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E199: Travis Roberson
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On February 28th, 2006, Travis Dewayne Roberson went missing during a night out with friends on Dickson Street in Fayetteville, Arkansas. They were celebrating Mardi Gras and the street, close to the University of Arkansas campus, was bustling. So, when Travis simply disappeared on his way to wait at a friend’s car, it’s hard to fathom how noone saw anything. Was there an accident? Was there a targeted attack on Travis because of the witness testimony he was set to make in the coming months? Sadly, the Roberson family is still asking themselves those same questions. In this episode, we spoke with Travis’s sister Sonya to help us understand the details of the case. Please share his story and continue to show support to his family.
Facebook Page Link for Travis Roberson: https://www.facebook.com/missingtravisroberson
#BringTravisHome
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Transcript
Arkansas Act 920 and its impact on missing person cases
00:00:00
Speaker
On April 11, 2019, the Arkansas General Assembly voted on and approved a new bill, House Bill 1881, also known as Act 920.
00:00:14
Speaker
The bill focuses on, quote, an act concerning the investigation into a missing or unidentified person concerning the national missing and unidentified person system and for other purposes, end quote. The specific element in that bill that is crucial to our case this week is the following line, quote, a law enforcement agency shall not require a delay
00:00:41
Speaker
before accepting or investigating a report of a missing person when reliable information has been provided to the law enforcement agency that the person is missing." You see, until April of 2019, when an adult went missing in Arkansas, you had to wait for 72 hours before filing a missing person's report, losing precious time.
00:01:08
Speaker
Now those reports will be taken without delay, a welcomed change for so many families. The family at the center of our case this week would have been happy for a full scale investigation, even one that took place 72 hours after their brother went missing. Instead, they found that far longer had passed with no one looking into his case.
00:01:37
Speaker
an oversight that meant so many questions went unanswered and so many clues were never discovered.
The disappearance of Travis Roberson
00:01:45
Speaker
This is the case of Travis Roberson.
00:02:23
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
00:02:32
Speaker
We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families. With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:03:01
Speaker
Maggie, for our case this week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Travis's sister, Sonya. And this case, like many of the cases that we cover, it didn't get a lot of media coverage for various reasons. Travis's male, which usually means less coverage. He is an adult.
00:03:29
Speaker
which usually means less coverage. And he was battling addiction, which third strike, right, usually means less coverage. But, you know, Maggie, you and I talk about this a lot, and I just want to reaffirm it every week.
00:03:52
Speaker
that we firmly believe that all people are deserving of coverage and each family needs support, kindness, and the knowledge that there are other people in their corner. And that is what we aim to show on our podcast. So because of that lack of coverage though, a lot of the information for our episode will come from Sonya and
00:04:21
Speaker
As I like to do, whenever we have family interviews, I will be sharing snippets from our conversation throughout the episode. Yeah, because I think, you know, it's one thing to hear a case covered by you or about me, but it's another thing when you actually get to hear the voices of the family and the people that it directly affect. Right.
Travis Roberson's personality and interests
00:04:45
Speaker
I 100% agree.
00:04:48
Speaker
Travis Roberson grew up surrounded by his sisters. There were five children in total, but Travis was the only boy. And he was, I know the second oldest being born in 1982. And Sonia, who I spoke with is roughly five years younger. She was born in 1987. Okay.
00:05:14
Speaker
Now Maggie, you know this better than I do because I, I do have a brother, but my brother is younger than I am. So what was it like having an older brother? So one, you always have like a sense of protection, but the biggest thing with having an older brother is you are like a constant source
00:05:40
Speaker
for them to torment, play jokes on. They can embarrass you. But I think that's how they show love.
00:05:50
Speaker
So that's their love language, right? Older brothers. And it has to be because that's almost exactly what Sonya reported to me as well. She remembers first, just like you said, a protective older brother who would do anything to keep his sisters and his family out of harm's way. But she also remembers a ton of just silliness and pranks.
00:06:17
Speaker
cranks in particular. And in fact, when I asked her what her favorite memory was with Travis, here is what she had to say.
00:06:28
Speaker
Travis was just like the biggest prankster ever. So there's a couple of them. There was one time where we were all eating, whenever I was younger, we always ate ramen noodles. And we were made up, it was us three girls who made our noodles. And then Travis is just laughing. We're eating it.
00:06:51
Speaker
And then Travis takes out like little seasoning packets because he hit him from us. So we're like halfway through our noodles. I didn't even realize that he hit it from us. And then there was one where
00:07:07
Speaker
He took a fishing pole and touched the power line with it. And it fell to the ground and started shaking like crazy. So you're thinking, oh my gosh, she's been electrocuted. He did this to my sister, Keisha. And so Keisha is screaming and running across the other side of the hauler to go get our neighbor. And so
00:07:32
Speaker
They come back and Travis was just laying on the ground laughing. Oh my gosh. And then he was always a prankster. He always did the funnest impressions. It was always the impressions that always made us laugh. Even though he was a jerk half the time and made us mad. Right, because that's what brothers do.
00:07:54
Speaker
Yes, but he was always a prank. The prank sort of things that I miss and that I will always remember about him. And Maggie, his sisters almost always fell for his pranks because he also happened to be very clumsy. Oh, no. So Sonya remembers one time that Travis was up on the roof of the house helping their mom to hang Christmas lights and he actually fell off of the roof.
