Charles Rogers, The Man Responsible for the Ice Box Murders

Never Solved

One of the most chilling stories of Houston is that of the ice box murders,
no pun intended. If you’re not of the faint of heart, then get ready to find
out about one of the grisliest murder cases in the history of America.
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It was June 23, 1965, when two Houston police officers knocked on the
front door of Fred and Edwina Rogers in their Montrose Home, after
receiving a call for a welfare check.

Things seemed very normal until they opened the fridge. When they did,
they fond what they thought to be stacks of hog meat.. except for the fact
that this was something else.

All the shelves of the freezer compartment were filled with the
dismembered bodies, cut in unwrapped, washed off pieces smaller than
individual joints. They opened the crisper and there they found two
human heads.

Forensics later determined that Edwina had be shot in the head while
Fred had been beaten to death with a hammer. Both were then dragged
to the master bedroom, drained of blood, chopped into pieces and then
placed in the fridge. This quickly indicated that, whoever had done this,
took their time and knew what they are doing, as the dismembering was
an incredibly accurate job.

The prime suspect was the couple’s son, 43-year-old Charles Rogers,
who even at middle age was a recluse who only communicated with his
parents using notes slipped under his bedroom door. Even the neighbors
weren’t completely sure how Rogers looked like, given how rarely he
went out of his room.

The house had been cleaned carefully, but blood was discovered on the
keyhole of his bedroom door. The police also didn’t get the chance to
speak with Charles, and despite a nationwide manhunt, he was never
seen or heard from again. In 1975, Charles Rogers was declared legally
dead.

Rogers was an American seismologist and pilot. He had enrolled at

Texas A & M University but had later dropped out, eventually graduating
from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science degree in
nuclear physics. He was also a pilot in the US Navy, being regarded as
highly intelligent by his friends and associates. He spoke seven
languages and was also interested in ham radios. He had landed a dream
job as seismologist for Shell Oil, being praised for his talent at finding gas,
oil and gold, though he abruptly quit the job for no particular reason in
1957.

By 1965, he was living with his elderly parents and was unemployed too.

Police determined that both Fred and Edwina had been killed on June 20,
on Father’s Day. Their organs had even been found in a nearby sewer,
cut up and flushed down the toilet, while other remains were never found.
What little blood was found in the murder scene was found leading to
Rogers’ bedroom, and the police even found a bloodstained keyhole saw
with no trace of Rogers himself.

So, what could have motivated Charles Rogers to murder his parents in
such a gruesome way?

A Houston Couple, Hugh and Martha Gardenier, began reinvestigating

the Ice Box Murders in 1997. They came to the conclusion that Charles
did the murders because he was physically and emotionally abused by
his parents even into adulthood, nd
that at the end of their
lives they were defrauding him by forging his
signature on deeds of land that he owned.
Charles owned the house they all lived in, not
his parents, and Edwina had apparently taken
out loans on it and pocketed the money.

Supposedly, Charles had escaped to Central

America after the murders, and did who knows
what there until he died.

However, this is just speculation and there’s no

real basis to what could have actually
happened. What we know is that both these two
elders were murdered in absolute cold blood.
So, what are your thoughts on the uber gory Ice box murders? Aren’t they
just incredibly gory? Let us know in the comments!
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