Cold Case Conviction: Daughter Defends Father After 1988 Murder Verdict

On Dec. 1, 1988, Deborah "Debe" Atrops was found strangled and placed in the trunk of her car near a construction site outside Beaverton, Oregon — two days after her estranged husband, Robert "Bob" Atrops, reported her missing. The case sat unsolved for decades until a Washington County cold-case review and new forensic testing led to Bob's indictment in 2023 and his conviction for second-degree murder in April 2025.

Initial Investigation and Suspicion

Police records show Bob called Tigard police late on Nov. 29, 1988, reporting Debe overdue after a hair appointment. Officers later found her black Honda Accord with license plates removed, a window open and the keys inside; her body was discovered face down in the trunk. The coroner ruled strangulation the cause of death and found mud on Debe's coat, shoes and on parts of the vehicle.

Detectives considered Bob an early suspect because he reported Debe missing and the couple had been estranged since she moved to an apartment in Salem months earlier. Friends and family described a troubled relationship: they had married quickly in 1987, adopted daughter Rhianna in 1988, and separated within months.

Other Men In Debe's Life

Investigators also questioned two men who had been involved with Debe after the separation: Jeff Freeburg, an ex-boyfriend who had loaned her money, and John Pearson, a coworker she had been dating. Both gave accounts to police and were interviewed in 1988; Pearson submitted to a polygraph at the time and passed. Freeburg and Pearson were later excluded from the DNA mixture recovered from Debe's coat, according to the FBI testing.

Cold-Case Review and Forensic Evidence

In 2022 a cold-case team led by Washington County prosecutors Allison Brown and Chris Lewman reopened the file. New laboratory analysis at an FBI lab compared soil and DNA evidence collected in 1988 with modern techniques. Key findings prosecutors highlighted included:

• Soil on one of Debe's car tires was "indistinguishable" in color, composition and texture from samples taken from Bob Atrops' lawn, though it did not match the exact site where the car was found.
• A small DNA mixture taken from the collar and shoulder area of Debe's coat excluded John Pearson and Jeff Freeburg but could not exclude Bob Atrops. Prosecutors described this as moderate support rather than a definitive match.

Investigators also revisited inconsistencies in Bob's 1988 statements — including long-distance calls he said he placed that did not appear on his phone bill — and obtained a new interview in 2022 in which he offered a different explanation for those calls.

Trial, Defense Arguments and Pearson's Death

The state indicted Bob in March 2023. At the spring 2025 trial, prosecutors emphasized the totality of circumstantial evidence: motive, opportunity and the forensic ties between the soil, the DNA, and Bob's earlier statements. They argued Bob had misled police and sought to create a narrative of a concerned husband.

The defense pushed back on scientific and investigative gaps. They argued the soil type was regionally common, that the DNA on the coat was a minute amount consistent with incidental transfer, and that the autopsy semen evidence pointing to Pearson introduced reasonable doubt about who was involved. John Pearson, a potentially important witness for the defense and prosecution, died by suicide in Arizona days before the trial, removing a central but complex element from the courtroom.

Verdict, Sentence, And Aftermath

After about six hours of deliberation on April 17, 2025, the jury found Robert Atrops guilty of second-degree murder. At his July 2025 sentencing the judge imposed life with the possibility of parole after 25 years; Atrops will be eligible for parole in 2048, at which time he would be 93.

The verdict divided family and friends. Debe's daughter, Rhianna Stephens, who was adopted and raised by Bob, continues to publicly support her father and described the verdict as devastating — saying she now grieves a parent who is still alive. Prosecutors said the case demonstrates how modern forensic testing and persistent cold-case work can change the course of decades-old investigations, while defense attorneys maintain the evidence left reasonable doubt.

"It was a very fact-intensive case," prosecutor Allison Brown said, noting that not every detail could be reconstructed but the pieces combined pointed to the defendant.

What This Case Shows

The Atrops case highlights the strengths and limits of modern forensics: improved laboratory capabilities can exclude some suspects, identify small DNA contributors and compare trace soils, but such findings may be circumstantial and subject to alternative interpretations at trial. Beyond science, the case underscores the human toll of intimate-partner homicide — and the lasting divisions such cases create within families and communities.