CO CO - Roger Ellison, 17, Cedaredge, 10 Feb 1981 #2

[Kittymama]

I can't understand why the leads in this case don't seem to have been followed up on. I can't grammar but I hope you understand what I mean. If they thought he might be buried at the funeral home...did they ever check? Why didn't they check out the "anomalies" under the floor of the garage at the house JP used to live in?

So sad to think that if silver was really his sister, she died before she could find out what happened to him.

 

[Waterdog]

I can't understand why the leads in this case don't seem to have been followed up on. I can't grammar but I hope you understand what I mean. If they thought he might be buried at the funeral home...did they ever check? Why didn't they check out the "anomalies" under the floor of the garage at the house JP used to live in?

So sad to think that if silver was really his sister, she died before she could find out what happened to him.

This frustrates me, Kittymama!!

 

[Satch]

Someone who identified himself as one of Roger's lockermates posted on Roger's first thread. He cryptically said something along the lines of "I hope Roger found what he was looking for." This indicates to me that Roger decided to duck out of school that morning to confront somebody in order to learn something.

I always believed this,

Roger had to leave at that moment to find out something that he probably did not want anyone else to know about. And that circumstance turned deadly and Roger was killed OR-

He decided at on that day to go to the mountains to commit suicide and did not want to leave any notes or anything as evidence because he didn't want his body to ever be found.

The thing is in either case:

Was someone else in on the plan? For example, giving Roger a rifle to die and they refuse to come forward because it's too painful for them. (This is the suicide plan.)

Or does someone know that Roger was killed over drugs, love, or money, and they don't want to come forward for the same reason as the suicide plan. (This is the murder plan.)

Whatever the case, there was a plan involved in Roger leaving, never to be seen again. No way he just ran away.

Satch

 

[doublestop]

The four possibilities that stand out in my mind are he could have witnessed a crime that would have turned the old-fashioned town on their heads and implicated many higher up citizens, he could have been taken advantage of sexually by an adult he trusted, he could have been diagnosed with a disease (this was a time when AIDS was seen as highly contagious, and those who were diagnosed were shunned in public like Ryan White), or he could have had sexual identification issues like maybe he was homosexual or trans and this would not have been acceptable in such a close-minded community.

The first case of AIDS in the US was reported in summer of 1981, so I think we can rule that out as a reason for him to leave.

 

[msmithca858]

I am a little confused, I may have missed something. The funeral home named according to Google is located in Aurora, CO. That is a good distance from Cedaredge. Are they saying he was transported there after he was murdered? Seems like quite a risk taking a dead body in your car for a 2-3 hours trip... is do they have or had a location closer to home?

 

[inmyhumbleopinion]

I am a little confused, I may have missed something. The funeral home named according to Google is located in Aurora, CO. That is a good distance from Cedaredge. Are they saying he was transported there after he was murdered? Seems like quite a risk taking a dead body in your car for a 2-3 hours trip... is do they have or had a location closer to home?

IIRC, I believe Taylor Funeral Home started operating out of the former Pash residence beginning in 1984.

From Lori Cumpston Harrison‘s (a classmate of Roger and later a television reporter and anchor in Missoula and Bismarck; she passed away in 2011) blog, “Help crack a cold case”:

“The case went cold.

That is until 1994 when a former classmate of Roger’s told authorities he might know where the missing teen was buried. With renewed interest, law enforcement from various agencies gathered in the backyard of the former Pash home.

The mortuary yard was dug up by a NecroSearch team in 1994 after a tipster told police Roger may be buried in the backyard of the former Pash home.

The home was resold in 1984 and turned into a mortuary. A NecroSearch team specializing in finding clandestine graves used ground penetrating radar to pinpoint six areas where the land below the surface had been disturbed. Two of those spots were under the funeral home’s concrete garage floor. Four others were in the mortuary yard. A backhoe was brought in and a section of the garden measuring 20 feet by 12 feet by 2 feet was dug up, according to published reports.

Nothing was found.

