New book sheds light on four-decade-old murder case in Santa Barbara County

It was a notorious double murder case in Santa Barbara County four decades ago. Now the story is the focus of a new book.

A man claimed his wife and stepson jumped overboard to save the family dog ​​that had fallen overboard during a sailing trip to the Channel Islands. Verna and Doug Roehler drowned, while the man, Fred Roehler, survived the incident in January 1981.

Initially it was thought to be a terrible accident, but investigators and a jury later concluded it was murder.

A family friend from Ventura, who is also a journalist, didn’t believe it at first.

“I thought he was a man who was unlucky. That was unthinkable,” said Ivor Davis. He and his late wife Sally had become friends with Roehler.

Davis coached a youth soccer team in Malibu and Roehler approached him about helping coach since his stepson was on the team. He said Roehler seemed like a nice guy and that he was helpful and reliable.

Roehler’s wife, Verna, was a teacher, and the Davis’ son was in her class. The families became friends. But when Davis and his family moved, they didn’t see the Roehlers as often as they used to.

“I’m sitting at home. I’ve moved to Ventura. It’s the day after New Year’s (1981),” Davis said. “I pick up the local newspaper and on the front page is a picture of Fred being carried on a stretcher from a Coast Guard boat. And the story that followed… Verna had died in a boating accident. Douglas had died. The dog had survived and Fred had survived. It was a terrible, terrible shock.”

Then there was even more shocking news.

“Two years later, we found the newspaper and Fred Roehler had been arrested for their murder in a murder for profit case. Fred Roehler had taken out insurance on his new wife and stepson. The policy had been taken out just days before the deaths,” Davis said.

In 1985, Roehler was found guilty of the murders and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Davis was a newspaper reporter and his wife Sally was a former television presenter and magazine writer. They decided to do their own research to exonerate their friend. But they say they found disturbing things.

“What changed my mind and Sally’s mind was what we discovered when we returned to Richmond, Indiana, where Fred Roehler grew up,” Davis said.

He said they found that people didn’t care about him.

But he discovered something bigger. He said they discovered that Roehler’s father had filed insurance claims and received compensation for fires that destroyed a car, a houseboat and a guest house.

Davis said they were horrified because they knew that Fred’s houseboat, a guest house and a car had burned down in Malibu and San Francisco and that he, like his father, had collected the insurance money.

The prosecution was able to successfully argue that the murder of mother and son was due to money.

Davis said there was also the question of the death of Roehler’s first wife, who drowned. Investigators concluded it was an accident. Prosecutors’ efforts to admit that as evidence at trial failed.

Davis admits that he and his wife were convinced they were mistaken and that the man they thought was their friend was actually a murderer.

They tried to publish their book, The devil in my friendfour decades ago, but Davis said her publisher abandoned the project after Roehler threatened to sue. Now it’s finally coming out.

Roehler is now over 80 and still behind bars. Several of his requests for parole have been denied.

Ivor Davis will be holding a book signing in Santa Barbara on June 26th. It will take place at Chaucer’s Bookstore on Wednesday at 6 p.m.