bbmcrae
New Member
Came across this story while reading about BTK...very puzzling. This guy, Robert Rogers, seems...well, read for yourself and see what you think. Scroll down for a second, more comprehensive (and disturbing) article on this story.
http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/1329282.html
Thursday, March 3, 2005
Turnpike Tragedy: What Really Happened?
For the trooper who worked the scene of the turnpike flood it's a night he will never forget. Part of what still bothers him about the incident is how his story and Robert Rogers' story are so different.
You've heard his story of the tragic night Robert Rogers lost his entire family in a deadly flood on the Kansas Turnpike.
"We were trying to figure out a way, any possible way, we could carry four children and the thought of any one of us slipping or dropping a child made it not an option," said Rogers.
But for the Kansas Highway Patrol trooper first on the scene that night the story Robert Rogers tells isn't exactly what he remembers happening. He says for him the most chilling part of the whole thing is knowing Melissa and the four children didn't have to die.
"Sometimes people die and it can't be avoided and you can accept that because that's the way it is, but in some cases when you see people die and it could have been easily avoided that's disturbing," says Trooper Marc McCune from KHP.
_____________________________________________________
And the second article (which is disturbing by the questions it raises, and by the fact that Rogers employs the term "God-incidence", which sounds like something out of the mouth of Homer Simpson's neighbor Ned Flanders):
http://www.pitch.com/issues/2004-10-14/news/feature_print.html
Walking On Water
Robert Rogers captivates audiences with the story of how his wife and kids died. Problem is, the story doesnt hold water.
BY KENDRICK BLACKWOOD
Almost from the start, reporters covering the August 30, 2003, flood deaths on Interstate 35 focused more on Robert Rogers' reaction to his family's drowning than how he escaped the same fate.
A freak rainstorm washed over the Kansas Turnpike near Emporia that night and carried away seven vehicles, including the Rogerses' minivan and one man who had been trying to save the family inside it.
Robert Rogers managed to survive, but the bodies of three of his children were found the next morning, still strapped into the seats of the overturned van. A few hours later, his eldest daughter's corpse was discovered against a barbed-wire fence. Three days after the flood, the bodies of Rogers' wife, Melissa, and the rescuer, Al Larsen, were found in a retention pond more than a mile from the highway.
However, what seemed to captivate the media then -- and again at the event's anniversary in August -- was the curious way that Rogers reacted.
As if he were filled with joy.
Media outlets from local papers to national television broadcasts related Rogers' description of his own survival as a miracle. Again and again, Rogers has said that even as the water rose and began filling his minivan, even as the vehicle was washed into what had become a roaring river, even as he was sucked through a window into the water, even as he returned to an empty house, he felt the peace of a loving God.
Within weeks of the funerals for his wife and children, Roberts had quit his job as an electrical engineer and begun a full-time ministry devoted to speaking about the last moments of his children and his wife, telling the tale as an uplifting one about God's grace.
He created a Web page to tally his church and media appearances. This week, he will speak at a conference in Wichita, a mortuary in Hutchinson, and two churches in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He doesn't charge a set fee for his testimony, but he does accept "love offerings." The former music major and café pianist also sells two CDs for $16 each through the Web site.
Like the reporters who first told his story, the church audiences who see Rogers today tend to fixate on the strength of his faith in the wake of tragedy. Rarely does anyone ask one of the most obvious questions.
How exactly did he walk away from the "wall of water" that drowned his wife and kids?
http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/1329282.html
Thursday, March 3, 2005
Turnpike Tragedy: What Really Happened?
For the trooper who worked the scene of the turnpike flood it's a night he will never forget. Part of what still bothers him about the incident is how his story and Robert Rogers' story are so different.
You've heard his story of the tragic night Robert Rogers lost his entire family in a deadly flood on the Kansas Turnpike.
"We were trying to figure out a way, any possible way, we could carry four children and the thought of any one of us slipping or dropping a child made it not an option," said Rogers.
But for the Kansas Highway Patrol trooper first on the scene that night the story Robert Rogers tells isn't exactly what he remembers happening. He says for him the most chilling part of the whole thing is knowing Melissa and the four children didn't have to die.
"Sometimes people die and it can't be avoided and you can accept that because that's the way it is, but in some cases when you see people die and it could have been easily avoided that's disturbing," says Trooper Marc McCune from KHP.
_____________________________________________________
And the second article (which is disturbing by the questions it raises, and by the fact that Rogers employs the term "God-incidence", which sounds like something out of the mouth of Homer Simpson's neighbor Ned Flanders):
http://www.pitch.com/issues/2004-10-14/news/feature_print.html
Walking On Water
Robert Rogers captivates audiences with the story of how his wife and kids died. Problem is, the story doesnt hold water.
BY KENDRICK BLACKWOOD
Almost from the start, reporters covering the August 30, 2003, flood deaths on Interstate 35 focused more on Robert Rogers' reaction to his family's drowning than how he escaped the same fate.
A freak rainstorm washed over the Kansas Turnpike near Emporia that night and carried away seven vehicles, including the Rogerses' minivan and one man who had been trying to save the family inside it.
Robert Rogers managed to survive, but the bodies of three of his children were found the next morning, still strapped into the seats of the overturned van. A few hours later, his eldest daughter's corpse was discovered against a barbed-wire fence. Three days after the flood, the bodies of Rogers' wife, Melissa, and the rescuer, Al Larsen, were found in a retention pond more than a mile from the highway.
However, what seemed to captivate the media then -- and again at the event's anniversary in August -- was the curious way that Rogers reacted.
As if he were filled with joy.
Media outlets from local papers to national television broadcasts related Rogers' description of his own survival as a miracle. Again and again, Rogers has said that even as the water rose and began filling his minivan, even as the vehicle was washed into what had become a roaring river, even as he was sucked through a window into the water, even as he returned to an empty house, he felt the peace of a loving God.
Within weeks of the funerals for his wife and children, Roberts had quit his job as an electrical engineer and begun a full-time ministry devoted to speaking about the last moments of his children and his wife, telling the tale as an uplifting one about God's grace.
He created a Web page to tally his church and media appearances. This week, he will speak at a conference in Wichita, a mortuary in Hutchinson, and two churches in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He doesn't charge a set fee for his testimony, but he does accept "love offerings." The former music major and café pianist also sells two CDs for $16 each through the Web site.
Like the reporters who first told his story, the church audiences who see Rogers today tend to fixate on the strength of his faith in the wake of tragedy. Rarely does anyone ask one of the most obvious questions.
How exactly did he walk away from the "wall of water" that drowned his wife and kids?
