True Crime Chronicles: Murder of parents in 1998 sent Roy Don Tester to the Arkansas Department of Corrections for life

Roy Don Tester

Roy Don Tester entered the Arkansas Department of Corrections on September 7 1999 after his conviction for the murders of his parents. As of , 202 he remains at the Maximum Security Unit.

His official sentence stands as life without parole for first-degree murder in the death of his father, plus 999 years, 999 months and 99 days for capital murder in the death of his mother, with both sentences handed down on September 2, 1999, in Pope County.

. Records show this as his fifth incarceration with the division of corrections, though earlier stints involved property crimes rather than violence.

Tester's criminal history stretches back well before 1998. In Pope County in 1985, he received 18 months probation for hot check offenses exceeding $1000. In Faulkner County in 1986, he drew five years for theft of property and additional probation time.

By 1989, in White County, he faced concurrent three-year sentences for theft of property and burglary plus more probation.

These earlier offenses involved no physical harm yet they established a pattern of repeated brushes with the law that placed him on the radar of local authorities long before the events in London.

On July 17 1998, Tester then thirty-three, drove to his parents' modest home just outside London with Mary D'Angelo and fifteen-year-old Thomas Taylor.

The group visited briefly with Dana Tester who at fifty-five, was still recovering from back surgery that limited her mobility.

They left and returned later that day. Inside the house Tester spoke with his mother until his father Don, entered and questioned the reason for the second visit. An argument erupted.

Tester later told companions he only wanted a hug, but when Don pushed him away, he wrapped his hands around his father's neck and choked him until Don collapsed with a purplish-brown face. Dana tried to intervene, but her weakened condition left her unable to stop the attack.

Tester then turned on her gripping her tightly and holding her down. He also inflicted a cut to her throat along with multiple blunt-force injuries. Both parents died from strangulation.

T

ester emerged from the house carrying a black guitar case. The three left in Don's purple 1995 Dodge Stratus, abandoning a white pickup truck at first before switching vehicles. They drove toward Houston, where Tester pawned stolen items, including guns rings a watch and the guitar at a shop operated by Sam Platt.

There he openly described the killings to D'Angelo and Taylor saying the death of his mother weighed on him heavily because he had sliced her throat and that it really broke him down even though he claimed he did not mind killing his father. He repeated a similar confession to his sister Donna Martin, telling her he had strangled both parents but insisting he could not have cut his mother's throat.

The bodies were discovered the next morning, July 18 1998, in the living room of the home. A warrant was issued for Tester, who fled the state. He remained free for nearly seven months until February 12 1999 when Seminole County deputies in Altamonte Springs

Florida arrested him at a vacant house on Hattaway Drive following an anonymous tip. He faced additional local charges there for drug possession and carrying a concealed firearm.

Extradited to Arkansas, he stood trial in September 1999. Eyewitness testimony from his companions, the recovery of the stolen vehicle, pawn shop records, and his multiple confessions led to his conviction.

The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the verdicts in 2000 after reviewing the evidence.Since entering prison,

Tester is one of thirty-nine individuals currently listed in the Arkansas Department of Correction database with homicide offenses tied to Pope County ,

 His case drew regional attention at the time as a parricide that shattered a quiet rural household, yet it has largely faded from public view in the decades since.

 The purple Dodge Stratus, the pawned guitar, and the conflicting statements about regret over one parent's death but not the other remain the lasting details preserved in court documents from that summer in 1998.

Roy Don Tester entered the Arkansas Department of Corrections on September 7 1999, after his conviction for the murders of his parents. As of 2026, he remains at the Maximum Security Unit with a custody classification of C5 and good time class IV.

His official sentence stands as life without parole for first-degree murder in the death of his father, plus 999 years, 999 months and 99 days for capital murder in the death of his mother, with both sentences handed down on September 2, 1999, in Pope County.

. Records show this as his fifth incarceration with the division of corrections, though earlier stints involved property crimes rather than violence.

Tester's criminal history stretches back well before 1998. In Pope County in 1985, he received 18 months probation for hot check offenses exceeding $1000. In Faulkner County in 1986, he drew five years for theft of property and additional probation time.

By 198

9, in White County, he faced concurrent three-year sentences for theft of property and burglary plus more probation. These earlier offenses involved no physical harm yet they established a pattern of repeated brushes with the law that placed him on the radar of local authorities long before the events in London.

On July 17 1998, Tester then thirty-three, drove to his parents' modest home just outside London with Mary D'Angelo and fifteen-year-old Thomas Taylor. The group visited briefly with Dana Tester who at fifty-five, was still recovering from back surgery that limited her mobility.

They left and returned later that day. Inside the house Tester spoke with his mother until his father Don, entered and questioned the reason for the second visit. An argument erupted.

Tester later told companions he only wanted a hug, but when Don pushed him away, he wrapped his hands around his father's neck and choked him until Don collapsed with a purplish-brown face. Dana tried to intervene, but her weakened condition left her unable to stop the attack.

Tester then turned on her gripping her tightly and holding her down. He also inflicted a cut to her throat along with multiple blunt-force injuries. Both parents died from strangulation.

Tester emerged from the house carrying a black guitar case. The three left in Don's purple 1995 Dodge Stratus, abandoning a white pickup truck at first before switching vehicles. They drove toward Houston, where Tester pawned stolen items, including guns rings a watch and the guitar at a shop operated by Sam Platt.

There he openly described the killings to D'Angelo and Taylor saying the death of his mother weighed on him heavily because he had sliced her throat and that it really broke him down even though he claimed he did not mind killing his father. He repeated a similar confession to his sister Donna Martin, telling her he had strangled both parents but insisting he could not have cut his mother's throat.

The bodies were discovered the next morning, July 18 1998, in the living room of the home. A warrant was issued for Tester, who fled the state. He remained free for nearly seven months until February 12 1999 when Seminole County deputies in Altamonte Springs

Florida arrested him at a vacant house on Hattaway Drive following an anonymous tip. He faced additional local charges there for drug possession and carrying a concealed firearm.

Extradited to Arkansas, he stood trial in September 1999. Eyewitness testimony from his companions, the recovery of the stolen vehicle, pawn shop records, and his multiple confessions led to his conviction.

The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the verdicts in 2000 after reviewing the evidence.Since entering prison,

Tester is one of thirty-nine individuals currently listed in the Arkansas Department of Correction database with homicide offenses tied to Pope County ,

His case drew regional attention at the time as a parricide that shattered a quiet rural household, yet it has largely faded from public view in the decades since.

The purple Dodge Stratus, the pawned guitar, and the conflicting statements about regret over one parent's death but not the other remain the lasting details preserved in court documents from that summer in 1998.