January 2, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode of Cold and Missing, we dive into the heartbreaking disappearance of 12-year-old Elisa Roberson with her sister Ruby Hall. Elisa vanished from Aransas Pass, Texas, in August 1989. On the evening of August 6, Elisa left home to meet a friend at a nearby elementary school but never arrived. Witnesses saw her on her way, but by the time her family realized something was wrong, Elisa had vanished without a trace. Despite extensive searches, including scent dogs and community efforts, the case went cold. Over the years, there have been leads, anonymous tips, and even an investigation at the family’s former home, but no conclusive answers. Now, over three decades later, Elisa’s family is reigniting their fight for justice, urging new leadership and cold case experts to uncover the truth.
*** If you know anything about the disappearance of Elisa Roberson in August of 1989 or her whereabouts today - place call the Aransas Pass Police department at 361-758-5224 or if you want to leave a tip online you can use the attorney general online tip submission: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/coldcasetips
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
Listener discretion is advised.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali, and happy new year!
It is 2025 officially.
This is the first episode of 2025.
And we're going to be doing something slightly different this week.
Eli will not be joining us this week, but that's because I have a special guest.
(00:54):
On today's episode, I had the honor of chatting with Ruby Hall, who is Elisa Roberson's sister.
We're going to be covering Elisa’s case today.
And throughout the episode, I'll be sharing with you the conversation that I was able
to have with her sister, Ruby.
There's a lot of conversation that we had, so I think we should just go ahead and get
(01:15):
into it.
Episode 114.
And just as a bit of a content warning, there will be several mentions of domestic violence
throughout the episode.
Today, we are talking about the missing person case of Elisa Roberson.
And this takes place in August of 1989 in Aransas Pass, Texas.
(01:38):
But first, a little bit about Elisa.
And I think it's only appropriate to start with how Ruby remembered her.
She was the oldest one, so of course with that, she had some responsibility, you know,
kind of watching over us little ones.
So she was always the one that kind of my mom kind of left in charge to, you know, if
(02:00):
she, for whatever reason, if my mom was gone, it was always, you know, Elisa to make sure
that we were doing what we're supposed to be doing.
And even if mom was there and we were outside playing or, you know, if we weren't doing
what we're supposed to be doing, and Elisa told us, you know, mom said da da da da da,
we just would automatically get scared like, oh my gosh, she's going to tell mom if we
(02:23):
don't listen.
So I mean, we weren't we weren't we didn't always listen and we didn't always do what
we were supposed to do.
Elisa was born in Nicaragua.
Her father passed away when she was just a baby.
But her mother soon met Jean, an American man who worked in the shrimping industry.
He had been sent to Nicaragua to pick up a boat when he met and fell in love with Marina.
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Jean will ask Marina and her daughter Elisa to come to the United States to get married.
Soon after arriving in the US, Marina got pregnant with Ruby, Elisa's younger sister.
Elisa and Ruby were only about a year and a half apart in age.
And because Elisa was held back a grade in school, they were actually in the same grade
as well.
Elisa picked up English faster than her mother.
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So from a young age, she was able to translate for her mother.
Over the years, Marina will have another child with Jean, a son named Tony.
But eventually, Jean gets in trouble with the police.
He's involved in a bar fight that gets out of hand and he ends up having to spend time
in jail.
With Marina on her own and vulnerable with three children, she ends up meeting a new
(03:30):
man named Ralph.
Ralph at first seemed like a good guy.
I think about the time Ralph came into the picture.
I think that my first memories of him I was about five years old.
And I think that's about when he came into the picture.
And of course, at the time, my mom didn't know.
She was just she was vulnerable.
She was just in a vulnerable situation.
(03:52):
But when when Ralph came along, she didn't think she thought he was a you know, she didn't
know she didn't know his history.
She didn't know that he was into drugs.
She didn't know that he was a bad guy.
She just she had no idea.
He had actually the way she said that the way they met was somebody was actually some
guy was bothering and harassing her and she was she was being followed by this this guy
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who kept trying to be in a relationship with her and she didn't want to have anything to
do with him.
And she said one time he was just kind of following her around.
And she started running and she didn't know where to hide because she was scared.
And she said to be a I guess Ralph probably was in his yard or if I'm understanding or
(04:38):
remembering right.
He was in his yard and just told her to come in, you know, come inside my house.
And then when the guy passed, he told him, you know, leave her alone.
But eventually he ended up showing his true colors as an abuser.
Yeah, he did some he was just really, really abusive, you know, really mean the things
(04:58):
that do to us kids.
And then he would flip and then just be it was just he was definitely a sadist.
I mean, as an adult, I've realized he really liked to cause pain and he really liked to
scare us.
I think part of that game was he would do mean things to us, but then he would be nice.
He terrorized Marina and her children.
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And then the things he would do to my mom, of course, like, I mean, he beat her, he beat
her in front of us kids and he would take her.
There were so many times where he would take her, you know, he'd beat her and take her
and the kids, all of us kids.
And he would take her to places like under the bridge, far away, remote areas, all those
(05:41):
little kids in the backseat.
And he would be telling her, I can I can do something to you.
Nobody will ever know what happened to you.
And nobody would care to come look for you.
And what more of a threat also to have three of your your three kids in the backseat and
while threatening to kill you.
(06:03):
Marina will eventually have a child with Ralph as well, a little boy named Alex.
But Ralph's terror, after years, would come to an end in 1989, when Marina finally is
able to leave him for good.
She and her four children lived on Whitney Street in Aransas Pass.
I just remember to like we just were always, you know, especially that summer, we were
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always riding our bikes and we didn't we're Gen Xers.
We didn't spend a lot of time indoors.
We weren't playing video games.
We weren't.
I do remember Mario Brothers was just coming out and that was fun when we would.
My sister, her best friend had a Mario Brothers little PlayStation thing.
(06:48):
And we'd go over there and play.
But the main thing we love to do is just hang out outdoors and ride their bikes and go and
walk in, go into friends houses.
And we didn't spend a lot of time indoors.
