A fire destroyed a barn at the rural Nashville, Indiana, home of Clarence and Geneva Roberts on November 18, 1970. While sifting through the debris, fireman found the remnants of a body. It was identified as that of Clarence Roberts.

 

Ten years later, on November 29, 1980, another fire destroyed the new home of Geneva Roberts. Two bodies were found amidst the rubble; one was that of Geneva and the second was identified as that of . . . Clarence Roberts.

The small of town of Nashville is still divided over the fate of the man who was twice declared dead. The official ruling is that Clarence Roberts killed an unidentified man who was found in the first fire only to himself be killed in the second fire a decade later. Some, despite the forensic evidence that says otherwise, still believe he perished in the first fire.

A select few others reject both scenarios; they believe Clarence Roberts did not die in either fire and lived the last years of his life in hiding.

Geneva and Clarence Roberts

Both lifelong residents of Brown County, Indiana, Clarence Roberts and Geneva White married in 1941. They settled in rural Nashville, a town of eight-hundred people sixty miles south of Indianapolis. The Roberts’ had six children.

Young Geneva and Clarence

Clarence was a respected member of the community, having served as Brown County Sheriff and as a board member of the town’s bank.  He was also active in the local chapter of the Masons.

A Proud Mason

Clarence and his brother Carson had operated two successful Nashville businesses together, first a lumber company and then a hardware store. Both were earning good livings and living comfortably.  Carson was content, but Clarence was not.

Carson Roberts,

Clarence’s Brother

Clarence had accumulated a good amount of money, but not enough to finance the lifestyle he was living by 1969, having purchased three luxury cars as well as a fashionable and expensive home.

When asked about the lavish purchases, Clarence said he had made a windfall from his financial ventures. In reality, he had incurred a pitfall, having lost nearly all of his money in failed investments in an apartment complex and several grain elevators.

The fifty-two-year-old Clarence had been raised in a poor family but had worked himself from rags to moderate riches. Now, however, he was over $250,000 in arrears and that was only the beginning of his troubles.

By the fall of 1969, Clarence Roberts was in serious financial peril and several lawsuits had been filed against him.

A Spendthrift

One bank had recently been granted a $45,000 judgment against Clarence and another was alleging he had defaulted on his home’s mortgage.

In addition, the Wabash Insurance Company, which had loaned Clarence money for building the apartment complex, also filed suit, claiming he had submitted to them altered and fictitious bills totaling between $131,000-$200,000.

Legal Peril

In June 1970, Clarence’s attorney advised him to file for bankruptcy, but Clarence rejected the option. In October, two of his prized luxury cars as well as a truck were repossessed.

On the afternoon of November 18, a bank officer went to Clarence’s home to discuss a note on which it was suspected Clarence had forged his brother’s signature. Clarence’s remaining car was at the home, and the bank officer believed he saw him inside. Knowing of the bank’s suspicions, Clarence did not answer the door.

Clarence Roberts aimed toward being a millionaire, but he was instead rapidly descending toward being broke. Legal troubles were looming, and he may have seen only one way out of his predicaments.

Clarence Knows He Is In Trouble

At approximately 6:15 p.m. that evening, neighbor Ella Cummings reported a small fire on the Roberts property. Geneva and her kids were not at home at the time.

By the time the fireman arrived on the scene, the flames had engulfed the grain barn the Roberts used as a garage and storage area. By the time the fire was suppressed, the barn had been reduced to ashes.

Beneath the remnants, the fireman found a body next to a half-melted shotgun. The remains were presumed to be of Clarence Roberts, but were too charred to recognize. Knowing of his financial and legal troubles and that he had been severely depressed, authorities initially believed he had committed suicide.

The gun was found to have recently been fired, but no gunshot wounds were found on the burned body. In addition, the position of the gun over the body was not compatible with the recoil which would have followed its firing.

Cars Charred From the Fire

Further questions were raised when a tooth discovered near the body was identified as a lower right second molar.

