Transcript of Cathleen Roth

A New Mexico teacher vanishes without a trace.

The newspapers are stacked up and untouched.

They saw the dogs were barricaded with an overflowing bowl of food.

I'm very worried. Like, this is Twilight Zone creepy to me.

A family member's history of violence puts them at the top of a short list of suspects.

He had threatened her with— a knife, and she ended up calling the police.

I used to always tell her she was a victim of abuse, domestic violence, only by a child.

But the investigation reveals a more complex and disturbing plot involving fraud, a polyamorous relationship, and a woman determined to get revenge.

She pulled a lot of people into this situation to fulfill her agenda.

All this All she saw her as was money and a nuisance.

She flew into a rage, and she snapped.

May 6, 2009. It's a warm spring afternoon in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when authorities receive an emergency call from a teacher named Katherine Frost. Katherine says she's at the home of a coworker, 61-year-old Ellen Roth, and she's worried something has happened to her.

Ellen had not come to work for a couple of days, and this was very out of character for her.

Ellen was always at work on time. Snow, rain, whatever it may be, she's not one to just disappear.

Katherine heard dogs barking but didn't see any sign of life and was concerned and asked for a welfare check to be done.

The Albuquerque Police Department is sent to assess the situation.

When police arrive, the officer notices that the newspapers are stacked up and untouched, and Ms. Frost tells them she fears Ellen may have hurt herself.

Katherine was aware of a prior incident that Ellen had had where she allegedly fell out of bed. And hurt herself seriously.

With her falling inside the residence and her not answering the phone, he made the determination that they needed to force entry into the house.

Despite Catherine's concern, they don't find Ellen or any indication she's in danger.

There were no signs of forced entry. There wasn't anything to suggest that there had been some type of a struggle inside the residence. They did notice that there were two canines that were inside the residence. The animals did have water and a large amount of food that was— had been placed in the food bowls.

But according to Catherine, the dogs are proof something is wrong.

Catherine thinks she would never have left her dogs. This is not how she treated her dogs. The food bowl wouldn't be overflowing. It almost looked as though somebody had put the dogs in there knowing that it would be days before they would be found. That was a real red flag for them.

Detectives think, who could have hurt Ellen, or what could have happened to Ellen if she disappeared?

Detectives are concerned as to her whereabouts, and we owed it to the community and her family to find her. Her disappearance was out of character of her. So detectives started doing a deep dive into Ellen's background.

Ellen Feeder was born April 15, 1948, to Emmanuel and Judith Feeder. She was one of 4 children, but the only girl.

My sister was born in Miami, and then my family moved to Albuquerque. My dad was stationed there. He was a second lieutenant, and he was in the Air Force.

In her younger years, Ellen was a very outgoing person, and she had this appetite for education.

Ellen definitely wanted to go to college. She chose the University of Miami, which is ironic because she was born there. And she started taking classes in education.

She really liked children, so she enjoyed teaching more, I think, than she thought she would.

After her undergraduate program, Ellen returned to Albuquerque, where she obtained a master's degree in bilingual education and began her teaching career.

She just loved watching kids grow. Teaching them. And then the, the kids would always come back to visit her, so she felt very well accomplished.

When Ellen wasn't teaching, she was out exploring the world.

Ellen was very outgoing. She had a lot of friends. Uh, she traveled pretty much every summer.

She had gone all over the world. She would tell us stories about her travels. She was very well-versed.

But there was one thing Ellen seemed to want more than anything else.

One of Ellen's goals in life, maybe you could say the major goal in life, was to be a mother.

In Albuquerque, she dated people but just never found that Mr. Right. She's in her 30s now and really wanted to settle down and start a family.

Finally, in 1986, Ellen believed she found the man she'd been looking for when she met Jerry Roth.

Jerry was a very successful lawyer. He made a lot of money. He seemed to love Ellen and, you know, and took care of Ellen.

Just a year after they started dating, Ellen and Jerry got married. But having children of her own proved to be more difficult than she'd hoped.

