Roger Eugene Fain

Case overview

Roger Eugene Fain Jr. was convicted of capital murder in the rape and slaying of Linda Sue Donahew of Arlington and received another life prison term to be served consecutively.

Fain was twice convicted of murder, serving a life sentence for a 1994 killing and receiving a second life sentence after a DNA-linked capital murder conviction.

Timeline

• June 1, 1987 — Linda Sue Donahew’s nude body was found in her Arlington home at 2405 Southcrest Drive; she had been sexually assaulted.
• August 2005 — The Arlington Police Department Cold Case Unit reopened the Linda Donahew case.
• December 2005 — Police confirmed a DNA match to Roger Fain after obtaining a warrant to acquire another sample from him.
• December 19, 2007 — Jurors in Fort Worth found Roger Eugene Fain Jr. guilty of capital murder in the rape and slaying of Linda Sue Donahew; Fain received another life prison term to be served consecutively.
• January 3, 2006 — Arlington Police issued a press release stating that Arlington Cold Case detectives used DNA and other evidence to link Roger Eugene Fain Jr. to the 1987 stabbing and strangulation death of Linda Sue Donahew and presented the case charging him with capital murder to the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office.

The offence

Linda Sue Donahew was sexually assaulted and was stabbed to death and strangled in her Arlington home. Her body was found on June 1, 1987, at 2405 Southcrest Drive.

Fain’s conviction for the 1987 killing was tied to DNA evidence and included the finding that he committed a capital murder involving a rape and slaying.

Investigation

The Arlington Police Department Cold Case Unit reopened the Linda Donahew case. Swabs taken from Donahew’s body had been processed as part of the original evidence, but the 1987 technology did not yield a DNA profile.

When the case was reopened in August 2005, detectives requested that forensic scientists in the DNA lab of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office retest samples of bodily fluids taken during Donahew’s autopsy. Within a few weeks, a complete DNA profile of a sperm was entered into the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and matched to Roger Fain.

To confirm the match, Cold Case detectives obtained a warrant to acquire another sample from Fain. In late December, the DNA match was confirmed.

Cold Case Detective Jim Ford and his Cold Case partner John Bell continued the investigation and learned additional facts linking Fain to Donahew. Ford had been one of the original detectives assigned to the case and stated:

"Back then, we had a suspect description, vehicle description and even a composite of the suspect's face, but we didn't know who he was," Detective Ford said. "Roger Fain's name never came up because he was only loosely associated with her. That turned out to be his method of operation."

The press release said that at the time of the killing, Fain was living in Dallas and drove a 1976 white Ford pickup matching the suspect vehicle. It also said one of three composite sketches looked strikingly similar to a 1994 photo of Roger Fain.

Detective Ford said:

"Roger Fain was seen with Linda Donahew at a horse stable in Arlington and at a local bar," Detective Ford said. "We have witnesses who, even after all this time, were able to identify both of them from photo lineups. Perhaps more significantly, they recalled seeing them together. That helps seal the case, but without the lead from the DNA technology, this case never would have been solved."

The press release additionally noted that investigators learned from Round Rock investigators that the Linda Donahew and Sandra Dumont cases shared several similarities, including that the victims' clothing was cut from their bodies.

The press release also described the context of the Cold Case Unit, stating that since it formed in November 2004, detectives cleared four other murder cases by arrest, and cleared eight other murder cases in which there were enough facts and information to substantiate issuing a warrant for suspects’ arrest; in each of those eight cases the suspects were deceased and the cases were closed. Investigators said they would continue to review about 55 cold cases dating back to 1968.

Arrest / charging

Arlington Cold Case detectives presented the case charging Roger Eugene Fain Jr. with capital murder to the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office. The TCDA accepted the case for prosecution and would seek a grand jury indictment in the next few weeks.

Fain was described as being held in the Eastham prison in Lovelady, Texas.

Trial

Capital murder trial in Fort Worth

Jurors in Fort Worth found 54-year-old Roger Eugene Fain Jr. guilty of capital murder in the rape and slaying of Linda Sue Donahew of Arlington.

Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

Fain received another life prison term to be served consecutively.

