Man Suspected in Dismemberment Slayings

A onetime television actor and aspiring heavy-metal drummer pleaded innocent Wednesday in a dismemberment murder, and authorities are investigating whether he was involved in three other murders and a disappearance.

Ramon Jay Rogers, 35, had been questioned in 1994 about the mutilation killing of a girlfriend and in 1993 about the disappearance of a friend. Authorities have reopened those cases since the discovery of body parts in the garage of Rogers’ apartment.

Since his arrest here Monday, investigators also are looking at his possible involvement in two murders in towns outside of San Diego County where he lived in recent years, including one in Idaho.

“This is a case that is evolving quickly on many fronts,” said Gayle Falkenthal, a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst. “People working on the case are going to be very busy.”

On Monday, San Diego police went to Rogers’ apartment near San Diego State University after relatives of his live-in companion became concerned that they had not heard from her for three weeks, homicide Lt. Glenn Breitenstein said.

Rogers, who had small parts in the show “Renegade” starring Lorenzo Lamas, was arrested on suspicion of drug possession. But after police found evidence that “someone had been seriously hurt” in the apartment, they got a search warrant and found the body parts in a plastic bag in a storage locker near his parking space.

The parts, reportedly teeth and fingers, are under examination by forensic experts to see if they are those of Rogers’ missing companion, with whom he has a 6-year-old son.

The name of the missing woman, a Polish immigrant in her 30s, has not been released. The child, who was at Rogers’ apartment, has been taken into protective custody.

Rogers had been questioned by San Diego County sheriff’s deputies in 1993 about the disappearance of his friend Ron Stadt, 20, of Imperial Beach. No trace of Stadt has been found.

He was questioned again in 1994 when the arm and leg of Rose Albano, 33, were found tossed along a road in rural Valley Center, north of San Diego. Shortly before she disappeared, she had withdrawn $6,000 from a bank, investigators said.

The rest of Albano’s body was never recovered, and no charges were filed. Albano, a mother of two who was pregnant when she died, had been living with Rogers for two months and earlier had dated Stadt.

“We’re cooperating with the Sheriff’s Department,” Breitenstein said. “There are just a lot of similarities in these cases, the dismemberments, the relationships.”

“Renegade,” a syndicated TV series filmed in San Diego, is an action show about a young street cop named Reno Raines (Lamas) who is framed for murder and escapes on his motorcycle to become a bounty hunter fighting for justice.

Rogers, lean and muscular, with swarthy good looks and longish hair, fit the look that directors wanted for characters in the show, and he was cast in several episodes.

Rogers is the manager of the apartment building where the body parts were found, police said. He also ran a car window tinting business and a cellular phone service. He was scheduled to play drums Saturday with the band Mister Butterfly in Lemon Grove, a tryout for a possible permanent spot in the band.

Rogers was arraigned on a murder charge in San Diego Superior Court and is being held without bail.