Recording intelligenceAI-generated brief · check the source for context

Teacher Disappears: Mystery in Albuquerque

42:07 recording · EN · 7 speakers

Listen to the original

Listen to the episode

Brief overview

Albuquerque teacher Ellen Roth was strangled in 2009 in a murder masterminded by her daughter-in-law.

  1. The obvious suspect had an airtight alibiBrian Roth had assaulted and robbed his mother, but he was in custody from May 1 on.
  2. Small details at the scene flagged foul playStacked newspapers, barricaded dogs and an overflowing food bowl suggested someone planned for days of absence.
  3. An informant, not forensics, broke the caseWith the van wiped clean and no body, the case only moved when a walk-in named Christopher Donovan.
Executive Summary AI
  • On May 6, 2009, co-worker Catherine Frost calls police to 61-year-old Albuquerque teacher Ellen Roth's home after Ellen misses several days of work, leaving stacked newspapers, barking dogs and an overflowing food bowl behind.1:30
  • Her brother John Feeder reports her missing, notes her 2007 Dodge Caravan is gone, and names her 19-year-old adopted son Brian as his first suspect because Brian had threatened Ellen with a knife on March 25th of 2009 and stolen her debit card and jewelry in April.10:32
  • Brian is ruled out physically because he was jailed on May 1 of 2009 for a probation violation after a dirty drug test, and when Ellen's wiped-down van turns up in the International District on May 10th the case is reclassified as a homicide on May 11th.14:58
  • Four months later an informant walks into the Edgewood Police Department and names Christopher Donovan, an airman at Kirkland Air Force Base, who admits he drove Brian's wife Kathleen and her boyfriend James Johnson to Ellen's house, where James choked her to death before they buried her in a pre-dug hole in the Hemis Mountains.30:56
  • Kathleen Roth pled guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy and received 37 and a half years, James Johnson 28 years and Christopher Donovan up to 15, while Kathleen led detectives to Ellen's body and Brian was never charged.40:32
Key Quote
“Oh, yeah, like, this is, like, Twilight Zone creepy to me.”
— Kathleen Roth21:29
Key Quote
“I used to always tell her she was a victim of abuse, domestic violence, only by a child.”
— Catherine Frost25:12
Key Quote
“It's an open, polyamorous relationship.”
— Kathleen Roth28:23