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00:09Debra Atropse was 30 years old.
00:13She was a young mother.
00:15I didn't get to have my mom growing up.
00:20Come on, you little punky.
00:22It was this mystery that has never been solved.
00:31My name is Rihanna, and I am referred to in the story as the baby.
00:39The eight-month-old baby who lost her mom.
00:42Yeah.
00:43Hi, little mom.
00:50So you believe on November 29th, 1988, this was the last known location where she probably came?
00:58Mm-hmm.
00:59We believe that she drove alone on this very rural road, and that was the last drive that she took
01:04alive.
01:07The car is found on December 1st.
01:10I knew she was strangled, and she was found in her trunk.
01:14There was just so much unknown.
01:16Who did this?
01:18Why did this happen?
01:19We focused pretty early on on Robert.
01:23Handsome.
01:24Like me?
01:26No.
01:27Bob Atropse was married to Debbie Atropse.
01:30They had been married for a year or so, and they were struggling, having issues in their relationship, which caused
01:37them to separate.
01:40We continued to conduct additional interviews, follow-up on various leads, and then it went dead.
01:50It was a tragedy.
01:52There were times when I wondered if we would ever make an arrest.
02:00Finally getting answers nearly 35 years later, as prosecutors say, now 68-year-old Robert Elmer Atropse is the person
02:09responsible for the November 1988 murder of his estranged wife, Deborah Lee Atropse.
02:16I was just in shock.
02:18I couldn't believe it.
02:21They 1,000% got it wrong.
02:23The mode of evidence is very, very strong.
02:26Debbie Atropse had a new romantic relationship with a man named John Pearson.
02:30They worked together.
02:32She was excited about it, but she was very concerned about Robert Atropse finding out about her relationship with John
02:38Pearson.
02:39The husband is often the obvious suspect.
02:43However, Debbie Atropse had a complicated life and kept a lot of secrets.
02:47We view this as a case of actual innocence.
02:51There is more evidence that suggests John Pearson was involved in Deborah Atropse's murder than there is Bob Atropse.
02:57They thoroughly interviewed John Pearson.
03:00Things were good between him and Debbie Atropse.
03:04He had no motive to commit this crime.
03:06John Pearson did have motive to kill Debbie Atropse.
03:09He said that in hindsight, he thinks that Debbie Atropse was only with him because she was looking for somebody
03:15to pay the bills for her.
03:16That's plenty motive.
03:18Hello, Rihanna Lynn.
03:20My dad did not do this.
03:22I know my dad.
03:24I know his heart.
03:26And I know that he'd never be able to live with himself doing that.
03:30I know my dad.
04:19It was Thursday, December 1st, 1988, when Deborah Atrops, known as Debbie, was found
04:25murdered in her car next to a construction site here in Beaverton, Oregon.
04:32Debbie had been reported missing two days earlier by her estranged husband, Bob Atrops,
04:38who lived about five miles away on this rural road.
04:42So where are we in relation to the Atrops case?
04:46Right here is Southwest Consulman Road in Sherwood, and this is where Bob Atrops was living at
04:51the time of Debbie's murder.
04:52On the night she went missing, Bob says Debbie, who was then 30 years old, never arrived
04:58to pick up their baby, Rihanna, as expected.
05:02I think that it's important for everyone to know that just because a case goes unsolved
05:07doesn't mean that it's forgotten.
05:10Allison Brown is a senior deputy district attorney in Washington County, Oregon, who, along with
05:17attorney Chris Luhmann, joined a team of investigators working on Debbie's unsolved murder.
05:23Brown says they hope talking to the original detectives, witnesses...
05:28We've got videos, this is from the scene...
05:30...and looking at the evidence again...
05:32Phone calls from 1988...
05:34...might give the old investigation new momentum.
05:38There were opportunities for forensic analysis that were not available in 1988.
05:44Debbie Atrops was last seen alive on Tuesday, November 29, 1988.
