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How Cops Cracked a Beloved Firefighter’s Love-Triangle Fueled Murder

Evansville Police Department
Evansville Police Department

The wife of an Indiana firefighter has been charged with murder in his 2019 death, along with the woman’s alleged lover, who is already doing time for violating the law.

Robert Doerr, 51, was fatally shot in the driveway of the Evansville home he shared with his wife, Elizabeth “Becky” Fox-Doerr, as he returned from a 12-hour work shift on Feb. 26, 2019. On Thursday, Fox-Doerr, 50, was hit with murder and conspiracy charges, police announced at a press conference on Thursday.

Fox-Doerr’s 42-year-old boyfriend, Larry Ali Richmond Sr.—the onetime fiancé of Fox-Doerr’s sister Amanda—is also facing murder and conspiracy charges over the killing, according to cops.

Richmond, who was released from prison in March 2018 after serving 22 years of a 50-year sentence for a deadly shooting when he was 17, was named a person of interest in Doerr’s execution-style murder in February 2020, a year after the Evansville fireman was killed. A month later, Richmond was sentenced to five years behind bars for his part in a pawnshop theft by his son.

In August 2018, Larry Richmond Jr. was arrested for stealing a .45-caliber Taurus Judge revolver from River City Pawn, where he worked at the time. The next year, Richmond Jr. told police that he had given the stolen gun to his father, who was caught on surveillance video burying a bag of weapons on his property. Cops eventually came to believe the Taurus, which can fire both slugs and buckshot, was used to kill Doerr.

<div class="inline-image__credit">Evansville PD</div>
Evansville PD

Before his death, Doerr wrote a letter to Fox-Doerr, who has been detained since July on perjury charges, laying out “issues of infidelity by comments of ‘ever since he came back into your life,’ and, ‘I see his text on your phone,’” according to a probable cause affidavit shared with The Daily Beast by the Evansville Police Department.

When detectives searched Fox-Doerr’s cellphone, they discovered that she had been in contact with Richmond Sr. just moments before her husband’s murder. However, Fox-Doerr had deleted the call log, apparently in an attempt to throw off investigators.

In an interview with police, Fox-Doerr “confirmed that the deleted call was with her sister’s fiancé, Larry Richmond Sr.,” the probable cause affidavit states, noting that Fox-Doerr “knew that he had been in trouble before,” and “didn’t want us to think she was having an affair with Richmond Sr.”

“Elizabeth informed us that she didn’t know him well enough to give an opinion,” the affidavit says.

Richmond Sr., for his part, also deleted any record of the call with Fox-Doerr immediately before Doerr was shot dead, according to the affidavit.

A forensic analysis by detectives found that “minutes before Robert Doerr was executed, Richmond Sr. had opened a cop radio app [and] called Elizabeth Fox-Doerr,” the affidavit continues. He then shut off the phone, which was powered back on nine minutes after Doerr’s murder, it says. Richmond Sr. then allegedly checked the “cop radio app” again, and was spotted on surveillance video at a gas station just north of the murder scene.

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A week or so after the murder, Richmond Sr. sent Fox-Doerr a sympathy card to express his condolences, according to the affidavit. When Fox-Doerr’s son opened the card, a small piece of paper fell out, the affidavit states.

“[W]e need to talk,” the note said, which was signed “Larry” beneath Richmond Sr.’s phone number.

When police questioned Richmond Jr. about the murder, he admitted that his father had been sleeping with Fox-Doerr, and said he had seen them together near the murder scene prior to Doerr’s death.

He also provided cops with letters written by Richmond Sr., one of which mentioned the fact that Richmond, Jr. could potentially be charged as an accessory to murder “if the gun he stole ever pops up,” the affidavit states.

Adding to the evidence, an inmate locked up with Richmond Sr. reached out to investigators and said the two had discussed Doerr’s murder and that Doerr “knew of” their affair.

“The inmate was able to provide multiple pages of handwritten notes that he had taken when Richmond would discuss the homicide,” says the affidavit.

In June 2021, investigators were able to gather cellular location data they say placed Richmond Sr.’s iPhone near the murder scene when Doerr was shot dead.

Earlier this month, an Evansville detective interviewed Richmond Sr. in the federal prison where he currently resides. He “denied killing Robert Doerr and denied having an affair with Elizabeth Fox-Doerr,” according to the affidavit.

At Thursday’s press conference, Evansville Fire Department Division Chief Mike Larson said, “It’s been approximately three-and-a-half years since we lost our brother Robby to this senseless crime. The citizens of Evansville lost a firefighter who always went above and beyond the call of duty to save lives and property. Even more importantly, he was a son, a brother, a father, and a grandfather.” Firefighter Larry Wildt, who described himself as Doerr’s best friend, told the Evansville Courier & Press he was “happy progress is being made, but disappointed Bob’s dad didn’t get a chance to see the outcome.”

Wildt said he worked with Doerr from his first day on the job, at Evansville’s Fire Station 1, and told the paper he missed his pal.

“Everyone loved his meatloaf,” he said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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