page_title: Randy Roth
section_title: Investigation
hierarchical_section_title: Randy Roth / Investigation
caption_attribution_description: English: View across Lake Sammamish, from Marymoor Park. Looking south.
context_page_description: Randy Roth is a convicted murderer and thief from Washington. He was convicted of the 1991 murder of his fourth wife, Cynthia Baumgartner Roth. He was suspected but never tried for murdering his second wife, Janis Roth, in 1981. In both deaths he was the only witness. He claimed the activity that led to the death was the idea of his deceased wife, and the bodies were cremated as quickly as could be arranged. He was also convicted of stealing in the form of defrauding insurers and the Social Security Administration and was sentenced to one year for theft and 50 years for first degree murder in 1992. At least two true crime books are based on Roth's crimes, A Rose for Her Grave by Ann Rule and Fatal Charm by Carlton Smith.
context_section_description: Detectives and prosecutors assigned to the case knew from the beginning it would be difficult to secure a conviction. There was no physical evidence that Roth had forcibly drowned his wife and no eyewitnesses who actually saw him do so. They proceeded methodically, interviewing the families of his previous wives along with former friends and neighbors. They began to uncover evidence that Roth's motive was primarily financial, and that he had repeatedly attempted to defraud insurance companies and had stolen from his employers and nearly every job he had ever held. The investigators came to the conclusion that Randy Roth wanted a much more lavish lifestyle than he could afford on a mechanic's income, with expensive homes, multiple cars, and various other expensive toys for himself and his son. Roth's tax returns over the last decade showed that he typically averaged $20,000-$30,000 in annual income, well below what was needed for his lifestyle and that most of his money had come from insurance payments. He had discovered a talent for seducing single mothers with money, then disposing of them to fund his lifestyle. Lori Baker, a long time friend of Cynthia's, discovered that her will and other possessions were missing from her safe deposit box, and that Randy Roth was the last person to have accessed the box, two days after Cynthia's death. A second copy of the will was discovered in the county recording office. Roth had planned to adopt Cynthia's sons and raise them as his own while also collecting survivor's benefits for them and he was surprised and outraged to learn that she'd named Lori Baker as the legal guardian of them in the event of her death. When Baker came to collect the children's belongings, Roth let them into the house only reluctantly, would not let them take some of their possessions and proceeded to rant about how they'd "ruined" his scenario and he wouldn't have enough money to keep up his house payments. Had his scheme worked, he would have been financially set for life, collecting a huge insurance payment from Cynthia's death, plus survivor's benefits for both her sons, and would likely never need to work again. He could spend all his free time buying, selling, and fixing cars, and racing.
  Shortly after Tyson and Rylie went to live with Lori Baker, Roth put the Woodinville home back on the market at a lower price than he'd paid for it, in an apparent desire to unload it as quickly as possible.
  Speaking to investigators, Lori Baker talked about the safe deposit box and Cynthia's depressed, diminished personality in the final months of her life. She talked of divorcing Roth, but Baker said she would have never carried through on it because of her religious beliefs. After Tyson and Rylie moved in with her, she also learned for the first time about Roth's shockingly harsh parenting tactics, which Cynthia had never told her about. He regularly spanked the boys and Gregg with a belt, or would force them to perform dozens of squat thrusts if they misbehaved, even making stand outside in their underwear during wintertime and kneeling on gravel. He also had them watch graphic war movies like Hamburger Hill and Full Metal Jacket.
  When the investigators talked to the boys themselves, they confirmed Roth's harsh punishments and also admitted that they'd seen him stealing items from Bill Pierre Ford numerous times. They said that he had sometimes been good to them and did fun things, but if given a choice, they really didn't want to continue living with him and that he'd not shown much of any emotion at their mother's death. He also started getting rid of Cynthia's belongings the day after her death and urged them to not be upset over anything.
  Roth was not happy at learning that he wouldn't get custody of Tyson and Rylie and when the latter showed up with Lori Baker to collect theirs and Cynthia's belongings, he only grudgingly let them into the house. He became angrier and angrier as their visit progressed and wouldn't let the boys take some of their things. Whatever they did get from Roth had been jammed into t
caption: Investigators for both the prosecution and the defense repeatedly visited Lake Sammamish and recorded multiple attempts to recreate the conditions described by Roth's account of the drowning. Both sides used their own videotaped recreations during the trial.
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