[bloodrayne]

Woman Killed With Chainsaw

York -- Investigators from the York County Sheriff's Office made a startling discovery on Valentine's Day while following up on the case of a Tabb woman who was reported missing the day before.

After noticing drops of dried blood in an upstairs bathroom, they searched the rest of the Brentmeade Drive house that Joanne Roth shared with her husband and found parts of a woman's dismembered body in a container in the garage, said Sheriff Danny Diggs.

He said a woman's extremities were found in a trash container at a construction area near the corner of Cody Place and Elliott Road, less than a mile away.

Roth's husband, Archie William Roth Jr., 67, was charged with first-degree murder. He is being held without bond in the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail and declined to talk to reporters, a jail spokeswoman said.

Investigators believe Roth dismembered his wife with an electric chain saw Friday, Diggs said. Preliminary autopsy results revealed that the cause of death was decapitation with a blunt force head injury contributing to the death, a spokesman for the sheriff's office said.

Joanne Roth was 66, Diggs said. The couple had been married 40 years but had lived in their current home only the past couple of years, he said. They were considered quiet people who kept to themselves.

Diggs said he understood that Roth was a retired Army major. A Web site for people with a military police background lists Roth as serving in several military police units in Germany in the 1970s.

There were no previous calls to the sheriff's office about problems at the residence, Diggs said. Roth had no prior criminal record, according to a document in his court file.

The investigation started when the Roths' daughter, who lives in Louisiana, called the sheriff's office Sunday and reported that her father had told her that her mother was missing.

Today, the Roths' daughter said her father has had dementia and Alzheimer's disease for eight years but has only recently been treated for the conditions.

Attorneys have requested that Archie Roth undergo a psychiatric evaluation. It's not clear whether prosecution or defense attorneys made the request.

Archie Roth told a deputy he last saw his wife Saturday, when he dropped her off to shop in the Williamsburg area.

When investigators came to the house Monday to ask if he had heard from his wife, Archie Roth said he hadn't. When they attempted to pin down where he had left her Saturday, he repeatedly said he couldn't remember, according to a search warrant affidavit filed with the court.

Investigators asked if they could search the house, and Archie Roth consented, the affidavit says.

Investigators saw blood on the side of a bathroom cabinet adjacent to the door, drops of dried blood on a countertop, dried blood around the inside base of the tub, and an empty paper towel roll and several bottles of cleaning supplies in the sink.

The sheriff's office would not elaborate on what led deputies to the trash container. They said they have seized the chain saw they believe was the murder weapon.

The Wythe Creek Farms neighborhood where the Roths lived is a suburban development with large houses, man-made ponds and the occasional white fence. The couple lived in a red brick home with black shutters, a pebble stone driveway and a big pond behind it. The house sat empty Tuesday, with a silver Ford Escort parked in the driveway.

Joanne Roth used to feed pieces of bread to the ducks on the pond, said neighbor Denise Heatherman.

"She was a nice lady. But she never could remember my name or my kid's name or the dogs' names," Heatherman said. Joanne Roth also seemed very forgetful and was frequently ill with colds, Heatherman said. The Roths were often away from home, and were considered reclusive when they were home.

"I don't think anyone in the neighborhood knew them at all," Heatherman said. Nevertheless, "the whole neighborhood is shocked" by the killing.

At a pre-trial hearing Tuesday morning, during which an attorney was appointed to represent Archie Roth, the judge noted the defendant "appears to be confused and unable to fully understand" his right to a lawyer.

His lawyer, Dywona Vantree-Keller, did not return calls for comment. Vantree-Keller was a prosecutor in the shooting case of Ricky Cullipher and Daniel Caldwell, which was the subject of the Daily Press series entitled "Two lives. One bullet. No justice." Cullipher, then 15, confessed to shooting Caldwell and spent about four years in prison. He was released after a judge ruled that he had not received a fair trial.

Before moving to Hampton Roads, the Roths had lived in the coastal communities of Surf City and Manahawkin, N.J.

Audrey L. Searles of Manahawkin said the Roths spent little time outside and didn't socialize with neighbors.

"You only saw him coming and going from work," Searles said. "He would leave early and come home late."

Occasionally, Joanne Roth would garden in her yard. Searles said she and her husband thought Joanne Roth was a bit unusual. Sometimes when the Searles would arrive home in their car after shopping, Joanne Roth would strike up conversation about very personal family matters.