Murdered in a busy store with no witnesses? The Murder of Janette Roberson

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to Human Wreckage, the show that
walks you through the coldest ofcases, the quietest of crimes
and the questions that stillecho decades later.
I'm your host, thomas.
So January 19th 1983.

(00:51):
A small town in Michigan iswrapped in a bitter winter, the
kind of day where the snow feelsheavier, the streets quieter
and time seems to move a littleslower.
In Reed City population justover 2,000, the world was going
about its usual business kids atschool, neighbors chatting over
fences and at the localdepartment store on Upton Avenue
, a young mother named JeanetteRoberson had just returned from

(01:14):
her lunch break.
What happened in the basementof that store in the early
afternoon hours would go on tohaunt the town, her family and
investigators for decades.
Jeanette Robertson was just 27years old, a mother of two, a
wife, an artist and someone whohad recently moved to the area
in search of a quieter, simplerlife.
She worked in the petdepartment of the Gamble Store,

(01:36):
a locally owned franchise thatsold everything from tools to
toys to tropical fish.
At some point that afternoon,someone followed her, or perhaps
waited for her, in the dimlylit basement, and there, in a
room surrounded by aquariums,cages and supplies, jeanette was
brutally attacked and murdered.
Her body was discovered justbefore 5 pm, bya co worker.

(01:56):
What followed was confusion,shock and, eventually, an
investigation that would growcolder with each passing year.
No arrests were made, nosuspects officially named and,
despite DNA evidence, witnessinterviews and years of digging
by both police and amateursleuths, jeanette's case remains
unsolved.
But why?
Was it a random act of violence, a crime of passion or

(02:21):
something even darker hidingbeneath the surface of this
quiet northern Michigan town?
And how, in a store full ofpeople in the middle of the day,
did no one hear her scream?
In this episode, we're going tolook at the known facts of
Jeanette Roberson's case.
We'll explore the crime scene,the people in her life, the
rumors that spread in theaftermath and the details that
never quite added up.

(02:41):
We'll talk to those who knewher, those who still fight for
answers, and we'll confront theuncomfortable truth that
sometimes justice never comes.
Nearly 43 years later,jeanette's name still appears on
flyers, message boards and coldcase files.
Her children are now grown,still seeking the truth about
what happened to their mother inthat quiet basement room, and

(03:02):
today we're going to open thatfile back up.
This is the story of JeanetteRoberson, a woman full of life
silenced far too soon and amystery that refuses to rest
Stay with us.
The brutal, unsolved murder of27-year-old Jeanette Roberson
still haunts the city town ofReed City, michigan, to this
very day.
Jeanette, her husband Alvin andtheir two children moved to the

(03:25):
quaint city in 1983.
Those who knew Jeanettedescribed her as being
remarkably kind to everybody shemet.
She was patient, gentle and oneof the sweetest people ever
recalled family friend CarrieHudson.
As well as being a caringmother to two young children,
she also had a profoundcompassion for animals.
One friend recollected how shenursed a small bird back to

(03:46):
health after she found itinjured.
She was the quintessentialhomemaker.
She did the kids, she did thehouse, her sister fondly
recalled.
Jeanette wasn't just ahousewife either.
She worked in the petdepartment of a local store
called Gamble's, now Reed CityHardware.
Her department was located inthe store's basement.
Unfortunately, on the 19th ofJanuary 1983, somebody cut

(04:09):
Jeanette's life tragically short.
At some point between 2 pm and4 pm Jeanette was murdered in
broad daylight as she carriedout her work duties in the small
10 by 10 room filled with petsupplies.
She had been raped violently,bludgeoned with a blunt object
and then stabbed multiple times,with multiple objects found in
store.
Jeanette died alone on the coldbasement floor of Gamble's as

(04:31):
shoppers perused without a carein the world.
On the floor above she wasfound by another store employee.
The store had been relativelybusy that afternoon, yet nobody
heard a thing.
Almost all of the people whowere shopping above were
identified.
She was found by another storeemployee.
The store had been relativelybusy that afternoon, yet nobody
heard a thing.
Almost all of the people whowere shopping above were
identified and questioned,except for one man.
Composite sketches of thisanonymous man were drawn up.
He was described as a white manwith sandy blonde hair and a

(04:53):
blue jacket.
He stood around five feet nineinches and weighed approximately
170 pounds.
The brutal murder rocked thesmall city where there hadn't
been a murder since eight yearsprior, when Frank Kronski
murdered his estranged wife.
Around 200 mourners congregatedto pay their last respects to
Jeanette at the McDowell FuneralHome.
Afterwards she was buried atWoodlawn Cemetery in Reed City.

