. -Debe had very good taste
and was a good judge of people.
00:10:29
But a terrible judge of men. Every man that she seemed to
hook up with was a problem.
00:10:35
♪♪ ♪♪ -So you were always
sort of by his side, right? -Always. It was great growing up
with my dad.
00:10:57
He was an amazing dad. -From your little girl.
Did you get this? -Do you have memories
of him being hands on?
00:11:04
-Yeah.
My dad was very hands on. I knew that
I was his number one. -Thank you for being
the nicest daddy
00:11:11
there could ever be. -I remember being at my
grandpa's house with my cousin, going through old photo albums
00:11:21
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."
00:11:29
From that point on, I always
remember knowing the story. -Debe Atrops daughter
Rhianna Stevens says
00:11:36
she learned about
her mother's murder when she was 6 or 7 years old. She says growing up,
00:11:42
her dad only shared
fond memories of her mom. -I didn't know that
they had separated.
00:11:49
Anything that I had ever
heard about her was always good from him. -But things were
not always good
00:11:56
in Bob and Debe's marriage. Debe stepfather, Ed Holland, remembers meeting Bob,
a construction product salesman,
00:12:03
and talking to Debe's mother about how quickly Bob and Debe
walked down the aisle.
00:12:09
-They were still in a courtship
when they got married. I said to Gloria,
I said, "This is way too fast."
00:12:16
She says, "Well,
if they're in love, why not?" -Debe's friend
Darlene Lufkin says, like Ed,
00:12:24
she was not confident
the relationship had a strong foundation. How long did
they know each other?
00:12:29
-Just a few months
it seems like. It seems like it takes time
to get to know someone.
00:12:33
And I don't think
she really knew Bob yet. -Bob and Debe
got married in June 1987
00:12:39
and adopted Rhianna
the following March. -Hello, Rhianna Lynn. -Because of conflicts
in their marriage,
00:12:48
just a few months after
bringing Rhianna home, Debe moved into her own
apartment in Salem,
00:12:54
30 miles away from Bob. Investigators say Debe
had soon reconnected with an old boyfriend,
Jeff Freeberg.
00:13:02
-You said he was
the one for her, perhaps. -That's the one she kept
wanting to go back to.
00:13:07
She really, really liked him, and I don't think
he was just ready for that kind of
relationship yet.
00:13:13
-By September 1988,
Debe had a new boyfriend, a man she met at work
named John Pearson.
00:13:20
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.
00:13:28
She handed me the phone
and he said how much she was looking forward
to meeting me and the girls.
00:13:32
When Debe was seeing people,
for some reason, she wanted them to
meet me and my girls.
00:13:37
-Darlene says she and Debe
had grown close in their 20s when Darlene was a single mom.
00:13:43
-She's really
the only friend I had that enjoyed spending time
with my daughters,
00:13:48
and I treasured that. -In that autumn of 1988, although Debe was dating John, she stayed in touch
with Jeff Freeberg
00:13:57
and he loaned Debe $8,000. -He had lent her money
to buy a car. Could there have been
motive in that?
00:14:04
-He was wealthy. So I think he was happy
to help Debe. -Back in 1988, detectives had asked Freeburg
for his alibi
00:14:12
on the night
Debe was last seen alive. And he said he was home except for going out
briefly to get some dinner.
00:14:20
-He seemed
very straightforward. Didn't hesitate
to answer our questions. Didn't seem to be
hiding anything.
00:14:29
-Police had also questioned
John Pearson, who said he was
with his children and his estranged wife
that night.
00:14:36
Pearson knew about
Debe's hair appointment and gave detectives
a detailed description
00:14:41
of many items inside her car. -John Pearson told
police back then that there was
a Burger King bag,
00:14:48
as well as a box
with cranberries and a child car seat. Seems like a lot
of details about the car.
00:14:55
-Pearson also said there
wasn't enough room in the trunk for a body, and that stuff
would have to be taken out.
