 Did
Poker Play Role in
Murder?
A professional poker
player and his wife
who were both found
dead in their home
last week were
murdered,
authorities said
Monday.
And the killings are
being investigated
to see whether poker
played any role,
they said.
According to media
reports,
Ernest
Scherer Jr., 60, and
his wife, Charlene Abendroth, 57, were
found dead Friday
morning shortly
before 1 a.m. in
their home at the
Castlewood Country
Club in Pleasanton,
California, USA,
near Oakland,
California, USA.
After their daughter
in Utah was unable
to reach them by
telephone, she
contacted someone at
the country club who
went to their home,
found the bodies and
called authorities.
At a press
conference Monday,
law enforcement
authorities said the
poker pro and his
wife of 31 years
were savagely beaten
inside their home
and were dead for at
least a week before
their bloodied and
pajama-clad bodies
were discovered.
“It was just a
horrible, grisly
scene,” said
Detective Sgt. Scott
Dudek, a homicide
investigator for the
Alameda County
Sheriff’s
Department.
“They were beaten
severely,” he said.
“There was a lot of
blood everywhere.
These people
suffered a great
deal.”
No arrests have been
made and
investigators would
not speculate as to
the motive, Dudek
said.
He did say, however,
that the dead couple
appear to have been
targeted and that
the house was
ransacked. =A0 Dudek
also noted that
because Scherer and
his son, Ernest
Scherer III, played
poker
professionally,
investigators are
probing whether
poker connections to
the father or son
had anything to do
with the killings.
According to
tournament records,
the elder Scherer
finished in the
money in six poker
tournaments in his
career, winning a
total of $25,108,
including $7,775 at
an Omaha tourney at
last year’s World
Series of Poker (WSOP)
in Las Vegas.
The younger Scherer
has finished in the
money in 23 poker
tournaments in his
career, winning a
total of $298,847,
including $34,362 at
a Texas hold ‘em
tourney at the 2006
WSOP.
In another
development,
authorities
announced that the
slain couple’s
children are
offering a $25,000
reward for
information leading
to the arrest and
conviction of the
killer or killers.
----
Tom Somach
www.pokerhelper.com
Originally published
March 18, 2008 12:07
pm EST
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