00:08:23
Speaker
Yes. Oh, I tried. So last year I tried to do that. And I'm not like a, not try to fall off the roof, but tried to help me. I'm not a like scared of heights person, but I got up on the roof with Anthony. And as soon as I got up there, I just like sat down and I said, I'm going to have to call the fire department to come get me. I don't think I can swing my leg back over the ladder. And he had to coax me down and I finally got down, but it was like,
00:08:51
Speaker
It was a little scary. So I can imagine falling off of it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, luckily he wasn't hurt too badly because a tree had broken his fall. I know as if that's not bad enough. But now you understand why, like the electrocution prank, they usually fell for it because he's, you know, he's also clumsy.
00:09:11
Speaker
accident-prone. Right, but more than pranks, Travis was also a down-to-earth person. He really enjoyed being outdoors. He liked camping, and he and his sisters would almost always go to this creek that ran behind the hauler, and that's where they could be found. If the weather was nice, they were in the creek.
00:09:39
Speaker
And where did you say they lived? Arkansas. In Arkansas. And if Travis weren't there outside somewhere, then he would be in his room listening to classic rock. He loved Pink Floyd, another brick in the wall, or country music, which was, when this case takes place, a newly discovered interest. He does kind of remind me of my brother a little. Really?
00:10:07
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, just his interest. Yeah, just like things he would do like bring pride and stuff like that. Mm-hmm
00:10:14
Speaker
And it makes sense that Travis loved music because Sonja said he also had a creative side. He enjoyed writing poetry and creating art. I love that. I know I do too. The sensitive side. Yeah. Well-rounded. Yes. His biggest love was just for people. He loved his friends and as quite a few young men do.
00:10:42
Speaker
Sonia said that he, and I quote, loved the women. That's hilarious. Yeah. My brother for sure. He one time paid. We once went through the McDonald's drive-through line and he paid for our meal, which like two people at McDonald's is what? Like 10 years ago was $10 probably.
00:11:06
Speaker
Um, with a $100 bill and left his phone number with the cashier. Cause she was. Oh my goodness. And didn't take the change back. What? Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. That'd be nice. I'd be like, I'm going home. Bye. Yeah. Taking the rest of the night off. Got my paycheck right
Travis' struggles with addiction and legal issues
00:11:30
Speaker
here. Yeah.
00:11:31
Speaker
About four years before the incident that will be the focus of our case this week, Travis graduated from high school. He attended the alternative learning school that was run through Gentry Public Schools. And since he didn't yet have a clear idea of what he wanted to do as a career,
00:11:55
Speaker
he took a job at the local Hardee's to just get some spending money. And I think I see both ends of the spectrum. I see students who they know exactly what they want to do and they're going off to college. And then I also see students who say, you know what, I'm not sure yet. So I'm just going to take a little time to myself and figure it out. Yeah.
00:12:20
Speaker
I can remember how stressed out my sister-in-law got when she went to high school in Central Kentucky and had to pick like a career path to focus on. You know, when she's 14, she's a freshman in high school and she's like, I have no idea what I want to do. And sometimes it takes people a while to figure it out. I mean, even in college, people change majors. So yeah, I totally get just needing that time to figure out what you want to do.
00:12:49
Speaker
Unfortunately, though, near the end of high school or soon after is when things took kind of a darker turn in Travis's life. And he began experimenting with drugs and a dependence on what are considered more recreational drugs soon turned to dependence on
00:13:11
Speaker
methamphetamines. And it was that that kind of began to cause a rift between Travis and Sonia because she just, she wanted to stay as far away from that lifestyle as possible. And so they kind of drifted apart because of that. And sadly, drug addiction had its hold on Travis. So this town that they grew up in, I mean, I noticed that
00:13:39
Speaker
you use the word hauler. So was that like language that she used to? Yes, that was what she used. So then I wonder if it's like a smaller town where they grew up. Yeah. I do think that for kids in smaller towns, because we're both from smaller towns, if you don't have some type of plan after graduation, I do think it is really easy to get kind of caught up in that kind of scene because you have nowhere else to go.
00:14:09
Speaker
And that's why I always am so proud of those kids that, you know, they're not going to, you know, a technical school, they're not going to college. They don't have a job lined out. That's, you know, a steady job or a job that has more promise. And then they go into the military because those kids, I think realize they need something to get away from this kind of lifestyle that they may be pushed into if they stay.
00:14:35
Speaker
Right. This area, Gentry, the population is 4,000. Oh, yeah. And Siloam Springs that we're going to talk about is around 17,000. So they're both super small. Tawnier. Yeah. So I asked Sonia how much of an impact his addiction had on his daily life, and this is what she said.
00:15:00
Speaker
He couldn't hold jobs. He couldn't do anything. He was always, just always fixated on the high. And then, um, yeah, he's, it affected his life a lot. So, uh, the drug use though brought about another unintended consequence that Sonia told me about. That soon after Travis began using drugs more frequently, he also began having seizures.
00:15:31
Speaker
interesting i didn't know that could happen i didn't know that that could happen either and i guess it makes sense that it could because according to research because amphetamines are brain stimulants they can actually increase the risk of
00:15:49
Speaker
especially in people who have epilepsy. And so Travis's seizures were so frequent and so severe that they too, so not just the drug addiction, but they too impacted his daily life. So he no longer drove because of this fear that he would have a seizure as he's driving and he wouldn't be able to safely pull over to the side of the road in time.
00:16:19
Speaker
And I feel like you can't really get help for that because if you go to the doctor, then you're going to have to admit you have a drug problem that could be causing these seizures. And most people aren't going to do that.