Yeah, it was it was really fun because I remember when, you know, if there were kids picking
on us, like she you never had to worry.
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You know, we had our big sister and she no matter what she was, we had her back.
Nobody messed with us if Elisa was there.
So she commanded some kind of respect being, you know, older one.
And then she was also, you know, I didn't see it at the time.
But look, she was she was very well-liked and and so she was kind of popular.
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She had a lot of friends.
Elisa was funny and responsible.
She was well-liked amongst her classmates and the neighborhood children.
She was protective of her siblings.
And now a timeline of events.
On Sunday, August 6th, 1989, the night before, so that would have been Saturday night into
Sunday morning, Elisa spent the night at her best friend, Sharla's house, and then ended
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up spending all day Sunday with her as well.
It was normal for Elisa and Sharla to go to church together on Sunday night.
They would take a bus that would leave around 515 in the evening.
The bus would make rounds around the neighborhood and then arrive by six o'clock when the service
would start.
However, on this Sunday, Elisa made a last second decision not to go to church that night
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and decided to head home.
We don't know that anything, you know, as far as we were concerned, she was just, you
know, she when she got home, she's like, you know, I just, she told my mom, she just didn't
feel like going to church.
And to me, I just took it as she had spent a night and the whole day with Sharla and
(08:40):
then she decided to finally come home.
Maybe there was something else going on, you know, but at least it didn't seem like she
was upset or, you know, when she got home, she didn't seem upset or anything.
She just seemed like, you know, she just wanted to come home.
Elisa is back to her house pretty quickly and it's believed that she got there right
around 530.
(09:00):
Within minutes of getting home, the phone rings and it's Elisa's friend, Debbie.
So when when Debbie called, because I remember I was sitting there, Debbie says she didn't
call her, but I swear to God, like I was sitting on the couch and the phone was right next
to the table.
And I'm the one that night with all the phone calls coming in and out, I was the one answering
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the phone because I was right there and the phone was right there on that side table.
I just remember I was always answering the phone.
So when Debbie called and she wanted to talk to Elisa, you know, Elisa said, hey, mom,
you know, Debbie wants to know if I can come over.
And my mom, of course, initially told her it's getting late.
You just got home.
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Like, and Elisa didn't seem like she wanted necessarily wanted.
She was kind of like the attitude was like, either way, didn't matter.
So when Debbie said, you know, tell your mom I can meet you halfway because she told her
Debbie my mom said it's getting late and I can't come and play.
And Debbie said, well, I'll meet you halfway.
(10:03):
Tell your mom I'll meet you halfway and my dad will bring you home.
And so that's when my mom said, OK, well, then if that's the case, then then it's OK.
We had another friend over that evening and they all three wanted to play together.
Years later, it will be said that Elisa and her mother were fighting that evening.
But Ruby does not remember a fight that evening at all.
(10:25):
There was there wasn't a fight.
And this is where it just blows me away.
Like where this whole fight thing came from is just beyond me.
There was never a fight.
My mom and I weren't fighting.
There was no disagreement.
The only thing that I remember was when my mom says, well, tell Debbie it's getting
too like my mom.
(10:45):
There was like a little hint of annoyance.
That was it.
She says that Elisa and her mother rarely ever fought.
Elisa was an easy child and also hadn't really reached the teenager attitude yet.
By all accounts, once the plan has changed, Elisa's mom agrees to it.
So that way she can go and play.
She's more comfortable since Elisa won't be walking by herself and she won't be walking
(11:08):
back in the dark.
So Elisa heads out of the house.
The exact time is unclear, but the family believes that it would have been shortly after
5 30 as Elisa hadn't been home for more than a few minutes before her and Debbie made plans
to hang out.
We just it was just by chance that Elisa gets home and within minutes Debbie called.
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And I do remember vividly her getting a drink of water.
I do remember her.
I do.
That's just so funny.
Like she got a drink of water.
I remember it was hot.
So she gets a drink of water.
She goes to the bathroom.
I remember her fixing her socks.
It's just so surreal.
Like the little things you will remember.
I just remember her fixing her socks.
(11:49):
Like you know how you fold a sock down.
You put you know she was just fixing her socks, like folding them over, making sure they were
straight and then off she was.
When Elisa left her home, her older next door neighbor saw her walking down the driveway
as they were standing at the sink doing dishes.
(12:10):
To get to the elementary school, it should have only taken around six minutes to walk
there.
Elisa would have gone north on Whitney Street and then head west on Goodnight Avenue.
Right at the corner of Whitney and Goodnight Avenue lived the Pierces.
When she started walking she there were the neighbors on the corner, the pierce out.
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That was where her little boyfriend on again off again little boyfriend crush Nathan lived.
They were all outside when they talked to her.
She was walking past and they talked to her, asked her you know what hey Elisa what's up,
you know what are you doing?
Oh I'm going to meet Debbie.
So that could have taken like a couple minutes you know for her to talk to them.
(12:53):
They told us that she just didn't really stop but kind of slowed down, talked to them and
then kind of just kept walking.
Others have come forward to say that they saw Elisa that day.
Altogether about six folks saw Elisa leaving her home and heading towards the elementary
school on Goodnight Avenue.
The school was a little farther from Debbie's house than Elisa’s so Elisa would have made
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it to the school first.
But when Debbie arrives to the elementary school Elisa isn't there.
Debbie keeps walking towards Elisa’s house and also runs into the Pierces who are still
outside.
Debbie asked them if they have seen Elisa and they said they had.
She had just walked by a few minutes ago headed towards the school.
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Debbie turns around and starts walking back towards her house to see if she can catch
up with Elisa.
Debbie walks all the way back to her house and there is still no sign of Elisa.
She wasn't at the school, on route or waiting for Debbie at her house.
Debbie then calls Elisa's home to see if she was there.
Ruby answers the phone.
However amount of time it was I don't know but at some point then Debbie calls.
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I remember answering.
From that point on I was answering the phone.
So Debbie answers she wants to know where Elisa is.
I remember thinking okay she's probably talking to a friend.
