Fridge Full of Horror: Couple Was Dismembered in 'Icebox Murders,' and Geophysicist Son Was Nowhere to Be Found

The gruesome murders of a Houston couple 60 years ago remain one of the most eerie unsolved cases in the city’s history. And though police have only had one suspect in their sights for decades, the murders remain a breeding ground for conspiracy theories and local legends.

It all started with a chilling discovery on a warm summer afternoon. On June 20, 1965, Houston police found the dismembered bodies of Fred and Edwina Rogers, a local couple who investigators soon determined had been brutally murdered: Fred was beaten with a hammer, and Edwina was executed with a single gunshot to the head. Then, they were cut up and neatly placed in their own icebox.

Investigators’ attention was immediately drawn to the Rogers’ reclusive adult son, Charles Rogers, who vanished before police arrived at the home, police told KHOU-TV at the time. The black-and-white news footage, archived by the state, depicts a grisly scene: a bloody refrigerator door and kitchen cabinets, somber investigators and newspapers strewn across the floor to seemingly mitigate any mess. 

Detectives recovered a hammer believed to have been used in the Rogers’ killings as well as a saw used to dismember them. According to Houstonia Magazine, investigators further zeroed in on Charles as their primary suspect after blood was found on his bedroom door — but he was never seen after his parents’ deaths.

Charles, who’d worked as a geophysicist, spent a lot of time in his bedroom and often only communicated with his parents through notes slid underneath the door, according to Houstonia. The son’s mysterious activity, including his late returns home despite not having a job, led locals to begin theorizing wildly about what he had been up to in the years leading up to his parents’ deaths.

In the intervening decades, some local conspiracy theorists began to baselessly connect Charles to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, according to The Houston Chronicle, claiming he was a longtime undercover CIA operative.

To tie the wild conspiracy together, theorists claimed Fred and Edwina had uncovered the supposed truth about their son’s alleged CIA activity after finding his diary, compelling him to kill them to keep his secret, according to the Chronicle.

The Houston Press reported in 2009 that the conspiracies were rooted in Charles’ background as a Navy veteran with a degree in science, along with his habit of rising before dawn and coming home after dark, making neighbors suspicious and compelling them to fill gaps of explanation with their imaginations.

The authorities’ search for Charles continued for a decade before they gave up, according to the Press. The newspaper reports that a local judge officially declared Charles dead in absentia after he hadn’t been seen for roughly 10 years, as theories swirled about where he’d gone.

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According to Houstonia Magazine, Charles remained the police’s sole suspect throughout the investigation. Investigators suspected Charles had killed his parents in response to alleged mental and physical abuse, according to the magazine.

The outlet reported that a theory about Charles’ alleged motive had been put together by Hugh and Martha Gardenier, a Houston couple who wrote in a self-published book around the turn of the century theorizing that Edwina had begun to financially swindle her adult son, signing checks in his name. This theory portrays Charles as an irate son who finally snapped, killing and dismembering his parents before fleeing the country.

A spokesperson for the Houston Police Department did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment about the cold case.