05:50Bob Atrops called the Tigard, Oregon police that night at 9.40 p.m.
06:13Bob told the dispatcher Debbie hadn't shown up after an appointment in Tigard, about eight
06:20miles from his house, at a hair salon called Razzmatazz.
06:27It would probably be easier for you to make a run down her path to, you know, how she would
06:34go than it would be for us.
06:36Bob says he drove the route and saw no sign of Debbie.
06:40He called Tigard police back at 10.25 p.m.
06:44Well, I think we give it about another hour and if you haven't heard anything, you can call
06:49down.
06:49Bob did call back a third time at 11.29 p.m.
06:55Yeah, this is Bob Atrops again.
06:57Have you heard anything?
06:59There you go.
06:59No, and the guys have gone out, it's real foggy out, but they have checked around the area.
07:04Did you go to Razzmatazz and see if her car was there at all?
07:08There's no car that was there.
07:12But the one call Bob did not make that night was to Debbie.
07:19OK, sir.
07:20We have checked around the Sherwood area and we can't find her car at all.
07:25The dispatcher suggested Bob call the Washington County Sheriff, which he did at 11.34 p.m.
07:32And they opened a missing persons case the next morning.
07:38But Debbie Atrops would not be a missing person for long.
07:42Even though I've been retired for years, it still kind of hung over me.
07:47Washington County Sheriff's Detective Michael O'Connell remembers responding to the scene
07:52when Debbie's car was found.
07:55The license plates had been taken off, the window was open, and the keys were inside.
08:03O'Connell's partner called Bob Atrops.
08:06You being the husband, we need permission, we'd like to search the car, and I'd like to know if that'd
08:13be all right with you.
08:13Sure.
08:14A few minutes later, police found Debbie's body, face down in the trunk.
08:22She was nicely dressed, still had her coat on, looked like she'd been placed somewhat carefully in the trunk.
08:30Police say Debbie had been strangled, and there were no signs of sexual assault.
08:37There was mud on her coat and shoes, the front passenger tire, and the steering wheel of the car.
08:46Law enforcement scoured her vehicle for evidence.
08:49It looked like someone may have tried to wipe down the hood.
08:53There were, like, broad clothing swipes, like someone maybe was trying to destroy fingerprints.
09:02O'Connell and his partner went to Bob's house to tell him they had found his wife's body.
09:07A witness who saw Bob later that day told the cold case team he was very calm, much more calm
09:15than I would expect.
09:16It wasn't consistent with a grieving, estranged husband.
09:20Debbie's stepfather, Ed Holland, says her mother, Gloria, who was close to Debbie, was overwhelmed with grief.
09:28She broke down, and I held her, and that's all I could do.
09:31She just laid there sobbing.
09:37Police searched outside Bob's home for any further clues.
09:41The driveway was a mix of mud, dirt, and gravel, and it looked like her car may have driven through
09:48some of the mud.
09:50Bob had said Debbie was last there about a week before her murder.
09:54Police took photos of the tire tracks outside his house and collected soil from his driveway and lawn.
10:02Just to make sure we weren't missing anything.
10:05Police never found any tire tracks that matched Debbie's car on Bob's property.
10:10Yet Bob Aitrops was an obvious suspect.
10:14But he wasn't the only man in Debbie's life.
10:17Since she had moved out five months before, Debbie had been dating, and those relationships were complicated.
10:25Debbie had very good taste and was a good judge of people, but a terrible judge of men.
10:31Every man that she seemed to hook up with was a problem.
10:50So you're always sort of by his side, right?
10:52Always.
10:55It was great growing up with my dad.
10:57He was an amazing dad.
10:58From your little girl.
11:00Do you have memories of him being hands-on?
11:04Yeah, my dad was very hands-on.
11:07I knew that I was his number one.
11:09Thank you for being the nicest daddy there could ever be.
11:15I remember being at my grandpa's house with my cousin, going through old photo albums and finding a picture of
11:23this woman, and I was like, who's that?
