Cindy Roth’s drowning at Lake Sammamish on July 23, 1991, was not the boating accident her husband described. Randy Roth told police a passing speedboat’s wake flipped their inflatable raft on top of 34-year-old Cindy as she swam near Idylwood Park in King County, Washington. King County investigators disproved that story, uncovered nearly $385,000 in life insurance payable to Randy, and connected the death to a decade-old fatal fall involving his second wife. A jury convicted Randy Roth of first-degree murder in April 1992, and he was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
What Happened at Idylwood Park
Randy and Cindy took her two sons, Tyson and Rylie Baumgartner, to Idylwood Park on Lake Sammamish on July 23, 1991. The boys stayed on shore while the couple paddled out on an inflatable raft.
According to Randy’s account, Cindy got a leg cramp in the water, and a passing boat’s wake then overturned the raft on top of her. He said he heard her cough once, waited roughly 30 seconds, righted the raft, and found her face-down. He claimed he tried mouth-to-mouth, pulled her into the raft, and rowed back to shore, a trip he estimated at 20 minutes.1vLex. State v. Roth, 881 P.2d 268
During the entire episode he never called out to any of the other boats on the lake. He did not wave anyone down on shore. When he reached land he told the boys to find a lifeguard but “not to create a fuss.” A lifeguard and a paramedic worked on Cindy without success. Witnesses watched Randy calmly deflate the raft and gather the family’s beach gear while she was being resuscitated.2Seattle Times. Roth Portrayed as Cold Killer
Cindy was pronounced dead at Overlake Hospital Medical Center. Randy had the boys carry bags of wet clothes to the car without telling them their mother was dead. When ten-year-old Rylie began to cry on the drive home, Randy told him, “There’s no need to cry; it’s over with.” He then stopped at a video store and rented comedies, including Weekend at Bernie’s.3Seattle Times. Dead Woman’s Son Testifies Roth Told Him to Stop Crying
Why Police Didn’t Believe It Was an Accident
King County detectives obtained the actual raft and ran videotaped reenactments on the lake. They tried repeatedly to tip it with powerboats passing within ten yards and could not. The only way an officer managed to flip the raft was by grabbing it from underneath with her full body weight, which is nothing like a passing wake. Investigators concluded Randy’s version of events was “implausible.”1vLex. State v. Roth, 881 P.2d 268
Randy’s statements shifted. He told Cindy’s son he had performed CPR; he later told a detective he had not. He asked the medical examiner, Dr. David Roselle, not to perform an autopsy. One week after Cindy’s death, he invited a female co-worker to Reno using airline tickets he had originally bought for his wedding anniversary with Cindy.2Seattle Times. Roth Portrayed as Cold Killer
The Insurance Money
Cindy Baumgartner was a widowed mother of two who had grown up in the Silver Lake area of south Snohomish County. Her first husband, Tom, had died of cancer in 1984, and she was raising Tyson and Rylie alone when she met Randy. Prosecutors would later describe single mothers as his specific target. The courtship was brief, and they married on August 3, 1990.4Radford University. Roth, Randy – Serial Killer Case File
During the marriage, Cindy changed the beneficiary on an existing life insurance policy from her two sons to Randy. Additional policies brought total coverage on her life to roughly $385,000, all payable to him.5Seattle Times. Randy Roth: Killer or Martyr – Trial’s Closing Arguments Paint Wildly Differing Pictures
A Pattern Going Back a Decade
What made Cindy’s death prosecutable as murder was the pattern investigators uncovered when they looked at Randy’s past relationships.
