Roth had been married three times by the time he met Cynthia Baumgartner in 1990. Baumgartner was also a single parent. Her husband had died of Hodgkin's Disease in 1985. Randy Roth only told her about his own dead wife because she did not believe in divorce. He never told her that he had been divorced twice. Cynthia found out that Roth felt a need to control everything in her life. He did not want her doing anything on her own. Her friends saw that the way she looked and how clean her house was not as good as they used to be. They thought that Cynthia was sorry she had married Randy Roth. Roth was also abusive to all three of the boys in their house.