I didn't think anything of it and I was even annoyed at Debbie.
I thought maybe Elisa and I were fighting but I don't I remember being annoyed and
(14:22):
I think maybe it was Debbie I was annoyed at because I remember and I don't know and
I don't care Debbie.
I'm not thinking a big deal about it but my mom in the background when she heard I was
talking to Debbie and she's hearing our conversation she yells from the kitchen because she's in
the kitchen cooking and she goes tell Debbie Elisa should be with her right now and I kind
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of sense like there's like a little bit of panic in my mom's voice like that first onset
and she and now when we've been able to you know as we're talking she said she knew as
soon as Debbie called that's when her panic you know kind of started set in.
Me I'm thinking maybe she's just talking to a friend.
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So we tell Debbie you know she's not here and she then Debbie says okay I'm going to
go back and see maybe maybe I'll find her I'm going to go back and look for her and
so she goes back I don't know how long she was gone again then some then the second time
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she calls that's when we start getting even more panic because then she called and said
I didn't is Elisa there you know we went and looked for her we didn't see her and then
she says I'm going to wait when my dad gets home I'm going to have my dad take me to look
for her.
Sometime passes again I don't you know then the next phone call it's Bob Green Debbie's
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dad he wanted to talk to my mom and so he gives I give the mom my the phone to my mom
and that's when he asked her miss Mrs. Roberson is Elisa home and my mom said no and he said
stay put we're going to go look for her and so then at that point I don't know how long
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he could have been gone half an hour maybe it was an hour we don't know for sure and
then he finally he shows up at our house and he wants to talk to my mom he tells my mom
miss Mrs. Roberson you need to call the police I remember his panic setting into like you
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know Mrs. Roberson you need to call the police now.
It dawns on all the adults that something is really wrong here and it's time to call
the police the police are called at around 9 45 p.m.
I didn't know it until I got the police report that I was the one that made the phone call
so my mom had me had me call and we asked you know I on the on the police report it
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says you know my sister hasn't come home yet my mom would like a police officer to come
in and talk to her and so then at some point the police officer shows up at our house it
was just one that I remember he talks to my mom and gets the report and you know just
(17:19):
kind of remember him saying you know well she's probably just caught up playing with
a friend and has lost track of time and maybe she'll show up and you know let us know if
she doesn't come home it was kind of like just you know no big deal there was no urgency
and then that whole night we were up all night between my mom and I we were both up I remember
being up with my mom I couldn't sleep like neither of us could sleep and my mom was pacing
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she was looking out the window she would go outside she was just there was just it was
just a horrible horrible night and I just remember always looking out the window and
picturing her walking through the parking lot like she's going to come walking up any
minute now I just think I was seeing her coming home and she just never came home.
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The next morning Monday August 7th bright and early Elisa's family is at the police
station to report that she didn't come back that night they run into Detective Lieutenant
Linda Thompson who was in charge of the juvenile division for the police department.
Police protocol at that time said that any matter involving a juvenile Linda was supposed
(18:31):
to be called to help assist in the matter.
The night that Elisa went missing she was never notified.
Detective Lieutenant Thompson immediately launches a full search in the neighborhood.
The next memory I have is there's cops there's detectives cops whatever you want to call
them in our house they wanted to go through some of my sister's things they took her
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diary they took a hairbrush they took some clothes they took some shoes a pair of shoes
shirt a couple items of clothing and probably some other things and I remember the brown
paper bags and so they they wanted to get the dogs Elisa sent and I think they wanted
(19:15):
her hairbrush for her her scent and then her DNA was still fairly new at that time but
like you know you could still compare hair to for sure yeah yeah and so I remember that
and I remember the dogs I remember the helicopters yeah I remember there were people there were
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a lot of people there were my mom's friends that came over and my mom just couldn't sit
home so between her and her friends we did like our little search parties and you had
the foot explorers going here the search and rescue it was just chaos it was just pandemonium
like people everywhere and news reporters there was there was there was so much going
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on and so much that was happening and that they were doing.
Scent dogs are brought in and they are able to pick up Elisa's scent and it tracks it
down to the school and then suddenly stops at the corner of 8th Street and Goodnight
Avenue when the bloodhounds were when they brought the bloodhounds down the bloodhounds
pulled her scent a little past the school police theorize that Elisa got into a car
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at this point and her case is labeled as an abduction very quickly and it just became
a blur there was just I mean there's things I remember but there was just so much going
on and just just hoping and praying that that you're you know that she would come home that
she would show up that something would come of it and I know for sure talking to Linda
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that that this went on for weeks you know the the search and rescue that there was a
lot and we were as a family too we were as a family my dad was but I remember the initial
boom of all the people and the chaos and talking to the police you know my mom was going to
the police station them coming to our house my mom talking to them that there was there
(21:21):
was quite a bit and and there were and I guess there were there were I just remember there
were a lot of cops seeing cops I remember seeing a lot of I guess they were search and
rescue people around the town you know you you know it wasn't just just in our area you
know our house was a was a you know a lot of people coming in and out and our family
(21:44):
and you know friends when I say family my dad really was the only family but my mom
had some really close friends that we consider to this day there we consider them families
so when I say family that's what I mean they were really good friends of my mom's and a
handful of them and we we did our you know going to the newspaper getting flyers passing
(22:07):
them out looking walking I remember it being so hot and walking and walking and being thirsty
I remember being so thirsty and just walk in the whole town just passing out flyers
asking people if they've seen my sister and and Linda I didn't know about this but they
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also had their family there's a lot of you know her sons and so there were a lot of people
too that I didn't I wasn't aware that were helping us too she said it lasted weeks where
they were working seven days a week then they kind of scaled down you know went down for
seven days a week to six days to five to it starts to slow down when you can't can't
