5 chilling details about Rhonda Richardson's murder

Modified Nov 12, 2023 05:15 GMT

Rhonda Richardson's murder was seemingly unjustified given she had no enemies at work or in her neighborhood. However, her dead body was reported to the San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office on May 22, 2019, by the alleged perpetrator's nephew, Jacen Clary.

The third episode of season 7 of Cold Justice details the murder of Rhonda Richardson and the subsequent indictment of Robert Dale Clary, who was found guilty after the investigation. The synopsis for the episode reads:

"The team tackles the twisted murder case of Rhonda Richardson, who went searching for her lost dog and was later found seemingly scalped by a sadistic killer; the biggest twist is a new piece of evidence that breaks the case wide open."

The episode, titled Trail of Terror, is to be re-aired on November 11, 2023, at 5 pm EST on Oxygen.

The discovery of a scalpel, and 4 other chilling details about Rhonda Richardson's murder

1) A scalpel was found next to the heavily decomposed body

Rhonda Richardson's body was found deep in the woods of Sam Houston National Forest, which was adjacent to her residence. The body was heavily decomposed in the heat, making the cause of her death difficult to determine.

The crime site (Image via Montgomery County Police Reporter)

However, the corpse had blunt force trauma to her face and head and multiple slashes left on her body. The strange part was that a scalpel was left next to her body - a detail that led investigator Steve Spingola along with the local police to believe that the body was scalped.

2) The perpetrator was a registered s*x offender

The prime suspect in the Rhonda Richardson murder case was Robert Dale Clary, primarily due to his existing criminal records. He was a registered s*x offender who had been in and out of prison in 2007 after being charged with one count of indecency with a child. He was also taken into custody on five separate DWI charges.

His nephew, Jacen Clary, had admitted to his tendencies, mentioning Robert had passed indecent comments and expressed one-sided interest in Richardson. He had also threatened to kill Richardson’s dogs, according to information received from witness James Talbert.

3) Robert Dale Clary had asked his nephew to report the crime

Jacen Clary had mentioned in his statement that his uncle was the one to find Richardson's body in the woods. He brought his nephew to the crime scene, after which he persuaded him to report the crime to 911. Robert had also asked his nephew to not speak of the dead body to anybody else before he had reported it.

Robert Dale Clary said he had volunteered to help Rhonda in her search for her lost dog. She was last seen with Robert on his ATV riding into the woods.

4) The samples from Clary's residence came back negative

As the investigators checked Clary's phone records, they found him to be present at the crime scene at the same time as Rhonda, unlike his claims to the officers. This gave the local police grounds to obtain a search warrant for his house. The samples taken were his ATV and his rug and were sent to a crime lab in Montgomery County for analysis.

The reports came back negative.

5) Robert Dale Clary photographed Rhonda Richardson's body

When Robert Dale Clary went back to the scene of the crime with his nephew, he had taken pictures of Rhonda's body, which he was asked to delete by the law enforcement officers. However, the officers found Robert to have downloaded the photos from the cloud after he was asked to remove them from his phone.

Rhonda Richardson (Image via Montgomery County Police Reporter)

Despite the digital evidence, Clary denied having downloaded the photos again. The contradiction that came from Clary's side made suspicions grow strong.

He was eventually arrested on October 31, 2022, and is presently at the San Jacinto County Jail on a $750,000 bond.

Edited by Prem Deshpande