(05:16):
As is the case with all murders,the first suspect was
Jeanette's husband, alvin.
An investigation uncovered thathe had been having an affair
behind his wife's back.
In fact, alvin later went on tomarry this same woman and move
to Georgia with her and thechildren.
Nevertheless, investigatorssoon ruled him out as a suspect.
While their marriage had beenon the rocks, he still deeply

(05:38):
loved his wife and would neverwish harm on her.
He was devastated.
He couldn't have had anythingto do with it, said Jeanette's
sister Lana.
Another suspect came to lightwhen police tracked down a man
who had left town on a bus thatsame afternoon.
He was questioned and laterreleased.
One line of inquiry early on inthe investigation was the
bizarre phone calls Jeanette hadreceived.

(05:59):
On the 18th of January shereceived two separate phone
calls at home.
However, when she picked up thephone, nobody spoke and then
hung up.
After this became publicknowledge, a friend of Jeanette
came forward and told policethat Jeanette had been receiving
obscene calls Since the brutalmurder.
There have been a number oftheories as to why Jeanette was

(06:19):
targeted.
One widely believed theory wasthat Jeanette was killed in a
fit of rage by somebody she knew.
The murder was an exceptionallyfrenzied and brutal one.
She was murdered with objectsthat were discovered in the shop
, indicating it wasn't apremeditated murder but more
likely a crime of passion.
Her family have long believedthat maybe Jeanette's killer had
a crush on her and when sheturned down their advances, they

(06:42):
were left seething.
Investigators also looked intothe theory that Jeanette's
killer had potentially beenhiding in the basement and
waited for the perfect moment toambush her.
Eventually, the tips dwindledto a halt.
No other suspects were everpublicly named and the case was
put back on the shelf.
In 2014, michigan State PoliceDebt Sergeant Mike Stevens took

(07:03):
over the Roberson murder casefrom Debt George Pratt, who had
retired after serving thedepartment for longer than
Stevens had even been alive.
The two have continued tocommunicate when any tips or
leads surface.
When the investigation began in1983, dna collection and
analysis wasn't standardprocedure.
However, dna from the crimescene was retrieved but hasn't

(07:25):
yet been matched to anybody.
This indicates that theperpetrator has avoided being
charged with any other crimes.
If he were to commit anothercrime and be apprehended for
said crime, his DNA profilewould have been entered into the
national database and linkedback to the Robertson crime
scene.
This person could havecommitted this crime and not
committed another crime ever,but because of the violence,

(07:47):
that's not likely, said DetPratt.
Eventually the case went cold,but over the forthcoming years
Jeanette's family held an annualJustice for Jeanette walk to
keep Jeanette's name and face inthe public eye.
During the 2018 walk,jeanette's sister, jv, addressed
the theory that Jeanette'shusband killed her.
He didn't.
She said there is a murdererwalking around free.

(08:09):
Somebody has to know something,had to have seen something that
day.
Maybe it is something small,something they think is
irrelevant.
It's not.
If you have any information inregards to the murder of
Jeanette Roberson, please call231-832-3743.
The cold case still remainsunsolved.
Jeanette Roberson was just 27years old when her life was

(08:31):
stolen in the most brutal,senseless way.
Robertson was just 27 years oldwhen her life was stolen in the
most brutal, senseless way Ayoung mother working a quiet job
in a small town store andsomehow in the middle of the day
, surrounded by people.
Someone murdered her and gotaway with it.
More than four decades havepassed, but the pain still
lingers for her family.
Her children grew up withouttheir mother.
Her husband buried a wife hehad just started building a life

(08:52):
with, and Reed City, whether itchooses to remember or forget,
still carries the weight of whathappened that winter afternoon
in 1983.
There are people out there whoknow something.
Maybe it's a memory they buried, a rumor they heard or a detail
they once thought was too smallto matter, but in cases like
this, even the smallest truthcan open a locked door.

(09:13):
If you know anything, no matterhow insignificant it may seem,
please reach out to the MichiganState Police or submit a tip
anonymously through CrimeStoppers.
Jeanette's story deserves anending and her family deserves
peace.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of Human Wreckage.
If you found this storyimportant, share it, talk about
it.
Keep Jeanette's name aliveUntil next time.

(09:35):
I'm Thomas, stay safe, stayaware and never stop asking
questions.
Outro Music.