00:15:03
But detective O'Connell
says Pearson had seemed truthful back in 1988. -He was mostly accessible,
00:15:10
didn't appear to be trying
to throw us off or anything. -And prosecutors
Chris Lewman and Allison Brown
00:15:17
say there is an innocent reason John Pearson knew so much
about Debe's car. -They were seeing
each other every day.
00:15:23
I mean, something to
look into for sure, which is why they did multiple
interviews of John Pearson
00:15:28
and a polygraph in 1988. -And did he pass the polygraph?
-He did. And he was willing to do it
and basically do everything
00:15:36
that they asked him to do. -Bob Atrops hired a lawyer a week after
Debe's body was found
00:15:44
and declined
to take a polygraph. Detective O'Connell says
Bob did not seem very worried
00:15:49
about finding out
who killed his wife. -He was kind of removed,
just kind of distant.
00:15:57
-O'Connell and his partner
looked into the calls Bob said he made the night
Debe went missing.
00:16:09
-Bob told detectives
he called the babysitter, Debe's boss, and her parents while he was home
waiting for her.
00:16:15
They all confirmed
he did call them that night, but there was a hitch. Those three calls
were long distance
00:16:23
and should have shown
up on his phone bill. -That was a problem. Those phone calls
were not there.
00:16:30
-By now, detectives suspected
Bob had killed Debe. They thought there was no record
of those three phone calls,
00:16:37
because Bob was out
of the house that evening, disposing of Debe's car
and her body.
00:16:43
Police began
looking for evidence Bob made those calls
from somewhere else. -It involved
checking payphones.
00:16:50
We looked at every angle. We struck out. -They did not find proof
that Bob was lying
00:16:56
or evidence connecting him
to Debe's murder. -I didn't like the thought
of it just remaining unsolved.
00:17:04
-O'Connell and his partner
had a final meeting with Bob in 1990, asking him to account
for those missing calls
00:17:12
or to admit he had
killed his wife. But Bob maintained
his innocence. -And then it
kind of went -- went dead.
00:17:23
-When the cold case team
next interviewed Bob in 2022, they asked again
about those phone calls
00:17:31
and heard a very
different story. ♪♪ ♪♪ -Rhi. Rhi. -We spent a lot
of time together.
00:18:12
We took the girls to the beach. -Kick, kick, kick! Kick, kick, kick! -Went to music in the park
with picnic dinners.
00:18:21
-It's been more than 30 years since Darlene Lufkin last
saw her friend Debe Atrops.
00:18:27
But she says she
still feels the loss. -Sounds like you have
really fond memories of Debe.
00:18:32
-Oh, yeah.
I miss her every day still. -Darlene,
like many in Debe's life, longed for answers.
00:18:40
And in 2022,
she got one step closer. When the cold case team
sent Debe's coat and those soil samples
for testing.
00:18:49
-The soil was sent
to the FBI lab. The DNA was sent. -While they waited,
the cold case team
00:18:55
continued to examine
Bob's behavior back in 1988, which prosecutors say was
suspicious from that first call.
00:19:04
-He calls law enforcement
within, you know, probably 20 minutes of calling
the friends and family.
00:19:09
And to us,
that seemed a little quick. So we believe he was attempting
to get his story out there,
00:19:16
um -- and to portray himself
as a concerned husband and try to develop
that narrative
00:19:22
that he wanted to early on. -Detective O'Connell says
he had the same feeling. Remember, Bob had called
police four times that night.
00:19:31
-What's the Shakespeare quote? He protest too much? It was interesting to us that he was calling so
frequently and so soon.
00:19:41
It didn't seem normal. -The cold case team
also turned their attention to the road where
Debe's car was found --
00:19:50
next to that construction site. Bob's former boss at
Allied Building Products told them he believed
Bob had a connection there.
00:19:59
-He was selling
roofing products. We knew, I knew that he was
selling products in that area.