00:16:34
Speaker
Right. He did get on medication for it. I'll tell you about that. Yeah, it was something that he had to take daily. But Sonia remembers one of the first times that she witnessed Travis having a seizure because remember, this doesn't really develop until after he's graduated high school. Right. So did he have epilepsy? Yes.
00:17:00
Speaker
Yes, he did. Okay. So he already has epilepsy and then the amphetamines increase. Correct. The seizures. Yes. But she doesn't, she didn't say she remembered having him having seizures before he started getting into drugs. Okay. So I think it's something, maybe it was latent and then with the drug use, it presents itself, but it was her freshman year.
00:17:29
Speaker
and she was home sick from school. And she was watching a soap opera on television and Travis was eating some cereal in the kitchen. Yes, absolutely. He was eating some cereal in the kitchen at the table and she saw his cereal bowl just go flying across the room. And she said, and I quote, at first I thought he was just being stupid.
00:17:53
Speaker
Yeah, because he is a prankster. But as soon as she looked over and saw him seizing, she knew this is no laughing matter. And since those seizures grew more and more frequent, he actually began to learn the signs to know when one was about to come on. And I didn't even know this because I guess I just didn't know enough about
00:18:19
Speaker
We have to do training as teachers at the beginning of the year every year on different types like catatonic or generalized or things like that. But I didn't know that it doesn't happen for everyone, but some people like Travis will have what's called an aura.
00:18:42
Speaker
And Travis would see them. But according to the director of the Epilepsy Center at the University of Cincinnati Gardner Neuroscience Institute, his name is Dr. Michael Privatera.
00:18:54
Speaker
in an article on the University of Cincinnati health page said, quote, auras are pretty interesting and not everybody has them. People talk about an aura as being a symptom they experienced prior to going into a full seizure. And for each person, it's a little different, end quote. So apparently an aura can be like right before a seizure hits, you can hear music or some people might smell something or taste something.
00:19:24
Speaker
or see swirling colors or some other visual manifestation or even get a sense of deja vu or nausea, just like this list of other experiences. But for Travis, despite knowing when a seizure would likely occur, because he had this aura, he still had to take daily medication for them. And that medication, it would lessen the frequency and
00:19:50
Speaker
kind of aid in preventing them. I wish I could tell you that the effect on his health resulted in Travis getting clean, but unfortunately, it's wishful thinking to believe that it's that easy for a lot of addicts to get clean. And even when they do, it's still a daily battle. And since Travis's parents were both also addicts,
00:20:19
Speaker
And I'm hypothesizing here. I think that would make getting and staying clean even more difficult. Oh, I'm sure. Cause I feel like you almost have to, one of my friends on Facebook, she just got out of rehab not long ago. And it's almost like she's had to move into like a different part of her life. Like she has different friends. She had to leave.
00:20:47
Speaker
all of that behind because if not then you just have that constant pressure and like you said it's a daily battle anyways but then if you're seeing it and you're hearing about it and your friends are talking about their high then that I think would make it even harder for you to stay clean. Oh definitely I mean I have this conversation all the time Rodney and I do about how I can't imagine because you know Maggie you and I talk about it how
00:21:15
Speaker
We're very naive and ignorant when it comes to, you know, drug use. But I tell him all the time, I'm like, you know,
00:21:26
Speaker
If I decide that I'm gonna go on a diet, it's hard. Because if I say, you know what, I'm gonna cut carbs, but then everybody around me is eating donuts and bread and pizza and cake and all of this stuff. And that's just carbs.
00:21:45
Speaker
I mean that's not something that's affecting my brain chemistry like drugs do so I I don't know the people who want to judge I I don't think that they're being honest with themselves about yeah it would be and I don't think that they have the perspective that you just said like oh I want to cut out pop
00:22:07
Speaker
And you don't realize how hard that is. And that's not even a drug, like a hard drug. I want to cut out sweets, but it's still the same. I mean, not the same thing, but your brain is still, you know, addicted to that. And so if it's that hard just to give up bread, imagine how much harder it is to give up something that you really are addicted to on so many different levels. Yeah.
00:22:32
Speaker
And it was a family friend named Mark who had become close to the family for, he'd been close to them for many years, but he trafficked drugs and he recruited Travis and another young man named James to transport meth for him. So Travis had now gone from consuming
00:22:58
Speaker
methamphetamines to aiding in the sale of them. So he's in it deep. Yes, it was on that transport which took place on December 23rd, 2005. Travis and James were pulled over and caught with meth in their possession with the intent to sell. In Arkansas,
00:23:25
Speaker
It is a class C felony to have between two and 10 grams of methamphetamine. Travis and James had 200. Wow. Yeah. So Travis did serve time for that charge in a prison in Texarkana. You know though, I don't know how long he served, but maybe his family is like, okay, he can get clean while he's in there and things will be better when he gets out.
00:23:55
Speaker
I was hoping and praying for the same thing.
The night Travis went missing
00:24:00
Speaker
But after his release, Travis went back to hanging out with the same people he'd always known, which meant being back in the drug scene. But now there was some tension. You see, Travis
00:24:20
Speaker
as a result of being caught transporting these drugs, was supposed to be a witness in a federal narcotics trial that involved the family friend, the one who trafficked drugs. So now Travis is supposed to be a witness against him in August- Is that guy in jail? 2006. At the time, no. Wow. Okay.
00:24:50
Speaker
and that was kind of wearing on him. Travis was nervous about having to be a witness, and he began making comments to his family to the effect of, quote, if I don't show up to court, or if I go missing, you're gonna have to worry about me, end quote. Oh my goodness. Imagine that stress.
