ARLINGTON, Texas _ A Fort Worth man told an Arlington detective that his friend had killed his wife and then showed him the dead woman's body, according to a search warrant affidavit.
Arlington police later found the husband dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. They are investigating the case as a murder-suicide.
The witness told the investigator, Detective Richard Coleman, that his friend invited him into his home and showed him his wife's body, which had been stuffed into a freezer inside the garage.
The witness and the suspect in the killing, Edward Rogers Jr., 66, worked together at one time and remained friends, according to the search warrant. Rogers told his friend that he was going through a turbulent divorce and was suffering from depression.
After Rogers opened the freezer to show his friend the dead body of his wife, identified in the affidavit as 24-year-old Alyssa Marie Mejia Rogers, the husband "grabbed the buttocks of the deceased person, smirked, and stated that it was cold."
Police said the woman's cause of death has not yet been determined. Official identification of her body is pending completion of an autopsy.
On Thursday or Friday, the friend met Rogers at an El Fenix restaurant in Arlington and Rogers told the friend that his wife had falsely accused him of hitting and injuring her, the affidavit said. The wife, who is from the Philippines, took their child to the Philippines and left the child there, he said. Rogers also said his wife had accused him of assaulting her, called the police and had him arrested.
After his arrest, the wife filed a protective order against Rogers. She then showed up at their home and enticed Rogers into having sex with her while she recorded the act, he told his friend. The wife then told Rogers that now she had proof that he had violated the protective order, according to the search warrant.
Rogers later told the witness that he expected to go to prison because of his extensive criminal history and his guilty plea to the domestic violence charge. On Sunday the friend said he received a series of text messages from Rogers, saying that it was very important that they meet.
Rogers picked the friend up in his car an brought him to his house, and then told him that he had killed his wife. The friend said he did not believe that. That is when Rogers opened the freezer and showed him the dead woman's body.
"Rogers told his friend that he needed to write some letters first, but afterwards he was going to commit suicide.
The friend told Rogers that he wanted to go home. On the way, Rogers told the friend that his wife said, "I got you." Then Rogers got in a fight with his wife and he pushed her. The wife fell and hit her head on the corner of some unknown object, Rogers said, according to the affidavit.
After obtaining the search warrant for the Rogers residence, Arlington officers went inside the house and found Rogers dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators also located the dead woman inside the house.
Investigators were able to corroborate the witness's statements by seeing text messages and cellphone records that Rogers and the friend sent to each other, the search warrant said.