The record also described the sentence as “stacked” so that one life sentence had to be finished before another was started.

A published report described that the minimum remaining on Fain’s Williamson County sentence meant he would have a minimum of 18 years left on that sentence.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said:

"That really puts the nail in the coffin," Bradley said.

The published report said Bradley described it as “a virtual certainty” that Fain would die in prison.

Prior 1994 murder conviction trial in Williamson County

Fain was convicted in 1995 of murdering Sandra Jean Dumont of Round Rock and was sentenced to life in prison.

The record described that Fain’s Williamson County conviction stemmed from the 1994 disappearance and death of Sandra Dumont. Dumont was an Austin resident and a card dealer in an Austin nightclub, and authorities said she was last seen at the nightclub on July 25.

It also said Fain was the only suspect named in the death of Round Rock’s Darlene Anderson, though he was never charged with her murder.

Sentencing

Fain received another life prison term in 2007 for the capital murder conviction related to the 1987 killing of Linda Sue Donahew.

The record said the judge “stacked” Fain’s life sentences so that he had to finish one before starting the other.

The record also stated that, based on parole laws in place in 1987, Fain had to serve a 15-year minimum for Donahew’s murder.

The record said prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

Related cases and other killings mentioned in the record

Sandra Jean Dumont (1994)

The record stated that Fain’s Williamson County conviction in 1995 stemmed from the 1994 disappearance and death of Sandra Jean Dumont, who was 39 and lived in Austin. Dumont was described as a card dealer in an Austin nightclub.

Her body and that of Darlene Anderson were found just a couple hundred feet apart on Aug. 12, 1994, on private property described as “then a cow pasture” off the intersection of Louis Henna Boulevard and County Road 169.

The record included a remark from Mike Davis, Fain’s court-appointed defense attorney for the Dumont murder case:

"There's a bunch of apartments there now," said Mike Davis, Fain's court-appointed defense attorney for the Dumont murder case. "Louis Henna has changed 10,000 percent."

Darlene Anderson (1994)

The record described that Darlene Anderson was 38 and lived in the Round Rock Ranch subdivision off Gattis School Road with her 12-year-old daughter.

Anderson was described as “very punctual” and her co-workers at Austin Semiconductor became concerned when she did not show up for work.

It said authorities and family members were on the lookout for Anderson and that she had last been seen the afternoon of June 27.

The record stated:

• By mid-July more than 700 volunteers, some on horseback and coming from as far away as San Antonio, took part in a two-day search for Anderson.
• Roger Fain participated in the horseback search; he was described as a then 40-year-old construction worker living in a duplex about one-half mile from Anderson’s home.

The record included a quote from Anderson’s former husband, Dan Anderson, who lived in Midland:

"This is just too damned weird," said her former husband, Dan Anderson, who lived in Midland at the time.

The record also described Austin Police Sgt. Michael Phillips finding the remains of Anderson and Dumont in early August and identifying both women through dental records.

The record stated that Phillips had learned a gray 1980 Toyota Corolla, belonging to Dumont, had been found in the area. It said Phillips found Anderson’s body under a pile of debris and Dumont’s uncovered remains were found nearby.

The record did not state that Fain was charged with Anderson’s murder.

Background and personal history mentioned

The record stated that Fain attracted an entourage of female friends and admirers who followed his courtroom proceedings, beginning in Georgetown up through the Tyler murder trial.

A photograph from Fain’s 1994 arrest showed him shirtless, “deep-chested but with the beginnings of a belly,” and with “Fabio-like long black hair.”

The record quoted District Judge Ken Anderson:

"The community was justifiably concerned," said District Judge Ken Anderson, who was then Williamson County district attorney. "When you have two women who disappear [and] get murdered ... it was disconcerting."

It quoted Bradley about Fain:

It also quoted Bradley and Davis about Fain’s appearance and the way women followed him:

"There was something charismatic about him [to some women]," Bradley said. "He had this entourage of women who followed him all the way up to Tyler," Davis recalled.

Fain maintained his innocence. The record quoted Fain from a September 1994 interview from the Williamson County Jail:

"I'm not crazy or insane," Fain told the Leader in a September 1994 interview from the Williamson County Jail. "I'm not a psycho killer, or a kidnapping rapist from hell."

