(Joe De Maria)
PUZZLE: Jonathan Roth (right) is claiming he had no idea about the fake-drowning scam of dad Raymond (left), but stepmom Evana (center) isn’t buying that story. (
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A Long Island man who faked his own death was so enraged when the scheme came to light that he threatened to kill his son, the younger man told The Post.
Jonathan Roth was not sure why his father, Raymond, wanted to kill him.
But Jonathan’s stepmom has a theory: She thinks Jonathan shattered his father’s plot by leaving the home computer on, allowing her to discover a series of incriminating e-mails between the duo.
Jonathan Roth, 22, claims he’s in hiding, living in fear ever since his dad called him four days after he mysteriously disappeared after faking his drowning at Jones Beach.
Jonathan’s girlfriend inadvertently intercepted the call and got a furious Raymond on the other line, the couple told The Post in an exclusive interview at a secret location.
When the girlfriend angrily refused to put Jonathan on the line, father Raymond allegedly spat: “If you don’t put him on the phone, you’re going to be sorry. I’m on my way back. You’re going to be sorry.”
The dad later left a profanity-filled voice mail for his son. Jonathan said the message proclaimed: “Still not a man, huh, Jonathan? Can’t even answer your own phone . . . Listen, tough guy. You say you’ve been to the Marines and you can kill and everything else. When I get back, you are gonna do just that. One of us is going to die.”
Raymond Roth, 47, an unemployed computer manager from Massapequa, was feared lost after authorities spent days searching the waters off Jones Beach’s Field 6, where Jonathan told them he saw his dad go for a swim July 28 and never come out.
The alleged fake death unraveled Thursday when South Carolina police stopped Raymond Roth for speeding on I-95. The speeding stop came a day after his wife, Evana Roth, says she found e-mails on the family’s computer that Raymond sent to Jonathan.
In those e-mails, Raymond talked about needing money “for the trip” and instructed his son to call him from a pay phone to let him know “how things are going.”
Jonathan Roth insisted he knew nothing about the alleged e-mails.
“I had no idea about those e-mails until I saw it in The Post, and I said, ‘Oh my God!’ ” he said. “Right away I checked my e-mail and they weren’t there.”
Jonathan Roth claimed that his stepmom couldn’t have found any incriminating e-mails because she had no access to his laptop — and that any messages must have been deleted after they were sent to him.
Jonathan made th-at claim even though his stepmom said she found the e-mails on a different, desktop computer.
The son also couldn’t explain why his father, whom he described as an abusive alcoholic, would be mad enough to make threats.
“Why? Because I foiled his plan by reporting him missing? I don’t know,” Jonathan Roth said.
Evana Roth called her stepson “a habitual liar.”
“One thousand percent, Jonathan is lying,” she said. “He’s scared, he’s in major trouble. He didn’t foil the plan. He was involved in it. He’s trying to stay out of jail.”
Evana Roth said she found the e-mails because the family’s home PC was left on.
Evana’s lawyer, Lenard Leeds, said he intends to get an order of protection for his client first thing Monday morning and that Raymond Roth has a history of violence. “He had broken my client’s nose at one time,” Leeds said.
Additional reporting by Frank Rosario and Daniel Prendergast