GUILTY NV - Suellen, 31, & Lexis Roberts, 12, Las Vegas, 4 Sept 2010

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Thanks for the prayers for daddy. Doing much better. Headed to New Orleans, LA. for complete checkup next week. Continue to send prayers.

The latest on Sanders here is that he will be arrainded in Federal court today in Alexandria. Brought here and booked. Hopefully the Feds will take him back to ALexandria. I just don't even want to drive by the courthouse knowing he is there. CREEP.

Let us all be aware of those who surround us and our families. Keep a sharp eye out for things that are not right, the things people say. This is not being nosey this is being aware there is a difference. IF that young lady at the truck stop in Gulfport had not called after several terrible comments he made to her I am afraid she would have been his next victim or someone else there. Thank the Lord for her strenght and "gonans" to call the FBI. I still hold to the fact that this is not his first "RODEO" HE has killed before I would bet. Just hope he will tell all that he has done and maybe this will show closure for others out there he has killed or hurt their family.
OH I AM SOOOOO MAD>

Thanks my friends. Will keep you posted on whatever I hear or see.
 
Summer breeze,
Just finished read this thread.... Thanks for staying on this story and all of your posts. How desperate was this woman? The guy was living in a 10 x 10 storage unit and the mother would leave every night to be with him. Old enough to be her father and two teeth to his name. The poor little girl didn't even want to go and the mother made her.

Just how many other women or children have been left in his wake by this "dead" man since 1994. This whole story is just unbelievable.:furious:

Perp - Thomas Steven Sanders

13500824_BG2.jpg
 
He pleaded "not guilty"? After telling LE where to find this child's mother's body?

What a world.

Maybe this is all a bad dream? Wake me up quick, please.
 
Fairy1 said:
capt.1d95a82935c84379a621a593d9d273f4-e68c789fb1a641fdbf82883e3147608c-0.jpg


This picture is 4 days old. I'm sorry, but I also have to ask how in the world Suellen would be romantically involved with this.

Maybe she wasn't and they were just friends? Lord only knows what he told her to get them to go with him that weekend.
Click to expand...

I just read this thread and agree. Living in a storage unit, old enough to be her father and two teeth to his name. How sad. :( This pic must have been before his jailhouse bath.

13500824_BG2.jpg
 
I was searching news to see if the body found in AZ was positively ID'd as Suellen. I missed this snippet of info from this link if it was posted earlier.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/national/nevada-girl-remains-found-10-28-2010

Sheriff's officials in Arizona's Coconino County told the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Thursday report that 12-year-old Lexis Kaye Roberts was seen Sept. 4 with her mother, 31-year-old Suellen Roberts, and a man, 53-year-old Thomas Sanders, at the Bearizona Drive-Thru Wildlife Park off Interstate 40 in Williams, Ariz.

Las Vegas police say a Sept. 6 missing persons report was closed Sept. 16, after investigators learned the girl and her mother had been seen in Arizona.


These links are the latest info I could find. Apparently, the body has not been positively ID'd yet.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/positive-id-body-found-az-several-days-apx-11172010

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/2010/nov/17/catahoula-parish-file-charges-murder/

http://www.startribune.com/nation/109241764.html



One more link .... I think Lexis & Suellen will at least get justice now.

http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20101120/NEWS01/11200312/-1/rss01

"I'm pleased with the way this came together," said Catahoula Parish Sheriff James Kelly, who was at the arraignment.

Kelly said he'd seek a state murder charge on Sanders, possibly next week.

Toney Edwards, an investigator with the Catahoula Parish Sheriff's Office, said a tattoo on Sanders' chest was cited as one of the ways authorities identified Sanders. During the weeks Sanders was in Gulfport at the truck stop, he'd wear a button-down shirt with the top-half buttons undone, exposing the tattoo, Edwards said.

At the hearing, Kelly glared at Sanders. "There are a lot of questions I have for him," Kelly said afterward.
 
bilde


Thank you for the updates Mandy113.
 
Cazzie said:
He pleaded "not guilty"? After telling LE where to find this child's mother's body?

What a world.

Maybe this is all a bad dream? Wake me up quick, please.
Click to expand...

You are not allowed to plea guilty at a felony arrangement even if you want to.The earliest they will accept a guilty plea is during the pre trial. On a death penalty case you can't even do this You have to take it trial unless you beg to put the death and the Judge allows it. This is rare because if you plea guilty you can't appeal it. I only really seen this in the Andrew Allred case. That's another thing people don't understand is that it cost more money to sentence someone to death, then to give them life without parole. It cost about two million prosecute death penalty cases. They also sit on death row with appeals for twenty years. With all the innocent people that we were exonerated you have to allow this. Its also about three times more expensive to house death row immantes over the general population. My solution is put people convicted of crimes like this in general population with the level five gang members. Show them the news stories about Lexis, and show what this coward did and how he discarded her body like she was road kill. I promise you he will get death in months after they get bored with tourturing him.
 
Had a candle light service for Lexis here in Harrisonburg Saturday Night. It was so pretty! We are taking up money now to send Lexis's remains to her grandmother. If anyone wants to attribute to the fund there is an account set up at Catahoula Lasalle Bank in Harrisonburg. The monies will be spent for returning Lexis's remains to her grandmother and hopefully setting up a memorial of some type at the site where her body was found. Another thing that just happened over the holidays. Det. Tony Edwards was at the site where Lexis's body was found and discovered a blanket and Lexis's stuffed animal. It is our hope to set up the memorial as soon as we get the money to do so. If you would like to help I really don't know anyother way but to call Catahoula Lasalle Bank at 318-744-5466 and get the information. Thanks Friends.
 