(22:53):
find anything after the month of August police hadn't found any sign of Elisa besides her
sent trail police switched gears from physical searches to working their way through all
of the leads and tips that have started to come in about Elisa's disappearance Elisa's
mother suspects Ralph in her disappearance he had been terrorizing her and her family
(23:14):
that summer but police are able to determine that Ralph was serving time in a Mexican prison
when Elisa disappeared slowly all the leads fizzle out and the case becomes cold in 1993
four years after Elisa vanished the family moved away from Aransas pass we moved from
Aransas in I think it was 1993 we left the state because my mom just she was she was
(23:41):
still afraid she didn't know what was if whoever took Elisa was going to come and hurt us and
so we didn't know and we didn't talk to it was it was totally we left under you know
in the middle of the night she didn't want anyone to know we were instructed not to tell
anybody you know her church was helping her was helping us and they said if you because
(24:06):
she said I'm just so scared I don't want Ralph to find me there and so we left and don't
ask me how we did this but this was in the day where they must not have checked our ID
because we were flying and we went under assumed names we we didn't use her I don't know and
the tickets were in these assumed names so I don't know how this was pulled off I really
don't so I don't know but this is this this is how secret this operation quote unquote
(24:33):
operation was she was terrified and they they were helping her get out for her protection
and our safety they moved us up here because they were from here they're from this town
Idaho Falls and they were there was a bishop and his wife Mormon bishop and his wife at
(24:54):
the time we were Mormon and so they my mom had gone to them and said I'm just I'm terrified
and I don't know what to do I don't have any money I don't have anywhere to go but I need
to leave and that's when I said okay do you care where you go because you know and they
we didn't even know where we were going we didn't know we didn't know when we landed
(25:17):
that we were in Idaho we didn't know they didn't want us to know because they were afraid
we might say some or it might slip right that's how secret that was wow that's why we ended
up in Idaho Falls and so and it's okay if either you don't want to talk about this or
maybe you don't even know but um was your mother's fear in 1993 to like move you all
(25:41):
away was that just fueled by the memories of Ralph or had he started like stalking and
intimidating her again um after Elisa's disappearance she saw him she saw him he was he was back
in town again he had been gone for a while and then she hadn't seen him um since 1989
(26:05):
and then all of a sudden he was back in town and so that's what that's what triggered her
her fear when she saw him coming around in 1994 an age-progressed picture of Elisa is
generated and sent out via mailers all across the country her mother had this to say at
the time quote this will be a big help because that shows we're not giving up on her I
(26:27):
just keep hoping that one of these days somebody who knows something will come out with some
information that way if she's dead I can put her to rest and if she's alive we can bring
her home some people say I'm living in the past I'm not living in the past Elisa still
is my child end quote the age-progressed photo does generate some tips about 60 from all
(26:50):
across the country however only 13 of the tips contained enough information for the
police to track them down police captain Mike Thompson at the time said quote several calls
were like I saw this girl coming out of Kmart six months ago how are you going to check
it end quote some of the tips did turn up girls that looked a lot like Elisa but further
(27:12):
investigation all revealed not to be her every lead a dead end the next big update comes
in June of 2001 so Elisa has been missing for 11 years and an anonymous letter is mailed
to Chris TV they received a map a map and somebody saying that this is where her her
(27:33):
remains are I don't even have a lot of information this part gets overlooked a lot I don't have
a lot of information on that if they followed up I I think they did follow up on it and
they looked in the area but I never saw the map the envelope contained a map that was
supposed to show the location of Elisa's remains police review the map and are able
(27:56):
to recognize the location but that's about it police captain Mike Thompson said quote
we haven't been able to find anything that matches the area on the map we would hope
that whoever drew it would be more specific and quote police never reveal the location
mentioned on the map and as far as I'm aware there were never any digs as far as searching
(28:18):
for remains in the location where the map was besides just like a physical eyeball search
of the area nothing more extensive than that as the years drag on the family will start
to work more and more on Elisa's case themselves the family is able to connect with a government
investigator that volunteers his time and resources to the case so he was able to get
(28:42):
some of the case files from the police department at the time but they were heavily redacted
yeah and very limited and this is why we're suing the police department now because we
want the case files in their entirety we don't want any redactions but what by law has to
be redacted like you know social addresses things like that right so and and we believe
(29:08):
if we can get in there to see certain findings there there are things that then we can look
at we can focus on we can then go down because honestly it's really hard it's really hard
for you get it if a police department is short staffed or if they're stuck in a loop and
they they can't that's why we have people from the outside coming in trying to help
(29:29):
we get it we get it you know people are you know police departments are short staffed
that's that's why they make you know special units for just you know the cold case homicides
and they they put a couple of detectives over that and say you guys are going to just focus
on the cold cases because there is it is a lot of time and effort and on top of you doing
(29:50):
your your main job in 2016 Elisa has been missing for almost 27 years at this point
and there is a shift in the case police get a tip that leads them to bring in cadaver
dogs and ground penetrating radar to the home where the family lived on Whitney Street when
Elisa went missing the cadaver dog indicates at a spot and the ground penetrating radar
(30:13):
finds an anomaly in the ground soil samples from the area are collected and sent off for
testing almost overnight the suspicion turns on the family when we went down in 2016 it
was a witch hunt they were coming after my mom they made it very clear to my mom that
they believe she she killed Elisa and they made it clear there was no mistake and like
(30:36):
not only on top of everything that was put out on the news to for everyone to know that
they were searching our childhood home for remains I mean it was put out there they all
told this to us told me that I I was covering for my mom that I knew what happened and that
I needed to it was time for me to come forward and to say what happened and and it's time
(31:02):
for my mom to you know to come clean the police get as far as saying they know where Elisa's
remains are at it's just a matter of logistics to get them what this tells me is with everything
that happened in 2016 they believe that my sister's remains are in our somewhere on the
(31:22):
premises of our childhood home they believe they they do they believe or they they've
put that out there but they do not want to move forward in what they need to do to recover
those remains because it would compromise the foundation of the home we we know her
remains are not there because we we know what happened that day she left our home that day
(31:47):
and we never saw her again and they really want us to believe that when you find where
you believe there is a body the next natural step is then to recover the body you don't
