Man sought in double slaying in Nevada arrested in Sonoma

Tuesday, Sept. 1, 1998 | 10:41 a.m.

Sheriff's officials spent most of Monday watching Robert Jehu Stroup after Washoe County authorities received a tip that he was living in the Sonoma area.

Stroup, 53, is suspected in the 1991 killings of two Carson City men who were shot repeatedly in a dispute over drug debts.

Stroup's 29-year-old son Roger originally was charged in the killings and had faced the death penalty, but a Washoe District Court jury acquitted him of the murder charges in November.

He was convicted of kidnapping the victims and was sentenced to four life terms in prison with the possibility of parole.

Daniel Rasmussen, 35, and Jack Strawbridge, 28, were kidnapped from a Carson City convenience store Oct. 13, 1991. Their bodies were found the next day in a turnout two miles below the summit of the Mount Rose Highway southwest of Reno. Rasmussen had been shot 12 times and Strawbridge 10 times.

Robert Stroup had been considered a suspect in the case, officials said, but was arrested for attempted murder in San Joaquin County, Calif. before he could be taken into custody by Washoe County.

He was out on bail at the time of his arrest on Monday.