PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — The murder trial centering on Robert Atrops , a man accused of killing his wife in 1988, is set to begin Tuesday, five months after it was initially scheduled.
Atrops, 71, was charged with the alleged second-degree murder of his wife, Deborah Lee Atrops , in early 2023 after she went missing on Nov. 29, 1988.
Opening statements were set to begin on on Oct. 22, 2024. But the trial was delayed after a key witness – and Deborah’s former lover – committed suicide the week before when Arizona law enforcement tried to serve him with a material witness warrant, court documents said.
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The day she went missing, Deborah was expected to pick up her eight-month-old daughter from Robert’s home in Sherwood, as the couple had been living separately. When she didn’t arrive at the agreed-upon time, he filed a missing persons report.
The next day, her 1988 black Honda Accord was spotted at a dead end of Murray Road. The license plates were gone, the driver’s window was rolled down and police found her body in the trunk…