Pair charged in 1988 slaying of Port Orchard mother of 2

By Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporter

	Fred McKee
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More than 15 years after Cheryl Pitre was found dead in the trunk of her car, her former husband and a man described as a hired hit man were brought before a judge to face charges of murder.

Cheryl Pitre's children and other family members stood in the packed courtroom for a better look at the men prosecutors say killed the sweet-natured mother of two.

Police and prosecutors say Roland A. Pitre Jr., 51, hired Frederick J. McKee to kill Pitre's ex-wife for insurance money.

Pitre has been in prison since 1993 on the unrelated crimes of burglary and attempted kidnapping. McKee is serving a 12-year sentence for manufacturing methamphetamine.

Both men face life in prison if convicted in Cheryl Pitre's death.

Cheryl Pitre, of Port Orchard, was 33 when she was reported missing by her ex-husband in October 1988 when she failed to pick up the couple's children from a weekend visit with him.

Her body was found about a week later in the locked trunk of her car, which had been impounded and towed from a spot near Lake Union.

	Roland Pitre

Roland Pitre was a prime suspect in his ex-wife's death, but police and prosecutors lacked evidence to link him to the crime.

Two years ago, a man who knew both Pitre and McKee from prison told police Pitre had hired McKee to kill his ex-wife.

The tip led cold-case detectives Gregg Mixsell and Richard Gagnon to submit for DNA testing skin cells found on duct tape used to bind Cheryl Pitre's wrists. That testing led to a match with McKee, court documents say.

When confronted with the evidence, Pitre said he offered McKee between $5,000 and $10,000 to hurt his ex-wife, police and prosecutors said.

But he said he'd never intended for her to die. Instead, he planned to interrupt the assault, save her life and win her back.

"He said he planned to save her, but that he overslept," according to police.

Pitre, a former Marine sergeant from Louisiana, was on leave when he met Cheryl Pitre in a small town near Pittsburgh.

	Cheryl Pitre

The two moved to Whidbey Island, then separated and divorced.

In 1980, Pitre was convicted of second-degree murder for the shooting death of his then-lover's husband, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dennis Archer, and sentenced to 35 years.

He was paroled in 1986 after Cheryl Pitre lobbied hard for his release. The couple had remarried while Roland Pitre was still in prison. She convinced her employer, for example, to write the parole board, promising Pitre a job upon his release.

After Cheryl Pitre's death, Roland Pitre remarried, and then divorced, a Bremerton woman with teenage children.

In 1993, Pitre and a female accomplice were convicted of attempting to kidnap and hold for ransom one of his former stepchildren.

When he was arrested for the kidnapping, Pitre admitted to police and prosecutors that he'd set up the kidnapping.

But, in a story that would later sound familiar, he described it as just an elaborate ploy to win his former wife back, court documents show.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company