Photo: Pennsylvania Attorney General
The daughter of a Pennsylvania man accused of murdering his wife in 1983 and staging the scene like a suicide testified on his behalf at his trial Thursday, discussing her last memory of her mother.
Christina Rodgers, now 41, was just 5 when her mother, Debra Jane Rodgers, died. While she acknowledged she has few memories of her mom — like the times she’d pick flowers and make her tapioca pudding — she remembers the last time she saw her.
Testifying on her father’s behalf Thursday, Rodgers told the jury it was the night before her 23-year-old mother went missing. Two days later, her mother’s body would be found in Tuscarora State Forest in Pennsylvania’s Perry County — her skull fractured, and her wrists slashed.
Carl Rodgers, 63, was arrested in late 2017 for allegedly killing his spouse.
Rodgers was arrested after the attorney general’s office decided to take a fresh look at the evidence. Debra’s relatives and friends — some of whom testified in court this week — said she was quiet, but not suicidal.
As she took the witness stand, Rodgers smiled lovingly at his daughter.
Christine Rodgers told jurors she remembers seeing her mother walking out of their trailer on the Rodgers’ family farm in Loysville, Pennsylvania, the night before she was found dead in a mountain stream.
Carl Rodgers.Office of Attorney General Josh Shapiro
“I woke up and I saw her standing in the doorway,” Christine said, answering questions from defense attorney Geoffrey McInroy. “I went to get out of bed, and she told me to go back to sleep.”
But Christine didn’t listen and instead followed her mother into the living room, where she said she saw Debra doing something near the bottom of a gun cabinet.
“She tucked me back into bed and told me she loved me,” Christine said. “She continued to tell me she loves me.” Moments later, she testified seeing her mother outside the trailer. She heard a car start up and saw it drive off.
“I did not see anybody with her,” she said.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Kelly Sekula later questioned Rodgers about a deposition she gave about that last time she saw her mother in 1995, to her father’s lawyer. She said her mother’s death was not something the family ever discussed, so she hesitated about telling her father about seeing her mother that fateful night.
She acknowledged never taking the information to investigators, but said she gave the deposition as a teen to dispel speculation around her father’s culpability.
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Rodgers faces life in prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors in charging documents alleged that Rodgers gave police inconsistent accounts of what transpired the night his wife disappeared, and said his wife was depressed about her job and had expressed suicidal thoughts.
The prosecution called a number of experts throughout the week. Forensic pathologist Dr. Samuel Land testified that it was not probable, but still possible Debra fractured her skull and one of her ribs in a fall that also lacerated her liver and spleen.
Land testified he believes Debra was murdered.
“Something struck Mrs. Rodgers’ head or her head struck an object,” Land testified, saying he could not determine exactly what happened in this case.
He also testified he was unable to determine if Debra’s wrist injuries were sustained before or after her death, saying instead that they occurred at or around the time of her death.
The trial will resume Monday with closing arguments expected as early as Tuesday.
source: people.com
