The documentary titled “Homicide City: Charlotte Auditing Evil” on Investigation Discovery tells the horrifying story of a state insurance investigator named Sallie Rohrbach, who was 44 years old at the time of her death in May 2008 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her death was the result of an auditing job that she was performing at the time of her death. It was the very first time that a state insurance investigator had been murdered while on the job. Because it was such a high-profile case, there was a lot of interest in it from media outlets all throughout the country. The episode recounts how the investigation was solved by the police and how they located and arrested the person responsible for the crime. Let’s investigate this further and see if we can find out not only who the murderer is but also where they are at the moment, shall we?
How Did Sallie Rohrbach Die?
Sallie Jordan Rohrbach’s parents, Emmett Jordan and Lucy Jordan, passed away before her birth on June 16, 1963. She was born in Raleigh, which is located in Wake County, North Carolina. She had been married to her college sweetheart Tim J. Rohrbach for 23 years at the time of this writing, and she had been working as an insurance investigator for the North Carolina Department of Insurance for around 10 years. Her manager and her coworkers remarked that she was a very disciplined and methodical person; she adhered to a strict schedule and was never late for work or appointments because she kept meticulous track of the time she needed to be there.
As a result, it came as a shock when she went to investigate an insurance firm in Charlotte on May 12, 2008, but after two days she ceased picking up the phone or going to work. On May 16, a local coworker named Tim Pardue was given the responsibility of looking for her. He began to phone her immediate coworkers, including Cathy O’Connor, who stated that she spoke with her on a daily basis. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department became engaged in the hunt after even she stated that she had not heard from her since May 14 and that she had reported this to them.
On May 18, 2008, the police discovered Sallie’s state-owned silver Chevrolet Malibu parked in the lot of a Bojangles restaurant on the west side of Charlotte. On May 20, 2008, the dead corpse of the 44-year-old man was discovered in a rural region in Fort Mill, South Carolina. The autopsy report showed that blunt force trauma was the likely cause of death, and it was wrapped in garbage bags. It was impossible to ascertain what exactly caused Sallie’s death due to the advanced state of decay that her body had reached.
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Who Killed Sallie Rohrbach?
On May 16, 2008, it was announced that Sallie Rohrbach had gone missing. Investigators went to her residence to question her husband at that time. The show claims that the detectives regarded Tim’s body language to be highly unsettling and casual, in contrast to that of someone whose wife might have gone missing. In addition, the detectives went to the Dilworth Insurance Agency, which is owned by Michael Arthur Howell, and which Sallie had visited in order to do an audit. When Sallie left his office on May 13 with a box full of paperwork, he was the last person to see her alive. She was found dead the next day.
After recovering Sallie’s automobile on May 18, the police conducted a thorough search of the vehicle for any DNA evidence but were unable to identify any suspects based on the results of their investigation. On the other side, they discovered a letter that Sallie had written by hand in which she discussed the problems in her marriage and stated that she was planning to leave her husband. Tim, on the other hand, had a rock-solid alibi for the period of time during which Sallie went missing, thus he was eliminated from the list of possible suspects. After that, the investigators turned their attention to Dilworth Insurance Agency and began combing through Sallie’s notes, which they had discovered in the vehicle earlier.
The authorities quickly learned that Sallie had uncovered Michael’s involvement in a financial scheme and withheld bank documents over a period of 16 months from the audit. This information was provided to the police. It was reported by the investigators that he had stolen more than 150,000 dollars through embezzlement, and it appeared that Sallie was close on his trail. They came to the conclusion that it would be best to pay Michael another visit at his workplace. Michael immediately agreed to their request to search the offices when they showed up at Dilworth Insurance Agency and made the request. However, the detectives quickly discovered blood on a computer chord as well as on a significant portion of the carpet in the office. In addition to that, they discovered blood drips in Michael’s vehicle.
Michael at this time pulled back from further cooperation and moved away from the situation. In spite of this, the investigators were surprised to have a visitor while they were in the process of obtaining a search warrant. According to the episode, Michael’s wife, Tina, went to the authorities and stated that her husband had admitted to her that he had killed Sallie while they were talking on the phone as he was driving away from the office. This information was provided by Tina. On May 20, 2008, Michael was taken into custody and charged with the first-degree murder of Sallie based on the evidence that was presented, including the testimony of his wife.
Where is Michael Howell at This Current Time?
In exchange for the prosecution dropping their pursuit of the death penalty, Michael Howell divulged to the authorities the location of the landfill where he had disposed of Sallie Rohrbach’s body. In 2009, he entered a guilty plea to 25 charges of embezzlement in addition to second-degree murder, for which he was sentenced to a cumulative term of imprisonment of 35 years, 6 months, and 10 days. According to the official documents filed with the court, he is currently being held at the Pender Correctional Institution located in the state of North Carolina. According to the information contained in his prison record, his expected date of release is April 1st, 2036.
Sallie Rohrbach Murder Investigation
Detectives with the Chicago Metropolitan Police Department are continuing their investigation into the slaying of insurance auditor Sallie Rohrbach. The woman from Raleigh was last seen on May 14 while she was in Charlotte conducting business. A few days later, the police made an arrest and accused a South End insurance agent named Michael Howell with the woman’s murder. Unknown at this time are the circumstances behind Rohrbach’s murder as well as the motivation(s) behind it.
According to the investigators, Rohrbach was looking into the business that Howell ran. We have heard from a large number of consumers, all of whom have major problems regarding his agency. Some people claim that they paid their expenses, but then discovered that they weren’t insured afterward. One loyal customer made the difficult decision to switch to a competitor, despite the fact that she enjoyed doing business with the proprietor and said that she found him to be “such a nice guy.”
If what the cops say is accurate, Howell is not exactly a model citizen. They are not disclosing the location of the homicide at this time. And despite the fact that Rohrbach’s body was found on Vista Road in Fort Mill, the detectives appear to have focused their attention on Howell’s office in Charlotte. It was the last place Rohrbach was known to be, and Howell allegedly kept two pistols in the building for protection most of the time, according to his pals.
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