11:25And she just kind of was like, that's your mom.
11:29From that point on, I always remember knowing the story.
11:33Debbie Aitrop's daughter, Rihanna Stevens, says she learned about her mother's murder when she was six or seven years old.
11:41She says growing up, her dad only shared fond memories of her mom.
11:46I didn't know that they had separated.
11:49Anything that I had ever heard about her was always good from him.
11:54But things were not always good in Bob and Debbie's marriage.
11:58Debbie's stepfather, Ed Holland, remembers meeting Bob, a construction product salesman, and talking to Debbie's mother about how quickly Bob
12:07and Debbie walked down the aisle.
12:09They were still in a courtship when they got married.
12:12I said to Gloria, I said, this is way too fast.
12:15She says, well, if they're in love, why not?
12:21Debbie's friend Darlene Lufkin says, like Ed, she was not confident the relationship had a strong foundation.
12:28How long did they know each other?
12:30Just a few months, it seems like.
12:32It takes time to get to know someone, and I don't think she really knew Bob yet.
12:35Bob and Debbie got married in June 1987 and adopted Rihanna the following March.
12:42Hello, Rihanna Lynn.
12:46Because of conflicts in their marriage, just a few months after bringing Rihanna home, Debbie moved into her own apartment
12:53in Salem, 30 miles away from Bob.
12:56Investigators say Debbie had soon reconnected with an old boyfriend, Jeff Freeberg.
13:02You said he was the one for her, perhaps.
13:04That's the one she kept wanting to go back to.
13:07She really, really liked him, and I don't think he was just ready for that kind of relationship yet.
13:13By September 1988, Debbie had a new boyfriend, a man she met at work named John Pearson.
13:20John was separated from his wife and had two young boys.
13:24But I remember she was on the phone at my house once with him.
13:28She handed me the phone and he said how much she was looking forward to meeting me and the girls.
13:32When Debbie was seeing people, for some reason, she wanted them to meet me and my girls.
13:38Darlene says she and Debbie had grown close in their 20s when Darlene was a single mom.
13:43She's really the only friend I had that enjoyed spending time with my daughters, and I treasured that.
13:50In that autumn of 1988, although Debbie was dating John, she stayed in touch with Jeff Freeberg, and he loaned
13:58Debbie $8,000.
13:59He had lent her money to buy a car. Could there have been motive in that?
14:04He was wealthy, so I think he was happy to help Debbie.
14:08Back in 1988, detectives had asked Freeberg for his alibi on the night Debbie was last seen alive.
14:15And he said he was home, except for going out briefly to get some dinner.
14:19He seemed very straightforward, didn't hesitate to answer our questions, didn't seem to be hiding anything.
14:29Police had also questioned John Pearson, who said he was with his children and his estranged wife that night.
14:36Pearson knew about Debbie's hair appointment and gave detectives a detailed description of many items inside her car.
14:44John Pearson told police back then that there was a Burger King bag, as well as a box with cranberries
14:51and a child car seat.
14:52Seems like a lot of details about the car.
14:55Pearson also said there wasn't enough room in the trunk for a body, and that stuff would have to be
15:02taken out.
15:03But Detective O'Connell says Pearson had seemed truthful back in 1988.
15:08It was mostly accessible, didn't appear to be trying to throw us off or anything.
15:13And prosecutors Chris Luman and Alison Brown say there is an innocent reason John Pearson knew so much about Debbie's
15:22car.
15:22They were seeing each other every day.
15:24I mean, something to look into for sure, which is why they did multiple interviews of John Pearson and a
15:29polygraph in 1988.
15:31And did he pass the polygraph?
15:32He did.
15:33And he was willing to do it and basically do everything that they asked him to do.
15:40Bob Atrop's hired a lawyer a week after Debbie's body was found and declined to take a polygraph.
15:46Detective O'Connell says Bob did not seem very worried about finding out who killed his wife.
15:53He was kind of removed, just kind of distant.
