Indictment: Man killed wife, son by pushing them off a cliff
Patty
By The Denver Post
Saturday, October 20, 2001 -
GREEN RIVER, Wyo. - A grand jury has indicted a man on charges of killing his
wife and 5-year-old son by causing them to fall off a cliff five years ago.
James Robert "Bob" Duke, 33, of Green River was indicted Oct. 11 on two counts
of first-degree murder and two counts of soliciting murder.
Duke's wife, Liana Mae Duke, 22, and son, Erik Robert Duke, fell 180 feet from a
cliff at Flaming Gorge Reservoir on Aug. 10, 1996. At the time, Bob Duke told
investigators that he was getting a soda from his car when he heard their
screams.
The case was ruled accidental at the time but was kept open. Police questioned
how the two got themselves into such a dangerous position to fall.
New suspicion was raised in 1999 when Duke pleaded guilty to conspiring to use a
telephone to plot the murder of his Green River parents. He is serving a 10-year
sentence in federal prison.
A Green River man, Roger Brauberger, told authorities that Duke asked him to
kill Duke's parents and at one point offered him $23,000 to kill Liana and Erik
Duke, sometime between May and August of 1996, according to court documents.
crosem
Patty <eartha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:zmfA7.36479$ev2....@www.newsranger.com...
Patty
any hint of a motive? insurance money?
>
>
I posted about this case in 2000 and tried to find out more on it but
there was nothing. Can't find anything else again this time. Here's
the August 2000 article:
Authorities look again into 1996 cliff deaths
GREEN RIVER, Wyo. (AP) - Authorities are again investigating the
deaths
of a mother and son whose bodies were found at the base of a cliff
near
Flaming Gorge Reservoir four years ago. At the time, the deaths of
Liana Duke, 22, and Erik Duke, 5, were ruled accidental but the case
was not closed.
The woman's husband and the boy's father, James Robert "Bob" Duke,
told
authorities that the three of them were walking along the cliffs Aug.
10, 1996, when he went to get a soda from his Jeep.
Duke told investigators he heard screams and that his wife and son had
apparently fallen off the edge.
On July 7, the bodies were exhumed and four days later autopsies were
conducted by the State Crime Lab in Cheyenne.
Results are not back yet, Sweetwater County Coroner Dale Majhanovich
said this week.
Last year, Duke, 26, of Green River, was sentenced to 10 years in
federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to use a telephone
to plot the murder of his parents. Authorities foiled the plot.
His brother, Patrick Michael Duke, 32, of Houston, was sentenced to
one
year, nine months in prison for failing to report the plot.
crosem
crimes against him, unless they are able to show a pattern, which seem
possible here...a motive is not necessary for a case, but it does make
things more understandable...
I am dying to find the motive...since he wishes to kill his parents, also,
any sort of "leaving for a girlfriend/no ties" doesn't seem plausible...so
my guess is going to be insurance money.
Wonder if the brother knows anything about this case?
If everyone keeps their mouths shut, and unless there is some hidden
blockbuster, it doesn't seem to me as if there is much evidence against him
(although I do think he did it).
Patty <eartha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:f0e77308.01102...@posting.google.com...
