The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes

September 12, 1980,

September 12, 1980, Rose Burkert, 22,

and Roger Atkinson, 32,

arrive in the small farming town of Williamsburg, Iowa

for a romantic weekend getaway.

Rose is a single mom

working her way through nursing school,

and Roger is a devoutly religious man

from a large, close-knit family.

Roger is a married man, but Rose is not his wife.

At 7:40 p.m. the lovers check in

to a near-sold-out Holiday Inn.

The next afternoon a maid enters room 260

and finds them brutally murdered.

Were Roger and Rose killed because of a lovers triangle,

or were they targeted randomly by some stranger?

The crime scene is puzzling.

Roger's wallet has been torn apart,

yet Rose's wallet is seemingly untouched on the bed.

Oddly, a tube of toothpaste

has been squirted out in the bathtub,

and two chairs have been pulled up

next to the bed near where Roger and Rose were found.

For nearly 40 years,

their families have been living

with unanswered questions.

What was done to Roger and Rose

and the horror that they suffered

in the last moments of their life,

nobody should ever experience something like that.

By analyzing the crime scene and those final moments

between Roger, Rose, and the offender,

I will try and bring justice

to the families of Roger and Rose.

I'm a retired cold case investigator.

I spent 271/2 years as a forensic scientist

and as a cold case investigator,

oftentimes doing both jobs at the same time.

I'm most known for helping to solve

the Golden State Killer case.

The recognition from the Golden State Killer case

is taking what I used to do during the course of my career

and has expanded it to where now I can do that

for law enforcement agencies across the nation.

Even though I am retired,

I don't want to stop doing this kind of work.

This is the type of work that I'm good at.

This is the type of work that is my passion.

When you have these whodunit crimes,

it is the ultimate challenge.

It's the ultimate puzzle,

and when you hear the families of Roger and Rose say,

"You're our last hope," that's what drives me.

- Mr. Holes. - Hey, Sheriff. How's it going?

- Good to meet you. - It's very nice to meet you.

- Welcome to Iowa County. - Well, thank you very much.

I've reviewed the case files and the evidence

from the double homicide of Rose and Roger.

There's rage. There's anger,

and that crime scene reflects that emotion.

I'll be working with Iowa County Sheriff's Office

and hopefully getting answers

for the families of Roger and Rose.

So you're the elected sheriff here?

- I am. - Wow,

and you're still involved in this case?

- Well, growing up in Amana, I was 12 when it happened,

but it was something that really shook up our town.

- Yeah. - We have some more

recent murders that we had to deal with,

and then as soon as those were over

and we had those adjudicated,

we decided that this case needed some attention again,

so we started working on it 2013.

2015 we really started to kinda pick up speed on it.

- Okay. You must have some personal attachments

to this case at this point.

- Originally, when you're reading these,

they're all just names.

- And then when we started looking into it

and started meeting family members,

it has become very, very real for us now.

- Well, tell me a little bit about Rose and Roger.

- Well, Roger's a married man, and he is not married to Rose.

He was not happy in his marriage.

He's actually having an affair with Rose.

So when we look at motive, of course,

that opens up a lot of doors

into who might not be very happy about that.

- And he meets her because-- through his work?

- So Roger is a phone installer, repair person.

- Okay. - And so they actually meet

when he installs a phone at her residence.

- Well, I think I was kinda surprised-- Rose is young.

She's 22?

- Yeah. - He's 32.

I mean, this is a young couple.

- Yes. - You know, so obviously,

I mean, 22 years old

and you lose your life at that age,

you haven't experienced life yet.

And Rose has a little girl,

so there's a two-year-old left behind.

- These are your true innocent victims.

Roger and Rose went on a trip together with the idea

that they're going to have fun that weekend,

and at some point that night,

they end up being brutally killed.

They did nothing.

There is that injustice. I want to fix that.

- One of the interesting things about this is there's actually

a convention going on at the hotel.

And it was sold out.

What was the convention?

- It was an undertakers convention.

- Undertakers? - Yeah.

- So that just adds a little bit of--

- Of all things. - Yeah.

We know that at 7:40 p.m.,

Rose and Roger checked in to the Holiday Inn.

Rose makes a phone call to check on her daughter at 8:00,

but I think it's important that when a phone call

from the babysitter comes in at 8:30,

Rose doesn't answer, even though

she wants to check on her daughter.

So now my thought is, is that maybe the offender

is in that room by the time that phone call comes in.

- We actually got lucky, and we do have some DNA

that cannot be identified

that could possibly be our killer.

- Okay. - It's at least my belief

that the person had the blood of the victims on them.

They wipe the blood off with the towel,

leaving their male DNA mixed with the victim's.

- Okay. And how did this crime go down?

What's your predominant theory?

I think it all centers back

to who knew where they were gonna be.

- Okay. - We spent a lot of time

looking at all the suspects,

and it all comes down to how did somebody know

they were gonna be there, and how many people knew that?

- You're thinking they were followed.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think that's a very good, strong possibility.

- I really believe that this is a Missouri murder

that happened in Iowa. - Okay.

- So all the players are from Missouri.

All the relationships are Missouri relationships.

- Yeah, so Rose and Roger came up

out of St. Josephs, Missouri-- - That's right.

- Drove four hours north to your jurisdiction,

and that's where they got killed.

- Yes. - But you believe--

it sounds like your predominant theory

is that somebody that they knew out of St. Josephs

may have come up and committed this homicide.

- If someone is taking the time to follow them to this hotel,

if it's a family member or somebody that knows them

and they've built up that rage,

they've got the proof they're looking for.

These two were together.

- I think it's obviously a crime of passion.

Whoever did it is very upset about the relationship

that Roger and Rose were having.

You have to be connected to these people somehow.

What do you think is

going once the offender is in the room?

- I think they were told to lay on the bed

and be quiet and everything's gonna be fine.

- Yeah, lay facedown on the bed.

- And I think they-- and maybe there's a gun displayed.

- Yeah. - Nobody's just gonna

lay in the bed while they're about to be murdered,

so I don't think they realized they're about to be murdered.

- The door of room 260 does not show any signs of forced entry,

so that possibly could suggest that Rose and/or Roger

voluntarily opened up the door to the offender.

Did they hear a voice they recognized?

But on the other hand, it's very easy for an offender

to get into a room using a ruse,

knock on the door, "Housekeeping."

And why are they laying facedown

side-by-side on the bed?

It looks like they were ordered to do that.

They're complying with this offender.

Why aren't they fighting back?

Well, maybe they knew him, and they go,

"Okay, he's upset. He's hotheaded.

He'll leave once, you know, he speaks his mind

or he gets what he needs to get."

Do you see one or the other

being the offender's primary target?

I just tend to believe

that it's just the relationship in general,

and so they're both the intended target.

- To kill someone is one thing, but to do it

so viciously seems like almost a personal attack.

- So it's not a single gunshot to the back of the head.

Right, right.