Authorities decided against digging up the concrete garage floor until they could investigate further. Curious about the home and its former owner, I drove to Cedaredge on a recent Saturday afternoon and knocked on the front door. The mortuary part of the property was recently turned into a gym and salon. The house is currently under renovation. The homeowner invited me in. If walls could talk, this house definitely had a story to tell.“ (BBM)
The big dig

“1984, Fall, Wolverton family purchased ‘Palmer House’ 290 N. Grand Mesa Drive and continued Taylor Funeral Service at that location.” (BBM)
http://www.cofda.org/Resources/Documents/Colorado-Funeral-Service-History-to-1997.pdf

At the time of Roger’s disappearance, Cedaredge High School was located at 380 N. Grand Mesa Drive (the old high school building was turned into an elementary school in 2010), which is 300 ft from the former Pash residence, and later a Taylor Funeral Service:
Google Maps

Coincidence? I think not.

By the way, there still is a Taylor Funeral Home location in Cedaredge, but at a different address:
Taylor Funeral Service
105 SE Frontier Avenue, Suite F
Cedaredge, CO 81413
Taylor Funeral Service and Crematory - Delta, Cedaredge, Hotchkiss, Paonia

 

[Mom24]

I am a little confused, I may have missed something. The funeral home named according to Google is located in Aurora, CO. That is a good distance from Cedaredge. Are they saying he was transported there after he was murdered? Seems like quite a risk taking a dead body in your car for a 2-3 hours trip... is do they have or had a location closer to home?

As Humble said, the Taylor Funeral Home used to next door to the school. As for theories, mine is much simpler. I think he was assaulted in some area of the school, maybe not even with the intent to injure him, but just boys being boys.

 

[Spartygirl]

As Humble said, the Taylor Funeral Home used to next door to the school. As for theories, mine is much simpler. I think he was assaulted in some area of the school, maybe not even with the intent to injure him, but just boys being boys.

Just curious--so you don't think he was the person in the woods that was bounded up that the so called witness' saw ?? I am trying to work out a few different theories in my head (along with everyone else here LOL)

 

[Mom24]

Just curious--so you don't think he was the person in the woods that was bounded up that the so called witness' saw ?? I am trying to work out a few different theories in my head (along with everyone else here LOL)

That's one out there, but I simply don't buy into it completely. This was a moment in time, someone they saw through the trees, who knows at what distance and it simply could have been two other men out hunting.
There's been no mention of any enemies Roger had, or any issues he had with anyone so it doesn't make sense. And I can't picture in a small school of only a couple hundred children, an adult coming through and grabbing one of them and walking them through a parking lot without being seen. Not saying the men didn't see something, but I think what they saw and their interpretation of it was off.

 

[Alleykins]

I always believed this,

Roger had to leave at that moment to find out something that he probably did not want anyone else to know about. And that circumstance turned deadly and Roger was killed OR-

He decided at on that day to go to the mountains to commit suicide and did not want to leave any notes or anything as evidence because he didn't want his body to ever be found.

The thing is in either case:

Was someone else in on the plan? For example, giving Roger a rifle to die and they refuse to come forward because it's too painful for them. (This is the suicide plan.)

Or does someone know that Roger was killed over drugs, love, or money, and they don't want to come forward for the same reason as the suicide plan. (This is the murder plan.)

Whatever the case, there was a plan involved in Roger leaving, never to be seen again. No way he just ran away.

Satch

IDK, Satch. It sounds like he wouldn't just run away, and that's how it appears to me secondhand, but you never really know what's going on in someone's head. My experiences with thinking a person would in no way do something because it was contrary to my preconceived notions of them or they had everything going for them usually end up blowing my mind when I find out otherwise. So I tend to keep an open mind in cases like these because you never know. People surprise me all the time with their duplicity. People snap. People change on a dime, and you never see it coming.

 

[Malene]

What a sad and tragic case!
Can a policeman/detective share information with a witness and then demand that the person never speaks of it in public? Just like that? I don't know the US law, that's why I ask.
If not, as I suspect, one would not be obligated to not tell or talk, but rather adviced to not. Then there must be other reasons for Mr.Pash not to reveal any further information.
Mr. Pash you wrote that you at one piont thought Roger was found and you for years used his story etc in your teaching. Then you weren't concerned with the 'breaking the law' by telling? How come? Did the police tell you that you could talk about your knowlegde if and when the kid showed up?
You write that you seeked legal advice on this matter. If I was an innocent man puplicly outed as implicant in a disapperaring of a kid, possible murder, I would seek legal advice for libel and defamation. Did you do that?

I find it hard to believe Roger would just up and leave his life and family. I hope one day his family will come to know what happened.