00:20:05
In 2022 the results from
those DNA tests came back. The lab said they found
a mixture of DNA
00:20:12
on the collar and shoulder
of Debe's coat. -They swabbed that area
of her coat because if you're strangled,
00:20:19
that would be the area
you'd have contact with. -The lab compared
that sample from Debe's coat
00:20:25
to her boyfriend at the time,
John Pearson. -It's not present. -And neither was her
ex-boyfriend, Jeff Freeburg.
00:20:33
-Jeff Freeburg, not present. -But the lab said
Bob Atrops could not be excluded as a contributor
to that DNA mixture.
00:20:41
-We can't say it's a match.
It's just -- it's moderate support
that it's more likely
00:20:45
Mr. Atrops than
an unknown individual. -Prosecutors admit,
while the DNA from Debe's coat
00:20:52
excludes Freeburg and Pearson, it does not make a complete case
against Bob Atrops.
00:20:59
-I think it's another piece. There are many,
many different pieces. It was a very
fact intensive case.
00:21:04
-Another one of those pieces,
they say, is the mud. -This murder was
connected to mud.
00:21:11
Her body was covered in mud. There was mud on
the outside of the car, on the inside of the car.
00:21:16
-The FBI lab which
examined this evidence, concluded that the mud
on Debe's car tire
00:21:22
did not match the mud
where her car was found. However, that mud on the tire,
they said,
00:21:28
was "indistinguishable"
from the mud from Bob's Lawn in color,
composition, and texture.
00:21:36
This is evidence,
Prosecutors say, that Bob was lying
when he said Debe did not come to his house
the night she went missing.
00:21:45
-According to
the defendant's interview, she had not been to his house
for about ten days.
00:21:49
-Bob Atrops hadn't spoken
to police about the case since that final conversation
with detectives in 1990,
00:21:56
but in 2022, he agreed
to talk to the cold case team. Investigators asked Bob
about those calls
00:22:11
to friends and family
that didn't appear on his phone bill back in 1988. -Bob now said he had used
an MCI calling card
00:22:28
to make those missing
long distance calls from home. Prosecutors say
Bob didn't have that
00:22:51
MCI calling card in 1988. And what's more,
prosecutor Chris Lewman says this story doesn't make sense.
00:23:00
-In 1988,
to make a calling card, you had to input about
a 16-digit calling card number
00:23:05
and then another
6 or 8-digit code. And if you're frantically
looking for your wife,
00:23:12
why take the time to do that
and enter all those numbers? -In 2023,
prosecutors brought the case
00:23:19
to a grand jury
who voted to indict. -I got a phone call
on March 2nd of 2023 at 5:00 in the morning that
my dad had just been arrested.
00:23:33
I was just in shock. -Rhianna says Bob
is a loving dad and doting grandfather
to her three children.
00:23:41
-What was it like seeing
your dad front page story? -It was awful to see... the news making him out to be
00:23:50
this terrible person
that he just isn't. He didn't do this. -Cold case detectives spoke
to Bob Atrops again
00:23:59
after his arrest. -[ Clears throat ] -Bob Atrops pleaded
not guilty to Debe's murder.
00:24:41
Attorney April Yates argues
it's more likely Debe's killer was her boyfriend at the time,
John Pearson, than Bob.
00:24:49
-John Pearson
not only had motive, he had opportunity. He knew where Debe Atrops
was going to be.
00:24:56
He knew about
her hair appointment. And also he knew an incredible
amount of detail about her car.
00:25:05
-But prosecutors say
Pearson had nothing to do with Debe's murder. Back in 1988 he told police that
about a week before the murder,
00:25:14
Bob confronted Debe because he was suspicious
she was in a new relationship. Pearson said Debe was afraid
if Bob found out it was true,
00:25:24
he would kill her. The prosecution planned
to call Pearson as a witness in Bob Atrops' upcoming trial.
00:25:31
-We wanted to have him testify
because we found him credible. -But that would never happen.
