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Reinholds mother of 4 slain
Wife of Denver funeral home director beaten, drowned in her backyard pool.
Lancaster New Era
Published: Jul 24, 2008
14:40 EST
Reinholds
By TOM MURSE, Staff

The home at the corner of West Main and Creek Road in Reinholds was the site of the homicide of a 45-y...(more)
 
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Jan E. Roseboro
 
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A police cruiser sits near a fence that surrounds Jan Roseboro's backyard pool, where she was found un...(more)
 
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Site of homicide
 
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Mother of 4 slain
Mother of 4 slain
 
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A 45-year-old mother of four, whose husband said he found her unconscious in their backyard swimming pool late Tuesday night, had been severely beaten and drowned, authorities said today.

Jan E. Roseboro suffered multiple blunt force trauma and died of multiple traumatic injuries and freshwater drowning, Lancaster County forensic pathologist Dr. Wayne K. Ross found in an autopsy on Wednesday.

Ross ruled the death a homicide.

"This was a significant beating," District Attorney Craig Stedman said today. "There is no possibility this was accidental. She had multiple trauma, on multiple parts of her body - all over her body - as well as drowning. She didn't do it herself.

"Someone murdered her, and that person is at-large in the community," he said.

The county coroner, Dr. Stephen G. Diamantoni, said his office was still investigating the extent of Mrs. Roseboro's injuries, but added: "The injuries were consistent with a brutal, brutal beating."


      Mother of 4 slain


Investigators would not identify a suspect or person of interest today, but police were executing a search warrant at the Roseboro home, at 107 W. Main St. in Reinholds, late this morning. Four officers were scouring the pool area for evidence, and evidence trucks were parked by the house.
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Roseboro was the wife of Michael A. Roseboro, a director of the Roseboro Funeral Home in Denver, which is well known in the northeastern part of the county and has been in the family for more than a century.

Asked whether Mr. Roseboro was at home at the time of the incident, Stedman said, "The information we have at this point in time is that he was at home."

It is unclear whether any or all of the children also were at home, which is northeast of Ephrata and just west of Adamstown in West Cocalico Township.

Robert Bachman, a cousin of Mrs. Roseboro who described her as "like a daughter to me," said he was stunned by the news.

He said he learned of her death from Mr. Roseboro on Wednesday.

"It is just terrible," he said.

He said Mr. Roseboro told him the couple had been talking by the pool Tuesday night.

"Michael and Jan were sitting by the pool talking. He went inside. She didn't come right in, and he went back out to look for her," Bachman said Mr. Roseboro told him. "Apparently, she must have either slipped or tripped and hit her head and fallen into the water. Nobody saw it happen. The kids were in bed."

Police said in a prepared statement that a man identifying himself as Mr. Roseboro called 911 around 11 p.m. Tuesday. He told dispatchers that he found his wife in their backyard swimming pool.

Officers were dispatched for the drowning call at 11:02 p.m.

When police arrived at the scene, they found Mrs. Roseboro unconscious and lying by the edge of the pool. Mr. Roseboro, who is 41, was performing CPR on his wife.

She was wearing clothes, not a swim suit, when East Cocalico Township police arrived shortly after 11, Stedman said.

Reinholds Ambulance and Medic crews, also dispatched to the home, tried to help the woman before taking her to Ephrata Community Hospital. She was declared dead on arrival.

Police said there were no signs of forced entry into the home, and "no obvious signs of a struggle." The backyard and pool are surrounded by a wrought-iron fence.

The home is a single-story red-brick structure with a large extension and sits on more than three acres of land. Neighbors said today that Mrs. Roseboro had grown up in the home, which had been owned at one time by her parents.

Investigators have interviewed Mr. Roseboro, as well as other family members and neighbors.

East Cocalico Township police St. Larry Martin, speaking at an 11 a.m. press conference, read from the prepared statement, adding that the department was not ready to release any new information.

Messages left for Mr. Roseboro at his household and funeral home were not returned this morning. Ralph Roseboro, Mr. Roseboro's father, said he did not want to comment.