sit on it and for eight years rumors run rampant in the town and people were turning on us
(32:08):
as we're down there all of a sudden you have people who are supporting you who are your
friends and now all of a sudden they don't want to talk to you they don't want to have
anything to do with you people who were my friends like all of a sudden i don't see them
on my facebook anymore they're they've blocked me and i couldn't understand like what on
earth is going on captain roads tells ruby that they also find bone fragments and tissue
(32:33):
and that an arrest would be coming within days they they told me captain roads told
me that they found what they believed to be bone fragments and and tissue and that they
were going to be sending in these samples to be tested and that they would be making
an arrest within days he told me this and in 2016 yes he told me that oh my god yes
(32:54):
yes and my mom says well should i get an attorney because they're already making turrets they're
going to arrest me yeah i was so naive i said no mom they have no but they have no they
can't there's no they're just lying to us mom they're just trying to riled up but you
know what people have been people have gone to prison with less but the days come and
go and police never arrest anyone alice's body is never recovered the soil sample results
(33:21):
are never released and there has been no confirmation that the bone fragments and tissue ever existed
or were ever tested and ided in 2023 and 2024 ruby and her family decide to put themselves
back out there and begin pushing for answers in alice's case again and and and that's
(33:41):
why in the last year we finally we we decided we need to take it into our own hands because
we're never going to get they're never going to be open about it they're never so we just
we have to do it and we're going to have to do it the only way we know how is to to talk
to the news the media and do do my own stuff online the podcasters and and i just started
(34:08):
writing letters to to anybody and everybody every agency every cold case agency foundation
for for help and and finally i think with all our pushing we finally finally finally
got the the the cold case missing persons unit with the attorney general's office now
(34:29):
now they they have agreed to look into my sister's case and so i think with all the
pushing and the pressure we finally the police department finally decided to ask them to
help and to to give them the files there's also new leadership coming into the aransas
past police department as of 2025 i think you know kind of my last question for you
(34:54):
is just you know over this next year what do you hope to see like what what would you
like to see happen in your sister's case oh my gosh well okay so first i know that now
that the ag is i hope i i know at some point they're going to reach out to us so i'm excited
(35:16):
for that because now it's officially there they're they're going to re-examine the case
and so i know two things can come out of this is number one once they they're able to do
their thing you know do their report i know that once they look at at everything that
(35:39):
was done they're going to there there's going to be vindication for my family there's going
to be they're going to be able to say what what what the hell was was all this you know
right they're going to be able to say you know the family is not anywhere near being
suspects so right we're going to have that but the most again no matter what at the end
(36:00):
of the day it doesn't matter what happened in 2016 does it matter who said what who hurt
at the end of the day vindication is not even the main thing right now you know at the end
of the day it's bring resolution to my sister's case and i have to remember that because as
angry as i get and as much as i want vindication and as much as i want them to basically you
(36:26):
know for lack of a better word apologize to our family and and just tell us once and for
all what what did you find in 2016 that doesn't matter none of that matters none of that really
matters at the end of the day at the end of the day it's bringing Elisa home and so i
have to step back to and as much as i'm hurt and angry at all of this you know that happened
(36:49):
um in 2016 it's just our our main thing our main goal is finding Elisax is bringing her
home i don't think that anybody will ever be held responsible for what happened to her
i don't think we'll ever find justice but i'm i hope that someday there's there's going
(37:12):
to be a somebody a set of remains that somebody finds that they are able to match with the
leases that's how i think it's going to happen i think it's going to be by accident that
a set of means are found and that they do dna testing and find it's Elisa i don't i
i truly don't believe that someone's going to come forward and say they know what happened
(37:34):
i just i just don't feel that but i could be wrong and i don't think it's going to
be a gotcha we solved this case i i think it's going to be a by accident thing that
that our case is solved or at least that her remains are found we we don't believe that
it's ever going to be solved quote unquote and that's where the case stands of today
(37:57):
if you know anything about the disappearance of Elisa Roberson in august of 1989 or her
whereabouts today please call the aransas past police department at 361-758-5224 or
if you want to leave a tip online you can use the attorney general's online tip submission
(38:17):
which the link will be in our episode show notes i just want to say thank you again so
much for ruby for her time we talked for almost three hours the other day but just a really
incredible sister and an incredible advocate for her sister's case she's really out here
doing the heavy lifting writing to podcasts a foundation so thank you so much again to
(38:40):
ruby for making time for me to chat with us um about her sister's case we will of course
have pictures of Elisa on our instagram you can find us at cold and missing and if you're
not please follow us there you can stay up to date with all the cases that we cover and
if there's ever any reason that we can't bring you an episode one week we'll always post
an update there thank you so much to everyone who's rated and reviewed us in 2024 we appreciate
(39:05):
it so much everyone makes me smile and everyone helps get these cases out there so if you
have some time today in your podcast player if you can rate us review us give us five
stars if you can leave us a written review in your podcast player that helps so much
other people finding the podcast it helps boost the podcast and the algorithm and ultimately
(39:27):
it boosts the case that we're covering so thank you if you've done that and if you haven't
today's a new day it's a new year please do it if you have the time and if you or someone
you love is hard of hearing we have our official transcripts on www.coldandmissing.com we also
have all our other episodes on there so if you ever want to look back through our back
(39:47):
catalog it's all on there but that's all i have for you this week next week we'll kind
of be back to our regular scheduled program Eli will join us and we'll just keep rolling
through 2025 thank you so much for listening to cold and missing i'm your host Ali have
a good week and stay safe y'all
The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
(00:13):
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
Listener discretion is advised.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
(00:34):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali, and happy new year!
It is 2025 officially.
This is the first episode of 2025.
And we're going to be doing something slightly different this week.
Eli will not be joining us this week, but that's because I have a special guest.
(00:54):
On today's episode, I had the honor of chatting with Ruby Hall, who is Elisa Roberson's sister.
We're going to be covering Elisa’s case today.
And throughout the episode, I'll be sharing with you the conversation that I was able
to have with her sister, Ruby.
There's a lot of conversation that we had, so I think we should just go ahead and get
(01:15):
into it.
Episode 114.
