As of Thursday evening, no arrests had been made in the slaying of the 45-year-old mother of four.
Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said that doesn't mean authorities are sitting on their hands.
"I want to assure the community that law enforcement is working relentlessly on this tragic case," he said. "Murder investigations are a solemn responsibility. There are often a lot of leads and investigation which must take place behind the scenes."
Stedman said law-enforcement officials must do "all that we can."
"We must also be mindful that the presumption of innocence is part of our criminal justice system and protects even the accused until such time as they are convicted at trial."
According to court documents unsealed Thursday, one of the leads police are investigating is a report that Jan Roseboro's husband of 19 years, Michael J. Roseboro, 41, was having an extramarital affair at the time his wife was killed.
A woman whose name was redacted by authorities in the documents released to the public told police she had sex with Michael Roseboro just a few hours before Jan Roseboro was pronounced dead.
This and other information was contained in an affidavit filed to obtain a search warrant for the Roseboro Funeral Home, 533 Walnut St., Denver. Police seized computers there believed to be used by Michael Roseboro to contact the woman via e-mail.The affidavit states "it is reasonable to believe that Roseboro would have been less likely to use the shared household computer, which was accessible by the victim and the four children, and more likely to use his work e-mail to access e-mail accounts and/or instant messenger which relate to or reference the extramarital affair … ."
Investigators wrote that the computers could "potentially assist in establishing a chronology of events and confirming the existence of the extramarital" affair.
According to police, Michael Roseboro has said he left his wife beside the pool at their home at 107 W. Main St. around 10 p.m. July 22 when he went to bed.
He said he got up to go to the bathroom about an hour later and noticed the pool lights were still on.
Michael Roseboro told police he then went outside and found his wife floating in the pool. He called 911 at 11:03 p.m. and was performing CPR when medics arrived.
Jan Roseboro was pronounced dead a short time later at Ephrata Community Hospital.
After performing an autopsy the next day, forensic pathologist Dr. Wayne Ross ruled Jan Roseboro died as a result of a severe beating and freshwater drowning. He listed the manner of death as homicide.
Among the wounds Jan Roseboro sustained was a hole in her skull and an adjacent "L"-shaped marking Ross said was consistent with a marking that would be made by a tool.
Jan Roseboro's wounds should have caused her to bleed a great deal, yet investigators found "no evidence of blood" at the house, an affidavit states.
"Perpetrators of crimes, especially criminal homicide, will attempt to conceal the offense by cleaning the crime scene and making efforts to remove blood and other trace evidence," an affidavit states.
On July 24, police searched the Roseboro home and used "mechanisms to detect blood not visible to the naked eye," but still they found no blood. Police also seized cleaning agents and tools from the home.
Investigators have learned that three of the Roseboros' four children were home at the time Michael Roseboro called 911. The couple's oldest son, Samuel, was the only one not at home.
When police interviewed Michael Roseboro the day after his wife was killed, officers noticed multiple scratches on his face and a fresh cut on his left hand.
On July 25, investigators interviewed the woman who told them she had been having an affair with Michael Roseboro.
She told police she had sex with Roseboro between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on July 22, an affidavit states.
The woman also told police Michael Roseboro called her around 7 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. the same day.
On July 27, an affidavit says, police again interviewed the woman, who reported that Michael Roseboro had corresponded with her via e-mail "in excess of of 20 times from the Roseboro Funeral Home."
The affidavit does not state when police executed the search warrant on the funeral home.
Stedman said he had the affidavit for the warrant sealed until Thursday "for public safety reasons."
"There was also some information in there that we didn't want to taint interviews we had not yet completed," Stedman said.
More interviews, as well as "forensic examinations," have yet to be conducted as part of the investigation, Stedman wrote in an e-mail to the Intelligencer Journal on Thursday evening. He did not elaborate.
E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com