15:57O'Connell and his partner looked into the calls Bob said he made the night Debbie went missing.
16:03There were no friends or anything she might have gone to with?
16:05No, I don't want to thank them.
16:09Bob told detectives he called the babysitter, Debbie's boss, and her parents while he was home waiting for her.
16:15They all confirmed he did call them that night, but there was a hitch.
16:20Those three calls were long distance and should have shown up on his phone bill.
16:26That was a problem.
16:27Those phone calls were not there.
16:30By now, detectives suspected Bob had killed Debbie.
16:34They thought there was no record of those three phone calls because Bob was out of the house that evening,
16:40disposing of Debbie's car and her body.
16:43Police began looking for evidence.
16:45Bob made those calls from somewhere else.
16:48It involved checking pay phones.
16:50We looked at every angle.
16:52We struck out.
16:53They did not find proof that Bob was lying or evidence connecting him to Debbie's murder.
17:00I didn't like the thought of it just remaining unsolved.
17:05O'Connell and his partner had a final meeting with Bob in 1990, asking him to account for those missing
17:11calls.
17:12Or to admit he had killed his wife.
17:15But Bob maintained his innocence.
17:18And then it kind of went, went dead.
17:22When the cold case team next interviewed Bob in 2022, they asked again about those phone calls and heard a
17:32very different story.
17:33I'll be honest with you, Bob, your story that you're telling us today is significantly different than what you told
17:43investigators back in the day.
17:45And so my question is, what really did happen?
18:11We spent a lot of time together.
18:13We took the girls to the beach.
18:17We went to music in the park with picnic dinners.
18:21It's been more than 30 years since Darlene Lufkin last saw her friend Debbie Aitrops.
18:27But she says she still feels the loss.
18:30It sounds like you have really fond memories of Debbie.
18:33I miss her every day still.
18:36Darlene, like many in Debbie's life, longed for answers.
18:40And in 2022, she got one step closer when the cold case team sent Debbie's coat and those soil samples
18:48for testing.
18:49The soil was sent to the FBI lab.
18:52The DNA was sent.
18:53While they waited, the cold case team continued to examine Bob's behavior back in 1988, which prosecutors say was suspicious
19:01from that first call.
19:03He calls law enforcement within, you know, probably 20 minutes of calling the friends and family.
19:09And to us, that seemed a little quick.
19:12So we believe he was attempting to get his story out there and to portray himself as a concerned husband
19:19and try to develop that narrative that he wanted to early on.
19:24Detective O'Connor says he had the same feeling.
19:27Remember, Bob had called police four times that night.
19:31What's the Shakespeare quote?
19:33He protests too much.
19:35It was interesting to us that he was calling so frequently and so soon.
19:41It didn't seem normal.
19:43The cold case team also turned their attention to the road where Debbie's car was found next to that construction
19:51site.
19:52Bob's former boss at Allied Building Products told them he believed Bob had a connection there.
19:59He was selling roofing products.
20:00We knew, I knew that he was selling products in that area.
20:04In 2022, the results from those DNA tests came back.
20:09The lab said they found a mixture of DNA on the collar and shoulder of Debbie's coat.
20:15They swapped that area for coat because if you're strangled, that would be the area you'd have contact with.
20:22The lab compared that sample from Debbie's coat to her boyfriend at the time, John Pearson.
20:28It's not present.
20:29And neither was her ex-boyfriend, Jeff Freeberg.
20:33Jeff Freeberg, not present.
20:35But the lab said Bob Atrops could not be excluded as a contributor to that DNA mixture.
20:41We can't say it's a match.
20:42It's just, it's moderate support that it's more likely Mr. Atrops than an unknown individual.
20:49Prosecutors admit, while the DNA from Debbie's coat excludes Freeberg and Pearson,
20:54it does not make a complete case against Bob Atrops.
20:58I think it's another piece.
21:00There are many, many different pieces.
21:02It was very fact intensive case.