She tried to have children for many years. I don't believe she could ever get pregnant.

She decided to go the next step. She talked to Jerry about possibly adopting a child. I know at first he was not interested, but over time he decided that he would go along with that.

In 1990, the Roths adopted a newborn son and named him Brian.

When she brought Brian home, she was extremely happy. She felt complete.

She loved being a mother. She lived for Brian.

Unfortunately, the marriage began to suffer soon afterward.

Ellen was so wrapped up with Brian, I think she maybe forgot about her relationship with her husband.

Less than a year after they adopt Brian, her husband decides to divorce her.

I don't believe she was upset about the divorce. Jerry gave her full custody of Brian, and so she was thrilled about that.

Raising a son all on her own wasn't easy, but by 2009, Ellen was relaxing into her golden years, excited to see her son building his own future. Brian had married a young woman named Kathleen and appeared to be settling down.

At this point, Ellen, is pretty content with the situation that Bryan is starting his adult life. So she's in her '60s, and she's looking towards retirement.

With her life seemingly going so well, Ellen's sudden disappearance is difficult for anyone to explain.

Police contact Ellen's brother, John Feeder. And he also reiterates that this is out of the ordinary. So he goes to the apartment.

John notices something strange.

He proceeds to tell them that her 2007 Dodge Caravan is missing.

This just further is another piece of the puzzle that leads them to conclude that they need to continue their investigation. They need to do it as quickly as possible.

Coming up, a shocking accusation.

He fears that her son may have something to do with it because of the abusive relationship they have.

But investigators find the case more complicated than they imagined.

She was a very, very deep sleeper, so it was easy for them to get into the house. They were waiting for her.

After confirming that no one has seen his sister Ellen Roth in days, John Feeder officially reports her missing with Albuquerque police.

Her minivan is entered into the system, and Ellen is entered as a missing person in NCIC.

John tells detectives that if something has happened to Ellen, one suspect immediately springs to mind.

He fears that her son Brian may have something to do with it.

According to John, 19-year-old Brian has a long history of serious behavioral issues.

I know that Brian had a lot of issues, but she tried to meet the challenges as best she could.

And as much as he's acting out and difficult. All Ellen knows is to show him love.

John says that approach didn't work. Bryan began abusing drugs and became more confrontational with his mother.

It starts to get so bad that Ellen sends him to New Day, which is a recovery center here in Albuquerque. In a sense, Ellen has to do tough love finally and kick him out.

It's there that Bryan met his future wife, 21-year-old fellow patient Kathleen "Kit" Nielsen.

They form this strong bond because they feel they have so much in common with their growing pains with both of their family lives.

Kit and Brian definitely bonded over that sense of being felt very unwanted. He had felt his entire life that, "Ellen adopted me as a prop. She's this very wealthy woman. She's made my life so miserable." Kit didn't talk a lot about her family, about her family background. It was clearly something very painful for her.

Though finding a kindred spirit in Kathleen initially seemed to bring Brian peace of mind, he eventually fell back into his old ways.

Detectives found out that he had been arrested on March 25th, 2009, for a domestic violence episode with Ellen Roth. He had threatened her with a knife, and she ended up calling the police. He was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Police records show Brian was sentenced to a year of probation, but less than 2 weeks before her disappearance, Ellen filed another report against him.

On the 26th of April, she checked her bank account and realized that there were some charges that she did not make. She realized that her debit card had been missing.

Along with the card, she realizes that 2 diamond rings, a wedding band, and a dinner ring, and 3 necklaces are also missing from her residence. She suspects it's Brian. He had access to the house.

Prior to Ellen calling police, she did some investigating on her own. She calls the bank to see where the purchases were made. The bank tells her that the unauthorized purchases were at Walmart, a tobacco shop, and 7-Eleven.

Ellen actually calls the tobacco shop and speaks to one of the employees.

The clerk is able to describe Brian's appearance. The credit card and Brian's ID both have the last name. And Brian tells the clerk that his mother gave him permission to use her credit card.

