The man, Raymond Roth, 47, an unemployed telecommunications manager from Massapequa, was reported missing from the beach by his son, Jonathan, 22, touching off an exhaustive air, water and land search by the police and other agencies.
At a news conference at her lawyer’s office on Friday, Mr. Roth’s wife, Evana Roth, said she had been preparing for her husband’s funeral until she found e-mails on their home computer on Wednesday. The messages were from Mr. Roth to Jonathan and suggested that it was all a plot that Jonathan was privy to. Jonathan is Ms. Roth’s stepson.
She said she then contacted relatives and called the authorities.
Early Thursday morning, Mr. Roth was stopped by the police in South Carolina for speeding. The New York State Park Police, which have been investigating the disappearance, spoke to him by phone and said Mr. Roth had assured them he would return to New York and clear things up.
Since the police did not charge him with anything, he was allowed to go on his way. His current location is unknown, though Ms. Roth and neighbors said they believed they had seen him driving around his neighborhood.
“There are no words to explain how sorry I am and embarrassed,” said Ms. Roth, who works as a doctor’s receptionist.
Ms. Roth said she did not know what Mr. Roth’s motive might be. According to her, he was fired from his job as a manager at Level 3 Communications, a telecommunications company, on July 20, shortly after he had threatened to shoot two supervisors. Around that time, the Nassau County Police Department said that it had contacted Mr. Roth about a licensed gun that he owned and that he voluntarily turned it in on July 21.
“He got fired, and it was a downward spiral from there,” Ms. Roth said.
She said their 12-year marriage was long troubled. She described Mr. Roth as an alcoholic who had mentally abused her for years. Their home was put up for sale last week. According to Ms. Roth, the house originally belonged to her but Mr. Roth coerced her into transferring it into both their names in April.
Ms. Roth said she had learned from Level 3 that he doubled or tripled the size of his life insurance policy in January, but added that she did not know its size or the beneficiary. She also said that just before the beach episode, he had withdrawn all their available money, and had taken out cash advances, totaling about $10,000. She also said she believed he had recently made out a new will.
Ms. Roth presented copies of three of the e-mails she said she had found. They were dated a week ago Friday and told Jonathan of Mr. Roth’s need to get cash for his “trip” and specified a time for Jonathan to call Mr. Roth from a pay phone or borrowed phone at a time share he owned in Florida so he could “find out how things are going.”
She also showed what Mr. Roth had left on the beach: his clothes, boat shoes, wallet and cellphone.
Ms. Roth said she felt in danger and was seeking an order of protection against both her husband and stepson.
She said she had not seen Jonathan, who lived with them, since Tuesday, when he told her he was going to New Jersey to stay with an aunt.
Neither Raymond Roth nor Jonathan Roth could be reached for comment.
The Nassau County district attorney’s office said it was collaborating with the police as they investigated the matter but had not yet decided whether to file criminal charges.
Ms. Roth said Mr. Roth had been calling her and sending her text messages since Wednesday evening. While she said she had avoided most of his calls, she spoke to him early Friday morning. She said that she asked him why he had done it, and that he replied, “It didn’t work out as I thought it would be.”
On the way to the news conference, Ms. Roth said, she heard from him again. She said he told her to “be nice” and asked if she was trying to send her stepson to jail.
source: nytimes.com
