Sue Faye McMillion Roop
FEBUARY 12, 1979
DISAPPEARANCE OF SUE FAYE ROOP
Sue Faye Roop seemed to be preoccupied on the night of February 11, 1979. Before going to bed, she talked with her children about how much she loved them and how important it was that they always remember that. Life had not been kind to the 29-year-old mother of three young children (Suzie 9, Jessica 7 and Raymond, Jr. "Scooter" 2). She had dealt with a bitter divorce from her nine year marriage to Raymond Roop after discovering his affair with her babysitter. Sue had suffered some very unpleasant situations: a serious gash to her head after being run off the road in her automobile, her house burned mysteriously while the children were at their fathers and Sue was spending the night with her sister and Raymond had taken her to court attempting to get a portion of the insurance money. Things had been tough for Sue, as although she had been awarded custody of the children and $400.00 a month child support, it had been a battle to keep her ex-husband current with child support payments.
However, as Valentine`s Day 1979 approached, it seemed as if life held some promise of better days ahead for Sue and the children. Only 5`1" tall and 120 pounds with long sandy colored hair, Sue looked like a child herself. But she was a devoted mother and was determined to better life for herself and her children. They had moved into an apartment over Holstein`s Carry-Out in the rural community of Bentree, WV. She was expecting $3,000.00 from the sale of some property around the first of March. She was confident that the judge would rule in her favor concerning the insurance from her home burning. Sue hoped to use the monies to buy a new home for herself and her children. Sue had also become seriouly involved with Pete Brown. Pete had lived with Sue for the past year, but eager to help her build a new life, he had recently joined the service and planned to send for her and the children after basic training. Pete and Sue exchanged letters almost every day. Pete sent money sometimes to help Sue. Sue believed that the relationship would grow into something permanent. After getting the children off to school each morning, Sue would walk to the Bentree Post Ooffice to mail her letter to Pete and to see if she had a letter from Pete.
Monday, February 12, 1979, seemed like an ordinary day for Sue Roop. The divorced, 29-year old mother of three prepared the girls for school. Scooter had spent the weekend with his father. Sue promised the girls that she would pick up Valentines that day and they would make Valentine boxes that evening.
At approximately 8:30 AM, neighbor Sadie Holstein saw Sue come out of her apartment and get into what was either a blue truck with a camper top or a van. Mrs. Holstein could not see the driver and just figured that someone was giving Sue a ride to the post office since it was so cold and snowy. Mrs. Holstein had no way of knowing that she might be the last person to see Sue Roop alive.
When the children returned home from school they found a note signed "Mommy" telling them "to go to Carol`s." However, Suzie and Jessica did not go to the neighbors that evening, they were confident that their mother would return soon and they were eager to work on the Valentine card boxes. The girls worked on their Valentine boxes. They watched for their mother out the store window. A friend of Sues came and spent the night with them. Suzie and Jessica did not make it to the Valentine Day parties that year. They waited for their mother`s return. To their surprise, their father came. He told them that their mother had left them and put them into his van. Roop later claimed that he had received his federal income tax return and that he had came by to pay her some money toward back child support.
Carol contacted Sue`s sisters to tell them that Sue was missing. Sandy and Elly were immediately concerned because they knew that Sue would never abandon the children. They searched her apartment. Nothing was out of place. Sue`s clothing an purse were untouched. The purse contained a money order that Sue had received from Peter Brown. The only sign of Sue`s leaving was the note on the door.
When Sue did not return by Valentine`s Day, her father, Eugene McMillion filed a Missing Person report with the Gauley Bridge Detachment of the WV State Police. Trooper Belcher talked with Sadi Holstein and other neighbors, but learned nothing new. The ex-husband, Raymond Roop, claimed that he had last seen Sue on February 10th when he picked up their son for the weekend. Sue`s father hired a private investigator, Eric E. Edwards, of Charleston to help with the search for his daughter, however, he developed no leads.
In April, the McMillion family turned over a series of letter to the police that Sue had written to her boyfrind, Pete Brown. The letters indicated some troubling information. At the time of Sue`s disappearance, Raymond Roop was three months behind in child support and Sue was threatening to take him to court. It was obvious from the letters that Sue deeply feared her ex-husband. In the letters Sue also mentioned that someone had forged two checks on her account in large amounts, that she knew who it was and that she was ready to confront them. It seemed as if there were people who might want the young mother to disappear.
