This mystery is over 50 years old, and the only suspect in the case has also vanished. So, there is a murder, wrapped up in a disappearance, encased in a conspiracy. Let’s learn about Fred and Edwina Rogers and their son, Charles.
The Murder
June 23, 1965, the Houston police were asked to do a welfare check on 81-year-old Fred Rogers, and his wife, 72-year-old Edwina. Edwina’s nephew had not heard from his aunt for a while, and he was worried over her. When police knocked, nobody answered, so they entered the home.
Their suspicions were fueled by a jolt of adrenaline, and they thought something wasn’t right. Unsure what where the elderly couple were, the police opened the refrigerator, not even sure what called them to do so and found numerous bags of meat, that they assumed was hog meat.
But then they looked into the drawers and found two decapitated human heads. Edwina and Fred were both dead. She had been shot in the head; Fred had been bludgeoned with a hammer. But that wasn’t all, Fred had his eyes and his genitals forcibly removed and his intestines were flushed in the toilet.
The Disappearance
The only suspect that the police had, was the 42-year-old Charles Rogers, who lived with his parents, but was nowhere to be found.
Charles was no ordinary man. He had a degree in nuclear physics, served in World War II as a pilot, and spent a decade working for Shell Oil as a seismologist. But was that really all he was?
Neighbors would say that Charles left the house early in the morning and returned late at night. They weren’t even sure he had a job, and that he rarely saw his parents that he lived with, usually communicating with them by notes under the door.
As police investigated, Charles became more of a viable suspect, as they learned that Charles may have had a motive to kill his parents. His parents were very manipulative of him, taking loans out in his name, emptying his savings, and making live a living hell for him. Charles had also suffered abuse from his father for most of his life.
Charles was never located, and is believed that after murdering his parents, he fled the country and eventually died in Honduras.
The Conspiracy
Now the reason that Charles had to murder his parents, or so it is claimed is that Charles was part of the conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. It is assumed that Charles had recorded his part in the assassination in his diaries, and when his mother had found them, he had killed his parents.
The theories and conspiracies around President Kennedy’s assassination have no limit. It’s claimed that Charles was a CIA agent and was disguised as one of the three tramps in Dealey Plaza. But it is also suggested that he also was a stand in for Lee Harvey Oswald.
In the end, if Rogers did manage to kill his parents and disappear, his theoretical work for the CIA isn’t as outlandish as it seems. After all, he left not a single trace, completed his mission — and vanished like a ghost.
Amateur Connoisseur 