E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe wife of a man who was thought to have drowned in the waters off Long Island, N.Y., but turned up several states away days later, said at a news conference Friday that she found emails in which he discussed faking his death, NBCNewYork.com reported.
Evana Roth said her husband, Raymond Roth, and his 22-year-old son, Jonathan, corresponded through email and by phone before and during his disappearance July 28, supposedly while swimming at Jones Beach.
She previously told the New York Post she didn't find out Roth was alive until seeing an email that Jonathan had received from his father.
NBCNewYork.com reported that Roth had put his Massapequa home up for sale a week before he disappeared.
One email provided to the media tells Jonathan to call and update him on developments in New York, but to be cautious.
“There needs to be a way for me to find out how things are going. Call me Sunday night at 8 p.m. at the resort. You cannot call from your phone,’’ he said. “Go to a pay phone or borrow your friends phone.”
According to NBCNewYork.com, one email suggested Roth didn't think too highly of his wife.
“DO NOT allow that ... to give the house away,’’ Roth wrote to his son.
“While I was crying and thinking he had drowned, he was vacationing in a resort and having a drink in the pool," she told the paper.
Evana Roth described her husband's behavior leading up to his disappearance as bizarre.
The Post reported that Roth lost his job as a computer manager after threatening to shoot two supervisors who had demoted him. The incident led to police confiscating a handgun he owned.
She told the Post that he had tripled his life insurance policy in January, then withdrew money from all her accounts and revised his will. She said she was not sure who was named as the beneficiary on the policy.
NY swimmer who vanished turns up alive
She said the day that he disappeared, he told her was going to his mother's house. After a few hours, the younger Roth called and said his dad went into the water at Jones Beach and never came out. Police confirmed that Jonathan Roth placed a 911 call and reported his father as missing.
Officials launched an air and sea search last Saturday that lasted for five days.
Then on Wednesday, Roth's brother notified police he had received a call from Roth saying he was in Florida.
Once Evana Roth discovered the emails, she called her brother-in-law, who then called police in Orlando. Officers there checked out an address Roth may have been staying at, but came up empty.
Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter
Then Roth was stopped for speeding in South Carolina on Thursday morning.
During a routine check of his license, the officer learned he was listed as a missing person and notified police in New York.
He told the officer he was on his way back to New York and would talk with police once he returns.
Roth has still not returned home. His whereabouts are unknown.
But his wife said she had been hearing from him by texts and phone calls since word came that he was alive. NBCNewYork.com's account of texts she shared:
A text she received Thursday night read: "It didn't work out the way I thought it would. I did it for you."
Friday morning he texted her: "What is going on? Heard you are having a press conference. Be Nice. Almost 15 years together."
After the press conference, Roth said she received another text from her husband: "Now you're not ever speaking to me again."
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Child labor: Small hands legally picking our food
- On a mission: Jogging across the US in name of veterans
- Eagle Scouts divided over protest against ban on gays
- Report: Boy, 4, dies after being left for hours in sweltering SUV
- Video: Man crushes 7 police cars with farm tractor
Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
Coward....
Agreed! Oh..and LOSER too!
If he wants out of his marriage, let him go. The wife is lucky to be rid of him. Hope she has a good lawyer to protect her assets.
Well at least he didn't kill his family and then himself like a lot of people have been doing lately.
clarkjoebob - "At least he didn't kill his family?" Wow, you set standards low don't you? Yes, glad he didn't kill his family, but his little fraudulent crap caused a lot of problems and more to come! Selfish, stupid, lying criminal! The herd needs to be thinned and he definitely needs to go! His poor son! The father has led him astray and ruined his young life! Sick, sick, sick!
Why is it whenever there there is an article about someone doing something stupid, someone always has to say something like "thinning the herd" or the "herd needs to be thinned" as if every human life is so pointless and undervalued. I think personally that those who make those comments and who think life is so value-less might consider being some of the first to volunteer to "be thinned" so that there are less mean people in this world.
It makes me sick, people like this don't realize how F-ing good they really have it. He's nowhere near broke or why is he writing a will? Oh ya to commit FRAUD. Some people out there have NOTHING and they obey the law every day. Throw this craphole away and shame on him for teaching has child to commit fraud and to try and cheat at life. Now Jr can see where it gets you. . .
Like we all said when the story broke. But the few whiney liberals cryed wait, wait, he is innocent.....What else would he be doing?? Now the same writers want to kill him or call him a loser. If it smells like poop you don't have to step in it to know for sure.
He's alive! It's a miracle!
She shouldn't be blabbing to the news about her marital issues. No wonder he wanted to disappear.
Saw the wife on the tube. What a piece of work and he really isn't any better but if I was married to her I might consider faking my death too.
She should be happy to be rid of him; he was fat and ugly anyway. Yuckkk.
Holy cow, what a butt-hole!
And this:
...is almost as falling-down hysterical as this:
IXLR8, "cryed" is not a word. That is first grade material you should have learned years ago. I guess that explains why you somehow made this political with your "liberal" crap. Most mouth breathing troglodytes aren't able to think beyond their political party and are incredibly slow learners. That goes for both sides. This man hurt his wife and son by his actions, it has nothing to do with politics so drop it.
What an idiot!....lmao
My life is SO boring - thank goodness!
The word crazy comes to mind.
The kid will probably end up getting in more trouble than the old man.
whack job. I hope both he and his son are prosecuted for the 5 day search and rescue. While it's perfectly legal to voluntarily "go missing" as an adult, it is NOT ok to call in a false 911 call and to fake your own death to perpetuate a fraud. What a complete loser.
So TRUE...If he wanted out of the marriage...
JUST leave....
