Cold Justice on Oxygen: Where is Robert Dale Clary now?

The accused in the murder case of 59-year-old Texas corrections officer and mother Rhonda Richardson, Robert Dale Clary, was arrested at the age of 65. When Richardson stepped out of the house to look for her missing dog on May 21, 2019, she never returned, and was later found dead.

A call placed by Dale Clary's nephew alerted the San Jacinto Sheriff’s Office about the heavily decomposed dead body found in the Sam Houston National Forest, eight feet away from an ATV trail.

The body was identified to be Richardson's, and Robert Dale Clary became the prime suspect as the investigators dug deeper into the case. Dale Clary is presently awaiting trial and is under arrest at the San Jacinto County Jail on a $750,000 bond.

The third episode of season 7 of Cold Justice, titled Trail of Terror, chronicles the death of Richardson. The synopsis of 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 Cold Justice episode re-aired on November 11, 2023, at 5 pm EST on Oxygen.

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Robert Dale Clary is currently awaiting trial

Rhonda Richardson was found dead by law enforcement officers in the National Park adjacent to her home at around 4 pm on May 22, 2019, after a call reporting the remains came in from Robert Dale Clary's nephew, Jacen Clary.

Richardson was out on foot looking for her lost dog for the past few days. She had asked other neighbors for help in her search, which was also the time she was last seen with Dale Clary as he had agreed to help her.

Rhonda Richardson (Image via Montgomery County Police Department)

Robert Dale Clary was a neighbor to Rhonda in Shepherd, Texas. His name was already in the local police records due to one count of indecency with a child in 2007 and five prior DWI cases. He had also served time at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

During the initial investigation, Dale Clary mentioned helping Richardson on his ATV. It was he who had found her body in the woods but refrained from calling any attention to it immediately. He urged his nephew Jacen to make the call to the police but not speak of it to others before doing so.

As investigators spoke to Jacen, he mentioned his uncle passing s*xual remarks at Richardson and further expressing interest in her.

Robert Dale Clary (Image via Radaris)

Apart from an eyewitness named James Talbert, investigators scanned Dale Clary's cellphone records which showed him to be present at the crime scene when Richardson was murdered.

Besides, officers discovered pictures of Rhonda's corpse on his phone which he was asked to delete. However, he had allegedly downloaded the photos from the cloud yet again as per records from the Sheriff's Office.

Robert Dale Clary after arrest (Image via San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office)

A search warrant was obtained based on the account provided by Talbert. The ATV and a rug were sent to a crime lab for analysis, the results of which could not tie Clary to the crime. The cell phone coordinates served as evidence to get hold of an arrest warrant, which was used to take Dale Clary into custody on October 31, 2022.

Robert Dale Clary was indicted by a grand jury on January 20, 2023.