Bachman, who served on the board of the Cocalico Creek Watershed Association with Mrs. Roseboro, said his cousin was an outdoors enthusiast who worked to better the environment.

"She was very concerned about the environment," Bachman said. "She was very dedicated."

Cathy Hess, who served on the East Cocalico Swim Team parent board with Mrs. Roseboro, described her as being very involved with her children's activities - from swimming to high-school lacrosse.

"She was a wonderful person," said Hess, of Reamstown. "There's not too much more you can say about her, other than she's one of the nicest people I've ever met."

Mrs. Roseboro was a past president of the board.

An obituary in today's newspaper said Mrs. Roseboro and her husband celebrated 19 years of marriage on May 7. The couple have four children, two boys and two girls, all of whom live at home. Three of the four attend school in the Cocalico School District. The eldest recently graduated from high school.

Mrs. Roseboro had previously worked as a branch manager for Fulton Bank.

She was a 1981 graduate of Cocalico High School and 1985 graduate of Penn State University. She was the treasurer of Cocalico Creek Watershed Association and past president of the East Cocalico Swim Team.

The obituary said she "loved her children dearly and enjoyed spending time with family and friends."

Roseboro's homicide is the third significant investigation involving the district attorney's office this week. On Sunday night, an Ephrata man shot his wife and was later charge. Earlier on Tuesday, a robbery victim in Manheim shot and killed one of his attackers — a shooting Stedman's office determined to be self-defense and therefore justified.

"We've had to shift a lot of our people from Manheim up to this (Reinholds homicide)," he said. "We're a little thin right now."

Investigators ask anyone with information about Mrs. Roseboro's homicide to call either the East Cocalico Township Police at 336-1725 or the District Attorney's Office at 299-8100.

(New Era staff writer Stephen Zook contributed to this report.)


Staff writer Tom Murse can be reached at tmurse@LNPnews.com or 481-6021.


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Showing 5 most recent comments out of 174 total TalkBack comments about this article
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Let's face it people: the husband did it . You know it. I know it. Even OJ Simpson knows it. I'll bet you a 6-pack of Pine Sol he will be in handcuffs down at booking by this Wednesday.
my2sense
Weed is one heck of a lot safer then alcohol.
Lets see...

Alcohol:

Get drunk, speed down the road and headon a family of 4.
Weed: Get stoned and drive 2.7 MPH down the road to Turkey Hill for Dorito's, slushies and a Slim Jim.
Sprawl
QUOTE(Sprawl @ Jul 27 2008, 08:01 PM)
Weed: Get stoned and drive 2.7 MPH down the road to Turkey Hill for Dorito's, slushies and a Slim Jim.

provided you can drag yourself off the couch to the car

twinmom
QUOTE(Lancaster Online @ Jul 24 2008, 08:02 AM)


Post your thoughts and comments about this article.


I grew up near Reinholds and know members of each family. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the innocent lives that have been hurt by this, However I do pray that justice is done for Jan. Her loved ones and her deserve it. I hope whoever did this pays for their crime no matter who that turns out to be. Someone out here knows what happened and I have been praying that their guilt becomes so unbearable that they have to come forward. To anyone who knows anything about this crime I have one thing to say...the truth shall set you free.

mac36

mac36
QUOTE
QUOTE(andy__1000 @ Jul 24 2008, 08:15 PM)
I think it's more of an excuse to post in the race for the "top poster of the day" or "of all time"!

Just divide the number of posts each poster has by the number of days they have been on talkback. Numbers don't lie!
I have read through these posts. Everything I wanted to say has been said. Everything I expected to be said from family members and/or friends was said [a bit more polite than sometimes in the past]. If you will read when I signed on to TB and divide the days by my posts, you will find that not all of us are interested in becoming the "top poster of the day". I would venture to suggest that many regular posters read a while before posting and some hold off on their questions and comments.

One more vote of ~"YES"~ for citydwellers comments for the benefit of newbies. That bit of writing should be on the page where you sign up for "TalkBack".
Condolences to the family members and friends of this family.

Wonder
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