Clarence’s lower right second molar had been removed several years earlier.

An Investigator Sifts Through the Rubble for Clues

Also amidst the ashes, Clarence’s Masonic ring was found, only slightly damaged.

Investigators believe the virtually-unscathed ring was planted after the fire.

Clarence’s Undamaged Masonic Ring

Brown County Coroner Jack Bond found an absence of carbonous material and internal burning in the victim’s respiratory tract. Because of the large amounts of carbon monoxide in the blood, Dr. Bond believed the victim had died from carbon monoxide intoxication prior to the fire.

Dr. Bond refused to sign the death certificate for Clarence Roberts and deemed definitive identification of the body impossible. The Indiana State Medical Examiner, however, did rule the remains to be those of Clarence Roberts.

Jack Bond,

Brown County Coroner

Geneva and her children, along with other family members, were certain it was Clarence who had been found in the barn.

Clarence’s nephew, Bob White, surmised that his uncle had accidentally set the barn afire while shooting himself. Bob said Clarence kept gasoline for his lawn mower in the barn, which may explain the rapid burning of the barn.

Bob White,

Clarence’s Nephew

The declared remains of Clarence Roberts were buried at Nashville’s Greenlawn Cemetery. Because the investigation of the fire produced a growing list of perplexing questions, the remains were exhumed on December 21, 1970, three weeks after the fire.

The findings raised additional red flags when the victim was shown to have Type AB blood. Clarence had served in the Army and his military records showed his blood type was B. Family members countered that the military records of servicemen’s blood type were often inaccurate; most still believed he perished in the fire.

Exhumation of the Remains

The actions of Clarence in the days before the fire, however, soon cast further doubt on whether he had actually perished.

Two days before the fire, Clarence had been seen at a bar in Morgantown, thirteen miles south of Nashville, in the company of a man who appeared to be a vagrant. No one recognized the disheveled man who was approximately the same age and height as Clarence and bore a physical resemblance to him.

As the men left together, the derelict nearly collapsed outside the bar. He had been drinking heavily and some patrons believed he was excessively drunk; others thought he appeared to suffer a small seizure. Clarence said he would take the man to a hospital. Following the fire, all facilities within a three-hundred mile radius were checked by police who determined the vagrant had not been admitted to any of them.

Several people also believe they saw Clarence and the vagrant together on the day of the fire. He was never identified and, because of his resemblance to Clearance, some believe he may have been the man found burned to death in the Roberts’ barn. Bar patrons recall the vagrant was wearing a brown-plaid shirt, the same color shirt worn by the man found in the barn. When Charles Roberts saw his cousin half-an-hour before the fire, he said Clarence was wearing a blue shirt.

Who Was the Vagrant Seen with Clarence?

Adding fuel to the figurative fire that Clarence Roberts was still alive were several reported sightings of him in subsequent years.

An acquaintance believed he had seen Clearance and an unknown woman in his tavern in April 1972; other people believe they saw him in 1974 and 1975. Former Nashville resident Robert Hillenburg had moved to New Mexico and believes he saw Clarence there. Insurance investigator William Mitchell said he received reports of Clarence’s living abroad in Mexico and West Germany. Shortly before the fire, Clarence had told a friend that he had $100,000 in a Swiss bank account. As outlandish as the claim sounded, the friend says Clarence showed him documentation for the account that appeared authentic.

In 1975, based on the alleged sightings and the forensic evidence suggesting he had not perished in the fire, a grand jury indicted Clearance Roberts for the murder of the now declared “John Doe” found burned to death on his property in November 1970. The grand jury found the fire was an attempt to make the vagrant appear to be Clarence Roberts and that he had committed suicide.

In the months before the fire, Clarence had purchased several life insurance policies, totaling nearly $640,000, although some sources say the amount was close to $1 million. He was ruled to have orchestrated the scheme to avoid paying his debts by having the insurance companies award Geneva the proceeds.

