Chapter 1: Who was Deborah Atrops and what happened to her?
Deborah Atrops was 30 years old. She was a young mother. I didn't get to have my mom growing up. It was this mystery that has never been solved. My name is Rhianna, and I am referred to in the story as the baby. the eight-month-old baby who lost her mom. Yeah. So you believe on November 29th, 1988, this was the last known location where she probably came.
Mm-hmm.
We believe that she drove alone on this very rural road, and that was the last drive that she took alive. The car is found on December 1st.
I knew she was strangled and she was found in her trunk. There was just so much unknown. Who did this? Why did this happen?
We focused pretty early on on Robert. Handsome. Like me.
Bob Atrops was married to Debbie Atrops.
They'd been married for a year or so, and they were struggling, having issues in their relationship, which caused them to separate.
We continued to conduct additional interviews, follow up on various leads. And then it went dead.
It was a tragedy. There were times when I wondered if we would ever make an arrest.
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Chapter 2: What led to the investigation into Deborah Atrops' murder?
There were opportunities for forensic analysis that were not available in 1988. Debbie Atrops was last seen alive on Tuesday, November 29, 1988. Bob Atrops called the Tigard, Oregon police that night at 9.40 p.m.
Isn't Tigard Police going to help you? My wife is running about three hours overdue for my employer appointment. I was getting a little concerned. She wasn't sure what it was. Okay, what's her name? Deborah Atrops. Okay, and what kind of vehicle would she have been driving? It would be a black Honda, I don't know what it was.
Bob told the dispatcher Debbie hadn't shown up after an appointment in Tigard, about eight miles from his house, at a hair salon called Razzmatazz. It would probably be easier for you to make a run down her path, you know, how she would go, than it would be for us. Bob says he drove the route and saw no sign of Debbie. He called Tigard police back at 10.25 p.m.
Well, I think we give it about another hour, and if you haven't heard anything, you can call down. Bob did call back a third time at 11.29 p.m.
No, and the guys have gone out.
It's real foggy out, but they have checked around the area. Did you go to Rasmus' house and see if her car was there at all?
There's no car.
There's no friends or anything she might have gone to visit?
No.
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Chapter 3: What were the key details surrounding the night Deborah went missing?
But he wasn't the only man in Debbie's life. Since she had moved out five months before, Debbie had been dating, and those relationships were complicated.
Debbie had very good taste and was a good judge of people, but a terrible judge of men. Every man that she seemed to hook up with was a problem.
You were always sort of by his side, right? Always. It was great growing up with my dad. He was an amazing dad. Do you have memories of him being hands-on? Yeah, my dad was very hands-on. I knew that I was his number one.
Thank you for being the nicest daddy there could ever be.
I remember being at my grandpa's house with my cousin, going through old photo albums and finding a picture of this woman. And I was like, who's that? And she just kind of was like, that's your mom. From that point on, I always remember knowing the story.
Debbie Atrop's daughter, Rhianna Stevens, says she learned about her mother's murder when she was six or seven years old. She says growing up, her dad only shared fond memories of her mom. I didn't know that they had separated. Anything that I had ever heard about her was always good from him. But things were not always good in Bob and Debbie's marriage.
Debbie's stepfather, Ed Holland, remembers meeting Bob, a construction product salesman, and talking to Debbie's mother about how quickly Bob and Debbie walked down the aisle.
They were still in a courtship when they got married. I said to Gloria, I said, this is way too fast. She says, well, if they're in love, why not?
Debbie's friend, Darlene Lufkin, says, like Ed, she was not confident the relationship had a strong foundation. How long did they know each other? Just a few months, it seems like. It takes time to get to know someone, and I don't think she really knew Bob yet. Bob and Debbie got married in June 1987 and adopted Rihanna the following March.
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Chapter 4: Who were the main suspects in Deborah Atrops' murder case?
But Detective O'Connell says Pearson had seemed truthful back in 1988.
It was mostly accessible. Didn't appear to be trying to throw us off or anything.
And prosecutors Chris Luman and Allison Brown say there is an innocent reason John Pearson knew so much about Debbie's car. They were seeing each other every day. I mean, something to look into for sure, which is why they did multiple interviews of John Pearson and a polygraph in 1988. And did he pass the polygraph? He did.
And he was willing to do it and basically do everything that they asked him to do. Bob Atrops hired a lawyer a week after Debbie's body was found and declined to take a polygraph. Detective O'Connell says Bob did not seem very worried about finding out who killed his wife.
He was kind of removed, just kind of distant.
O'Connell and his partner looked into the calls Bob said he made the night Debbie went missing. No friends or anything traumatic on the vehicle?
No.
Bob told detectives he called the babysitter, Debbie's boss, and her parents while he was home waiting for her. They all confirmed he did call them that night, but there was a hitch. Those three calls were long distance and should have shown up on his phone bill.
That was a problem. Those phone calls were not there.
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Chapter 5: What evidence was found at the crime scene?
We had so many family and friends of Bob behind us. It was really hard for them especially to see this happen to their loved one. I could see it's hard for you too. It is hard. It's hard to have an innocent client get convicted. Prosecutors say they're glad that justice was served. This case took 37 years to finally be resolved.
Are you satisfied that we know the truth about what happened to Debbie Atrops? Yeah, absolutely. There's no other people, no other suspects, no one else with the motive. We feel absolutely 100% sure that he's the one who committed this crime. Prosecutors are confident the investigation proved the other men in Debbie's life, including Jeff Freeburg, were not involved in her murder.
Freeburg declined our request to comment on the case. There just really wasn't any information that pointed in the direction of Jeff Freeburg. He gave his DNA freely. There really just wasn't any motive evidence or anything else that caused him to be a significant suspect. And they say John Pearson's suicide was an unrelated tragedy.
He had an open criminal case. I believe he thought they were there to arrest him for this misdemeanor warrant and took his life.
There was quite a bit of investigation that was done by our detective after he committed suicide to show it had nothing to do with a guilt for Debbie's murder. When 48 Hours reached out in 2025, Pearson's lawyer declined to comment on the case. Prosecutors say Pearson's family told them he had wanted to testify at Bob's trial.
I thought that it would be important for him to relay all the things he knew, including those statements that Debbie made back in 1988 that Bob's going to kill me if he finds out about us.
As for the defense's argument that Debbie had a history of making up stories, prosecutors say this is unfortunately consistent with life inside an abusive relationship. When someone's going through a domestic violence situation, they are, in a way, living a lie. Bob's side of the courtroom was full. Did that strike you as interesting? It depends on the case.
Yeah, I mean, I think he had a large support system, and it's not uncommon for people in a domestic abuse situation to kind of go unknown as a DV abuser. And I think Bob was good at that. I mean, he was a salesman.
After all these years, Darlene Lufkin says she thinks the jury got it right. I had my suspicions all along. You believed that that was the right verdict? I do.
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