GOOD SAMARITAN BEHEADED AFTER HELPING MAN

Robert Cope, charged with second degree murder

FORT MYERS, Florida - A homeless man beheaded a good Samaritan who had given him a place to stay, south Florida authorities say.

Lee County Sheriff's deputies went to 70-year-old Charles Rogers' apartment Thursday and found his body in his wheelchair. His head had been placed near the front door.

A home health care provider identified 55-year-old Robert Cope as the man who had been staying with Rogers, police said. Neighbors say Rogers was a good Samaritan-type who often helped people.

Authorities said they found Cope's shoe prints at the scene and he had blood on his shoes when they arrested him.

According to a sheriff’s report, Rogers’ caretaker saw him Wednesday and there was a man named Robert at the home. On Thursday morning, Rogers was fine and said Robert was sleeping in another room. One of Rogers’ friends contacted deputies around 1:50 p.m. and they arrived at the apartment to find Rogers dead.

According to a Lee County Sheriff's Office report of the incident, Rogers' head was severed from the body, which was seated in a wheelchair in a separate area of the house. The head was found near the door of the apartment. The majority of the blood spatter and stains were in the kitchen area of Rogers' two-bedroom apartment. Bloody shoe prints were seen on the kitchen floor, the report states.

"Blood patterns on the floor indicated that the body had been dragged from the kitchen area to the area of the residence where the body was located," according to the report by Deputy Michael Carr.

Rogers lived alone and because of medical problems hadn't been able to work for three years, according to the complainant.

Dee Marton lives down the street from Rogers and said he was a caring and well-known person in the area.Marton fought back tears as she described her friend."He would do anything for anybody," she said of the man friends knew as Chuck. "He had a heart of gold." "He couldn't do a lot of things, but you couldn't tell him that," she said. "He thought he could do anything and everything in the world, and he would give you the shirt off his back."

She said she doesn't feel safe knowing something like this can happen."I just wonder that if this can happen to him, am I safe?" she said. "I don't know, I just don't know.""Everybody knew him," she said. "He would take his electric chair and go up and down the road. He was a friend to everybody."

Marton said she doesn't know Robert Cope, but said she was aware there was a man staying with Rogers during the past few days.

"All I know is that he shouldn't have been there," she said. "Chuck was the kind of person that if he found someone that needed help, he would help them. "She said she never imagined something like this could happen to someone as kind as Rogers." Chuck didn't have any money," she said. "He had nothing. He was about as poor as dirt, but he loved his life, and he was happy. And to think somebody could come and take it away from him like they've done, I just don't understand it."

Rogers' best friend, Leslie Kowalski, of Fort Myers, said that Rogers' "dreams were bigger than his body or his strength — his heart was even bigger."


http://www.news-press.com/article/20090529/CRIME/90529010/1075

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31003967/