Brown County Democrat from Nashville, Indiana • Page 5

CMS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1989 BROWN COUJVTY DEMOCRAT PACKS. TV looks at Clarence Roberts mystery What Unsolved Mysteries' reported about the case WHITE: you know, he would help anyone. He would help you or anybody that if he thought you-was in need. STACK: Clarence and Geneva had been married since. 1941.

Geneva came from a poor family, but together she and Clarence rose in Nashville society. With, four sons and a successful family business, the Robertses seemed to be the perfect couple. He soon reached the 33rd degree of the Masons, the rank commemorated by this ring, which he wore proudly. Clarence's appetite for the good life began to consume him. He purchased three luxury cars and an expensive and fashionable home.

But behind this facade of wealth were heavy debts. ELBERTA ROBERTS: Clarence changed a lot. He really did. I really can't describe how different he would be. It's like, uh, turning a The Clarence Roberts case, celebrated locally and regionally for nearly two decades, went national in prime time in December.

Brown County's most-famous who-done-it received 18-plus-minute treatment on the "Unsolved Mysteries" program broadcast over the NBC television network. The program aired nationally everywhere but Indianapolis December 14. Channel 13, because of prior scheduling of a holiday special, showed the mystery program early Sunday, December 18. The format of the program resembles so-called where the subject is fact portrayed in whole or in part by actors. In this case, the program mixed interviews with actual participants in the case with scenes performed by actors, both professionals and amateurs.

An example of the latter came Ik) mg mm Fire Marshal's office hoses down the firemen Jim Kelp and John Konison. then Sheriff Hex Kriler and Indiana State Police officer Dave Anderson. Democrat file photo I light on and turning a light off. That was Clarence, turned the light off. MALK: lo hnance his ex travagant lifestyle, Clarence sold his hardware business and gambled every thing on two property investments, an apartment building and several grain elevators.

These investments failed. And by the fall of 1970, Clarence Roberts knew he was in serious trouble. ELBERTA ROBERTS: For all the money that he was losing, everything going down the drain, he was going for a millionaire or broke. And he was ending up broke; he was trying to pull out of it. CLARENCE ROBERTS (portrayed by an actor): Yeah, Warren, I can see that you come after the cars.

There go the guys, getting ready to jump in and drive emr away. in October, 1V7U, one month before the first fire, Clarence and Geneva stood by as Sheriff Warren Roberts, Clarence's own brother, repossessed two of his vehicles. CLARENCE ROBERTS: Thanks a lot. STACK: Clarence and Geneva were left desolate and desperate. WHITE: He wasn't the Clarence that I had always been used to being around.

He was down. He was really depressed. And I feci that he was suicidal. STACK: At 6:20 p.m. on the night of November 18th, 1970, firemen arrived to find the garage-barn by the Roberts home ablaze.

The heat was so intense that they stood helplessly by as the structure bunted to the ground. When the fire had cooled, they made a grizzly discovery. there, and she said that she could hear Geneva talking to this man, and she said it definitely was not Clarence's voice. STACK: Nobody knows for certain what Geneva Roberts was trying to hide. Or whom.

Her reclusive life went on uneventfully until the night of November 18th, 1980. ANDERSON: When my office and explained thai it was Geneva's house on fire and that they thought Geneva was still inside the house, I went right to the fire scene, and the fire was still burning very intensely at thai time. After the fire was extinguished, why. we just stayed behind, and I'm not even sure why. I just wanted to look further, as did, I'm sure, the firemen.

STACK: Sifting through the ashes, searchers found the body of Geneva Roberts. Hous, later, ihcy made another shocking discovery. ANDERSON: Gcncva'sJy had been removed lo the funMrf home. James Skaggs, right, of the state rubble from the 19811 Roberts fire. FIREMAN (acting): Chief, come back here.

I think we got a body. STACK: A body, burned beyond recognition, lay bengath the rubble, a half-melted shotgun by its side. The body was so badly burned it was difficult to identify it as human. Jack Bond, the county coroner, feared that Clarence Roberts had finally paid his debts by taking his own life. BOND: When we found the body, why, we thought he'd shot hisself.

There wasn't much doubt in our minds that he just got too many worries ahead of him and he committed suicide. So, when we got back down to the funeral home, why, we started looking for shots, and we couldn't find any. STACK: The police wondered how Clarence's suicide could have been accomplished without a gunshot wound. Detective Don Kuster sifted through the debris. Hidden in the ashes he found Clarence's Masonic ring.

