Secrets Of Murder Pond

Theresa Lucente Rollins was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia, in October 1954, one of five Italian-American sisters. Her parents were Joe and Velma, and her sisters were Maria, Joanne, Valerie and Regina. She graduated from Notre Dame High School in Clarksburg, married and divorced young, and by the late 1980s had opened her own beauty salon, Theresa's Total Look, across the road from her old school. She was outgoing, deeply religious, trusting to a fault, and she threw herself into the Italian Heritage Festival in Harrison County. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Theresa's family disliked him on sight, but she was smitten, and they married within a year.

By 2000 the couple had bought a farm on Rollins Ridge Lane in Nettie, Nicholas County, in central West Virginia. The farm had a farmhouse, a storage building, fields, a cornfield and a pond used to irrigate the vegetables; Theresa loved to feed the fish and ducks at the pond. this part of the story is covered for now April was in her late twenties, a country girl with a baby and nowhere to live, and Theresa invited her to move into a spare bedroom in the farmhouse. details of the account remain covered until revealed The affair lasted more than a year, and he told her that he would get rid of Theresa and marry her.

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details of the account remain covered until revealed He returned at 9 a.m. to meet the workers, and at 11.30 they all came in for lunch. Kay Rudd asked where Theresa was. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now April ran to her car for her phone and called 911 from about 85 yards away, over a hill that hid the pond, yet she immediately told the operator that Theresa was pinned under a tree in the pond and was not breathing. details of the account remain covered until revealed She was pronounced dead there. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The tree was said to be 60 feet tall and to weigh more than a thousand pounds, with its stump 35 feet from the edge of the pond.

The autopsy was performed on 6 October 2009 by Dr Zia Sabbat of the West Virginia State Medical Examiners Office. He found small scratches on Theresa's face and bruising on her back, but no major injuries and no broken bones. When detectives returned on 7 October to take more photographs, the tree had disappeared. this part of the story is covered for now He repeated his story, called the affair with April a fling, volunteered that Theresa had been slow and would not have got out of the way of a falling tree, suggested they check for toxins and said nobody had killed his wife. On 20 October the medical examiner and chief medical examiner Dr James Caplin ruled the death an accidental drowning complicated by compression asphyxia, and the case was closed.

Theresa's family refused to accept it. details of the account remain covered until revealed The family contacted the forensic pathologist Dr Cyril Wecht of Pittsburgh, then worked their political contacts up to Governor Joe Manchin, who told the state police to look at the case again. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

In January 2010 the medical examiners revised the cause of death to asphyxia due to probable strangulation and left the manner undetermined. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Dr Wecht found no injuries consistent with a thousand-pound tree, but bruising consistent with forcible drowning, facial injuries consistent with her face being pushed into the pond bed, and zipper marks on her neck consistent with her jacket being held tight from behind. He ruled it a forcible drowning homicide.

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The defence, led by van Biber, called Dr Joseph Cohen and argued accident and a politically driven reinvestigation. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Theresa's family were left with the knowledge that their persistence, and the photographs she took of her own bruises, had exposed the truth.