By: Biridiana Lopez-Rodriguez
Staff Writer
On August 7 1992, 65 year old Martha Roberts disappeared from her 150 acre farm in Tennessee. She was last seen at around 9:30 pm when her husband Ellen had left the home after allegedly receiving a call about the property they were selling. When he returned later in the afternoon she was gone. And he then received a ransom call. The voice was of a muffled male demanding $100,000 and threatened to kill her. Ellen had made a personal plea to the kidnapper saying that he was willing to do anything necessary to save his wife. Additional phone calls were made and each time the kidnapper claimed to be holding her hostage. He continued to demand various amounts of money during these calls as well.
The abductor was believed to be a white male in his 40s or 50s, who used a fake exaggerated accent. In September 23 1992 and September 17 1993 , the voicemails were aired. And after the broadcast multiple of Martha’s family and friends received phone calls from the kidnapper demanding $185,000 for her return. The caller then claimed that Ellen had hired them to kidnap Martha and had not paid them. But Ellen had claimed that what the caller said was not true. In August 1993 investigators identified a suspect.
The suspect was 59 year old Charles Jackson Lord Jr, he was a neighbor and former business associate of Ellen. Charles was determined that he was the one most likely having made the ransom calls after his heavy debt was discovered. He had also embezzled money from a church and from the government. Desperate for money, he had spent 4 months planning the abduction. He later confessed that on the morning of the abduction he called Ellen and pretended that he was interested in purchasing the property. He did this in order to get Ellen out of the house and then tricked her into getting into his car.
He tied her up in an apartment above his garage and drugged her with sleeping pills. He then put a pillow over her face until she stopped breathing. It was believed that it happened during the first couple hours of the kidnapping. And that he constructed a pit behind his compost pile for burial purposes. Lord’s wife was apparently home that day completely unaware of her husband’s horrible actions. She was found buried around the compost yard with the body preserved by a layer of cement and lime. He was convicted of kidnap and murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
Her husbands name was Allen. Not Ellen has stated in this article.