And just as a bit of a content warning, there will be several mentions of domestic violence
throughout the episode.
Today, we are talking about the missing person case of Elisa Roberson.
And this takes place in August of 1989 in Aransas Pass, Texas.
(01:38):
But first, a little bit about Elisa.
And I think it's only appropriate to start with how Ruby remembered her.
She was the oldest one, so of course with that, she had some responsibility, you know,
kind of watching over us little ones.
So she was always the one that kind of my mom kind of left in charge to, you know, if
(02:00):
she, for whatever reason, if my mom was gone, it was always, you know, Elisa to make sure
that we were doing what we're supposed to be doing.
And even if mom was there and we were outside playing or, you know, if we weren't doing
what we're supposed to be doing, and Elisa told us, you know, mom said da da da da da,
we just would automatically get scared like, oh my gosh, she's going to tell mom if we
(02:23):
don't listen.
So I mean, we weren't we weren't we didn't always listen and we didn't always do what
we were supposed to do.
Elisa was born in Nicaragua.
Her father passed away when she was just a baby.
But her mother soon met Jean, an American man who worked in the shrimping industry.
He had been sent to Nicaragua to pick up a boat when he met and fell in love with Marina.
(02:47):
Jean will ask Marina and her daughter Elisa to come to the United States to get married.
Soon after arriving in the US, Marina got pregnant with Ruby, Elisa's younger sister.
Elisa and Ruby were only about a year and a half apart in age.
And because Elisa was held back a grade in school, they were actually in the same grade
as well.
Elisa picked up English faster than her mother.
(03:09):
So from a young age, she was able to translate for her mother.
Over the years, Marina will have another child with Jean, a son named Tony.
But eventually, Jean gets in trouble with the police.
He's involved in a bar fight that gets out of hand and he ends up having to spend time
in jail.
With Marina on her own and vulnerable with three children, she ends up meeting a new
(03:30):
man named Ralph.
Ralph at first seemed like a good guy.
I think about the time Ralph came into the picture.
I think that my first memories of him I was about five years old.
And I think that's about when he came into the picture.
And of course, at the time, my mom didn't know.
She was just she was vulnerable.
She was just in a vulnerable situation.
(03:52):
But when when Ralph came along, she didn't think she thought he was a you know, she didn't
know she didn't know his history.
She didn't know that he was into drugs.
She didn't know that he was a bad guy.
She just she had no idea.
He had actually the way she said that the way they met was somebody was actually some
guy was bothering and harassing her and she was she was being followed by this this guy
(04:17):
who kept trying to be in a relationship with her and she didn't want to have anything to
do with him.
And she said one time he was just kind of following her around.
And she started running and she didn't know where to hide because she was scared.
And she said to be a I guess Ralph probably was in his yard or if I'm understanding or
(04:38):
remembering right.
He was in his yard and just told her to come in, you know, come inside my house.
And then when the guy passed, he told him, you know, leave her alone.
But eventually he ended up showing his true colors as an abuser.
Yeah, he did some he was just really, really abusive, you know, really mean the things
(04:58):
that do to us kids.
And then he would flip and then just be it was just he was definitely a sadist.
I mean, as an adult, I've realized he really liked to cause pain and he really liked to
scare us.
I think part of that game was he would do mean things to us, but then he would be nice.
He terrorized Marina and her children.
(05:20):
And then the things he would do to my mom, of course, like, I mean, he beat her, he beat
her in front of us kids and he would take her.
There were so many times where he would take her, you know, he'd beat her and take her
and the kids, all of us kids.
And he would take her to places like under the bridge, far away, remote areas, all those
(05:41):
little kids in the backseat.
And he would be telling her, I can I can do something to you.
Nobody will ever know what happened to you.
And nobody would care to come look for you.
And what more of a threat also to have three of your your three kids in the backseat and
while threatening to kill you.
(06:03):
Marina will eventually have a child with Ralph as well, a little boy named Alex.
But Ralph's terror, after years, would come to an end in 1989, when Marina finally is
able to leave him for good.
She and her four children lived on Whitney Street in Aransas Pass.
I just remember to like we just were always, you know, especially that summer, we were
(06:24):
always riding our bikes and we didn't we're Gen Xers.
We didn't spend a lot of time indoors.
We weren't playing video games.
We weren't.
I do remember Mario Brothers was just coming out and that was fun when we would.
My sister, her best friend had a Mario Brothers little PlayStation thing.
(06:48):
And we'd go over there and play.
But the main thing we love to do is just hang out outdoors and ride their bikes and go and
walk in, go into friends houses.
And we didn't spend a lot of time indoors.
Yeah, it was it was really fun because I remember when, you know, if there were kids picking
on us, like she you never had to worry.
(07:09):
You know, we had our big sister and she no matter what she was, we had her back.
Nobody messed with us if Elisa was there.
So she commanded some kind of respect being, you know, older one.
And then she was also, you know, I didn't see it at the time.
But look, she was she was very well-liked and and so she was kind of popular.
(07:33):
She had a lot of friends.
Elisa was funny and responsible.
She was well-liked amongst her classmates and the neighborhood children.
She was protective of her siblings.
And now a timeline of events.
On Sunday, August 6th, 1989, the night before, so that would have been Saturday night into
Sunday morning, Elisa spent the night at her best friend, Sharla's house, and then ended
(07:57):
up spending all day Sunday with her as well.
It was normal for Elisa and Sharla to go to church together on Sunday night.
They would take a bus that would leave around 515 in the evening.
The bus would make rounds around the neighborhood and then arrive by six o'clock when the service
would start.
However, on this Sunday, Elisa made a last second decision not to go to church that night
(08:19):
and decided to head home.
We don't know that anything, you know, as far as we were concerned, she was just, you
know, she when she got home, she's like, you know, I just, she told my mom, she just didn't
feel like going to church.
And to me, I just took it as she had spent a night and the whole day with Sharla and
(08:40):
then she decided to finally come home.
Maybe there was something else going on, you know, but at least it didn't seem like she
was upset or, you know, when she got home, she didn't seem upset or anything.
