June 21, 1996
Photo captions: Workers search the dirt being dug out of the foundation area of a home Friday afternoon, looking for clues in the disappearance of Marie Watson. The home was moved off the foundation earlier in the week so the foundation area could be searched.
Photo captions: Stephani Wade, sister-in-law of Marie Watson, fights back tears as she watches investigators search for clues in the disappearance of Watson.
Photo captions: Archaeologist Robert Yohe holds up what investigators believe is a woman's T-shirt.
Remains may help solve disappearance
By Elizabeth Ommachen The Idaho Statesman
EMMETT-- Investigators unearthed a 4-inch bone fragment and a shredded t-shirt on Friday beneath the foundation of an Emmett trailer that could unlock the 19-year-old mystery of a missing woman.
The owner of the trailer, Ramon "Raymond" Rogers, has been accused of killing three people in California.
But Gem County authorities say he's not the prime suspect in the 1977 disappearance of 28-year-old Marie Watson. His parents are.
Gem County detectives reopened the case after San Diego authorities arrested Rogers in March. They now suspect Watson was killed and her body could be buried under Rogers' trailer. Detective Tom Nesbitt said he suspects Rogers' parents--Dorothy and Mike Rogers--were involved.
In 1977, Watson and the couple were entangled in a heated custody dispute over Watson's children, Jack and Sandy [sic]. The dispute ended when Watson vanished. The children were later sent to Kansas to live with Watson's mother.
Neither Dorothy Rogers, now of Payette, nor Mike Rogers, who reportedly lives in Cascade, could be reached for comment.
The couple briefly cared for Watson's children and raised Ramon Rogers, their adopted son, and four foster children.
Mike Rogers, 54, was convicted on an incest charge in 1979 and served about three years at a state prison south of Boise. He and Dorothy Rogers have since divorced.
Nesbitt said family members, friends, and neighbors have recently come forward with allegations Dorothy and Mike Rogers abused Watson's children.
"It was pretty horrific--every abuse known to man: physical, mental, sexual," Nesbitt said.
Michelle Rogers, one of the Rogers' foster children whom they later adopted, said the allegations against her parents are "ridiculous."
"I was a happy child in that home," said Rogers, 27, who lives with her mother in Payette. "I'm amazed at what these people are saying. It's ridiculous to stand out there and say there's a body buried under there."
FBI and state investigators joined Gem County authorities Friday at Rogers' property, about thee miles west of Em--- (see Emmett/4B)
(Emmett/From 1B) mett. Using a ground-penetrating radar, authorities pinpointed five underground locations where Watson's body could be buried, including a pig pen and a fruit cellar.
Authorities discovered the leg bone of a pig near the pen and a sheep's vertebrae under the fruit cellar.
Jackhammers broke through the cement foundation early Friday and five Gem County Jail inmates were brought to shovel deeper.
"All of a sudden that bone showed up and the very next scoop was the shirt," Nesbitt said.
"We identified it as a woman's T-shirt and the bone--it was a corner piece that would appear to be a shin bone.
"If that comes out to be, in fact, a human bone we're going to dig up the whole foundation."
Forensics experts in Boise will analyze the bone fragment and the torn shirt, which was stained with a reddish-brown substance--possibly blood.
Watson was last seen wearing a T-shirt and jeans on Nov. 21, 1977--the night she vanished.
Even if the bone and the shirt are linked to Watson, Nesbitt said that would not be enough to obtain arrest warrants for Dorothy and Mike Rogers.
He said the search will continue until investigators find Watson's body or determine that it's not there.
The search in Emmett bares a striking resemblance to the one conducted by California authorities in March, when the teeth and fingers of 32-year-old Beatrice Toronczak were found beneath a storage garage at Ramon Rogers' San Diego apartment.
Toronczak was the mother of Ramon Rogers' 6 year old son.
Rogers, an actor, musician, and businessman, is also charged in the 1993 slaying of his former girlfriend, 33-year-old Rose Albano.
Rogers, 36, is suspected in the 1993 disappearance of his former roommate, Ronald Stadt, whose body has never been found.
Watson's sister-in-law, Stephani Wade, hopes the search in Emmett will help bring an end to her family's 19-year nightmare.
"I told them I didn't care what was left of her," Wade said, sobbing as she watched the digging. "If they found anything, I wanted a chance to say good-bye."
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