00:25:39
Pearson, who had been ill and had an outstanding warrant
for a DUI in Oregon, stopped responding
to detectives.
00:25:47
When authorities
located him in Arizona, five days before opening
arguments were to begin,
00:25:53
John Pearson killed himself. -John Pearson fled the state. He was on the run. -Attorney Janice Puracal was
part of the defense team.
00:26:07
-Police find him in a trailer
in the desert in Arizona. When police surround
that trailer,
00:26:15
he ends his life rather
than coming back to Oregon to answer questions
about Debe Atrops' murder.
00:26:22
Those are the facts. Prosecution can spin it
all they want, but those are the facts.
00:26:27
♪♪ ♪♪ -I'm trying to be
strong for my dad. -In spring 2025,
Robert Atrops' murder trial
00:26:49
began here at the
Washington County Courthouse. Prosecutors worried the jury
might get stuck on details
00:26:56
they could not explain. -In a case where
we need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt,
we're not going to be able
00:27:02
to answer every single detail
of what happened that night. -At the trial,
which allowed audio
00:27:15
but not video recording
of witnesses, attorney Allison Brown argues that Bob Atrops intentionally
misled the police --
00:27:23
starting with those
four calls he made to them the night Debe
was last seen alive.
00:27:28
-He didn't tell
the law enforcement officials that they were separated,
that they lived separately.
00:27:36
So he didn't actually
give them the information that they would need
to find her.
00:27:41
-Bob didn't tell police
Debe lived in Salem until the next day. Even more incriminating,
prosecutors say,
00:27:48
is the fact that
Bob Atrops did not call Debe the night she went missing,
or ever.
00:27:55
-He never called
her apartment. -That would have been the first
phone call, right?
00:27:59
Someone hasn't showed up.
You're expecting them. You call them. Not only was that
not the first phone call,
00:28:05
but he never made
that phone call at all. When asked about his route... -At trial, prosecutors
played Bob's interview
00:28:10
with investigators in 2022, where he explained why
he didn't ever make that call.
00:28:33
Prosecutors also want
the jury to hear more about the troubles
in Bob and Debe's marriage.
00:28:38
Debe's friend, Christy Knapp, testified to an encounter
with Bob at his house soon after Debe moved out.
00:29:03
Another friend, Tami Nelson, told police in 1988
Debe had confided in her that Bob Atrops had choked her
in a violent confrontation
00:29:14
Shortly before she moved out, Tami told the jury Debe was
still worried about Bob
00:29:20
after their separation. -Tami had also
told police in 1988 that a few months
before her murder,
00:29:42
Debe was worried
about Bob finding out about her relationship
with John Pearson.
00:29:47
Tami later told
the cold case team, Debe had said, "If anything
happens to me, Bob did it."
00:29:54
-Debe is predicting
her own murder. She is telling
friends and family if he finds out about this,
he will kill me.
00:30:02
And she was right. -But in their
cross-examinations, the defense suggests
these stories
00:30:09
Debe told are not reliable. And they say
had a history of making up false tales.
00:30:16
-She had told different
stories to different people and these things were
verifiably not true.
00:30:22
-Some of Debe's friends say she
did tell questionable stories often about her health.
00:30:28
Darlene says she thought Debe might have done it
for attention. -One time, she, uh --
said that she went to work out,
00:30:35
her stomach flipped
or something, and she had to go get
emergency help with it. It didn't seem real to me.
00:30:41
-And there's a very simple... -Attorney April Yates says
there is a simple explanation
00:30:46
for why Bob Atrops
didn't call Debe that night. He had spoken to her stepfather,
Ed Holland.
00:30:53
-Ed told Bob that he
had been by Debe's apartment and she wasn't home. There was no reason
for Bob to call.
00:31:01
And the next morning, Debe's parents went to
her apartment again, as did law enforcement.