Janis Miranda Roth, 1981
Randy’s second wife, Janis Miranda Roth, died on November 27, 1981, after falling 300 feet from Beacon Rock in Skamania County. Randy was the only witness and gave conflicting accounts of what had happened. Investigators found no physical evidence consistent with a slip. A $100,000 life insurance policy on Janis had taken effect 20 days before her death with Randy as sole beneficiary. The morning after she died, he called an insurance agent about collecting. He never notified Janis’s friends or relatives.1vLex. State v. Roth, 881 P.2d 268
A former friend, Tim Brocato, testified that about a month before Janis died, Randy had asked him whether he “could ever kill his wife.” After the death, Randy told Brocato he would not share details because he “would have to lie about it.” Janis’s death was ruled accidental at the time, and Randy collected the insurance.1vLex. State v. Roth, 881 P.2d 268
Donna Clift and Mary Jo Phillips
Two other women in Randy’s life survived and testified at the trial. Donna Clift married him in 1985 after a three-month courtship. Before the wedding he showed her a life insurance policy he wanted to take out on her, with payouts specified for different causes of death. She declined but agreed to change the beneficiary on a small existing policy from her daughter to Randy. On a rafting trip on the Skykomish River, she became convinced he was deliberately steering the raft into rocks; the raft punctured, and she said he told her to shut up as she screamed. She left him after three months because she “was scared of him.”6Seattle Times. Third Wife, Former Girlfriend Testify in Roth Murder Trial
Mary Jo Phillips dated Randy in 1986. He suggested she needed life insurance and proposed marriage. When she told him she had cancer and was uninsurable, his behavior “abruptly turned to ice,” and the relationship ended.6Seattle Times. Third Wife, Former Girlfriend Testify in Roth Murder Trial
The Charges and the Trial
The King County Prosecutor’s Office filed first-degree murder charges on October 10, 1991. Later amendments added first-degree theft, tied to insurance proceeds from what prosecutors called a staged residential burglary, and second-degree theft, for a false Social Security claim filed in his son’s name after Cindy’s death. Bail was set at one million dollars.2Seattle Times. Roth Portrayed as Cold Killer
The trial opened March 10, 1992, in King County Superior Court before Judge Frank Sullivan. Senior Deputy Prosecutor Marilyn Brenneman called roughly 150 witnesses over seven weeks and told the jury Randy was a “cold-hearted manipulator” who married women for their insurance. Rylie Baumgartner, then ten, testified about Randy’s behavior the day his mother died and described punishment Randy had inflicted on his older brother, Tyson, including forcing him to do calisthenics in winter while being sprayed with a garden hose.3Seattle Times. Dead Woman’s Son Testifies Roth Told Him to Stop Crying
Randy testified in his own defense. Reporters and jurors described his delivery as precise, clinical, and monotone, with no visible emotion. His mother attributed the flat affect to a family upbringing that discouraged showing feeling.7Seattle Times. 8Seattle Times. Roth’s Fate Rests With 12 of His Peers
The seven-woman, five-man jury began deliberating on April 22, 1992, and returned guilty verdicts on all three counts.9CaseMine. State v. Roth, No. 31067-4-I The court imposed an exceptional sentence of 600 months, or 50 years, on the murder count.10Seattle Times. Randy Roth Loses Initial Appeal The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction on September 26, 1994, finding evidence about Janis’s death and the insurance history was properly admitted and that the two deaths were “strikingly similar.”1vLex. State v. Roth, 881 P.2d 268
Cindy’s Sons and the Insurance Proceeds
Cindy had named her best friend, Lori Baker of Everett, in her will as the person who should raise Tyson and Rylie if anything happened to her. After the murder conviction, Washington state law barred Randy from collecting Cindy’s life insurance. Baker filed a civil suit in King County Superior Court in April 1992 to block Randy’s father, Gordon Roth, who had been named trustee of the policy, from distributing any of the money to Randy’s son Greg or to other Roth family members. Baker argued the proceeds should go entirely to raising Cindy’s two boys.11Seattle Times. Suit Seeks to Keep Randy Roth’s Family From Insurance Claim
By July 1992, a year after the drowning, Tyson and Rylie were living with Baker and attending Silver Lake Christian School, still grieving but adjusting.12Seattle Times. Cynthia Roth’s Young Sons Adjusting but Still Grieving
Where Randy Roth Is Now
Randy Roth is serving his sentence at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Washington.13Decider. A Rose for Her Grave: The Randy Roth True Story The case was the featured story in Ann Rule’s 1993 book A Rose for Her Grave and Other True Cases,14Google Books. A Rose for Her Grave and Other True Cases and Lifetime adapted the story into a 2023 television film, A Rose for Her Grave: The Randy Roth Story, centered on Cindy’s friendship with Lori Baker.15MediaVillage. Lifetime’s A Rose for Her Grave: The Randy Roth Story