Prosecutors say Wisconsin Rapids-area mower repairman killed a woman in 1984. They'll try to prove it at trial this week.

WISCONSIN RAPIDS - Eleanore Roberts' son found her dead in her home almost 38 years ago, but it took until this week for anyone to face trial for killing her.

John A. Sarver, 59, of Port Edwards, faces a charge of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of Roberts, who was 73 when she died at her Saratoga home. The trial, which is scheduled to last two weeks, begins Monday morning with jury selection at the Wood County Courthouse in Wisconsin Rapids.

In late August 2020, Wood County Sheriff Shawn Becker announced the arrest and charging of Sarver in connection with Roberts' homicide. The next day Wood County Circuit Judge Nicholas Brazeau Jr. set a $1 million cash bail for Sarver, who has been in jail since.

Roberts' body was discovered Nov. 27, 1984 after she failed to show up to meet her brother at an automobile dealership, where she was looking to buy a car. Her brother went to her home on South Hollywood Road in Saratoga, but when Roberts didn't answer the door, he called her son.

Her son got the key from a hiding place and opened the door, and that's when he made a grisly discovery: His mother was lying on the floor in the bathroom with a bath mat over her head, and when he pulled back the mat he could see she was dead. The son tried to find her phone to call police, but the phone was missing. A kitchen knife and scissors also were missing.

A forensic pathologist determined Roberts died from blows to her head and stab wounds to her body that punctured her lungs and an artery and broke her ribs. The doctor believed a scissors was responsible for the stab wounds, according to the criminal complaint.

Missing evidence begins to turn up

Deputy Thomas Reichert, who would go on to become sheriff, found the missing scissors near the intersection of Hillcrest and South Hollywood roads, near Wood County Z. A witness also told Reichert he found a knife sticking into the ground, straightened the bent blade and cleaned it off before giving it to the deputy. The knife matched the description of the one missing from Roberts' home.

Former Nekoosa Police Chief Kenneth Ruder found a ski mask in the branch of a tree across the street from Roberts' home. On March 10, 1985, a man reported he was launching a boat into the Wisconsin River off of Wood County Z when he found Roberts' phone submerged in the water.

The scissors, ski mask, knife and telephone all were found along a line that went from Roberts' home to Sarver's home at the time of the murder, according to the complaint. Palm prints found on the sink in Roberts' bathroom matched Sarver's palm prints, the complaint says.

Investigators later learned that Roberts came into contact with Sarver when she bought a lawnmower from Competition Cycle, where he worked, during the summer of 1984. The lawnmower required repairs covered by warranty, and Sarver performed the repairs, according to the complaint.

When investigators questioned Sarver, he said the last time he saw Roberts was in late summer when he worked on her lawnmower. Sarver said he never went into the house and never went into the bathroom where officers found his palm prints, according to the complaint.

During various interviews, Sarver gave different explanations of where he was when someone killed Roberts, according to the complaint. Investigators were never able to confirm any of his explanations or alibis.

Informant steps forward with 'karate chop' story, case stalls

In 2005, a confidential informant told Wood County Sheriff's Department Investigator Mark Neuman that 17 years earlier, Sarver admitted to killing a woman and mentioned delivering "a karate chop" to her neck. The forensic pathologist confirmed some of Roberts' injuries were consistent with such a blow with a hand, according to the complaint.

The murder charge is Sarver's first criminal charge. One witness told investigators that Sarver had financial problems at the time of Roberts' death and had borrowed $2,000 from the witness soon after the murder. Four small claims cases were filed against him since 2006 for nonpayment of bills and one similar case was filed three months after he was arrested.

The witness also said they had heard from another person that Sarver admitted to entering Roberts' home through the back door to rob her then "accidentally" killed her when she surprised him, according to the complaint.

After Sarver was arrested, retired Wood County Sheriff's Office Lt. Robert Levendoske, who was one of the first investigators in the case, said the case often stalled through the years. Former sheriff's investigator Jay Shroda spent hours organizing years' worth of information. There often were disagreements between investigators and prosecutors about whether the case was ready, Levendoske said.

The department also continued to send materials for DNA testing from 1988 to 2020 as testing methods became more sophisticated, according to the criminal complaint. COVID-19 also delayed the case after charges were filed in 2020.

If convicted, Sarver faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KMadden715, Instagram at @kmadden715 or Facebook at facebook.com/karen.madden.33.

This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Saratoga 1984 murder of Eleanor Roberts leads to trial of John Sarver