The fact that Ellen disappeared 4 days after making this new complaint against her son raises detectives' suspicions.

Where was Brian during the time that Ellen was missing? Could he have been involved in her disappearance? Obviously, at this point, you've got one suspect. It's Brian Roth.

But Brian's parole officer casts doubt on his involvement.

Brian Roth had been arrested on May 1st, 2009, for a probation violation. They did test him for any type of narcotics. He did come back with a dirty sample. So at that time, the probation officer revoked Brian's probation. And he was then placed into custody.

With Brian being incarcerated from May 1st on, there was no way he could have anything physically to do with this.

So detectives have to look at the case again. What happened if Brian isn't a factor anymore?

4 days into their search, police get a break in the case.

On May 10th of 2010, In 2009, a telephone call came into the Albuquerque Police Department to report that a vehicle had been located. The caller thought that the vehicle was probably stolen.

Law enforcement responds that it matches the description of Elwynn Roth's car, but the license plate on the back of the vehicle does not match the stolen license plate.

The officer then decided to look at the VIN number. That VIN number then came back to the registered owner, which is Ellen Roth.

The location of the vehicle provides investigators with a possible clue.

Ellen was somewhat of a recluse. She would go to work at the school, and then she would go home. So the van being in this part of the town was very uncommon.

She lived in the northeast part of Albuquerque. For her vehicle to be in the International District just did not make sense. Was she abducted from this location? Was this just a dumping ground for the vehicle? We're looking for any type of trace evidence, any type of DNA, blood, fibers. But detectives noticed that it appeared to have been freshly wiped down. Could have been somebody that actually put her in harm's way and then trying to destroy evidence.

But Chuck— A quick check of Ellen's phone and bank records sets off even more alarm bells.

Her phone had not been used, and her debit cards, credit cards, nothing had occurred at all since the time she's missing. So it seems that she just fell off the face of the earth.

It's now been a week since anyone saw Ellen Roth. And with no financial activity or ransom demands, investigators increasingly believe there's only one reason why.

They have a missing woman who's, who's married to routine, who's reliable, who's missed work, has never missed work before. Her dogs aren't well cared for. Her car is found in a strange location, and it's wiped clean. They're dealing with the homicide. She's been killed. They don't know who did it. They don't know why or how at this point.

Ellen Roth vanished a week ago, and the limited evidence recovered by police is raising major red flags.

It's not looking good that Ellen is alive at this point. Her credit cards haven't been used. Her telephone hasn't been used. So there's only one thing to surmise. On May 11th, this case went from a missing persons case into a homicide case.

Detectives— have to look at who may be the closest person to Ellen, who may have had knowledge of her disappearance, or who may have done something to her. And that person happens to be Brian Roth.

Just because he was in jail at the time of Ellen's disappearance doesn't mean that he couldn't have orchestrated something.

On May 11th, investigators pay Brian a visit at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque.

And he comes across to detectives as very concerned. He does tell the detectives that he and his mom didn't have the best relationship. Maybe they butted heads more than once, but he would never wish her harm.

Brian says it's likely his mother had some kind of accident because it's happened before.

Brian went on to tell us about an incident that happened with his mother, Ellen. She had taken her sleeping pills. She'd taken an extra one that night and then somehow fallen out of bed in the middle of the night. When she hit the floor, a lamp fell off the table and struck her in the head.

She bled pretty well on the side of her bed.

Kathleen and Brian went over to Ellen's house to help clean.

Brian says that was the night of April 25th, and it was also the last time he saw his mother. Police questioned the accuracy of his story since Ellen reported him for stealing her credit cards and jewelry shortly thereafter.

I believe he kind of brushes that off as saying his mother gave him a ring for Kathleen. They walked away from that interview knowing that Brian couldn't have done the act, but he still might be involved in one way or the other.

That same afternoon, investigators bring in 21-year-old Kathleen Roth to hear what she has to say.

She appeared to be concerned for the safety of her mother-in-law and wanted to provide as much information as she could.