00:25:16
Speaker
Yeah, and it would be scary. If he was in jail, then okay, then I would still be scared witless, but I could maybe go about my everyday life. But if this guy's just out and about, I would be locked in a bunker. Because yeah, if you're missing, almost guaranteed, you know what happened to you. Well, on February 28, 2006, Travis Dwayne Robertson did go missing. And he hasn't been seen or heard from since.
00:25:46
Speaker
So let's talk about that last day and get some of those details. On the last day Travis was seen, he was going to go out for a night on the town to let loose, enjoy himself. It was February 28th, 2006. It was Mardi Gras. So party time. Party time, yes.
00:26:09
Speaker
Travis was going out with his sister, one of his sister's significant others, named Steven. Steven's friend and two girls who Travis knew. One of them he had gone to prom with. Their names were Brandy and Nina. So it was Steven, Steven's friend, Travis, Brandy, and Nina.
00:26:31
Speaker
Okay, so a pretty big group of people. Some sources I read said that Travis had hoped to spend some time that evening with one of those two girls. Right, yeah. But she actually brought another person, a sixth person, to join their group and it was another guy.
00:26:50
Speaker
Oh, true. Poor Travis. I know. But in my interview with Sonia, she said that Travis probably wouldn't have been too upset by the fact that the girl had shown up with another guy because number one, Travis was super laid back. And so he just didn't get worked up about things. Also, he probably was like, I'll just find another girl.
00:27:10
Speaker
Well, yeah, that was the second thing is that she thinks that he would have pretty quickly just shifted focus to finding a different girl while he's out on the town. So and in fact, even when he was getting ready to go out, he didn't seem focused on that female friend because when he was getting ready, he actually called another one of his sisters, Keisha, to come and help him pick out clothes to wear for that evening.
00:27:39
Speaker
And she helped him pick out a blue checkered button down shirt and blue jeans. So looking a little preppy and some tan new balance shoes and a green Corona baseball cap. But he said to her, to Keisha, that he needed her help because he wanted to, and again, I quote, pick up chicks. I'm telling you.
00:28:04
Speaker
You know, Travis did, and my brother didn't share some things. My brother did not struggle with addiction, but he did struggle with being a ladies man.
00:28:14
Speaker
And picking out clothes was a big deal. I can remember, and this was like, my brother would wear this, the New Balance shoes, the blue jeans. And I can remember him saying like, do you think these jeans make my butt look big? Do I look fat in these like things like that? And I'm like, this is weird. You're a boy. You shouldn't be thinking about things like that.
00:28:39
Speaker
Oh my goodness. Well, and here's the thing I will say. So after he got all, you know, ready, I almost said dolled up, but all ready for that. Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. Yeah. Finding a girl would have been extremely easy because the group had gone to Dixon Street in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which is not that far away from the University of Arkansas campus.
00:29:07
Speaker
So this was a street that would have been especially on Mardi Gras, as Sonia told me, quote, party central.
00:29:20
Speaker
So after they made the drive from Siloam Springs, Arkansas to Fayetteville, Arkansas, the group decided to split up. So Stephen, which is the sisters, one of the sisters significant other, and Travis, and potentially Stephen's friend, I was never able to get complete clarity on that, went in one direction while the two girls and the guy that was brought by one of them went in another direction.
00:29:50
Speaker
Okay, while in the bar, Steven and Travis were, you know, just drinking, enjoying themselves, having a good time. In hindsight, there wasn't really anything that stood out to Steven about Travis's demeanor, his attitude, or anything like that that would make this night unlike any other. He was acting normal.
00:30:14
Speaker
until, that is, two Hispanic men came over to speak with Travis. So just like a light switch, his demeanor changes? Yes, it was then that Travis clearly became nervous and upset. And he doesn't tell anybody? Nope.
00:30:40
Speaker
who these two men were, how they knew Travis, what they wanted with him. Those are all questions that remain unanswered to this day. So, you know, knowing his lifestyle, we think, okay, did he owe somebody money? Were they trying to send a message? I mean, why did they come over and talk to him? Because when I was talking to Sonya, it wasn't as though
00:31:10
Speaker
you know, something initiated a disagreement between them. You know, it wasn't that Travis is goofing off and, you know, breaks a beer bottle and it smashes near them and they get mad. I mean, there wasn't a clear reason why these two men came over to Travis, except that he was the directive. Like they were coming over to talk to him, not because of anything that had happened.
00:31:38
Speaker
And it's almost like they may have followed him there because they seek him out specifically. So it's not going to be a coincidence that they're there at the bar when he is. They had to have known where he was going to go. Right.
00:31:55
Speaker
Still frazzled from the encounter, Travis told Stephen that he wasn't feeling well. So these two men walk over, they talk to Travis, his demeanor changes, and he looks at Stephen and he says, you know what, I'm just not feeling well. And I'm sure Stephen likely believed Travis was maybe feeling a seizure coming on.
00:32:16
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Right. And then so Travis says, you know what, I'm just going to head back to the vehicle. And remember, Travis doesn't drive, so he hadn't driven there. This was somebody else's vehicle. So he's basically like, I don't feel well. I'm just going to go back to the vehicle. And, you know, it was already getting late slash early.