00:31:06
So there was no reason
for Bob to call or go there. The fact that
the state is trying
00:31:12
to make something out of that. It's a red herring. -During trial, the babysitter
00:31:16
and Debe's stepfather testified that Bob had called them
the night Debe went missing,
00:31:22
which supports Bob's story. Attorney Stephanie Pollan says
the best explanation for why those so-called missing
calls weren't on his phone bill
00:31:32
is that the billing
equipment was faulty. -We found the engineer
and he testified
00:31:37
that this equipment
failed all the time. -But the cold case team
believes Bob made those calls
00:31:43
while he was out of the house, getting rid of evidence to help
him create a false alibi.
00:31:49
And they say it was impossible
to check every payphone in the area back in 1988.
00:31:55
-What was significant is
he's not where he said he was. He's not at home. Why would he lie about
where he was at night?
00:32:01
-While the state emphasized
the link between the mud on Debe's tire and the soil
from Bob Atrops' front yard,
00:32:09
the defense says that this soil
is everywhere in the region and is as common as dirt.
00:32:16
-This soil is everywhere. My yard, her yard,
the DA's yard. It doesn't make us
suspects in a murder.
00:32:23
-Back in 1988, police didn't collect mud
from Jeff Freeburg's property or John Pearson's.
00:32:30
They only took samples from
where Debe's car was found and from Bob Atrops'
driveway and lawn.
00:32:36
Then there is the matter
of the DNA from Debe's coat. -The DNA in this case doesn't tell the jury anything
about who killed Debe Atrops.
00:32:47
-Attorney Yates points out that
the amount of DNA on Debe's coat that the lab had said could be
consistent with Bob Atrops
00:32:55
was minuscule, the equivalent
of about six skin cells. -In this very low level of DNA
00:33:03
is consistent with something
called transfer DNA. People who have babies
and shared custody
00:33:09
transfer DNA all the time. -So in your opinion, this DNA
was not strong evidence.
00:33:15
-This DNA was not only
not strong evidence, it doesn't mean anything. -The defense argues there is
a much more important DNA result
00:33:24
from Debe's autopsy. -One of the very first items that the lab tested for DNA were vaginal swabs
taken from the autopsy.
00:33:35
-Attorney Janice Puracal
specializes in evidence that can lead
to wrongful convictions.
00:33:41
She says the DNA
from Debe's autopsy does not point to Bob Atrops. -The semen came from
John Pearson,
00:33:49
and the likelihood ratio
is 94.6 sextillion. It's an enormous number. -And she points out
Pearson's DNA at autopsy
00:34:01
contradicts his statement
to police from 2022. -John Pearson told
law enforcement
00:34:08
that he did not have sexual
contact with Debe Atrops in the 72 hours
before she was murdered,
00:34:14
and definitely not on the day
that she was murdered. But they found that semen
two days later at the autopsy.
00:34:21
Everything is telling us that that was most likely
deposited on the day that she was murdered.
00:34:27
-And the defense
reminds the jury, John Pearson was avoiding
the cold case team in the months leading up
to his suicide.
00:34:35
In its closing statement, the defense says the state
just doesn't have enough to make its case
against Bob Atrops.
00:34:43
But prosecutors argue all
of the pieces point in one direction to Bob Atrops. -Like you hear --
motive, means, and opportunity,
00:34:53
he had it all. -Now, after two weeks
of testimony, it is time
for the jury to decide.
00:35:01
-We didn't know if
that would be enough or not. It's incredibly nerve-wracking. ♪♪
00:35:11
♪♪ -What did you think before
the jury left to go deliberate? Did you feel confident?
00:35:23
-I didn't feel confident. I -- just because of
the fear of the unknown. I don't feel like
any evidence was actually given
00:35:31
that proves my dad did this
because he didn't. There is no evidence
that he did this.
00:35:38
-On April 17, 2025,
the jury reached a decision. -It was six hours that
they were deliberating.
00:35:47
We thought that
that was a quick verdict and that could be a good thing. -Guilty.
00:36:03
37 years after her death, Robert Atrops was found guilty
of murdering Debe Atrops.