She just seemed like, you know, she just wanted to come home.
Elisa is back to her house pretty quickly and it's believed that she got there right
around 530.
(09:00):
Within minutes of getting home, the phone rings and it's Elisa's friend, Debbie.
So when when Debbie called, because I remember I was sitting there, Debbie says she didn't
call her, but I swear to God, like I was sitting on the couch and the phone was right next
to the table.
And I'm the one that night with all the phone calls coming in and out, I was the one answering
(09:22):
the phone because I was right there and the phone was right there on that side table.
I just remember I was always answering the phone.
So when Debbie called and she wanted to talk to Elisa, you know, Elisa said, hey, mom,
you know, Debbie wants to know if I can come over.
And my mom, of course, initially told her it's getting late.
You just got home.
(09:42):
Like, and Elisa didn't seem like she wanted necessarily wanted.
She was kind of like the attitude was like, either way, didn't matter.
So when Debbie said, you know, tell your mom I can meet you halfway because she told her
Debbie my mom said it's getting late and I can't come and play.
And Debbie said, well, I'll meet you halfway.
(10:03):
Tell your mom I'll meet you halfway and my dad will bring you home.
And so that's when my mom said, OK, well, then if that's the case, then then it's OK.
We had another friend over that evening and they all three wanted to play together.
Years later, it will be said that Elisa and her mother were fighting that evening.
But Ruby does not remember a fight that evening at all.
(10:25):
There was there wasn't a fight.
And this is where it just blows me away.
Like where this whole fight thing came from is just beyond me.
There was never a fight.
My mom and I weren't fighting.
There was no disagreement.
The only thing that I remember was when my mom says, well, tell Debbie it's getting
too like my mom.
(10:45):
There was like a little hint of annoyance.
That was it.
She says that Elisa and her mother rarely ever fought.
Elisa was an easy child and also hadn't really reached the teenager attitude yet.
By all accounts, once the plan has changed, Elisa's mom agrees to it.
So that way she can go and play.
She's more comfortable since Elisa won't be walking by herself and she won't be walking
(11:08):
back in the dark.
So Elisa heads out of the house.
The exact time is unclear, but the family believes that it would have been shortly after
5 30 as Elisa hadn't been home for more than a few minutes before her and Debbie made plans
to hang out.
We just it was just by chance that Elisa gets home and within minutes Debbie called.
(11:28):
And I do remember vividly her getting a drink of water.
I do remember her.
I do.
That's just so funny.
Like she got a drink of water.
I remember it was hot.
So she gets a drink of water.
She goes to the bathroom.
I remember her fixing her socks.
It's just so surreal.
Like the little things you will remember.
I just remember her fixing her socks.
(11:49):
Like you know how you fold a sock down.
You put you know she was just fixing her socks, like folding them over, making sure they were
straight and then off she was.
When Elisa left her home, her older next door neighbor saw her walking down the driveway
as they were standing at the sink doing dishes.
(12:10):
To get to the elementary school, it should have only taken around six minutes to walk
there.
Elisa would have gone north on Whitney Street and then head west on Goodnight Avenue.
Right at the corner of Whitney and Goodnight Avenue lived the Pierces.
When she started walking she there were the neighbors on the corner, the pierce out.
(12:32):
That was where her little boyfriend on again off again little boyfriend crush Nathan lived.
They were all outside when they talked to her.
She was walking past and they talked to her, asked her you know what hey Elisa what's up,
you know what are you doing?
Oh I'm going to meet Debbie.
So that could have taken like a couple minutes you know for her to talk to them.
(12:53):
They told us that she just didn't really stop but kind of slowed down, talked to them and
then kind of just kept walking.
Others have come forward to say that they saw Elisa that day.
Altogether about six folks saw Elisa leaving her home and heading towards the elementary
school on Goodnight Avenue.
The school was a little farther from Debbie's house than Elisa’s so Elisa would have made
(13:14):
it to the school first.
But when Debbie arrives to the elementary school Elisa isn't there.
Debbie keeps walking towards Elisa’s house and also runs into the Pierces who are still
outside.
Debbie asked them if they have seen Elisa and they said they had.
She had just walked by a few minutes ago headed towards the school.
(13:35):
Debbie turns around and starts walking back towards her house to see if she can catch
up with Elisa.
Debbie walks all the way back to her house and there is still no sign of Elisa.
She wasn't at the school, on route or waiting for Debbie at her house.
Debbie then calls Elisa's home to see if she was there.
Ruby answers the phone.
However amount of time it was I don't know but at some point then Debbie calls.
(13:58):
I remember answering.
From that point on I was answering the phone.
So Debbie answers she wants to know where Elisa is.
I remember thinking okay she's probably talking to a friend.
I didn't think anything of it and I was even annoyed at Debbie.
I thought maybe Elisa and I were fighting but I don't I remember being annoyed and
(14:22):
I think maybe it was Debbie I was annoyed at because I remember and I don't know and
I don't care Debbie.
I'm not thinking a big deal about it but my mom in the background when she heard I was
talking to Debbie and she's hearing our conversation she yells from the kitchen because she's in
the kitchen cooking and she goes tell Debbie Elisa should be with her right now and I kind
(14:45):
of sense like there's like a little bit of panic in my mom's voice like that first onset
and she and now when we've been able to you know as we're talking she said she knew as
soon as Debbie called that's when her panic you know kind of started set in.
Me I'm thinking maybe she's just talking to a friend.
(15:06):
So we tell Debbie you know she's not here and she then Debbie says okay I'm going to
go back and see maybe maybe I'll find her I'm going to go back and look for her and
so she goes back I don't know how long she was gone again then some then the second time
(15:27):
she calls that's when we start getting even more panic because then she called and said
I didn't is Elisa there you know we went and looked for her we didn't see her and then
she says I'm going to wait when my dad gets home I'm going to have my dad take me to look
for her.