21:05Another one of those pieces, they say, is the mud.
21:09This murder was connected to mud.
21:12Her body was covered in mud.
21:13There was mud on the outside of the car, on the inside of the car.
21:15The FBI lab, which examined this evidence, concluded that the mud on Debbie's car tire did not match the mud
21:24where her car was found.
21:25However, that mud on the tire, they said, was indistinguishable from the mud from Bob's lawn in color, composition and
21:35texture.
21:35This is evidence, prosecutors say, that Bob was lying when he said Debbie did not come to his house the
21:43night she went missing.
21:45According to the defendant's interview, she had not been to his house for about 10 days.
21:49Bob Atrops hadn't spoken to police about the case since that final conversation with detectives in 1990.
21:56But in 2022, he agreed to talk to the cold case team.
22:01It is October 19, 2022.
22:06Here with Bob Atrops.
22:08Investigators asked Bob about those calls to friends and family that didn't appear on his phone bill back in 1988.
22:17You made those phone calls from your house?
22:19Yes.
22:20Using your home phone?
22:22With an MCI card?
22:23No.
22:24Yes.
22:24No.
22:25Bob now said he had used an MCI calling card to make those missing long distance calls from home.
22:33Yeah, an MCI card from Allied Building Products.
22:35That is not what you told investigators.
22:37And you said, I made those calls from my home phone using my home long distance.
22:44But you dial in and you punch in the code and then you can complete the long distance.
22:50Prosecutors say Bob didn't have that MCI calling card in 1988.
22:54And what's more, prosecutor Chris Luman says this story doesn't make sense.
23:00In 1988, to make a calling card, you had to input about a 16 digit calling card number and then
23:06another six or eight digit code.
23:09And if you're frantically looking for your wife, why take the time to do that and enter all those numbers?
23:15In 2023, prosecutors brought the case to a grand jury who voted to indict.
23:23I got a phone call on March 2nd of 2023 at five o'clock in the morning that my dad
23:31had just been arrested.
23:32I was just in shock.
23:35Rihanna says Bob is a loving dad and doting grandfather to her three children.
23:40What was it like seeing your dad front page story?
23:45It was awful to see the news making him out to be this terrible person that he just isn't.
23:52He didn't do this.
23:55Cold case detectives spoke to Bob Aitrops again after his arrest.
24:01My opinion is you've told yourself a story for the last 34 years and you've told yourself the story over
24:07and over and over again to the point that it's become the truth for you.
24:12It doesn't make it true, but it makes it easier for you to tell that story.
24:16I don't believe that, but okay.
24:19What part don't you believe?
24:20Um, a story that I created, I guess.
24:25You don't believe that you created a story?
24:27No.
24:27Okay.
24:28You just are not in a position to acknowledge that you played a role in her death?
24:36No, I did not.
24:37Bob Aitrops pleaded not guilty to Debbie's murder.
24:41Attorney April Yates argues it's more likely Debbie's killer was her boyfriend at the time, John Pearson, than Bob.
24:49John Pearson not only had motive, he had opportunity.
24:54He knew where Debbie Aitrops was going to be.
24:56He knew about her hair appointment.
24:58And also he knew an incredible amount of detail about her car.
25:05But prosecutors say Pearson had nothing to do with Debbie's murder.
25:09Back in 1988, he told police that about a week before the murder, Bob confronted Debbie because he was suspicious
25:17she was in a new relationship.
25:20Pearson said Debbie was afraid if Bob found out it was true, he would kill her.
25:25The prosecution planned to call Pearson as a witness in Bob Aitrops upcoming trial.
25:31We wanted to have him testify because we found him credible.
25:36But that would never happen.
25:39Pearson, who had been ill and had an outstanding warrant for a DUI in Oregon, stopped responding to detectives.
25:46When authorities located him in Arizona five days before opening arguments were to begin, John Pearson killed himself.
25:59John Pearson fled the state.
26:02He was on the run.
