An Athens County man admits he killed his father and dropped his body into a well.
Investigators made the gruesome discovery last night at the victim's home in Glouster.
Paul Roberts Senior hadn't been seen in two weeks when neighbors called police to his house last Friday.
His son- the man who shares his blood and his name- says he's responsible.
Paul Roberts Junior says it wasn't supposed to happen.
But in the early morning hours of October 4th, he says an argument turned physical.
"Did you kill your father?”
“I did,” he answered in a jailhouse interview with 10tv. “I did."
He says he pushed his father down, and his father grabbed a knife.
"And I grabbed the bar and just swung it. More to like maybe block, but it just caught him right behind the ear. It was a heavy pipe and I swung it apparently way too hard. That was it. It was one hit and he fell back onto the bed. And that was it,” he said. “I freaked out. I ran outside onto our deck. I ran out there and I sat for a minute. And he didn’t come out, so I ran back in and when I ran back in, I knew he was gone. He wasn't breathing."
He says he wrapped his father in a blanket, and pulled his body outside to the deck.
"And I knew that when my wife got up to go to work she was going to go out that way and see him. So when she went into the bathroom to clean up to get ready for work, I went out and I drug him under the deck just to be out of the way. And I didn't know what I was going to do. And when I did that, I saw the well there. And I thought, ‘well there we go. I'll just drop him down that and he'll just be gone, and it'll all be just okay.’ I was just- I wasn't thinking. It wasn't real to me. But that's what I done. I drug him under the deck and I dropped him down the hole.”
He says one moment in particular haunts him:
"When I heard my father hit the water in that well, and I knew what I had just done. That sound. I hear that sound of him hitting that water. It was so final. And I knew what had happened. I can't get that out of my head. I swear I think if I'd had a gun right then I'd have just ended it.”
“I love my father,” he cried. “I love him. And I took his life. And it'll never be right. Nothing will ever be right ever again."
Paul Roberts Junior’s wife Rhonda Degarmore and her brother Robert Degarmore are also being held at the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail.
She's being held on a probation violation, her brother on a charge of using Paul Roberts' stolen credit card after his death.
Paul Roberts Junior insists neither of them had any role in his father's death or the disposal of his body.
The prosecutor plans to take this case before a grand jury next Monday.
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