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| Mitch Roberts Now: Where Is the Shoney’s Manager Who Helped Police Catch Paul Dennis Reid? |
Mitch Roberts has spent decades away from the spotlight after the terrifying 1997 encounter that helped police identify Paul Dennis Reid, the former Shoney’s employee who was later convicted of seven first-degree murders and one count of attempted murder. Now 75, Roberts appears to be enjoying the quieter life he chose after the case, with his family and far from the attention that followed one of the most frightening nights of his life.
In 1997, Roberts was 46 and managing the busy Shoney’s restaurant at 546 Donelson Pike near Nashville International Airport. The restaurant was in an area with plenty of traffic, customers and, rather unfortunately, the sort of visibility that can make a place difficult to ignore. At the time, several fast-food restaurants across North-Central Tennessee had been targeted in a series of robberies in which seven employees were killed between February and April.
Roberts was well aware that something serious was happening. Police officers regularly ate at his restaurant, and his relationship with local officials meant he heard plenty about the investigation while carrying on with the considerably less dramatic task of running a packed restaurant. He later recalled customers approaching him with questions, while officers would stop in for meals and discuss developments.
Despite the growing concern, Roberts did not believe his own restaurant was necessarily in danger. The Shoney’s was in such a high-traffic location that becoming a target simply did not seem likely to him. There was also information circulating about a red four-door Ford Escort believed to be connected with the crimes, but Roberts continued concentrating on his work and family.
That changed dramatically on the evening of June 1, 1997.
Roberts later said he was at his rural home with his family when someone knocked on the door. The house was around 25 miles outside Nashville and secluded enough that finding it required knowing exactly where to go. The unexpected visitor was Reid, a former cook Roberts had recently dismissed.
According to Roberts' account, Reid had been fired only weeks earlier after an incident at the restaurant in which he allegedly lost his temper and threw a plate that struck another employee. So when the former employee suddenly appeared at Roberts' home late at night, the manager understandably had a few questions.
Reid reportedly asked about getting his old job back. Roberts allowed him inside and initially treated the conversation as a workplace dispute that could wait until morning. Then his wife interrupted and told him that something about the situation felt wrong. Roberts agreed and suggested that Reid return the following day so they could talk properly.
That might have sounded like a perfectly ordinary managerial response. It was anything but.
As Roberts accompanied Reid towards the door, Reid allegedly claimed he could prove that someone had been stealing from the restaurant. The conversation continued outside, with the pair eventually walking towards Reid's car, parked roughly 75 to 100 feet from the house.
Then Roberts noticed the vehicle.
It was a red four-door Ford Escort.
According to Roberts, the connection suddenly became clear. The car matched the description circulating in connection with the investigation, and the former employee standing beside it was someone he had already dismissed under difficult circumstances. Roberts nevertheless kept his composure and continued speaking to Reid as though this were still an awkward conversation between a manager and a former member of staff.
He later told authorities that Reid then moved in front of him, produced a gun and handcuffs, and ordered him to cuff himself to the vehicle. Roberts believed the situation had become far more dangerous and feared his family could also be at risk.
Rather than openly confronting Reid at that moment, Roberts claimed he continued talking to him in the authoritative manner of a boss dealing with an employee. It was an extraordinary bit of improvisation, particularly given what he believed was happening.
Roberts said he eventually walked back towards his house while continuing the conversation. Reid followed. Once they reached the porch, Roberts apparently realised he had one crucial advantage: he knew the house, the doorway and the layout better than his visitor did.
According to his account, Reid expected Roberts to open the front door and step inside. Instead, Roberts said he opened it, turned around and struck Reid in the face. He then got back across the threshold and held the door shut.
Roberts also shouted to his wife to give him a gun that he claimed was nearby. There was, in fact, no gun waiting for him, but the bluff apparently worked well enough. Reid fled the property.
Roberts immediately contacted police and reported what had happened. More importantly, he told investigators that he suspected his former employee could be the person authorities had been searching for.
The encounter then took an even more unusual turn. According to the account presented in A&E's I Survived a Serial Killer: The Fast Food Killer, Reid later contacted Roberts by telephone and apologised. Roberts reportedly asked him to return to the house so they could talk about what had happened.
This time, however, Roberts was not dealing with the situation alone.
When Reid arrived, six officers reportedly emerged from hiding and arrested him. The confrontation at Roberts' home had effectively provided authorities with a direct route to the man they were investigating, although prosecutors ultimately concentrated on the murders rather than the attempted kidnapping allegation involving Roberts.
Reid was subsequently indicted, tried and convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree attempted murder.
For Roberts, the aftermath was understandably very different from the public spectacle surrounding the case. He gave a statement to the press but largely avoided becoming a central figure in the proceedings. His preference was to return to his family rather than spend years repeatedly discussing the night that had nearly turned his home into another crime scene.
That decision also explains why there is relatively little public information about Roberts' life today. He appears to have chosen privacy over publicity, stepping away from the attention and concentrating on his family, personal recovery and responsibilities.
Based on the information available in the supplied account, Roberts is now 75 and is believed to be retired. He reportedly continues to live a quiet life in the rural area outside Nashville, surrounded by his wife, daughter, son and their families. After an experience that could have ended very differently, a peaceful retirement probably sounds considerably more appealing than another television interview.
There is also something strangely fitting about Roberts' story. He spent the spring of 1997 hearing police officers discuss an unfolding investigation while serving them food at his restaurant, never imagining that the person connected to it would eventually turn up at his own front door. Then, when the danger finally arrived, he relied less on dramatic heroics than on quick thinking, confidence and a very convincing bit of bluffing. Apparently, sometimes the most useful thing a manager can do is still sound like the manager.
Roberts' story is one of those cases where the smallest details make the whole thing feel almost unreal. He was not looking for trouble, chasing a suspect or trying to play detective. He was simply a restaurant manager who happened to know the local officers, recognised a suspicious situation and, crucially, managed to keep his head when things went sideways.
The part involving the imaginary gun is particularly remarkable because it sounds like something written for a thriller rather than something that supposedly happened on an ordinary porch in Tennessee. Yet the bigger point is less cinematic: Roberts seems to have understood that his priority was getting back inside and keeping his family safe.
His decision to stay away from the spotlight afterwards also makes sense. Some people want their story told; others would quite reasonably prefer to close the door, retire, spend time with their children and grandchildren, and never have to explain that night again. After everything that happened, choosing an uneventful life hardly seems boring. It sounds like the entire point.
For readers wondering where Mitch Roberts is now, the available information points to a retired life centred on family and privacy rather than public attention. His encounter with Reid remains one of the most striking parts of the 1997 investigation, but Roberts himself appears to have moved on as much as anyone could after such an experience.
And honestly, after that night, who could blame him for preferring quiet evenings at home to another knock on the door? What do you make of Roberts' quick-thinking response that night, and would you have realised what was happening when you saw that red Ford Escort?