And this all seems unusual to you?

Oh, yeah. Like, this is like Twilight Zone creepy to me.

Kathleen corroborated what Brian's statements were about Ellen getting injured. Around the 25th, after the blood was cleaned up, Ellen gave the credit card and told them, "Go buy something." I will admit Brian went a bit overboard.

We both did. We went to see her the following day on Sunday, apologized, said, you know, like, "I'm really sorry.

Here's, you know, the receipts." According to Kathleen, the situation seemed to be resolved.

It isn't until later on that week, until either Thursday or Friday, that she puts a police report out. And rather than both of us getting arrested, only he got arrested. This was just kind of Ellen's little power play. To kind of control him. It's not the first time she's done it. Usually she cools down after, drops the charges, forgets that it ever happened. This time she was really upset.

Kathleen reported a phone call that she had with Ellen around May 1st. Catherine questioned why she only reported Brian as having any involvement with the credit cards.

She just goes off. You stole from me. You stole my jewelry. Starts, like, accusing me of all these things. I tell her, I'm like, Ellen, I have no idea what you're talking about. About, like, you need to calm down, you know?

And that was the last time you talked to her?

That was the last time I spoke to her. Yes.

They ask if they can search her apartment, and she willingly lets them. A search is conducted and nothing is found.

At this point, we can't avoid the fact that Brian was in jail. Kathleen doesn't appear to have anything to do with this. We can't avoid the fact that somebody else might have done it. And we're running out of leads at this time. We need to regroup and start again. We need to reinterview everybody that we've interviewed already and see if they have anything else to tell us.

Coming up, investigators learn the details of a complicated marriage.

It's an— open polyamorous relationship.

And an informant breaks the case wide open.

He told me something all along. He said, oh, well, they made somebody disappear.

After speaking with Brian Roth's wife, Kathleen, and confirming he was in jail when his mother vanished, Albuquerque police find themselves in search of new leads to explain Ellen Roth's disappearance and suspected murder.

Detectives interviewed Katherine Frost again. She, again, was a coworker and the one who initially called the police.

According to Katherine, Ellen didn't have any enemies. Apparently, the only source of trouble in her life was her son Brian.

When did the trouble start?

Oh God, since he was a little kid. He has called her every filthy name in the book. I used to always tell her she was a victim of abuse, domestic violence, only by a child.

Detectives also learned something concerning about Kathleen from Ellen's sister-in-law.

They learn of a phone call between Ellen and Kathleen. This was after Ellen supposedly fell out of the bed. Ellen's sister-in-law happened to be visiting at the time.

This is the same May 1st phone call that Kathleen admitted to making after Brian's arrest for credit card theft. But the way Ellen's sister-in-law describes it is quite different.

She overheard Kathleen being aggressive towards Ellen.

Kathleen was upset and blamed Ellen for Brian being in jail. The fact that she reports Kathleen had one attitude and Kathleen reports that she had another attitude in her statement to law enforcement indicates there's something to be suspicious of.

In an effort to discover what else Kathleen might be lying to them about, detectives review Brian's phone calls from jail. One call from May 1st immediately jumps out to investigators.

He's telling Kathleen, take everything out of the apartment that we stole, the credit card, everything. And Kathleen tells him, I'm on it.

This explains why police found no evidence related to the theft when they searched Brian and Kathleen's apartment 10 days later. And it's not the only revelation in that brief jailhouse phone call.

Kathleen is trying to calm him down. And she explains to him that she is at Bella's house.

Brian asks her to tell Bella, an unknown person at this point, that he loves her, which raises questions. And it's odd that a man would tell his wife that he loves another woman.

On May 28th, 3 weeks after Ellen was last seen alive, detectives confront Kathleen with the new information they gleaned from the phone call.

She did finally admit that she did steal the credit card and that it wasn't given to her as she originally advised.

Kathleen has told us these credit cards were given to her to use. Now she's saying she's taken it. So she is establishing a pattern pattern of not being honest and truthful with the detectives.