Clarence Is Indicted

Geneva Roberts insisted her husband had died in the fire, but Wabash Life Insurance and Modern Woodmen of America challenged her claims, saying the evidence was insufficient to declare Clarence dead. Geneva filed actions against the insurance companies.

When it came to trial in 1978, Judge James Dixon ruled in favor of the insurance companies, concurring that insufficient evidence existed to prove that Clarence Roberts was deceased. Geneva’s claims to the life insurance money were denied.

Geneva’s Woes

Devastated by the ruling, both financially and mentally, Geneva had to move to a smaller home on the outskirts of Nashville.

She became a recluse; when people arrived at her home, she would always greet them outside at the back door. She never let anyone, including family members, into the home.

A Recluse

After taking a kitchen job at a local Howard Johnson’s motel, Geneva began buying large cases of beer from local shopkeepers. Eyebrows were raised because she was a diabetic who rarely drank. Geneva’s supposed late husband, however, like to sip the suds, and the brand of beer she purchased was Clarence’s favorite.

When neighbors reported seeing a man on the grounds of Geneva’s home who never let anyone get close to him, rumors began to swirl. Police set up surveillance on her home, but they never saw him. Clarence’s sister, Dolly Banks, lived on an adjacent lot. She said she could hear Geneva talking to the man but was certain the man’s voice was not Clarence’s.

Nevertheless, some believed Clarence Roberts had returned to Nashville. Soon, coincidence or not, a second catastrophic fire occurred.

Secretive Geneva

On the evening of November 29, 1980, just over ten years after Clarence Roberts had supposedly perished in a fire at his home, another inferno broke out at Geneva’s new home. After it was extinguished, firefighters found her body in the ashes.

Several hours later, a second body was found in another part of the house. It was identified as that of Clarence Roberts.

The second fire was a clear case of arson, and police determined Geneva had been murdered. The burn patterns from her bed led to the adjacent room where the second body was found, then down a hallway and out the home’s back door.

Turpentine had been used to start the fire, placed from the bedroom to the back door, but whether it had been started by the man identified as Clarence or by a third party could not be determined.

 

Geneva Is Murdered

Investigators say they are 100% certain the male body found in the second fire’s debris was that of Clarence Roberts.

They cannot, however, determine whether Clarence had murdered Geneva, died accidentally, or if he too had been murdered.

A Second Fire,

A Second Death

Some believe an unknown third party murdered both Clearance and Geneva Roberts. Others theorize the couple committed suicide together so their children could collect on their life insurance policies.

A few believe a more sensationalized story: That a desperate Clarence, wanted for murder, out of money, and with nowhere else to go, returned to Nashville after living in hiding for a decade, only to find Geneva with another man and murdered them in a jealous rage before again setting the home on fire.

The Roberts children still believe, despite the forensic evidence, that their father was killed in the first fire in 1970.

Was Clarence Suicidal or Homicidal?

Although investigators are certain the second body found in the second fire is that of Clarence Roberts, exactly who lies beneath this grave is still the subject of local gossip. The headstone for Clarence Roberts reads that he died on November 29, 1980; The Roberts children still insist his death occurred on November 10, 1970.

I could not find anything stating where the remains of the still unidentified man killed in the first fire are now buried.

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12891434/clarence-joseph-roberts

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5654672/geneva-faye-roberts#

 

The case of Clarence and Geneva Roberts was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries. 

The judge in the re-enacted scene where Geneva’s claims to the insurance money are denied is James Dixon, the actual Brown County magistrate who issued the ruling.

Judge James Dixon

SOURCES:

• Anderson Daily Bulletin
• Brazil Daily Times
• Brown County Democrat
• Daily Reporter (Greenfield, Indiana)
• Indianapolis Star
• The Republic (Columbus, Indiana)
• Terre Haute Tribune
• Unsolved Mysteries
• UPI