00:32:35
Speaker
So Steven says, you know what? You go ahead and go back to the car. I'll go ahead and get everybody else and we'll just meet you back at the vehicle. Oh, well good. At least he's not like basically been for yourself. At least he's taken care of his friend. Right. But when the rest of them showed up, there was no sign of Travis anywhere. Do we know if he made it to the car? We do not.
00:33:03
Speaker
Because that's one of the questions that I asked as well. I also asked Sonya how much time had likely passed between when Travis left the bar to go to the car to when the group met at the vehicle to leave. And here was her response. I would say maybe 15, 20 minutes, if that. But I could be dogging a bullet and telling you for a complete wrong amount of time. OK.
00:33:33
Speaker
But some time had passed, obviously. Yeah, I wouldn't know. Was it like an hour or whatever? Definitely under an hour. OK. OK, so not a whole lot of time. Oh, yeah. So we're talking between 15 minutes and an hour.
00:33:52
Speaker
I mean, that's not a huge chunk of time. And there would have been people everywhere, right? Because it's Mardi Gras and people are out at bars and stuff. Right.
00:34:04
Speaker
And that's when I followed up by asking her if she even knew if Travis made it back to the vehicle, like you asked, or if there were signs of a struggle around or near the car. And she said that as far as she knows, there was no sign of a struggle. And we really don't know whether Travis even made it to the car or whether something happened to him before he did. So you're right. This case has lots of questions.
00:34:34
Speaker
But at the time, I don't think his friends were really thinking the worst case scenario thoughts. They'd been drinking. They were having a good time. And all they knew was that Travis had said he would be at the car. So they're thinking, OK, well, he's probably just going to be along in a few minutes, right?
00:34:57
Speaker
I don't want to criticize them for not immediately scouring the area in their search efforts because I know I would be thinking, well, we can't just leave the car because what happens if we're all gone looking for him and he comes back in the meantime and now nobody's here to let him know to stay here that we're out there looking for him. Right, so they kind of stick around near the car. And they could have been like, he may have
00:35:25
Speaker
met a girl and went with her as he was walking back to the car. I mean, there could have been a lot of reasons that he wasn't at the car. He could have got a ride home. Yeah, he could have run into somebody else who he knew and they said, hey, come in here and have a beer with me.
00:35:44
Speaker
And so it goes into another bar, because you're right, it's extremely crowded. So they just kind of wait there for him at first, and then they start looking around. But at nearly 2 a.m., so now we're March 1st, 2006, when Travis still hadn't shown up at the car, Steven called Travis's sister Keisha to let her know that Travis was missing. And I'm sure that is a harder
00:36:15
Speaker
call to make with an adult? Because just like you said, I think you're more likely to make excuses like, oh, they could have gotten a ride with somebody or they could have chosen to do this versus a child. And I think that's the problem with police too, because they're always like, oh, they could have ran away to make a new life for themselves. They probably left on their own. No, I know. I hate when they say that.
00:36:43
Speaker
especially again, if someone credible is calling and saying, no, I know my child or I know my sibling, and that is not how they act. Yeah.
00:36:54
Speaker
Because they lived in Siloam Springs, Keisha called the Siloam Springs Police Department to file the missing persons report. However, as I mentioned in the introduction as something that has now thankfully been changed, she was told that she would have to wait 72 hours before filing a missing persons report. That's crazy to me, and I'm glad that did change.
00:37:21
Speaker
So that means that the report wasn't actually generated until around March 4th. How sad is that? Wow. So much wasted time. Yep.
00:37:34
Speaker
As days passed without hearing from Travis, his family grew obviously more nervous by the day. You see Maggie, Travis didn't have his seizure medication with him. And that was something that he was supposed to take daily. Did he have a phone? He had a phone, but he didn't have it with him.
00:38:01
Speaker
Well, it's 2006, so that's not really, I guess, that uncommon for that time. Right. Number one, we didn't carry them as often places, but his phone was also the kind that you would have to pay to add minutes to. Gotcha. And since he had used all of his minutes, he had just left it at home that night. But Travis was resourceful. So his family knows that if he were able to get to a phone, he would have found a way to let his family know that he was OK.
00:38:31
Speaker
Sonya actually said that Travis would call their mom nearly every day and that not a single day went by that he didn't call somebody until he was missing. Yeah, they know something's up. His mother also called to file a missing persons report. Now, before you get confused and you ask me why she called to file a missing
00:38:56
Speaker
missing persons report since she knew that her daughter Keisha had already filed one. It's because Keisha had filed the missing persons report in Siloam Springs, which was where they lived. Their mother, on the other hand, believed that the report, in order to be effective, should be filed instead in Fayetteville, which is where Travis had gone missing. But a couple things. Yes.
00:39:25
Speaker
I would hope that they would be communicating because it happened in Fayetteville, but he lives in the other town. But what is the correct way to file it? Is it where the crime happens?
00:39:40
Speaker
I'm glad you asked because I still don't know. I researched to find the answer because I thought, you know, I've never thought about that before. Do you file it? And maybe other people need to know. Right. Do you file it where you live or do you file it where the crime happened? And the only thing I saw was that families were asked to, quote, report it to a local law enforcement agency, end quote. So that still doesn't answer my question.
00:40:09
Speaker
Yeah, that doesn't clear up the confusion because, again, local to where you live or local to where the crime took place. Exactly. Which one is it? So Sister Keisha filed in Silent Springs where they live. Mom filed in Fayetteville, which is where the crime occurred. Well, they have their bases covered. Right. After the reports were filed, the family waited. They waited for Travis to return.