00:36:11
-It was like the room
went dead silent and everything was still
in that moment. -We all crumbled.
00:36:21
We are grieving someone
that is still alive. -Were you able to say anything
to your father in that moment?
00:36:30
Right after? -No, I --
-Hug him, nothing? -I haven't been able to hug
my dad in over two years.
00:36:39
-We had so many family
and friends of Bob behind us. It was really hard
for them especially
00:36:47
to see this happen
to their loved one. -I can see it's hard
for you, too. -It is hard -- it's hard to
have an innocent client
00:36:54
get convicted. -Prosecutors say they're glad
that justice was served. -This case took 37 years
to finally be resolved.
00:37:05
Are you satisfied
that we know the truth about what happened
to Debe Atrops? -Yeah, absolutely.
00:37:10
There's no other people,
no other suspects, no one else with the motive. We feel absolutely, 100% sure
00:37:16
that he's the one
who committed this crime. -Prosecutors are confident
the investigation proved
00:37:20
the other men in Debe's life,
including Jeff Freeburg, were not involved in her murder.
00:37:27
Freeburg declined our request
to comment on the case. -There just really
wasn't any information
00:37:32
that pointed in the direction
of Jeff Freeburg. He gave his DNA freely. There really just
wasn't any motive,
00:37:38
evidence, or anything else that caused him to be
a significant suspect. -And they say
John Pearson's suicide was
00:37:45
an unrelated tragedy. -He had an open criminal case. I believe he thought
they were there to arrest him
00:37:52
for this misdemeanor warrant
and -- and took his life. -There was quite a bit
of investigation
00:37:57
that was done by our detective
after he committed suicide, to show it had nothing to do
with a guilt for Debe's murder.
00:38:04
-When "48 Hours"
reached out in 2025, Pearson's lawyer declined
to comment on the case.
00:38:11
Prosecutors say
Pearson's family told them he had wanted to
testify at Bob's trial.
00:38:17
-I thought that it
would be important for him to relay all of
the things he knew,
00:38:21
including those statements
that Debe made back in 1988, that, "Bob's going to kill me
if he finds out about us."
00:38:27
-As for the defense's argument that Debe had a history
of making up stories, prosecutors say this is
unfortunately consistent
00:38:36
with life inside
an abusive relationship. -When someone's going through
a domestic violence situation,
00:38:42
they are, in a way,
living a lie. -Bob's side of
the courtroom was full. Did that strike you
as -- as interesting?
00:38:50
-It depends on the case.
-Yeah. I mean, I think he had
a large support system, and it's not uncommon for people
in a domestic abuse situation
00:38:59
to -- to kind of go unknown
as -- as a DV abuser. And I think Bob was --
was good at that.
00:39:06
I mean, he was a salesman. -After all these years, Darlene Lufkin says she thinks
the jury got it right.
00:39:15
-I had my suspicions all along. -You believed that
that was the right verdict? -I do, I just feel
that the questions
00:39:23
have been answered now. -At her father's
sentencing in July 2025. Rhianna Stevens made an
emotional appeal for leniency.
00:40:01
Attorney Pollan read a letter
from Bob Atrops' current wife, who has been married
to him since 2011.
00:40:13
Despite these appeals, the judge sentenced
Robert Atrops to life in prison with the possibility
of parole after 25 years.
00:40:25
When you lost your mom
at a young age and you said, now you grieve your dad
who is still alive,
00:40:30
how do you make sense
of what's happening? -I can't make sense
of what's happening.
00:40:35
I just have to... live through it
and keep fighting. -She truly loved Rhianna. -What do you want people to
know about your friend Debe?
00:40:50
-That she didn't deserve this. She was a light
that should still be here. -Do you think about
your mother now?
00:40:59
-I do think about her. I wonder what life
would have been like... -Smile pumpkin.
00:41:07
-...had I gotten to
live my whole life, grow up having my mom. ♪♪ ♪♪