Victim's son and daughter-in-law take stand during first day of 1984 Saratoga murder trial
WISCONSIN RAPIDS - Nov. 27, 1984, was supposed to be a happy day for Eleanore Roberts.
Roberts, 73, had been looking for a new car and found one at a Wisconsin Rapids car dealer on Nov. 26, 1984, said Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Adrienne Blais, a special prosecutor in the Roberts case. Roberts called her brother and he promised to meet her at the dealer the next day and help her with the purchase, Blais said. Roberts never kept her appointment to meet her brother. Instead, her brother went to her home looking for her and her eldest son found her dead in her bathroom.
John A. Sarver, 59, of Port Edwards, faces a charge of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of Roberts, who was living on Hollywood Road in Saratoga when she died at her home. It took attorneys about three hours Monday morning to select a jury of 15, which includes three alternate jurors who will randomly be selected and dismissed before the jury begins deliberations likely sometime next week.
Evidence, intent outlined in opening statements
Blais said someone stabbed Roberts 17 times with a scissors.
"Who would do such a thing?" Blais asked.
Roberts' scissors were missing from her home, along with a kitchen knife and a phone. The knife and scissors were found near Roberts' home shortly after the murder. The phone was found the next year in the Wisconsin River off of Wood County Z, Blais said.
In 1986, Sarver approached the Wood County Sheriff's Office and volunteered to be a confidential informant, Blais said. During that time, investigators asked Sarver to provide a palm print. The print matched three palm prints found in Roberts' bathroom, Blais said. Sarver had told investigators he had never been in Roberts' home.
The scissors, knife and phone were found along a direct path from Roberts' home to the home were Sarver was living, Blais said.
Roberts' murder was a violent one, said Defense Attorney Jeremiah Wolfgang Meyer-O'Day, one of Sarver's attorneys. Someone caused severe damage to her head with the phone, cut her with the knife and then stabbed her 17 times with the scissors, Meyer-O'Day said. It wasn't a crime involving someone who tried to commit a burglary and killed Roberts when she surprised him. It was a crime of passion done by someone who knew the victim and wanted her dead, Meyer-O'Day said.
Sarver always cooperated with investigators, Meyer-O'Day said. Sarver answered every question and did everything he could to cooperate with attorneys in order to prove his innocence. There isn't enough evidence to prove him guilty, Meyer-O'Day said.
First witnesses take the stand
Lon Roberts, Eleanore Roberts' younger son, was the first witness to take the stand Monday. He said he had stayed with his mother in Saratoga the opening weekend of deer hunting in 1984, gone back to his job as an attorney in Wausau and then returned the night of Wednesday, Nov. 21, 1984. He said he went deer hunting with his older brother Marshall Roberts and other family members Thanksgiving Day through Saturday and then went home to be back for work on Monday, Nov. 26, 1984.
Lon Roberts said he shaved every day at his mother's house in the home's only full bathroom. He would rinse the hair out of the sink and down the drain after he shaved and then wipe down the edge of the sink to be sure everything was clean. His mother expected him to leave things the way he found them, he said.
Lon Roberts said he learned of his mother's death when his uncle, who was supposed to meet her to look at a car, called him and said something was wrong.
Lon Roberts said he was doing work for the Fiskars Co. when his wife decided to give Fiskars scissors to everyone in the family, including Eleanore Roberts. It was those scissors that were missing when her older son found her in her bathroom.
Eleanore Roberts had a front door with a screen door. Her home had an attached garage with a hallway that went along the back of the garage and had a door into the home's laundry room, Lon Roberts said. The hallway had a back door that went outside and a door that opened into the garage. The door into the garage wasn't kept locked and the garage door, which was very light, wasn't kept locked, Lon Roberts said.
June Roberts was the second witness to take the stand. She was married to Eleanore Roberts' older son, Marshall, who died in 1996. Eleanore Roberts kept her home clean. She was a hardworking woman who kept up her lawn and garden and kept her home in order, June Roberts said.
Eleanore Roberts called her son, Marshall Roberts, on Nov. 26, 1984, to tell him her older brother was getting married, June Roberts said. Eleanore Roberts was excited about the upcoming wedding. She called back later to say a couple had stopped by her home in search of their lost dog, June Roberts said.
Eleanore Roberts would tease Marshall Roberts about his weight, but he had a good relationship with her, June Roberts said. Marshall Roberts, who lived with his wife in Nekoosa, a short distance from his mother's home, would frequently stop by his mother's house to help her with yard work or whatever she needed, June Roberts said.
Marshall Roberts was good natured, even tempered and didn't argue with his mother, June Roberts said.
June Roberts said her husband was in a good mood the night before his mother's death. He went to bed early. It was hard on him to be the one who found his mother, June Roberts said. He would often cry about what happened, she said.
June and Marshall Roberts' son went to school with Sarver. Sarver wanted to buy their son's dirt bike, which he kept in Eleanore Roberts' garage, June Roberts said.
The trial is expected to last two weeks. Sarver, who appeared Monday in a grey suit, white shirt and blue tie, has been in the Wood County Jail pending a $1 million cash bond since he was arrested in August 2020. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Eleanore Roberts murder trial: Son takes stand on first day in court