00:40:36
Speaker
They waited to hear more recalled information from witnesses. They waited to hear from him a phone call, perhaps. They waited for anything. And they continued to wait for six agonizing years. Wow.
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Challenges in the investigation and family advocacy
00:45:17
Speaker
After so much time had passed and never receiving an update,
00:45:21
Speaker
Sister Keisha actually decided to contact a local news station, 4029 News, and an anchor there. Period, as she should. Yes, an anchor there, Angela Taylor, decided to look into the case and what she found was both shocking and sad. Taylor told Crystal Martinez of KNWA Fox 24, quote, no one was looking into the case.
00:45:51
Speaker
I said, what is going on? Why are you not giving us information? The family is missing their brother, their son. Like you have to do something. And that's sort of what got the ball rolling. End quote. Okay. So when you say no one was looking into the case, you mean like one of the stations didn't have
00:46:18
Speaker
Like what does that mean? Exactly. I guess. Okay. So literally they were doing, it was just like the case didn't even exist. Pretty much because after pressing law enforcement for answers,
00:46:31
Speaker
Taylor the anchor soon discovered why the family wasn't getting regular updates She went on to note in that same article quote what I found was the two departments weren't in contact whatsoever and Siloam Springs had closed the case so essentially no one was investigating end quote in a nutshell and
00:46:56
Speaker
Here is what happened. So, Siloam Springs, remember that's who Keisha called first. They claim. That's where they live. Yes. They claim that they had transferred the case to Fayetteville, which is where Travis went missing from based on what we know. Right? And that when they transferred the case to Fayetteville, that they closed the case in Siloam Springs.
00:47:24
Speaker
Fayetteville, on the other hand, claims that they never received the transfer from Siloam Springs. And that even when Travis's mom called to file the report there, that they knew that there had already been a report filed in Siloam Springs. So they're under the impression this whole time that they're just the assisting agency there to lend a hand if they were called upon to do so.
00:47:53
Speaker
So basically, no one is doing much of anything. So, Asylum Springs says, oh, we've transferred it to Fayetteville where it belongs, case closed, wipe our hands clean. Fayetteville says, oh, Asylum Springs is looking into it because they'd say, we never got a transfer. And so they say, well, we're just the assisting agency. I guess if they need us, they'll let us know. And they'll never let them know because they think the case is transferred to them. Oh, my God.
00:48:21
Speaker
Yep. So no one's doing anything. And this was the case for six years. News 4029 was able to uncover a few documents of action that had been taken in the first few days of the investigation. So for example, Travis's name was entered into a missing persons database.
00:48:45
Speaker
And that's a little surprising, honestly. I know. Good for them, at least. They were even able to obtain documents that discuss fears of Travis's safety due to his involvement as a witness in the federal trial. So there are notes in his case file from law enforcement saying that they're nervous for his safety. Wow. Okay. But let's not do anything to protect him. Right.
00:49:15
Speaker
And both agencies have since formally apologized to the Robertson family for dropping the ball in Travis's case. That doesn't make it any better. I know. And the Silum Springs Police Department is now taking the lead in Travis's case. So while it was nice to get the formal apologies from law enforcement, it's just what you just said. It doesn't change the fact.
00:49:43
Speaker
that so much potential evidence is either now gone or it can't be collected as it could have been in the days right after the missing persons report was filed. Yep. And people, time has passed. People could be dead. Witnesses could be dead. They could have forgotten things. So much could have this. We may not even be talking about this case.
00:50:09
Speaker
If one, there wasn't that 72 hour missing persons bull crap that they had to do with. And then two, this whole confusion with the police departments. I know. Yeah. Because by the time the family actually realized that no one was looking into Travis's case, video feeds had long sent tape for deleted.
00:50:30
Speaker
And six years later, even if you're shown a picture of Travis, most people aren't going to remember whether they saw him on that night on Dixon Street. They're not going to remember, oh, he was walking in this direction. They're not going to remember who he had been with. And those are details that if his picture were shown
00:50:57
Speaker
in the days right after, then maybe you would remember, you know, maybe if you, if there was something about him that stood out, like if, you know, he's being kind of dragged or pulled in a direction by somebody, you might remember it. You're not going to remember that six years later.
00:51:18
Speaker
Or even if you're walking back to your dorm or whatever at this college and you see him waiting by this lone man waiting by a car, you know, and it looks like Travis, but you're not going to remember that, like you said, six years later. No. And by the time, you know, now investigation is being done, even Travis's dental records were destroyed in the interim because they had been inactive for so long.
00:51:47
Speaker
Oh my. I know. It's just it saddens me so much. Yeah. What we do have though Maggie are theories. So we'll talk about a few of them now. Theory number one is that Travis left of his own accord. Okay. Some people believe that this is possible because of his involvement
00:52:13
Speaker
with some of the other theories that we'll discuss here in a second that maybe he just wanted to leave the area. Travis did have two warrants out for his arrest. One of them was for failing to pay fines related to a forgery charge and the other was for failure to appear in court on charges of being an accomplice to the delivery of drugs. So some people say maybe he just wanted to kind of get away from
00:52:44
Speaker
those charges get away from the area. That lifestyle, maybe even. Right. But if anything happened to him and he were picked up by law enforcement, I mean, they would have run his license. They would have seen his warrants and he would have been taken in. So I just I don't know. I just don't know if I buy into this wanting to escape the past.
