Bizarre break in cold case murder

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Police say a man confessed to a 1991 homicide, but they had to let him go -- at least for a while.

August 22 1991, family members and neighbors found the body of Roger Alderman in him townhouse near Central and Juan Tabo. The case went cold but now more than two decades later there's a big bizarre break. Police say this May, Lawrence Scherer called Santa Fe Police with a bombshell.

"He told the 911 dispatchers that he wanted to confess to this murder he had been involved in and it had been weighing on his conscience," Santa Fe Police Captain Aric Wheeler said.

Scherer came to the station  where Santa Fe police got the date of the crime and the name of the victim. They then contacted Albuquerque Police who confirmed Scherer was a suspect in a cold case -- Alderman's 1991 murder. Santa Fe Police collected DNA evidence, a case file as well as a written and video statement from Scherer.

They say Scherer confessed, telling them Alderman tried to make sexual advances on him, so he stabbed him to death. But after police interviewed the homeless man and collected evidence, they let him go.

They say they had to.

"It's one of those things you have to have factual evidence. You have to verify evidence. You have to confirm the stories and have to have a copy of the case file so you can determine what in fact, took place," Wheeler said.

Even Scherer said he was surprised they let him go. According to court records he told police, "at least I get this off my chest."

Police say Scherer agreed to come back in a few days for another interview in late May, but never showed up. APD put out a national missing persons bulletin, then in September APD says police in Pueblo, Colorado picked him up and put him through the computer system.

He is now back in Albuquerque and charged with murder. 

Scherer is now claiming he did not confess and wasn't in Santa Fe in May.