Feel like this whole terrible thing is being swept under the rug. there has been nothing said or done in over a weeks. Let us not forget!!!!!!
 
Haven't been on here in a while--and saw that pic of Sanders in his orange and vest being escorted.

Also, Why didn't they find the blanket and stuffed animal before the holidays---with all the people up there combing the area???
 
Dont know where he found it but that is what we were told the night of the candle light ceremony. Who knows.
 
catahoula said:
Feel like this whole terrible thing is being swept under the rug. there has been nothing said or done in over a weeks. Let us not forget!!!!!!
Click to expand...

No news locally in Las Vegas. What a shocker...this happens often in our city.

I remember that the family had requested privacy in the past, but where is our community's outrage regarding this case?
 
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/dec/21/body-missing-mother-found-arizona/

By Jackie Valley (contact)
Published Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010 | 9:25 a.m.

Arizona authorities have confirmed that a woman's body discovered in a remote area in Yavapai County last month is that of Suellen Roberts, the missing mother of a Las Vegas girl found dead in Louisiana.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Rest in Peace Suellen and Lexis.
 
Interesting article. There's a picture of a younger Sanders at the link. It looks to me, as if it's a mug shot as well.

I HOPE the FBI and various local LE look VERY DEEP into this guy's whereabouts over the past 23 years. He has a violent past and drifted under the radar. He could be responsible for MANY more crimes than this one,...... IF he's found guilty of this one.

JMHO
fran




Sanders arrested in Mississippi

The bizarre case leaves many wondering how a legally dead man can go unnoticed by authorities for so long — even after being arrested in several states under his real name. His latest arrest came after someone tipped off authorities. He was picked up Sunday at a Gulfport, Miss., truck stop after a nationwide manhunt that started when he became the suspect in Lexis' kidnapping.

Authorities say the answer to how Sanders stayed under the radar is pretty simple. There's no national death database in the United States, said James Kelly, sheriff of Catahoula Parish in central Louisiana where the girl's skeleton was found by hunters in woods off a dirt road Oct. 8.
And at age 53, Sanders wasn't collecting Social Security, raising no red flags. It's not even clear if Sanders knew he was considered dead.
"Right now we have a lot more questions than we do answer

.........................................snip.......................................

Much of Sanders' past is a mystery ever since he walked out on his family in McComb, Miss., in 1987. He drifted from state to state and didn't buy property or establish many bills in his name — things that create a paper trail for most people, authorities said.
His wife, Candice Sanders, divorced him in 1988 for allegedly "habitual, cruel and inhuman treatment."
Years later, Sanders' parents, brother and ex-wife petitioned a Mississippi court to have him declared dead. That was in July 1994, apparently so his children could receive death benefits, but it's not clear if they did. The Social Security Administration said privacy laws prohibit the agency from discussing death benefits. Kelly said he didn't think the family received such benefits.
Sanders moved around the country using his real name, though authorities said he sometimes gave his name as Tom or Steve or the nickname "Spider." Investigators know he lived in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and Nevada. He worked as a laborer, a welder and a scrap metal collector.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<full article at link>>>>>>>>>>>>>

http://www.leesvilledailyleader.com/news/x1615408136/Sanders-arrested-in-Mississippi
 
I don't know if this article has been posted previously, but it goes in-line with what I said in my last post, THEY NEED TO LOOK AT THIS GUY FOR OTHER CRIMES!

JMHO
fran

THIS is why he was spotted in LA! :eek:

http://www.leesvilledailyleader.com...BI-fugitive-possibly-spotted-in-Sabine-Parish

FBI fugitive possibly spotted in Sabine Parish

A Florien woman may have spotted Thomas Steven Sanders, the man wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in connection to the kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old Nevada girl, whose remains were found in Louisiana.
On Thursday, Nov. 4 at 5:18 p.m., a Florien woman notified the Sabine Parish Sheriff’s Dept. that she saw Sanders on the news and that he fit the description of a man who tried to lure her 10-year-old daughter in his truck last week.

The local woman, who lives on Plainview Road, told local detectives that the man was driving an older model white truck with numerous five gallon buckets in the back. She said it looked like diesel had been spilled down the sides of the truck.

The concerned mother said she had notified Florien school, who in turn advised the bus driver. The bus driver, according to local detectives, said that he noticed a truck parked at Prewitt Chapel Church behind the sign for several days, and when the bus passed, the truck would follow it.
All parish and local units have been notified and faxed copies of Sanders’ photo.

Reports of a sighting in Zwolle were also fielded by Sabine Parish detectives.

<<<<<<<<<<<<full article at link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
ALEXANDRIA, La. -- A Las Vegas man who was declared dead about 17 years ago has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old girl whose body was found in October in Louisiana.

Thomas Stevens Sanders, 53, entered the plea Friday. He is accused of kidnapping and killing Lexis Roberts. If convicted of either charge, who could face the death penalty. He is accused of bringing Lexis from Arizona to Louisiana and shooting her with a .22-caliber rifle.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/las-vegas-man-enters-not-guilty-plea-in-kidnapping-case-116006324.html
 
Well, it appears that both Suellen and Lexis were shot.

So as far as we know that seems to be his preferred method of killing.

Any other unsolved shootings??? The ones I am familiar with are strangulation cases.

What do we know about him before he walked out on his family from Mississippi in 1987? Did he always live there? Did he ever travel? Would any West coast cases be a possibility or would it strictly be within driving distance of where he was living?

There is so much information we don't have in this case... it's hard to know where to start.
 
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