Despite the intense heat, it was virtually undamaged. KUSTER: The ring, when it was found, was in excellent shape. The ring definitely had no damage, as far as melting, or anything on it. There's no way that ring could have when the program had Sajn Rosen, actual judge of the Brown Circuit Court, playing a judge in a Roberts trial, although Rosen was not the judge in that case. Similarly, Democrat staffer Helen Ayers was both the subject of an interview and an actor playing herself in a scene with a professional actress who was portraying Roberts' wife, Geneva.

For Clarence Roberts case watchers, whether they saw one or both of the broadcasts, the following is the text for the TV coverage: ROBERT STACK (program host): Two fires in a liny Indiana town called Nashville. They happened 10 years apart Yet the body of Clarence Roberts seems to have been found both times. Some people in Nashville believe he is still alive. Unexplained death STACK: Nashville, Indiana. Population 700.

Located in the American heartland. Nashville is like a Norman Rockwell painting brought to life. Here everyone knows one another. So there arc few street addresses and fewer secrets. Nashville is a'commuriily in the best sense of the word.

Two of Nashville's most illustrious citizens were Clarence and Geneva Roberts. But in the fall of 1970, the couple became embroiled in a firestorm of controversy, betrayal and On the night of November 18th, 1970, a fire raged out of control behind the Roberts' fashionable home. And when the ashes had cooled, a body was discovered and identified as Clarence Roberts. Ten years later, another fire blazed. Two more bodies were discovered.

One was Geneva Roberts, and the other was again identified as Clarence Roberts. Hut, how could a man die twice? Today, the people of Nashville still wonder. What happened to Clarence Roberts? Slate Police Detective Sergeant): I talked to both detectives that was on the second fire, and, from what they told me, I'd say. it was definitely Clarence. BOB WHITE (nephew of Clarence Roberts): I still think Garcnce died in the first fire.

I don't think Clarence Roberts died in the second fire. I just don't believe thai. ELBERTA (Mrs. Warren) ROBERTS (sister-in-law of Clarence Roberts): I think Clarence is still alive. I sure do.

STACK: The mystery of Clarence Roberts' death still haunu those who knew him. In the 1960s, he embodied the American dream: a former sheriff, a board member of the Nashville State Bank; he seemed lo have it all. But something went wrong for Clarence. His dreams became twisted into a nightmarey saga that has gone on for 18 years and still continues today. In the 1960s.

Clarence owned a prosperous hardware store, along with his brother, Carson. Clarence was well-respected, everyone's friend. CARSON ROBERTS: He and I worked together for about 22 years. Clarence always seemed to be pretty happy. He enjoyed working, arc nee was outgoing.

He waft friendly and always made friends with people and always got along with people. Clarence worked hard. He put a lot of hours in, when he was younger. Providing assistance, from left withstood the heat of that fire like it did and not even have a damaged part on it at all. I definitely think the ring was a plant.

It just, it had to be. It had to be. STACK: This was only the first of a series of unusual discoveries. Investigators learned that only months before the fire, Clarence had purchased several insurance policies on his life, totaling close to a million dollars. In addition, a test showed that the body found in the blaze had type AB blood.

Clarence's blood type was B. If it wasn't the body of Clarence Roberts, then who died in the fire? Two days before the blaze, Clarence was spotted in a bar in the nearby community of Morgantown, befriending a vagrant. KUSTER: He'd been seen on the 17th of November in 1970, and, from the witness, he was described, he was about 5-7 to 5-9, and he was about the same age as Clarence, and Garcnce was with him, but he didn't know his name. CLARENCE ROBERTS (actor): I got some grass needs cutlin' and a little brush needs trimmin' out at the house. Would you be interested? VAGRANT (actor): Yeah.

CLARENCE: We'll get in the car. and we'll go. Come on. STACK: As thcy were leaving, the man collapsed, from some unknown cause. KUSTER: Clarence said he'd take him to the hospital.

And Clarence left with him, and later on I checked UK. Tiospiuus wiuuii a xM-nuic radius and this man was not admitted to a hospital. STACK Two theories divided Nashville: One. that Clarence ruaJ killed himself, and. second, that he murdered the vagrant in order lo collect the insurance money.