00:53:14
Speaker
You know, cause he was looking forward to the night. Yeah. And even that, I just think it would be hard because one, he has this addiction that he's dealing with. So that would be hard to get away from and not, unless he's just trying to maybe quit that cold turkey or something. But he also has this epilepsy that he needs his medicine for. And so even if he is
00:53:40
Speaker
running away. I mean, he's gonna have to create a whole new name for himself. So new license, new social security number, all this, just to be able to get this medicine that he needs to take on a daily basis. Right. And if he were planning on leaving, wouldn't he have taken his medication with him? Right. What he has left of it, or even his phone. And, and
00:54:04
Speaker
If his plans were to leave the area, why would you choose this very night to not only go out with friends who would miss you right away, but to go to an extremely crowded place where anybody and everybody could see you skipping town? Yeah, this doesn't make sense. No. So I'm going to say that theory just doesn't hold any water for me. Same. Theory number two.
00:54:32
Speaker
is that maybe Travis had a seizure while he was with someone or some sort of tragic accident happened. So Travis did tell Steven that he wasn't feeling well, which Steven took to mean that he might have felt a seizure coming on. And he just wanted to get out of this crowded place before it did. It is possible that maybe he just wasn't able to make it back to the car.
00:55:01
Speaker
before a seizure happened, or maybe he entered another bar to try to go to a bathroom, or maybe he went to the wrong car in the parking lot, like if he were disoriented, something of that sort, and it resulted in a tragic accident. But when we say that, like, what do we mean, like, he... I don't know. I don't know if it could be anything from
00:55:28
Speaker
you know, if he's showing up at the wrong car and somebody gets mad to he, something happens with the seizure. Yeah. And somebody finds him, they're like, Oh, we have to hide this body. Right.
00:55:43
Speaker
If this were the case though, then I feel like it's something that even six years later, somebody would recall seeing him while on Dixon Street that night. Because if somebody is having a severe, I've only ever been around one student and she's the only person in my entire life that I've been around while they were having a seizure. And I remember every detail about it.
00:56:11
Speaker
And his were not like silent ones. Right. Yeah. So I feel like if you're walking down the street, he convulsed. Yeah. And you see somebody, you would remember that. Mm hmm. Yeah. I think even if you were drunk, that would be like a story that you would say, oh, remember that time we were on Dixon Street and we saw that guy having that seizure?
00:56:32
Speaker
Plus, I mean, I feel like even with a high percentage of young adults drinking, there would have still been somebody who either wasn't drinking or hadn't had very much or something like that. Yeah, would have been the person like you or me. Right. Exactly. Who would have been us, the designated drivers, who would have come forward with this memory of witnessing a seizure and then what happened afterwards and no one has.
00:56:57
Speaker
Theory number three is that Travis owed money to the wrong people. So when Sonya told me about this encounter with the two Hispanic men at the bar, I asked her what her gut told her that they said to him or they were there to do. And she did say she wasn't sure. So, but she, I guess had questions. She said, did Travis owe them money?
00:57:24
Speaker
or someone else for drugs, was he involved in a larger drug ring than she knew about? That's what I was about to say. She did say, and I thought this was interesting, that if Travis believed that he were truly in danger and that by being associated with him, his friends would be in danger as well, that he would have made up an excuse like feeling sick.
00:57:54
Speaker
in order to get away from his friends to protect them. Well, you said early on that
00:58:02
Speaker
he would do anything to protect his family or friends. So when you first said that the two Hispanic men approached him and he felt sick, that's kind of where I went. Like, Oh, I need away from this situation. I need away from this location. This is an easy excuse for me to use with my friends to quickly get away and for them to potentially not follow me. Right. So yeah, that was kind of the,
00:58:32
Speaker
idea behind this theory is that were that the case, if he does owe somebody money, they're coming after him, he would have made up that excuse to get a loan. So they're only going to hurt him. Right. Or could those two men be linked somehow to our final theory? Our final theory, theory number four, has to do with family friend Mark.
00:59:02
Speaker
OK. So recall that Mark is the supplier for which Travis was delivering when he was pulled over. And it is Mark whose narcotics trial is coming up at which Travis is supposed to testify. He also made that comment. Yes. And that's what I was going to say. This is the very trial for which Travis told his family, if I don't show up to court, you're going to have to worry about me.
00:59:34
Speaker
So all of those, it seems a little bit more than coincidence. And Mark himself. Well, let me just let Sonya tell you about him. He basically had said multiple times to multiple people that if anyone ever does him wrong, he would kill them and feed them to the hogs so that their bodies would never be found. Yeah, and Travis was terrified of this guy. He even told...
01:00:03
Speaker
He said, if anything ever happens to me or if something happened and I go missing or something, he said, you're going to have to worry about me because he was terrified of the smart guy. Yeah, and then he even told mom that if he doesn't show up for court, that's when she really needs to start worrying. So we know
01:00:27
Speaker
Mark's narcotics trial is coming up. Travis makes this comment, like, if I don't show up, you need to worry about me. Travis is terrified of him. We even have, remember in the little paperwork that we have from law enforcement, the comment from law enforcement saying, I'm a little bit nervous about him being an informant, like testifying.
01:00:52
Speaker
Yeah. And so Travis's family, they now believe that Travis had become an informant for law enforcement to try to dig up dirt on Mark. And Mark found out, I guess. Potentially. Because that is something that would put Travis even more at risk. And to give you a hint as to the potential validity of this theory,
01:01:19
Speaker
law enforcement investigated a John Doe body that was discovered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just because it was the same height as Travis. So not because Travis himself had any known ties to Oklahoma, but they investigated it because it was believed that Mark owned land in both Missouri and Oklahoma.
