gregory roth son of randy roth

No i batted an middle when Randy Roth'southward 2nd married woman roughshod off a cliff in 1981, but the death of his fourth wife in 1991 — along with the large insurance policy he had on her life — aroused suspicion.

Randy Roth was married four times. Two of those marriages ended with his wife's death.

First was his second wife Janis Roth, who fell to her decease during a hike at Buoy Stone. The second was his fourth married woman Cynthia Baumgartner Roth, who drowned in Lake Sammamish — the very same lake where Ted Bundy had abducted two women a few years before.

In both instances, Roth was the merely witness. In both instances, he had the bodies cremated equally quickly as possible.

At commencement, information technology seemed as if Roth may have been an unfortunate victim of tragedy, doomed forever to be a single father. Just police force soon noticed that Roth was quick to greenbacks in on his fourth wife'due south big life insurance policy. When they questioned him about the events that led to Cynthia'due south death, holes in Roth's story emerged and became difficult to ignore.

Had Roth murdered his wife? Investigators knew it would be difficult to prove, but as they dug deeper into his past, the image of the real Randy Roth began to take shape. Roth had repeatedly attempted to defraud insurance companies and steal from past employers, for example, and his lifestyle was far more lavish than his reported annual income could have provided for.

Soon plenty, his motive became articulate: Roth had killed his wife Cynthia to collect on her life insurance — and he may very well take done the same to Janis.

David And Randy Roth, The Killer Brothers

Built-in on Dec. 26, 1954, Randy Roth was one of five children born to Gordon and Lizabeth Roth. The family moved to Washington soon after Roth'south nativity, and he grew up in that location.

Throughout his life, Roth bonded with his father more than than his mother, and after his parents' divorce, he effectively cut his female parent out of his life entirely.

Lizabeth Roth would later express that Gordon had been a strict and abusive father who specifically had discouraged his sons from showing whatsoever emotions, which he considered to exist as well feminine.

"Randy and his brother were brought up past their father, who didn't allow them to show emotion," she told the Seatle Times, explaining that "He (Randy Roth) was reprimanded for it. That's just the way he was brought upwards."

Unfortunately, this had a lasting impression on both Randy and David.

As criminal offence author Ann Rule detailed in her book A Rose for Her Grave, David and Randy Roth both lacked empathy as adults — and each became a killer.

On Aug. 13, 1977, 20-year-old David Roth was arrested for possession of marijuana after being stopped for a minor traffic violation in the tiny hamlet of Gilded Bar in Snohomish County, Washington. While searching the vehicle, police also found a rifle and armament.

A day later, a couple collecting blackberries discovered the torso of a young woman who had been strangled and shot vii times. At showtime, these seemed like unrelated events.

Elizabeth Roberts And David Roth

Wikimedia Commons Elizabeth Roberts and David Roth.

Withal, a few days later, a friend of David Roth's walked into the Snohomish County Sheriff's Part with an alarming bit of news: David Roth had confessed to him that he murdered the girl. She was hitchhiking near the Boeing Visitor'south Everett plant when David Roth spotted her and picked her up. They bought some beer and went to the woods to beverage it.

David Roth told his friend that he tried to have sex with the girl then, just she rejected him. In retaliation, he strangled her with an rubberband cord, took a burglarize from the trunk of his car, and shot her.

The Seattle Times reports that David was due to appear in court on Aug. 22 for a pre-sentencing interview on a marijuana possession charge, only he never showed. He was on the run for more than a year until he was arrested on Jan. 18, 1979 in Port Orchard, Washington.

David Roth spent 26 years in prison house before being released in 2005. He died of cancer on Aug. ix, 2015 — about exactly 38 years to the day after he killed the hitchhiking girl. Five years later, The News Tribune reported, she was finally identified with Deoxyribonucleic acid testing. Her name was Elizabeth Ann Roberts.

"Randy Roth had told a number of women nearly his blood brother, 'the murderer,'" Rule wrote. "This was one of Randy's stories that appeared to exist true."

The mean solar day David Roth was sentenced to life in prison, in February 1980, Randy was 25. That same month, Randy Roth and his first wife, Donna Sanchez, divorced. Before the wintertime was over, Roth met Janis Miranda, and within a year they were married.

Then, on November. 27, 1981, Janis Miranda Roth roughshod to her death off Beacon Rock.

Janis Miranda And Randy Roth'due south Fateful Cyclone Romance

Randy Roth met Janis Miranda at a Parents Without Partners social. Roth had had a son with his kickoff married woman, Donna Sanchez, in 1977, a boy named Greg, and Roth used his status as a father to his advantage. Janis likewise had a child, a daughter named Jalina, from an before wedlock.

