Rollins Charged With Murder of Former Model
Tracy Ray Rollins, a 28-year-old long-haul truck driver from Dallas, Texas, was arrested and charged Wednesday with the murder of Rebecca Landrith. Landrith's body was found by a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) worker around 7 am Sunday near an 1-80 eastbound exit ramp by the Mile Run interchange. Landrith sustained numerous gunshot wounds to her face, neck and chest as well as two defensive wounds on one hand. Although her body lacked any forms of identification when she was found, police were able to confirm Landrith's identity via fingerprints. The 47-year-old had been a professional model in New York City and was an accomplished violinist. Police also found a note in the pocket of Landrith's jacket that had Tracy Rollins' name, email address and phone number written on it. With this information, police traced receipts from Landrith's pockets as well as Rollins' cell phone records and determined that the truck driver had traveled from Wisconsin to Maine and stopped near the Mile Run interchange from 11:48 pm Saturday and 12:10 am Sunday. Police tracked Rollins to Mildale, Connecticut and took him into custody at around 11:50 pm Wednesday. When police searched the cab of Rollins' truck, they found that the passenger seat and floor had been obviously cleaned with bleach. According to the arrest affidavit, investigators noted that "flesh and brain-like matter" was observed behind the passenger seat, six 9mm shell casings were observed on the floorboard of the front and passenger seats, and bullet strikes were discovered in the rear wall behind the passenger seat as well as above the bottom bunk of the truck.Rollins claimed that he neither knew Landrith nor recognized her from a picture, but stated that a woman named Leslie had met him at a truck stop near Milford, Connecticut and had been traveling with him. Milford police confirmed that Landrith had made hotel reservations under the name "Leslie Myers" back in December. Rollins told investigators that "Leslie" had rode with him to Maine, back to Connecticut, to Brooklyn, New York, then Wisconsin and finally back toward Maine. When police asked Rollins about his travels, he replied: "I hate to start lying to you cause this is a murder investigation." However, at this point in time, investigators had not yet revealed to Rollins the nature of their questioning.In addition to homicide, Rollins has been charged with abuse of a corpse. At present, investigators are unaware of Rollins' motive for killing Landrith. Additionally, police have not recovered the murder weapon.