When detectives ask her to tell them about Bella, her answer is more surprising.

Kathleen tells detectives that Brian was actually dating Bella Gonzalez. She is Brian's girlfriend.

What's the deal with that?

It's an open polyamorous relationship.

So is your marriage an arrangement, or you actually love each other?

Both her and Brian, they see other people.

It was essentially a marriage of convenience so that they could get insurance, food stamps, and government subsidies.

They were both obviously very open about their, their dating other people. But yeah, there was meaning to them behind this marriage. They were always going to be there for each other.

Kathleen also admits she and Brian were using Ellen for financial gain.

Our relationship with her wasn't a very ethical one. Like, we would see her and she would help us out with gas, help Helps out with various bills.

Your relationship with her is mostly because of the money?

A lot, yeah.

The change in Kathleen's statement raises further red flags, but investigators don't want to make an arrest too soon.

They decide to let her go because detectives want to see what else Kathleen will do. In hopes that she can possibly lead them to where Ellen is.

Time has passed, and we still don't know where Ellen is. We don't know if she's alive. We don't know if she's being held captive somewhere. We have no idea where she's at. Bryan and Kathleen, at this point in the investigation, were still persons of interest because there were certain things that we wanted to still figure out.

Kathleen doesn't make any sus— suspicious moves. But on September 1st, 4 months after Ellen disappeared, police finally get the break they've been looking for from an unexpected source.

He walks into the Edgewood Police Department. He says he has information about the missing Albuquerque schoolteacher.

4 months after the disappearance of Ellen Roth, a new witness has come forward claiming to have crucial information. The anonymous informant says he has been wrestling with the decision to come forward with what he knows.

He knew of a person by the name of Christopher Donovan, that he was responsible for the teacher in Albuquerque going missing.

He was just kind of bragging about it, you know? Okay. It was his friend Brian. It was his mom. She was a very, very deep sleeper. So it was easy for them to get into the house. They were waiting for her at the garage. I had to follow him in.

Donovan told him a male named James Johnson choked her until she was dead.

About, like, dead weight. He was like, oh, we're gonna secure that, which dead weight was, you know, the baby, basically.

When detectives ask why Christopher Donovan and James Johnson would want to kill Ellen Roth, the informant says James is Kathleen Roth's boyfriend.

This is surprising to detectives because When asked about their open marriage, Kathleen tells detectives about Bryan and Bella, but she doesn't mention anything about having a boyfriend.

Law enforcement has this statement. It's deemed credible. So now law enforcement has to go out and corroborate.

In my shoes, who would you approach first? Who do you think would give the story up first out of their personalities? I would just say Chris.

Police learn Chris Donovan is an airman stationed at nearby Kirkland Air Force Base. They bring him in for questioning, and he confirms what their informant told them.

According to Chris Donovan, James Johnson is his roommate. He is also Kathleen Ross' boyfriend. He met them about a year prior. He just started talking about the murder and how they did it. It's like he expected us to ask him and he was ready to tell us.

Why did you help Kit and James? I don't even know. I guess I just kind of did. I wasn't there. I was not there for the actual murder of Ellen Roth. Who choked her?

Christopher advises that he was the driver. And so he dropped off both James and Kathleen to the residence of Ellen's.

Chris says he met back up with them later that day, and they told him what they'd done.

Kathleen has a garage door opener that she was given by Ellen. Kathleen and James Johnson wait in the garage for Ellen to leave for work that morning. They grab her, and James chokes her to death. Then they wrap her body, put it in her van, and text Donovan that the deed has been done.

He assisted them in moving Ellen's body. They then drive out to Jemez, a remote area in the Jemez Mountains, and, uh, Christopher notices that there is already a pre-dug hole where they place Ellen into that hole.

She was stoked, I think, more that James actually did it and she was going out with him, you know? So she was proud of going out with a guy that just murdered. Proud that she could get somebody to kill that for her. Maybe. All they saw her as was money and a new boyfriend. And I'm pretty sure.