The record included statements about judges moving the trial location due to publicity, including:

"It's almost like the Henry Lee Lucas level of publicity," Davis told the Leader in 1994.

Criminal record and incarceration details

The record stated that Fain’s criminal record began in 1970, when he was 16, and he was accused of raping a 33-year-old woman in his native Florida.

As an adult in Florida during the 1970s and '80s, the record said Fain “racked up felony convictions for burglary, robbery and kidnapping.”

It stated that he remained in Florida until 1990.

In May 1991, the record said Fain was arrested in Cameron County on charges of kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault, and that he was convicted on a lesser charge of false imprisonment.

The record stated he went into the Texas prison system in 1991 and was out on parole in 1992 due to prison overcrowding.

The record included a quote from Chris Mealy, who served on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles from 1987-90:

"Fain was a direct result ... of there not being enough space to keep him in long enough," said Georgetown's Chris Mealy, who from 1987-90 served on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

1994 arrest details and bond

The record said Round Rock police arrested Fain in mid-August of 1994 in northwest Austin off Pond Springs Road and McNeil Drive at the home of his estranged wife.

Justice of the Peace Jimmy Bitz set Fain’s bond at $5 million, believed to be a record-high in Williamson County.

District Judge Ken Anderson was quoted again in relation to the bond and community concern:

Physical evidence and explanations mentioned

The record stated that Dumont had a broken jaw and that Fain had been treated for a fractured hand the day after she disappeared.

It stated that Judge John Carter had moved the trial to Tyler, in East Texas, because of pre-trial publicity in Williamson County.

According to the record, Anderson was killed by a blow to the head with a blunt object, while Dumont was shot in the head and also suffered a broken jaw.

The record said investigators Dan Ryle and Mary Ryle found evidence that Fain was treated on July 26, one day after Dumont was last seen alive, for a broken bone in his right hand, and that he received treatment at Seton Hospital in Austin for what doctors later described as a “boxer's fracture,” similar to what prizefighters sometimes incur.

The record stated that Davis and Bradley said the broken hand evidence did not help Fain’s cause, and that Fain at various times offered conflicting explanations for how his right hand came to be broken:

• sometimes he said he “slammed the hood of a pickup truck on it.”
• other times he said it was a “toolbox lid that was to blame.”

Defence and prosecution figures named

Mike Davis was identified as Fain’s court-appointed defense attorney for the Dumont murder case.

Michael Jergins and Jana McCowan were named as prosecutors in the Tyler murder case.

The record also named District Attorney John Bradley for Williamson County.

It named Arlington Cold Case Detective Jim Ford.

It named Arlington Cold Case partner John Bell.

It named Austin Police Sgt. Michael Phillips.

It named Round Rock Police Department investigators Dan LeMay and Mary Ryle.

It named Justice of the Peace Jimmy Bitz.

It named District Judge Ken Anderson.

It named Judge John Carter.

It named Georgetown’s Chris Mealy.

It named Detective Chief Inspector? No such role is stated; only detective names above were included.

Quotes reflecting assessment of Fain

The record included statements from Davis and Bradley describing Fain as calculating and remorseless.

Davis was quoted:

"It does not sadden me to see this [Fort Worth conviction] Davis said. "I certainly have no obligation to him anymore."

Bradley was quoted comparing Fain to Michael Moore:

"I would put Fain and Michael Moore together," Bradley said, referring to the man who in 2006 was convicted of killing pregnant Forest Creek resident Christina Moore (no relation) and who has been suspected in the 2002 disappearance of Georgetown's Rachel Cooke, 19. Michael Moore received a life sentence last year for Christina Moore's murder.

And Anderson was quoted:

"I think they would probably be in the same category," Anderson agreed. "People who either need to be executed or put in prison for the rest of their life. "There's no emotion ... no motive ..." Anderson said. "Those are the scary ones."

Aftermath / current status

The record described that Fain remained in prison and that his life sentences were to be served consecutively, with his Williamson County minimum described as 18 years left on the original 30-year minimum.