It is even claimed he watched from the woods as (he flames destroyed the evidence of his crime. WHITE; Suicidal? Yes. To commit murder? No way. I can't believe that he coukjjiavc been any part of thai It would be hard, beyond my wildest imagination, to think that Garcnce Roberts could ever have been involved with any thing like thai. ELBERTA ROBERTS: Definitely.

Definitely, he was capable of iL STACK: Clarence was either dead or missing, and Geneva Roberts was left alone, her fortune changing dramatically from riches back to rags. She was forced to move to the outskirts of town, and her claims in the insurance money were repeatedly denied. Geneva was not alone in maintaining that Garcnce had died in the first fire. John Pics, a prominent pathologist, agreed with her. PLESS: It wasn't untill 1978 that the attorneys came to me to review the reports of the experts who'd examined the evidence.

And. in the process, I was able to prove to myself and to a lot of other people that the body (hat was found in that garage was Clarence. And I testified at the time of the civil trial against the insurance companies that I felt it was highly probable that it was Clarence Roberts. JUDGE (portrayed by Judge Sam Rosen): Mrs. Roberts, you have lost your case against the insurance company.

You have only the recourse of an appeal STACK: Despite Dr. Plcss' testimony. Geneva lost all of her appeals. PLESS: The people that I was involved with in that trial were decimated emotionally by the judge's ruling. I couldn't realize why the judge had made the ruling he had.

STACK: These denials look their toll on Geneva. Withdrawing from her friends and neighbors, she became a subject of local gossip. In order lo make ends meet, Geneva had lo take a job in the kitchen of a local restaurant. Then the rumors began. Local shopkeepers said that they had sold her large quantities of beer surprising, considering Geneva was a diabetic and seldom drank beer.

Some said Geneva was not alone. And neighbors began to report seeing someone on the grounds of Geneva's home. DAVE ANDERSON (state police detective): We had developed information that a man had been seen behind Geneva's residence. The man acted very strangely. He would never let anyone get close to him, from ihem and head back toward the house immediately.

Myself and some other officers set up a ac down there for approximately three days and three nights. We were photographing everyone coming and going in and around Geneva's house. STACK: They saw nothing, but they knew who they were looking for. ANDERSON: I'm sure that was probably Clarence. I think he had perhaps run out of places to go, you know, and he had come back, staying with Geneva.

He was the mysterious man (hat was seen behind her house. SA.CK: A local reporter. Helen had grown friendly with Geneva. She felt that Geneva was hiding something or someone. AYERS: I stopped at her house probably four or five different limes.

And she always met me at the back-porch and would never invite me in. And most people do. I mean, around here, it's just a matter of courtesy to ask you to step inside. But the never did thai And it kind of made me suspect that there might have been a man living in there, GENEVA ROBERTS (actress): Hi, Helen. AYERS: Geneva, how are you today? GENEVA: Fine.

AYERS: I interviewed Clarence's lister, who fived in the adjacent yard and the fire had been cxth ana the house was, demolished. So, we'd gone through ihc rubble, and the firemen had located a second body in another part of the house. And I was just so certain that it would be lhal of Clarence. PLESS: I didn't even have to have the comparison films. I knew the bony configuration of Clarence Roberts so well that I recognized him immediately by his chest X-ray.

on, now i knew Uiat i v.A. going lo have a difficult time lo tell all my friends and neighbors and the world that Garcnce was dead for the second time. ANDERSON: It just, uh. turned out lo be Garcnce. And I was very pleased with--that, that this might be coming to an end.

Little did I know (hat it was just starting. FIREMAN (acting): This was definitely a set fire, caused by an cx-ccllcranL It looks like that someone just came in the backdoor and poured all the way around the walls. STACK: The second fire was a clear-cut case of arson. ANDERSON: We could follow very clearly these burn patterns from Geneva's bed into the adjacent mom where Clarence's body was located and then down a hallway and out the backdoor of that house. So we determined right there that at least Geneva had been murdered.

We're sure that turpentine was used to ignite this fire. We know that We simply don't know who started it, whether it was Clarence that started the fire or that of a third party. I tub-scribe to the theory of third party. STACK: Investigators have no clue as to who set this second fire, but Ihcy believe they have identified the victim. ANDERSON: Oh, I'm absolutely convinced that the second victim, the victim in the second fire.

Is that of Clarence Roberts. There "i just no (See FIRM. totally Geneva Robert, teen titling; In The Democrat offke with pkiare ami momenta of her late hatband, Clarence. Mr. Robert iW4 In a fire In November I fa.

Democrat file photo).