01:01:50
Speaker
Okay, so I feel like if they're going to that length, that we're just going there because this John Doe's the same height as Travis, that investigators are leaning a particular way as well. That's a lot of money. Yes. There's a comment that they make that we'll talk about, which makes me say, if not him, then somebody else in that circle.
01:02:20
Speaker
But before I ask for your opinion, Maggie, I also wanted to tell you about some odd phone calls that the family received after Travis went missing. So one of those incidents were calls made to Keisha from a girl who said that Travis needed to quit calling her.
01:02:42
Speaker
And so in one of the calls, she said, quote, tell Travis to quit calling or I'm going to kill him. End quote. And this is after he was missing. This is after Travis was missing. So that's bizarre.
01:02:56
Speaker
The second incident was an accidental phone call to Sonya from a family member, kind of like a butt dial. And she overheard a conversation, someone saying something about that Roberson boy, something, something, something burning. But she still doesn't know what to make of either one of those calls.
01:03:24
Speaker
And of course, there could be a whole slew of other possibilities. These are the ones that seem the most probable based on what we know. So Maggie, what do you think? I almost wonder if
01:03:39
Speaker
Theory four and theory three could somehow be connected. Like maybe the Hispanic men were delivering a warning on behalf of someone in this narcotics circle. I do think like you that it had, it's connected somehow to this narcotics ring, this drug ring. Yeah. That's what my gut is telling me. Captain Derek Spicer of the asylum Springs police department has his own theories as well.
01:04:07
Speaker
While he has not publicly named anyone, he did tell Crystal Martinez of KNWA Fox 24, quote, we truly believe there are people close to the Roberson's that know absolutely what happened to Travis or where Travis is, one or the other, end quote. Travis's sister, Sonia, while she's been asked not to mention who that individual is,
01:04:35
Speaker
And she is unsure herself of that person's involvement, but she does agree wholeheartedly that someone close to the family knows something. Although Sonya now believes in her gut that Travis is deceased, she just wants to find her brother so he can have a proper burial. Of course, as the years have passed, she has heard many rumors about what may have happened to her brother.
01:05:05
Speaker
But she feels that something she heard recently could finally be on the track to the truth. In order to know, she desperately needs a certain someone to talk about what she knows. And right now, that person isn't. Unfortunately, due in part to Travis being an adult male who is an addict, the media hasn't covered as cases they should have.
01:05:34
Speaker
The Roberson family has tried. They reached out to major talk shows and programs and heard nothing in return. They've been left in the dark again and again. They had one sliver of hope when one program reached back out, willing to air coverage of Travis's story, but only if the family confronted Mark on stage.
01:06:01
Speaker
As the detective had urged them not to do that, they stated to the show that they would love to still be allowed to share Travis' story, but the program then declined to have them on because they wouldn't make that confrontation. It saddens me when people care more about drama and entertainment than they do about justice and support.
01:06:27
Speaker
That's why, Sleuthhounds, you, as a different breed of listener than most, need to share Travis's story. Put links to this episode in your social media. Join the Facebook page dedicated to Travis. Talk about him at work, to friends, heck even to strangers. Keep the pressure on until answers come and help shine a light for this family. If there can be,
01:06:56
Speaker
a silver lining to a case like this one. It is that the Robbertsons have been fighting to ensure that some of the trauma and delays that they've experienced don't happen to others. In fact, Sonya has been a vocal and very present supporter of the new Act 920 in Arkansas mentioned in the introduction to the episode that removes any delay of reporting missing loved ones. Sonya praised the Morgan Nick Foundation for being instrumental in the change.
01:07:26
Speaker
Here's what she said. So even my mom said the same way, you know, it's just one of those things that even if he is, we want to know where he's at. Right. We want, again, people always say we want the closure. You'll never, I'm like, we'll never get closure. It's just, you know, we want to find, we want to find him. And he wants, whoever did this, we want justice. See, before it would be, as an adult with missing,
01:07:56
Speaker
You could report them missing, but there wouldn't be an active case until 48 hours. But now, when a missing adult, when a person who's an adult course goes missing, they have to immediately allow someone to file a missing person report, and the case becomes active immediately. That's awesome. Instead of waiting the 48 hours, which is honestly one of the best things ever because so much can happen in 48 hours. Right.
01:08:33
Speaker
I'd like to end with some final words from Sonya. Right.
01:08:56
Speaker
I mean, people listen to it when they're driving to work, who listen to it when they're cleaning. It's just one of those things where, like you said earlier, a missing male adult should matter just as much. Just because they're an adult does not mean that are as important as anything else.
01:09:19
Speaker
And do you have a Facebook page that you want to tell our listeners about and then give like a call to action for them to come forward with information if they have it?
01:09:29
Speaker
Um, I do, it's, um, the pages bring Travis home. And of course his pages has his, his profile pictures, his missing person flyer. But if anybody can come forward, like they said, you can just do it anonymously. You don't have to say, Hey, this is so-and-so. They said you can just do it anonymously, a tip anonymously, anything. Because my thing is, what if that was your brother, your uncle, your son, your dad, or something like that?
01:09:58
Speaker
They would want the same exact thing. They would want someone to come forward with information if it was their son, brother, missing loved one. Right. Please show her your support by joining the Facebook page, by diligently sharing and by never forgetting his story.
01:10:20
Speaker
Anyone with information is asked to call the Asylum Springs Police Department at 479-524-4118.
01:10:33
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
01:11:03
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
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Speaker
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