 

[msmithca858]

I think the confusion is that Mr. Pash related what he heard... a rumor that Roger was alive and working at a gas station in Kansas... turned out not to be true. Mr. Pash was TOLD by detectives not to discuss what was in Roger's class assignment that he turned over to them. It is perfectly legal to discuss idle gossip. Now, if he revealed what was in the class paper after 37 years, I have serious doubts that anyone would be prosecuted after all this time... however, technically it is still an "open" case... although a very cold one. Further, they didn't share the information with Mr. Pash... he PROVIDED the information and yes they can admonish him to not discuss the case. Technically, I suppose he could be charged with Obstruction of Justice... but as I said, I seriously doubt it.

 

[Malene]

Thanks mssmitha858
I'm aware he shared the information, but it sounds like he was let in their theori as well. Anyways, sharing or not I was curious, if it was illegal to dicuss.
Mr Pash wrote previous that some number of students knows through his teaching career what is in the assignment, thus that he thought Roger had been found. So that made me curious as he must have had some regulations on when he was not bound or obligated to not discuss the matter anymore.
And when you see the huge impact the whole thing has had on this mans life, I'm astonished that he accepted that.

 

[Malene]

Another thing, of course I understand that a teacher in a public school are bound to secrecy (I think the english word is) relating the students in general.

 

[Brubeck]

Roger had a date with destiny and he left, picked up by an older acquaintance.

 

[Alleykins]

Another thing, of course I understand that a teacher in a public school are bound to secrecy (I think the english word is) relating the students in general.

Yes, there is confidentiality, however, this was 1981. I'm not so sure how confidential records were kept back then.

 

[lgr]

Mr. Pash you wrote that you at one piont thought Roger was found and you for years used his story etc in your teaching. Then you weren't concerned with the 'breaking the law' by telling? How come?

This part of Pash's story always bugged me, too. He used Roger's answers to the assignment as an example in later classes! He said he thought it was okay because he thought Roger had been found leading a new life elsewhere (perhaps pumping gas in Kansas).

There is another detail to this case that has been sticking in my mind all these years. One of Roger's lockermates (the one who wasn't on Websleuths, so there had to be at least three people using that locker) said the last thing Roger said was to hold the locker open, that he would be right back. If this is true, Roger thought he was just going to pop out and do something really quick. This implies to me that he made the decision to do whatever he did on the spur of the moment at his locker. I think he went to confront someone in the parking lot, like the local drug dealer or something. "I know what you are doing, and you better stop it." "Okay Roger. Why don't you get in the car and we can discuss it." It probably never occurred to him that he might be in real danger from this person. This idea absolves Pash; he was preparing for class at that time.

The lockermate who made that one post on Websleuths said something like he hopes Roger found what he was looking for. That statement has always stuck with me. Talk about fraught with meaning! I wish I knew what it meant.

I private messaged both JPash and the lockermate on Websleuths; I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they never replied.

 

[Brubeck]

I think Roger ditched school, perhaps on the spur of the moment, for a romantic assignation, and never looked back.

If so, I hope he found what he was looking for. If not - well, grim.

 

[lgr]

I think Roger ditched school, perhaps on the spur of the moment, for a romantic assignation, and never looked back.

If so, I hope he found what he was looking for. If not - well, grim.

Interesting idea, Brubeck. Very romantic, and it is at odds with my not-so-nice idea that some lowlife took him into the woods and blew his head off. I hope it happened as you wrote.

This reminds me of something JPash wrote. What if Roger went off and started a whole new life (perhaps with his romantic assignee), and then he died? Who from Cedaredge would ever know of his death? He would forever be "missing".

 

[Alleykins]

Interesting idea, Brubeck. Very romantic, and it is at odds with my not-so-nice idea that some lowlife took him into the woods and blew his head off. I hope it happened as you wrote.

This reminds me of something JPash wrote. What if Roger went off and started a whole new life (perhaps with his romantic assignee), and then he died? Who from Cedaredge would ever know of his death? He would forever be "missing".

That has happened before. Anita Drake went missing at age 15, her family thought she was murdered, except for one sister. She knew the truth and never let on and was never going to let on until her niece contacted authorities, then she came clean for her sake. 39 years she was missing then died of cancer, something totally unrelated to her disappearance. If her daughter hadn't found paperwork after she died and realized her mother wasn't who she said she was, Anita's family would have gone on believing what they did because the sister had vowed to take the secret to her grave. Even some of her sister's friends knew she was alive and never said a word.
Anita's case makes me wonder how many people did take off to start a new life, lived for a long time after, and died of natural causes, no one the wiser.