Investigators were left with nothing but questions. Who was the driver of the van that picked Sue up that morning? Where was she going that she thought she might not return before the children came home from school? Was it fear that led he to have a talk with her children about how much she loved them the day before she disappeared? Was there a connection between the burning of her home, her recent automobile wreck and her disappearance?
For the next three decades, Raymond Roop seened stuck in a revolving door between freedom and prison. He was tried and convicted of a variety of crimes, incluing second degree murder, breaking & entering, possession of a firearm, drug possession and grand larceny. However, police were ever able to prove any involvement in the disappearance of Sue Roop. Nine years later, Sue`s family had her declared legally dead, but the disappearance of their daughter, sister and mother still haunt the family.
For fourteen years there were no new developments in he disappearance of Sue Roop. Her family never knew the closure that comes from knowing with certaintly that a loved one is dead and will never return. Original investigators moved on to other cases, other jurisdictions or retirement. ears passed and all tht remained for the family of Sue Roop was questions. That would change with the discovery of a body on Bolt Mountai in December of 1993 when Raleigh County Sheriff`s Office Detective Steve Tanner was assigned to the case. As is customary with the discovery of unidentified bodies, Detective Tanner began his attempt to match the skeletal remains and the articles found with it with descriptions from missing persons reports. The more he learned about the body, the more he became convinced that the remains were those of Sue Faye McMillion Roop. The body had been abandoned in a forested area, but had nt been buried deep enough to protect it from exposure or discovery. She Roop had disappeared on February 12th of an extremely cold winter when it would have been extremely difficult to dig a burial hole. In addition, the clothing found with the body indicated a person dressed for cold weather.
Examination by the medical examiner revealed that the body was that of a female, 5`4" in height, approximately 30 - 45 years of age. Sue Roop was 29 years of age and 5`1" at the time of her disappearance. The hip-hugger pants and platform shoes found with the body were indicatove the 1970`s style. Family members recalled that Sue wore a gold ring with a small diamond. The body discovered on Bolt Mountain was found with a gold ing bearing a 1/8 ct diamond. Tanner was convinced that the wath found with the Bolt Mountain body provided one of the strongest links to Sue Roop. The watch was distinctive in that it had a gold face and an undersized silver band. A confidential source had identified the watch as belonging to Roop, but would not make an official statement due to fear of the killer. In an effort to confirm the link, Detective Tanner transfered a photograph of Sue Rooop wearing her watch and the watch from the body to the photographic unit of the FBI, asking if it was possible to determine if it was the same watch tht Sue was wearing. The answer was one that Detective Tanner would hear several times over the next few years - "Results inconclusive." Although FBI examiners indicated that the watches were very similar, the photograph was not clear enough for a positive identification.
The body matched in gender, race, size, age and clothing and jewelry were in the right style, but he had nothing that he could take to court to prove that the body on Bolt Mountain was definitely Sue Roop.
In 1995 Detective Tanner hope that would change due to a new process known as mitochondrial DNA testing. This testing could compare the DNA of the skeletal remains to the DNA of Sue Roop`s mother and daughters to determine whether the body was in fact Sue Roop. Tanner refused to let the issue go unsettled. In 1995, at the urging of Tanner, the Raleigh County Commission approved the $5,000.00 funding for the test. The first tests conducted were inconclusive. Although nothing in the DNA tests eliminated oop as a possibility, there was also not enough evidence to prove that it was her skeleton. In 1996, the skeletal remains were sent to one of theleading DNA specialists in the nation, Dr. Mark Stoneking of Penn State University, for mitochondrial DNA testing. Tanner received yet another disappointing answer: The body on Bolt Mountain matched the DNA of Sue Roop`s family in 25 of 26 points. Dr. Stoneking felt that the mismatch on the one point could be attributed to contamination or other factors. Dr. Stoneking made the following recommendation in his report: If there is sufficient compelling other evidence to support the claim that the remains are those of Sue Roop, then the mtDNA ahalsis should be repeated in an independent sample."
Today, Sheriff Steve Tanner continues his battle to bring closure to the family of Sue Roop and justice to her murderer.
IF YOU HAVE INFORMATIN ABOUT SUE ROOP, PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR INFORMATION TO CRIME STOPPERS AND HELP BRING CLOSURE TO THE FAMILY OF SUE ROOP.
http://www.crimestoppersofraleighcounty.org/misc.aspx?p=1
