A Missouri man held as a suspect Thursday in his grandparents’ slayings in Troy frightened other relatives in recent days by claiming to be God and threatening violence, said investigators and the man’s great-aunt.
As a police manhunt swarmed Troy, 25-year-old Davionne McRoberts walked into a psychiatric hospital, covered in blood, Wednesday seeking a voluntary commitment, the county prosecutor said.
McRoberts was hospitalized, under police guard Thursday, as investigators continued to gather evidence against him. They were searching for the gun. The hospital turned him over to police custody, and he was arrested at 3 p.m. Thursday.
Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Wood said he expects to file charges in the murder case Friday, before the 24-hour hold period expires.
McRoberts is being held as a suspect in the shooting deaths of his grandparents in their trailer home in the 600 block of Eames Street. Relatives identified the couple as Donald “Mack” McRoberts and Kathy Chatman McRoberts. He was about 71 years old; she was 58.
Investigators and relatives said Davionne McRoberts showed signs of a mental break in recent weeks, including claiming to be God and posting threats to Facebook.
Donald McRoberts’ younger sister, Pamela McRoberts of Moscow Mills, said in an interview Thursday she had a frightening encounter with Davionne, her great-nephew, a week before the killings.
“He knocked at my door and said, ‘It’s God,’” Pamela McRoberts said. “He was talking about how he was God and we were all going to die. He said, ‘I’m going to rewrite the Bible,’ and that it would all be revealed at the next family reunion.
“Once he got done pacing and crying and jumping up and down, he left.”
Her teenage grandson drove Davionne to a home 15 minutes away he shared with his cousin. Davionne had been dropped off at Pamela McRoberts’ home earlier by his sister.
Pamela McRoberts said she tried to warn relatives, including her brother, of the strange behavior. “When he left my home, I called my brother. I said, ‘He’s not talking right.’”
Her brother didn’t seem fazed.
“As usual, he’s always joking around. ‘He’s going to die before I do,’” Donald McRoberts told her. “He wasn’t worried at all.”
Pamela McRoberts was shaken by the deaths of her brother and his wife. “Mack,” as she said everyone called her brother, was retired from the Army, where he served in the military police.
“He was very proud of that,” she said.
Pamela McRoberts was friends with Kathy long before Kathy married her brother. They met while working as maids at a hotel in St. Charles and had been friends for about 20 years. A few years ago, her brother asked her for Kathy’s number, and they began dating. They married in 2017.
“They were the most beautiful people you’d ever want to meet,” Pamela said.
Police found the bodies after a relative called police Tuesday night to ask for a “welfare check” at the home. The caller wasn’t able to reach the couple by phone and had no car to drive to their home and check.
Pamela McRoberts said she asked Donald McRoberts’ granddaughter to make that call.
After police found the bodies, they identified Davionne McRoberts as a person of interest. Police used drones to search the area. They broadcast his name and photo, asking people to be on the lookout for him.
On Wednesday afternoon, police were notified by the psychiatric facility that McRoberts had shown up on his own, seeking a voluntary commitment, Wood said.
McRoberts was active on Facebook, where most of his recent posts were religious, including saying that God has returned and people are going to God. In several posts he claimed he was God, and in one he said he endured abuse as a child.
“WHO WANNA DIE TODAY?” one post reads. “Y’all don’t believe? Come show me I’m not god.”
He asked for donations in exchange for blessing people.
Pamela McRoberts said she didn’t think anyone in the family had tried to get mental health treatment for her great-nephew.
McRoberts also has several songs on a music-sharing website named BandLab. Known as “WoozyTheGoat,” he had more than 21,000 followers and 562,000 plays on the rap songs he’s posted.
One of his songs, “Durk Flow,” had been played more than 143,000 times as of Thursday evening.
Estevon Magana, who lives in Syracuse, Utah, said in an interview that he met McRoberts online about 10 years ago when the two were teenagers. They played the video game “Call of Duty” in the same group.
Magana said McRoberts called him about three weeks ago, for the first time in years, to see how he was doing.
“I actually talked to him about (the posts),” Magana said. “He seemed OK. He said he was all right.”
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