Rebecca Landrith, a NY model was found dead along Pa. highway. A note in her pocket led the police to the suspect. She was shot 18 times as suspected killer accused of ‘abusing corpse’
The following written content from John Beauge
Tracy Ray Rollins Jr., 28, an over-the-road truck driver from Dallas, Texas, has been charged with homicide and abuse of corpse in the death of Rebecca Landrith, 47, a native of Virginia who worked as a model in New York City. He was arrested in Connecticut.
Landrith’s body was found just before 7 a.m. Sunday by a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) worker on the I-80 eastbound exit ramp at the Mile Run interchange near Loganton.
Eighteen bullets were removed from Landrith’s body during an autopsy, the arrest affidavit states.
She sustained multiple gunshot wounds to her face, neck and chest area plus two on a hand that state police called defensive.
“We’re relieved,” her brother, George Landrith, said about the arrest. “It doesn’t ease the sense of loss.”
There was concern whether there would be an arrest because she was found in the middle of nowhere, he said speaking for the family. The interchange is void of businesses and surrounded by state forestland.
“Her family loved her dearly,” her brother said. “None of this brings her back. It is important she receives justice.”
“It took old-fashioned police work,” was the response of county District Attorney D. Peter Johnson when asked how an arrest was made so quickly.
Neither he nor state police would disclose what they believe was the motive for the shooting or if a weapon was recovered. No gun was found with the body, police said.
The arrest affidavit reveals investigators got a break when they found in a pocket of Landrith’s leather jacket a note that had Tracy Rollins name, a phone number and an email address.
Using that information, receipts found on her pockets and Rollins’ cell phone records, officials said they traced his travel from Wisconsin to Maine with a stop at the Mile Run interchange from 11:48 p.m. Saturday until 12:10 a.m. Sunday.
Landrith apparently was shot inside the cab of the truck, because according to the affidavit, investigators observed:
- Flesh and brain-like matter on the bottom bunk mattress behind the passenger seat and flesh-like matter beneath the exterior top stair gate.
- Powder applied as a cleaning agent on the front seat covering signs of blood, six 9mm shell casings on the front floorboard and on the floorboard behind the passenger seat.
- Bullet strikes in the rear wall behind the passenger seat and above the bottom bunk, they said.
Rollins was tracked to Mildale, Connecticut, and was taken into custody about 11:50 p.m. Wednesday when state police stopped his rig after it left a truck stop.
Looking into the cab, police said they observed in plain view what appeared to be bleach/cleaning solution covering a large portion of the passenger seat and floor.
According to the affidavit, Rollins told investigators he had been driving rigs for three years, did not know Landrith or recognize her from a picture but that a woman named Leslie he had met at a truck stop near Milford, Conn., had been traveling with him. Read more from Syracuse
