JusticeWillBeServed
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2014
- Messages
- 7,647
- Reaction score
- 2,346
After more than four decades, an arrest has been made in the cold case murder of Donald Rodgers. Rodgers was at his friend's house (Melvin Knox) when he was fatally shot and stabbed. Knox claimed that an intruder broke in and committed the homicide; a story that investigators doubted. He was arrested and charged with the crime back in 1973 but the charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence. Now, he is being charged again.
Fort Worth man arrested in 42-year-old cold case
Fort Worth man arrested in 42-year-old cold case
A 58-year-old Fort worth man who was arrested but never prosecuted in the slaying of a teenage friend 42 years ago is back in jail, again accused in the case.
Melvin Linn Knox was 15 when his friend, 14-year-old Donald Bryan Rodgers, was found fatally shot and stabbed on Aug. 7, 1973, inside the Knox family’s home in the 2300 block of Faett Court.
At the time, Knox had blamed the slaying on an apparent intruder. He was arrested days after the slaying but the case was later dismissed for what the Tarrant County district attorney’s office deemed “insufficient evidence.”
Cold case detectives reopened the case this spring and on Thursday, officers arrested Knox at his Fort Worth home on a murder warrant. He has since confessed, police say.
“It was unclear exactly what the motive was but he did admit to stabbing and shooting the victim,” said cold case Detective M.J. McCormack
“Everybody I’ve talked to about this case remembers it very clearly because it was so graphic,” McCormack said. “The boy, now man, who had the shotgun pointed at him remembers it like it was yesterday. He was very clear and his story was similar to the original story.”
McCormack said he also located a new witness, who provided additional evidence in the case. Police declined to elaborate.