Breaking The Peace In The Pool
By: Edward Anderson
Tags: Justice, Relationships, True Crime, Society, Family

Breaking The Peace In The Pool

He loved two women. One ended up in the pool, and the other a murder suspect.

Photo by Joe Pizzio on Unsplash

Michael and Jan Roseboro were a power couple in Denver, Pennsylvania. Their wedding in 1989 was well attended with family and friends. The Roseboros appeared to be deeply in love and the perfect couple.

Money was not a worry for the couple. Michael took over his family’s business. He owned the local funeral home. Jan told people that her husband always joked that he never worried about customers because people were always dying.

Their lifestyle reflected their income. Jan decided to be a stay-at-home mom; Michael agreed that it was the right thing to do for their family.

To make sure she was comfortable, he bought a big home for the family. There was a pool in the backyard, something Jan insisted on. She wanted to be able to swim in the summer without having to go to the beach.

After the birth of their first child, the perfect marriage became strained. Michael started spending more time at work, always making excuses as to why he couldn’t be home with the family.

Jan became suspicious. One night she asked him if there was another woman. He confessed that he had been seeing someone on the side. The other woman excited him sexually and catered to his needs.

Neither wanted a divorce. They agreed to go to marriage counseling to work on their issues.

But it wasn’t enough to keep Michael from cheating again.

Another Mistress, Same Story

A few months after Jan and Michael stopped going to counseling, the cycle began again. Family dinners were missed, late nights at work became the norm.

Michael always gave the excuse that he had a lot of paperwork to catch up on. His wife did not believe him, sniping at the messenger of one such message that he always seemed to be buried under paperwork.

Things grew tense between the couple. Jan hurled accusations of infidelity at her husband. He asked her why she was a cold fish in bed. Each complained to their friends about how unhappy they were.

The person Michael complained to the most about Jan was his mistress, Angela Funk. She listened patiently and encouraged her lover to make decisions that made him happy. When he complied, she was the happiest woman in the world.

Angela and Michael checked into hotels every chance they got. When people saw them together, they claimed to be working on a surprise for Jan. Nobody questioned why they needed to be in a hotel room to plot a surprise.

Word got back to Angela’s husband about the affair. He was livid that his wife was fooling around on him. And then he found text messages between Michael and Angela. They talked about wanting to be together and getting married.

Before her husband could yell at her or end their marriage, Angela revealed she was pregnant. She didn’t tell him that Michael was the father of the baby.

A Big Splash

Michael and Jan’s marriage started to break apart during this time. She threatened to file for divorce nearly every day. Her husband countered that if she was so unhappy in the relationship, she should leave.

Neither wanted the marriage to end. Not because they loved one another. Rather, the amount of money that was on the line. Jan would be giving up her cushy lifestyle. She would get child support and alimony, but the amounts would not be anywhere near what came into the house every month.

Money was also Michael’s motivator to keep the marriage together. He feared losing half of everything to his wife. When he married her, he encouraged her spending habits, but now that things were ending, he didn’t want to continue paying for her.

The night of July 22, 2008, was hot and balmy. Jan sat by the pool while her husband claimed to be in bed.

Around 10 pm, Michael called 911. He told them he found his wife at the bottom of the pool; she was unresponsive. While on the phone with the emergency operator, he performed CPR.

When the paramedics arrived, they took Jan to the hospital. Rather than go with his wife, Michael stayed home with the children. Police noted that they thought it was weird.

Neighbors also reported that the lights that allegedly woke him were off. Investigators took note of that and started asking around about anything else they should know about the Roseboros.

An unknown person tipped them off to Michael’s extramarital affair. They mentioned Angela by name. The police had a suspect.

Underneath It All

They brought Angela in for questioning. She told them all about her affair with Michael. During her testimony, she revealed that she was pregnant with her lover’s child.

Angela told detectives that she was home with her husband at the time of the murder. Something he confirmed.

Police turned their attention to Michael. Something about his story didn’t fit with the facts as they knew them. He claimed to have jumped into the pool to save his wife, but his clothes were bone dry.

Officials who arrived on the scene noted that his face was scratched up pretty bad. They decided to bring him in and see if he would tell them anything.

One detective asked about the scratches on his face in passing. Michael answered that he’d been playing with the kids in the pool, and one scratched him. And so it went with most of their questions; he had an answer for nearly everything.

He left without being arrested. There wasn’t enough evidence to keep him longer.

Until forensics came back on Jan’s body, Michael’s DNA was under her fingernails; it appeared as though the two fought before she died.

With Michael as the prime suspect, the case was turned over to the prosecutors.

Michael Roseboro was charged with his wife’s murder, using only circumstantial evidence.

The Court Fight

Prosecutors decided their case should be a referendum on Michael’s character. While half the town believed him to be a nice, sweet, if misguided man, the other half thought of him as a sociopath, a womanizer. The District Attorney seized on the latter.

They played the 911 tapes, where Michael sounded cold and in control, in their estimation. His text messages and emails with Angela were presented to the jury. The most salacious revelation was saved for last; Michael and Angela spent three hours in a hotel the day Jan was murdered.

Defense attorneys tried to pick apart the state’s case. They argued that Michael’s DNA was under her fingernails because they were married. What married couples did behind closed doors was between them and God.

Cheating on his wife did not equate to killing her; they argued about the Angela-centric evidence. He was a young, good looking guy that women threw themselves at. If he partook in an affair or two, wasn’t that an issue for him and Jan to deal with?

The jury disagreed with the defense. They voted to convict Michael on first-degree murder charges.

Pennsylvania law says that the mandatory sentence is life in prison without a chance of parole. The judge imposed that punishment without any additional comment.

Michael reportedly confessed to another prisoner that he was the one who killed his wife. His family is devastated.