Robert Atrops reacts to a Washington County jury's verdict of guilty in the case against him for the murder of his estranged wife in 1988. (Courtesy of Kristyna Wentz-Graff/Oregon Public Broadcasting)

One of Washington County’s longest-standing cold cases came to a close this week as Robert Elmer Atrops was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his estranged wife.

The judgement came down Tuesday, July 8, after a jury found Atrops guilty of second-degree murder in April. The 71-year-old has the possibility of parole in 25 years — when he is 96.

Deborah Lee Atrops, 30, was discovered in the trunk of her car in Beaverton in late 1988, months after she separated from her husband. But it wasn’t until the case was reopened in 2020 — and a DNA breakthrough surfaced — that investigators arrested Robert Atrops at his Newberg home in 2023.

The murder

At the time of her disappearance, Deborah Atrops was living in a Salem apartment while Robert Atrops remained in the family’s Sherwood home. The couple shared an infant daughter they had recently adopted, but their marriage was crumbling under the weight of domestic violence and other marital problems, according to investigators.

Friends and coworkers told police they had witnessed physical abuse leading up to Deborah Atrops’ death. Investigators noted she had begun a new relationship with a coworker and had confided in friends that her estranged husband had confronted her about it — and that she feared for her life.

On the evening of Nov. 29, 1988, Deborah Atrops was headed to a hair appointment in Tigard while her husband supposedly stayed home to care for their daughter. When she failed to return, Robert Atrops told police he began calling family and acquaintances, as well as 911, around 9:30 p.m. to report her missing.

Detectives, however, found no records of calls from his home phone that night, leading them to believe he had not been where he claimed.

By 9 a.m. the following morning, a missing-person case was opened. Two days later, on Dec. 1, Beaverton police responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked near where Southwest Murray Road meets Southwest Scholls Ferry Road. The driver’s side window of the 1988 Honda Accord — the same model Deborah Atrops had purchased after separating from her husband — was rolled down, the keys were on the front seat and the license plates had been removed.

When deputies opened the trunk, they found her body.

A medical examiner determined Deborah Atrops had been physically assaulted and strangled before being placed in the trunk. The case was ruled a homicide.

While Robert Atrops claimed he never saw his wife that evening, his alibi was never fully verified. With no other suspects and limited evidence, the investigation stalled.

DNA and a break in the case

Over the years, the case was reviewed by several detectives but remained cold until 2020, when cold case detective Kevin Winfield reopened the file.

Using a grant aimed at solving violent cold cases in Washington County, investigators pursued new forensic tests on evidence collected in 1988, including Deborah Atrops’ coat and other items found muddied in her car.

DNA analysis, which was not available at the time of the original investigation, offered a breakthrough. The FBI concluded that mud samples taken from Deborah Atrops’ vehicle matched mud collected from the grounds of Robert Atrops’ Sherwood home. Detectives also uncovered records showing that Robert had sold roofing materials at construction sites near where the car was found.

In 2022, after Winfield interviewed Robert Atrops and uncovered significant discrepancies in his retelling of events, a Washington County grand jury indicted him for second-degree murder. He was arrested at his home in Newberg on March 23, 2023.