26:03Attorney Janice Purisal was part of the defense team.
26:08Police find him in a trailer in the desert in Arizona.
26:12When police surround that trailer, he ends his life rather than coming back to Oregon to answer questions about Debbie
26:20Aitrops' murder.
26:22Those are the facts.
26:23Prosecution can spin it all they want, but those are the facts.
26:40I'm trying to be strong for my dad.
26:45In spring 2025, Robert Aitrop's murder trial began here at the Washington County Courthouse.
26:53Prosecutors worried the jury might get stuck on details they could not explain.
26:59In a case where we need to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, we're not going to be able to
27:02answer every single detail of what happened that night.
27:05Remember, the appointment was supposed to end around 7.15. By 9.40 p.m., he's calling 911.
27:12At the trial, which allowed audio but not video recording of witnesses,
27:17Attorney Allison Brown argues that Bob Aitrops intentionally misled the police,
27:23starting with those four calls he made to them the night Debbie was last seen alive.
27:28He didn't tell the law enforcement officials that they were separated, that they lived separately.
27:35So he didn't actually give them the information that they would need to find her.
27:40Bob didn't tell police Debbie lived in Salem until the next day.
27:45Even more incriminating, prosecutors say, is the fact that Bob Aitrops did not call Debbie the night she went missing
27:53or ever.
27:55He never called her apartment.
27:56That would have been the first phone call, right? Someone hasn't showed up, you're expecting them, you call them.
28:02Not only was that not the first phone call, but he never made that phone call at all.
28:07At trial, prosecutors played Bob's interview with investigators in 2022, where he explained why he didn't ever make that call.
28:17Did you ever call Debbie's place?
28:20Her house? No. I didn't even consider that as an option.
28:24So let me rephrase, and correct me if I'm right, you never considered calling the place she lives?
28:28Not when she was supposed to be in our vicinity, no.
28:34Prosecutors also want the jury to hear more about the troubles in Bob and Debbie's marriage.
28:39Debbie's friend, Kristi Knapp, testified to an encounter with Bob at his house soon after Debbie moved out.
28:45We went there to get some serving dishes. We walked into the entry and he just started freaking out and
28:56screaming.
28:58He seemed really, really tall and really scary. It was terrifying.
29:03Another friend, Tammy Nelson, told police in 1988, Debbie had confided in her that Bob atrops had choked her in
29:12a violent confrontation shortly before she moved out.
29:17Tammy told the jury Debbie was still worried about Bob after their separation.
29:22What did she say she was concerned about?
29:24Well, she was concerned that he'd kill her. I thought she was teasing to begin with. She was being dramatic.
29:30And so I turned around and I looked at her and I saw that she was genuinely scared.
29:37Tammy had also told police in 1988 that a few months before her murder,
29:42Debbie was worried about Bob finding out about her relationship with John Pearson.
29:47Tammy later told the cold case team, Debbie had said, if anything happens to me, Bob did it.
29:54Debbie is predicting her own murder. She is telling friends and family.
29:59If he finds out about this, he will kill me. And she was right.
30:04But in their cross-examinations, the defense suggests these stories Debbie told are not reliable.
30:11And they say Debbie had a history of making up false tales.
30:16She had told different stories to different people and these things were verifiably not true.
30:22Some of Debbie's friends say she did tell questionable stories, often about her health.
30:28Darlene says she thought Debbie might have done it for attention.
30:32One time she said that she went to work out, her stomach flipped or something and she had to go
30:37get emergency help with it.
30:39It didn't seem real to me.
30:41And there's a very simple...
30:43Attorney April Yates says there is a simple explanation for why Bob Aatrobs didn't call Debbie that night.
30:50He had spoken to her stepfather, Ed Holland.
30:53Ed told Bob that he had been by Debbie's apartment and she wasn't home.
30:58There was no reason for Bob to call.
31:00And the next morning, Debbie's parents went to her apartment again, as did law enforcement.
