Woman denies radio murder confession to police

Despite admitting that she called a national radio talk show two years ago and bragged that she shot her ex-boyfriend to death in 2001, an El Mirage woman repeatedly told Phoenix police that she didn't kill him.

On Thursday, police formally presented the Maricopa County Attorney's Office with the investigation of the March 24, 2001, death of Torsten Karl Rockwood of Ahwatukee Foothills. Police are seeking charges of first-degree murder and filing a false police report against Megan Suzanne Vice.

Murder charges sought after radio confession

Police reports released Friday show that on May 28, Vice repeatedly told cold-case detective Barry Giesemann that she did not kill Rockwood.

Vice, 30, who was pregnant at the time of the police interview, told Giesemann about her relationship with a man she said preferred to be called Karl and their son, who is now 9 years old. She said Rockwood threatened to kill himself on many occasions during the two or three months he lived in her town house, but that she always calmed him down. Rockwood's mother, Mary Francis Searle Rockwood, and one of his sisters, Aunica Brimhall, also told police they had heard Rockwood threatening to kill himself. He told his mother, "I'll shoot myself in the head before I let a shrink give me drugs."

Vice told police that during an argument about their child on the day of the shooting, Rockwood again threatened his own demise.

"Karl was standing ... and I was sitting down and we were yelling and screaming," Vice said. "He said, 'I should just kill myself. Give me one reason why I shouldn't.' I looked him right in the eye and said, 'I can't think of anything.'"

Rockwood went into another room and shot himself, according to Vice's statement. At the time of the shooting, police concluded that his death was a suicide.

The investigation was reopened after a woman called the nationally syndicated Tom Leykis radio talk show in November 2006 and said she'd killed her former boyfriend and gotten away with the crime. Detectives tracked the call to Vice.

Vice told investigators she "always felt guilty" about Rockwood's death. After nearly three minutes of crying at one point, Vice said:

"What I said to him ... I never got counseling or anything. ... I've always had, like, nightmares ... I still think it's my fault, that I could've did something. ... Like took it (the gun) away from him."

When Giesemann asked Vice if she ever told anyone she called "The Tom Leykis Show," she said: "No. I was very embarrassed."

Vice said that she made the call to Leykis after arguing with her boyfriend and needing to get away.

"I just had a breaking point, and I didn't have anyone to talk to," she told police. She said she made the call from a park. She said she was channel surfing and found Leykis' show, and she decided to call while Leykis was talking about strange things people do.

"I was angry," Vice said. "I thought I would yell at the world, scream at the top of my lungs to get attention, I guess."

She repeated several times that she didn't shoot Rockwood and added, "I didn't want him to die."

At one point, Vice told Giesemann she didn't think he believed her.

When Giesemann told Vice that, based on the call to Leykis and what police had been looking at, he thought she killed Rockwood, she said, "I didn't. I'll take a lie detector test. I didn't physically kill him. I didn't shoot him."

"I may have drove him crazy and ... it made him act the way he acted because I said horrible things to him sometimes."

When Giesemann said he didn't think Vice meant to shoot Rockwood and asked if she would do whatever it takes to resolve the case, she said, "Yeah, 'cause I didn't kill him. I don't want my son thinking I did."

During a cell-phone call she made when Giesemann left the interview room, Vice told a friend about the grilling and that, "I didn't do it. I only told them the truth."

An autopsy report from 2001 released Friday shows that Rockwood died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Pathologist Jeffrey Nine ruled the death a suicide.

Vice could not be reached for comment Friday. A woman who answered a cell-phone number for Vice said she was her mother. When asked if Vice wanted to tell her side of the story, the woman replied, "I doubt it," and hung up.

Vice also did not answer the door at her home in El Mirage.

David Wroblewski of Phillips & Associates in Phoenix, listed as Vice's attorney on the police report, was out of town and couldn't be reached for comment Friday, according to a woman who said she is his legal assistant.

Julio Laboy, a supervising attorney speaking for the firm, said Vice's lawyers would have no comment.

Phoenix police Sgt. Joel Tranter said police did not arrest Vice because they do not believe she is a flight risk.

"If we were in a position where we thought we'd arrest her, we would have done that," Tranter said.

Police are seeking a charge of filing a false police report as well as the murder charge because Vice reported her cell phone stolen when it wasn't, Tranter said. He added it could take weeks for the county attorney to decide whether charges will be filed.