She was just trash they got rid of.

I think so. I think that's kind of fair to say.

At the end of the interview with Chris Donovan, he was arrested on a warrant for first-degree murder, conspiracy, and tampering with evidence. All 3 players, James Johnson, Chris Donovan, and Kathleen Roth, all know what's going on, all participated in it. They are all co-conspirators in this situation.

Perhaps hoping for leniency, Chris agrees to call James and Kathleen to talk about the crime.

The first phone calls are to Kathleen Roth. He basically says, "I'm scared. I think they're on to me." And Kathleen responds, "Don't worry about it." Don't tell him anything.

You do realize that they're probably like monitoring these phone conversations, right? Following you. Seriously, hang up the phone.

I will see you tomorrow.

Donovan's telephone calls to James Johnson are much more fruitful.

Hey James, you don't think Ellen's stinking, do you? Maybe, but I mean, it's been raining there since you're that far away. And even then, any evidence is probably decayed by now or is gone.

It's enough for investigators to obtain arrest warrants for James Johnson and Kathleen Roth. Johnson is arrested on September 24, 2009. Kathleen is taken into custody the following day. There is still one crucial element missing from the case, however.

Locating Ellen's body, that was the most important piece of evidence.

They didn't have the body, so they couldn't delve into, you know, what actually caused her death.

It is incredibly hard to find somebody in the desert if you have nowhere to start.

Her boyfriend James Johnson and Chris Donovan have been arrested for the murder of 61-year-old Ellen Roth. But prosecutors know without a body, it will be a difficult case to convict.

James Johnson did not want to talk to us. He did not give a statement or anything.

Kathleen, right away, she invokes her right and does not want to speak to authorities.

Since Kathleen stood to profit from her mother-in-law staying alive, motive is also an issue. But it becomes clearer when Brian's girlfriend, Bella Gonzalez, agrees to talk to investigators.

According to Bella, when Brian was arrested, Kathleen flew into a rage and she snapped because she felt Ellen was taking Brian away from her.

She got this very strong sense of, like, not just injustice in the world, but, like, injustice directly, uh, kind of pointed at her.

She thought that she needed to to do something about it, to avenge her husband, and decided to take it upon herself to be the mastermind.

She wasn't going to let Ellen have the last word. She pulled a lot of people into this situation to fulfill her agenda.

With Bella's statement, prosecutors Investigators feel confident they'll be able to convict Kathleen as the puppet master. But the case never makes it to trial. Instead, Kathleen decides to come clean.

Basically, Kathleen says, all right, I was there. I didn't do it. I just helped move the body.

She actually did believe that because she didn't place her hands around Ellen's neck, that she was not responsible for her death.

As part of her confession, Kathleen agrees to lead investigators to where Ellen's body is buried.

Several detectives caravan to the Jemez Mountains, went to a remote location. Approximately 2 feet was dug, and a blue tarp was laid her tarp was being exposed from the hole. They contacted the Office of the Medical Investigator to retrieve Ellen Roth's body.

Nearly 5 months after her disappearance, Ellen's killers are brought to justice.

Christopher Donovan pled guilty to second-degree homicide, and he received up to a 15-year sentence.

James Johnson entered a plea deal for second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, conspiracy to tampering with evidence, and received 28 years in prison. Kathleen Roth pled guilty to second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, conspiracy for tampering with evidence, and she received 28 years in prison. 37.5 years in prison.

Brian wasn't charged. The people involved indicated that he was unaware of what happened, and he was in jail at the time the homicide occurred.

I do not believe the perpetrators got what they deserved. Why should they get a chance to live when Ellen doesn't? Get that chance.

There's a bunch of kids that relied on this person, Ellen, their mother figure, and they decided to kill her for really nothing but their insecurities. That's what disturbs me about this.

We never saw something like this happening. How could this happen to us? One of my daughters named her first daughter using Ellen's first name. Her life will always live on and the memories will live on because we'll pass it on the best we can.