The Clarence Roberts case

[nicoge21]

I found 2 novels written about this story, and found some facts that I never recall hearing.

The body from the first fire was speculated to be a vagrant that Clarence befriended at a bar. Clarence supposedly was taking him to the hospital, or this vagrant just collapse from drinking too much or something but as we know all hospitals in the area were called and nobody ever brought any vagrant in. Apparently, there was another person who they thought the body was. A man named John Kupse of Brown county. I'm assuming this guy was on some kind of missing person list and they tried matching him. 4 years later this John Kupse was found alive and well.

One year later, Clarence Roberts was charged with kidnapping and murder for the first fire and it's victim, the still mystery man that was found charred. But since Clarence's whereabouts and fate was still unknown, there was nothing they could do.

Three years later, an anonymous tipster from Bloomington Indiana came forward and said he saw Clarence Roberts eating at a restaurant in Mexico. Or a fiesta.

A rash of other speculated sightings were reported throughout the years, including the area of Mentone Indiana, close to where some of Clarence's old businesses were.

The man from the first fire was buried with the name Clarence Roberts. But all the coroners and doctors say Clarence was in the 2nd fire. In the end, his family wanted his name over the first body from the first fire. Investigators checked 40 different people to match to the first body, without success. A few headstones on the grave of the first body were stolen.

[idol]

This is one of the most baffling cases, gotta be in the top five.