Hes 1 of those nuts who doesnt want to share what the couple earned for years together so he probably skimmed the bank accounts and named his new identity as beneficiary.
If he was that unhappy he should have been content with half and be done with it...now he has drug his son into it ..nice dad.
@Jo-An,
Have you ever been in a divorce or know anyone who has? You don't 'just leave' from a marriage and all is over. If you never get married then it IS that easy. That is why I never married and NEVER will.
Yeah, that's the reason.
@earlyout lol
Yeah, just because he wanted to be an idiot doesn't mean that he has to involve his family.
Just another pathetic mid-life crisis coward. Tells his son, “DO NOT allow that ... to give the house away,’’, and then claims to his wife, "..I did it for you." Refers to his wife by invectives, then begs her to "be nice" in consideration for their 15 years. Typical.
I'm surprised that it doesn't mention some bimbo that he has on the side, that he was planning on escaping with.
Very poor planning.
That's white folks for you, always doing something stupid and always get caught.
THat is the craziest thing I have ever heard...other ethnicities are immune from stupidity?....
Kathy, stupid does not discriminate race and exists in all corners of the Earth. Your comment, is a great example.
All racism and discrimination in any form illustrates idiocy.
Kathy not like black folks always do stupid stuff and get caught that must be why the prisons are full of blacks huh? not a very smart and racist remark, so whats it like to have kids without a father.
LOL...Kathy...
That was funny! I totally GET it!
Sheesh....
American, you castigate Kathy and then you turn around and do the same thing. Each one teach one! Try to teach people that make the kind of remarks that she did that not all white people do this and get caught and that not all black people are in jail for have no father.
Everyone does stupid things and they usually get caught.
As for this bozo, I hope the law and the wife roast his butt!
Kathy I'll have to give that one to you. you got it right.
Fired!? Who would hire this brainiac anyways? It had to be the postal service!
@MRZ-1191248
Read the story again, he wasn't fired, he was demoted. Sounds like he was a loser on the job too. He probably deserved to be demoted or even fired! I pity his wife for staying with him for 15 yrs. She must not be too bright either.
Jane - read the story again: he was fired after threatening the managers who demoted him.
Lora, thanks for pointing that out to me. I guess I read the story too quickly.
His wife must be a real Bitch...
Always the woman's fault, eh? This guy is a screwball and you must be too!
Sorry...it was meant to be a joke.
Apology accepted. Thank you! A lot of women and children have been harmed by pretty scumball men. Of course, there are scumball women, too. Just a bit sensitive about one side being denigrated like that.
@whynot
I bet not one soul is laughing at your "joke".
I was HAHAHAHAHAH! Of course, I am capable of finding humor in dark places.
And I think you can agree we have all dated a woman that was a bitch or a guy that was an @!$%#, yes? The road goes both ways.
Yes whynot it was funny.
In the words of Ron White, " You can't fix stupid."
I am guessing when he tripled the life insurance policy he did not put his wife name on it. I am guessing the son. Too bad the son will be held accountable while the dad runs. This is one time when the son should not have listened to his parents.
The word "smart" does not come to my mind regarding father or son.
Sounds like he got his dad's intelligence....or lack there of.
What a creep! Son isn't too bright either to go along with all this! Why did the cops let him leave to go to New York? Obviously he's a flight risk! Too silly!
I admit he a dumbass.I would have taken out a 2nd morgage on the house.Then left" a dear Evana" letter. Sounds like she a woman that wasn't concerned about her husband mental health.Just the money he brought in.
What? How emptied HER account. How do you know she doesn't work? What is wrong with you?
It is sad that - for whatever reason - this guy felt so bad about his life or his problems that he set off to do something like this. Sadly, he will no doubt be charged with the cost of his Search and Rescue which will just add to his problems.
They have to find him, first. Though he doesn't seem very smart. Might decide to kill himself after all.
Hope the wife has a good lawyer, and a restraining order -- I would consider her at high risk of injury given this guy's erratic behavior and the texts to her. (And the son is apparently not her son, so she's unlikely to protect him either.)
I'm with you on that! She needs to get a restraining order. I wish I had had one when my whinny ex started acting the way this guy is. I kept quiet about his lunacy for eight years while he ran off and came back as if nothing had ever happened before I finally filed for divorce.
definately get a restraining order..this guy is apt to wack you in the middle of the night just for spite....even though hes the basket case.
They took away his gun? In Springfield Oregon a man who has a record of a couple of asaults and other harassment complaints menaced his neighbor with his gun after the neighbor had to call police because this man was asaulting another man outside his home while he was caring for small children. Since when is it legal to menace people with guns just because the police were called due to you assaulting someone. Months later the man assaulted his underage - teenage stepson, then the boys sister called police did they arrest him? No, he wasn't. This family also has an 8 yr old daughter, the Mother allowed her oldest daughter and another girl to be molested years earlier, was the Mother held accountable or stand by her daughters side? No, she took the side of the molester. What will happent ot he 8 year old? Will she end up like Jeanette Maples who was beat and starved to death by her parental guardians? If someone has repeated negative contact with police, why are they not being held account for their actions and their guns being taken away?
OK, you should know by know that the laws and how they are enforced in this country are fscked.
Maybe trying to get away from her.
My guess is nobody is trying to get away from you - because you are all alone. Loser.
People of privilege: How many dozens of hours of community service (suspended, of course) do you think this scammer and his equally culpable son will wind up getting?
You'd do a runner too if you had to listen to that harpy's Jew York accent.
probably sounded like a Pterodactyl hahah
He threatened his former employer with bodily harm and they only confiscated his gun? PULEEEEEZE!
WTF is wrong with that a$$hole? and he got a gun as well... looks like too many weirdos with guns in US lol