"Sometimes Janis leapt without thinking," Rule wrote, "making decisions based on emotions rather than on common sense. She seemed to modify her mind as often every bit she changed her dress. The one thing she was absolutely steadfast about was her daughter. Jalina ever came first. Janis would have given up her life for her niggling daughter."

Wikimedia Commons Buoy Rock, where Janis Roth roughshod to her death.

Roth appealed to this aspect of Janis, telling her about Greg and showing her a photo of him that he kept with him always. They connected, Janis felt, over their common dearest for their own children. To her it seemed that Randy Roth was unlike from other men who had come up into her life, so when he asked if he might telephone call her, she agreed with enthusiasm.

"The more time she spent with Randy, the more she thanked her lucky stars," Dominion wrote. "All he seemed to care about was her happiness. She had never known anyone similar that before."

Roth showered her with love and amore at showtime, but that quickly faded subsequently they married. He was closed off, inattentive — fifty-fifty their sex life all of a sudden died away.

Not long afterwards they returned from their honeymoon, Janis Roth'south car was stolen, and Roth collected the insurance money. He convinced his wife to quit her job and together, in September 1981, they bought $100,000 in whole life insurance.

The insurance took effect on Nov. seven of that yr.

Three weeks later, Randy Roth suggested the two go on a hiking trip to Beacon Rock — and Janis Miranda Roth was never seen alive again. Roth, the sole witness to his wife's death, claimed that she fell while they were hiking.

Within a few months, he had collected the $100,000 in life insurance proceeds.

He was never charged with Janis' murder.

The Murder Of Cynthia Roth

By the jump of 1990, Randy Roth had once again been married and divorced, this time to a adult female named Donna Clift, another single female parent, and tried to defraud several insurance companies.

A timeline of the events from Radford University's Department of Psychology shows that Roth was also fired from ii different jobs — i at Vitamilk, the other at Cascade Ford — filed for unemployment benefits, and reported a robbery at his home totaling $57,000 in losses.

Then, he met Cynthia "Cindy" Baumgartner. Like the other women in his life, Cindy was a single mother. She had two children, Tyson and Rylie. Within just a few months, Roth and Cindy were married, and he and Greg had moved into Cindy's home in South Everett.

Notably, Dominion wrote, "Cindy was far meliorate established financially than Randy was."

Cynthia Roth

Male monarch County Police force Cynthia "Cindy" Baumgartner.

In early January 1991, Randy and Cindy Roth purchased more than life insurance — $385,000 worth, according to the Seattle Times. She even inverse the beneficiary of her life insurance from her sons to Roth, as he claimed he had made her the casher of his. This was, however, a lie.

But just as he had done with Janis, Roth'south attitude towards his new married woman speedily changed. She started to become unhappy in their marriage, as friends noted, and even wrote in a journal that she felt Roth hated nearly everything nearly her.

In 1 journal entry, she wrote:

Randy hates the swamp that Cindy made him move to.

Randy hates Cindy'south house.

Randy hates Cindy'south things

Randy hates Cindy's money.

Randy hates Cindy's independent nature.

Then, on July 23, 1991, Roth suggested they take a family trip to Lake Sammamish. He left the children to play on their own and took a raft out onto the lake with his married woman.

Lake Sammamish

Wikimedia Commons Lake Sammamish, where Randy Roth drowned his wife, Cindy. A few years earlier, Ted Bundy abducted two of his victims hither.

When he returned, she was dead. Roth claimed that a speedboat wake had capsized their raft and that Cynthia drowned as a result.

Roth wasted no time in trying to collect on Cindy's life insurance, either. And but a mere 2 days after her death, Roth emptied out her safe deposit box, which contained her will and jewelry from her ex-husband.

Meanwhile, in early August, a woman named Kristina Baker notified police that she had seen Roth and Cindy out on their raft — and that it had not flipped over, as he claimed.

Roth was arrested for murder on October. nine, 1991, with his trial taking place from January to April 1992. He was ultimately institute guilty of the murder of Cynthia Baumgartner Roth and sentenced to 55 years in prison at the Washington State Penitentiary where he was once once again reunited with his blood brother, David.

And though Randy Roth was never charged with the murder of Janis Miranda Roth, many people believe that he killed her to collect on her life insurance, simply equally he had done with Cynthia.

After reading the disturbing story of Randy Roth, read about some other depraved killer, Shelly Knotek, the serial killer mom who brutalized her ain family unit. Then, read the story of Larry Cistron Bell, the killer who shocked even "Mindhunter" John Douglas.