31:06So there was no reason for Bob to call or go there.
31:09The fact that the state is trying to make something out of that, it's a red herring.
31:15During trial, the babysitter and Debbie's stepfather testified that Bob had called them the night Debbie went missing, which supports
31:23Bob's story.
31:24Attorney Stephanie Poland says the best explanation for why those so-called missing calls weren't on his phone bill is
31:32that the billing equipment was faulty.
31:35We found the engineer and he testified that this equipment failed all the time.
31:40But the cold case team believes Bob made those calls while he was out of the house getting rid of
31:46evidence to help him create a false alibi.
31:48And they say it was impossible to check every pay phone in the area back in 1988.
31:54What was significant is he's not where he said he was.
31:58He's not at home.
31:59Why would he lie about where he was at night?
32:01While the state emphasized the link between the mud on Debbie's tire and the soil from Bob Batrop's front yard,
32:09the defense says that this soil is everywhere in the region and is as common as dirt.
32:16The soil is everywhere.
32:18My yard, her yard, the DA's yard.
32:20It doesn't make us suspects in a murder.
32:23Back in 1988, police didn't collect mud from Jeff Freeberg's property or John Pearson's.
32:30They only took samples from where Debbie's car was found and from Bob Batrop's driveway and lawn.
32:36Then there is the matter of the DNA from Debbie's coat.
32:40The DNA in this case doesn't tell the jury anything about who killed Debbie Atrop's.
32:47Attorney Yates points out that the amount of DNA on Debbie's coat that the lab had said could be consistent
32:53with Bob Atrop's was minuscule, the equivalent of about six skin cells.
33:00And this very low level of DNA is consistent with something called transfer DNA.
33:06People who have babies and shared custody transfer DNA all the time.
33:11So in your opinion, this DNA was not strong evidence.
33:15This DNA was not only not strong evidence, it doesn't mean anything.
33:19The defense argues there is a much more important DNA result from Debbie's autopsy.
33:26One of the very first items that the lab tested for DNA were vaginal swabs taken from the autopsy.
33:35Attorney Janice Puracel specializes in evidence that can lead to wrongful convictions.
33:41She says the DNA from Debbie's autopsy does not point to Bob Atrop's.
33:46The semen came from John Pearson and the likelihood ratio is 94.6 sextillion.
33:55It's an enormous number.
33:57And she points out Pearson's DNA at autopsy contradicts his statement to police from 2022.
34:05John Pearson told law enforcement that he did not have sexual contact with Debbie Atrop's in the 72 hours before
34:13she was murdered and definitely not on the day that she was murdered.
34:16But they found that semen two days later at the autopsy.
34:21Everything is telling us that that was most likely deposited on the day that she was murdered.
34:27And the defense reminds the jury John Pearson was avoiding the cold case team in the months leading up to
34:34his suicide.
34:35In its closing statement, the defense says the state just doesn't have enough to make its case against Bob Atrop's.
34:43But prosecutors argue all of the pieces point in one direction to Bob Atrop's.
34:50Like you hear motive means an opportunity.
34:53He had it all.
34:55Now, after two weeks of testimony, it is time for the jury to decide.
35:01We didn't know if that would be enough or not.
35:03It's incredibly nerve wracking.
35:16What did you think before the jury left to go deliberate?
35:21Did you feel confident?
35:22I didn't feel confident.
35:24I didn't feel confident.
35:25I just because of the fear of the unknown.
35:28I don't feel like any evidence was actually given that proves my dad did this because he didn't.
35:35There is no evidence that he did this.
35:38On April 17th, 2025, the jury reached a decision.
35:44It was six hours that they were deliberating.
35:47We thought that that was a quick verdict and that could be a good thing.
35:51My understanding the jury has a verdict in this case.
35:53Is that correct?
35:54Correct.
35:55To the charge of murder in the second degree, the jury has found the defendant guilty.
36:02Guilty.
36:03Guilty.
