Worth More Dead

and reunited with his loyal wife, Cheryl. He had decided to become a registered nurse, and he also taught very popular judo classes. His life was definitely on an upward swing, especially when he and Cheryl welcomed a new baby son.

Staff party at Bay Ford—just before Roland Pitre came home to Cheryl. Her friend Greg Meakin is in the center and Cheryl is on the right.

Kitsap County detective Doug Wright worked with Seattle homicide detectives to solve the baffling murder of Cheryl Pitre. Here, he is participating in a raid on a marijuana grower.

Kitsap County detective Jim Harris who, with his partner, Doug Wright, investigated the murder of Cheryl Pitre in October 1988. It would take more than fifteen years before that mystery was finally solved.

To the casual observer, this looked like an ordinary bathroom. But behind the shower curtain was a cleverly designed and insulated prison, built to hide a teenage kidnap victim. This was only the latest of Roland Pitre’s complicated plots to make money for himself.

The cell hidden behind the shower curtain was padded with thick insulation so a kidnap victim’s cries for help wouldn’t be heard. Pitre worked for days to build what was, essentially, a death chamber for a teenager.

Lt. Lewis Olan first met Roland Pitre when his safe was mysteriously stolen, and Pitre was beaten while trying to get family mementos back. Later, Olan investigated the attempted kidnapping of Pitre’s stepson.

Seattle police homicide detective Hank Gruber in 1988. Gruber thought he was giving only a “courtesy assist” to detectives from Kitsap County in a missing person case. It wasn’t long before he found that he was deeply immersed in a homicide case in his own jurisdiction. It was to be one of the most frustrating cases of his long career—but sixteen years later, though he was retired, he saw that justice was finally done.

Fred McKee on his way to court to be sentenced for the murder for hire of Cheryl Pitre. The person who hired him once declared everlasting love for her.

Roland Pitre in 2004 as he appeared in court. The charismatic ladies’ man had lost much of his charm, and he heard his own family beg a judge to send him away for as long as possible.

“IT’S REALLY WEIRD
LOOKING AT MY OWN GRAVE”

    Sex killer William Scribner planned to add to the graveyard where he’d left his first victim. Luckily, he wasn’t clever enough to overcome the next victim he chose.

OLD MAN’S DARLING

    Denver detectives looking for the motivation behind a deadly shoot-out with most unlikely participants had to look no further than this tape recorder that lay on the ground next to the bodies. It was all there.

Randy Yoder’s pickup truck. CSI placed placards to mark bullets and casings. As Yoder tried to save Justyn Rosen and himself, they were caught in a “shooting gallery.”

Justyn Rosen’s new Ford Expedition SUV after the shoot-out outside a Denver police station. Rosen flung open his door and scrambled for safety behind Officer Yoder’s truck as Yoder desperately tried to save him.

Denver police officer Randy Yoder had just gone off duty, removed his body armor, and stashed his radio and service revolver when he encountered the most dangerous felon of his career.

Officer Yoder was shot twice by a woman with a gun as he tried to save her real target’s life. These wounds are scant inches from his heart and lungs, and he had just taken off his body armor. He was very, very lucky.

Justyn Rosen, 80, chose his final mistress for her beauty, never realizing how dangerous she could be when her heart was broken.

Teresa Perez had many loves in her short life, but Justyn Rosen, a married man old enough to be her grandfather, was the only one she seemed to love with all her heart. She simply could not let him desert her.

These four Denver police officers were plunged into a deadly shoot-out in their own station’s parking lot. Here they receive the department’s Medal of Honor for their actions on the night of October 3, 2003. Left to Right: Officers Randy Yoder, Joey Perez, Danny Perez, Captain Joseph Padilla.

ALL FOR NOTHING

    Larry Sturholm, one of two victims in “All for Nothing,” is shown here (third from left) with the staff of the armed forces radio station at the base he was assigned to in 1968 in Samsun, Turkey. His hilarious scripts for soap opera style “dramas” brightened up the bleak days at the “superspy” base.

Debra Sweiger, 35, was a tall