36:0437 years after her death, Robert Atrops was found guilty of murdering Debbie Atrops.
36:11It was like the room went dead silent.
36:13And everything was still in that moment.
36:16We all crumbled.
36:21We are grieving someone that is still alive.
36:27Were you able to say anything to your father in that moment?
36:30Right after?
36:33No.
36:34Hug him nothing.
36:35I haven't been able to hug my dad in over two years.
36:39We had so many family and friends of Bob behind us.
36:44It was really hard for them especially to see this happen to their loved one.
36:50I could see it's hard for you too.
36:52It is hard.
36:53It's hard to have an innocent client get convicted.
36:57Prosecutors say they're glad that justice was served.
37:01This case took 37 years to finally be resolved.
37:05Are you satisfied that we know the truth about what happened to Debbie Atrops?
37:09Yeah.
37:09Absolutely.
37:10There's no other people, no other suspects, no one else with the motive.
37:13We feel absolutely 100% sure that he's the one who committed this crime.
37:18Prosecutors are confident the investigation proved the other men in Debbie's life.
37:22If, including Jeff Freeberg, were not involved in her murder.
37:27Freeberg declined our request to comment on the case.
37:30There just really wasn't any information that pointed in the direction of Jeff Freeberg.
37:35He gave his DNA freely.
37:36There really just wasn't any motive evidence or anything else that caused him to be a significant suspect.
37:42And they say John Pearson's suicide was an unrelated tragedy.
37:47He had an open criminal case.
37:49I believe he thought they were there to arrest him for this misdemeanor warrant and took his life.
37:55There was quite a bit of investigation that was done by our detective after he committed suicide to show it
38:01had nothing to do with a guilt for Debbie's murder.
38:04When 48 Hours reached out in 2025, Pearson's lawyer declined to comment on the case.
38:11Prosecutors say Pearson's family told them he had wanted to testify at Bob's trial.
38:17I thought that it would be important for him to relay all the things he knew, including those statements that
38:23Debbie made back in 1988 that Bob's going to kill me if he finds out about us.
38:27As for the defense's argument that Debbie had a history of making up stories, prosecutors say this is unfortunately consistent
38:36with life inside an abusive relationship.
38:39When someone's going through a domestic violence situation, they are in a way living a lie.
38:45Bob's side of the courtroom was full.
38:47Did that strike you as interesting?
38:50It depends on the case.
38:51Yeah, I mean, I think he had a large support system and it's not uncommon for people in a domestic
38:58abuse situation to kind of go unknown as a DV abuser.
39:04And I think Bob was good at that.
39:06I mean, he was a salesman.
39:09After all these years, Darlene Lufkin says she thinks the jury got it right.
39:15I had my suspicions all along.
39:17You believed that that was the right verdict.
39:20I do.
39:21I just feel that the question's been answered now.
39:25At her father's sentencing in July 2025, Rihanna Stevens made an emotional appeal for leniency.
39:34When I was eight months old, someone robbed me of getting to have a life with my mom, there to
39:40support my every milestone.
39:4436 years later, I'm being robbed of my father, the man that was there for all of those milestones.
39:56I need him and my wife.
40:01Attorney Pollan read a letter from Bob Aitrop's current wife, who has been married to him since 2011.
40:07My husband has always been a devoted and loving father to his daughter.
40:13Despite these appeals, the judge sentenced Robert Aitrop's to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
40:25When you lost your mom at a young age and you said now you grieve your dad, who is still
40:30alive.
40:30How do you make sense of what's happening?
40:33I can't make sense of what's happening.
40:35I just have to live through it and keep fighting.
40:44She truly loved Rihanna.
40:47What do you want people to know about your friend Debbie?
40:50That she didn't deserve this.
40:52She was alive.
40:53They should still be here.
40:57Do you think about your mother now?
40:59Or do you think about her?
41:00I wonder what life would have been like had I gotten to live my whole life and grow up having
41:12my mom.
41:37How do you get there?
41:48That'sظ
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