Sometime passes again I don't you know then the next phone call it's Bob Green Debbie's
(15:51):
dad he wanted to talk to my mom and so he gives I give the mom my the phone to my mom
and that's when he asked her miss Mrs. Roberson is Elisa home and my mom said no and he said
stay put we're going to go look for her and so then at that point I don't know how long
(16:13):
he could have been gone half an hour maybe it was an hour we don't know for sure and
then he finally he shows up at our house and he wants to talk to my mom he tells my mom
miss Mrs. Roberson you need to call the police I remember his panic setting into like you
(16:34):
know Mrs. Roberson you need to call the police now.
It dawns on all the adults that something is really wrong here and it's time to call
the police the police are called at around 9 45 p.m.
I didn't know it until I got the police report that I was the one that made the phone call
so my mom had me had me call and we asked you know I on the on the police report it
(16:59):
says you know my sister hasn't come home yet my mom would like a police officer to come
in and talk to her and so then at some point the police officer shows up at our house it
was just one that I remember he talks to my mom and gets the report and you know just
(17:19):
kind of remember him saying you know well she's probably just caught up playing with
a friend and has lost track of time and maybe she'll show up and you know let us know if
she doesn't come home it was kind of like just you know no big deal there was no urgency
and then that whole night we were up all night between my mom and I we were both up I remember
being up with my mom I couldn't sleep like neither of us could sleep and my mom was pacing
(17:45):
she was looking out the window she would go outside she was just there was just it was
just a horrible horrible night and I just remember always looking out the window and
picturing her walking through the parking lot like she's going to come walking up any
minute now I just think I was seeing her coming home and she just never came home.
(18:11):
The next morning Monday August 7th bright and early Elisa's family is at the police
station to report that she didn't come back that night they run into Detective Lieutenant
Linda Thompson who was in charge of the juvenile division for the police department.
Police protocol at that time said that any matter involving a juvenile Linda was supposed
(18:31):
to be called to help assist in the matter.
The night that Elisa went missing she was never notified.
Detective Lieutenant Thompson immediately launches a full search in the neighborhood.
The next memory I have is there's cops there's detectives cops whatever you want to call
them in our house they wanted to go through some of my sister's things they took her
(18:54):
diary they took a hairbrush they took some clothes they took some shoes a pair of shoes
shirt a couple items of clothing and probably some other things and I remember the brown
paper bags and so they they wanted to get the dogs Elisa sent and I think they wanted
(19:15):
her hairbrush for her her scent and then her DNA was still fairly new at that time but
like you know you could still compare hair to for sure yeah yeah and so I remember that
and I remember the dogs I remember the helicopters yeah I remember there were people there were
(19:40):
a lot of people there were my mom's friends that came over and my mom just couldn't sit
home so between her and her friends we did like our little search parties and you had
the foot explorers going here the search and rescue it was just chaos it was just pandemonium
like people everywhere and news reporters there was there was there was so much going
(20:06):
on and so much that was happening and that they were doing.
Scent dogs are brought in and they are able to pick up Elisa's scent and it tracks it
down to the school and then suddenly stops at the corner of 8th Street and Goodnight
Avenue when the bloodhounds were when they brought the bloodhounds down the bloodhounds
pulled her scent a little past the school police theorize that Elisa got into a car
(20:31):
at this point and her case is labeled as an abduction very quickly and it just became
a blur there was just I mean there's things I remember but there was just so much going
on and just just hoping and praying that that you're you know that she would come home that
she would show up that something would come of it and I know for sure talking to Linda
(20:54):
that that this went on for weeks you know the the search and rescue that there was a
lot and we were as a family too we were as a family my dad was but I remember the initial
boom of all the people and the chaos and talking to the police you know my mom was going to
the police station them coming to our house my mom talking to them that there was there
(21:21):
was quite a bit and and there were and I guess there were there were I just remember there
were a lot of cops seeing cops I remember seeing a lot of I guess they were search and
rescue people around the town you know you you know it wasn't just just in our area you
know our house was a was a you know a lot of people coming in and out and our family
(21:44):
and you know friends when I say family my dad really was the only family but my mom
had some really close friends that we consider to this day there we consider them families
so when I say family that's what I mean they were really good friends of my mom's and a
handful of them and we we did our you know going to the newspaper getting flyers passing
(22:07):
them out looking walking I remember it being so hot and walking and walking and being thirsty
I remember being so thirsty and just walk in the whole town just passing out flyers
asking people if they've seen my sister and and Linda I didn't know about this but they
(22:28):
also had their family there's a lot of you know her sons and so there were a lot of people
too that I didn't I wasn't aware that were helping us too she said it lasted weeks where
they were working seven days a week then they kind of scaled down you know went down for
seven days a week to six days to five to it starts to slow down when you can't can't
(22:53):
find anything after the month of August police hadn't found any sign of Elisa besides her
sent trail police switched gears from physical searches to working their way through all
of the leads and tips that have started to come in about Elisa's disappearance Elisa's
mother suspects Ralph in her disappearance he had been terrorizing her and her family
(23:14):
that summer but police are able to determine that Ralph was serving time in a Mexican prison
when Elisa disappeared slowly all the leads fizzle out and the case becomes cold in 1993
four years after Elisa vanished the family moved away from Aransas pass we moved from
Aransas in I think it was 1993 we left the state because my mom just she was she was
(23:41):
still afraid she didn't know what was if whoever took Elisa was going to come and hurt us and
so we didn't know and we didn't talk to it was it was totally we left under you know
in the middle of the night she didn't want anyone to know we were instructed not to tell
anybody you know her church was helping her was helping us and they said if you because
(24:06):
she said I'm just so scared I don't want Ralph to find me there and so we left and don't
ask me how we did this but this was in the day where they must not have checked our ID
because we were flying and we went under assumed names we we didn't use her I don't know and
the tickets were in these assumed names so I don't know how this was pulled off I really
don't so I don't know but this is this this is how secret this operation quote unquote
(24:33):
operation was she was terrified and they they were helping her get out for her protection
and our safety they moved us up here because they were from here they're from this town
Idaho Falls and they were there was a bishop and his wife Mormon bishop and his wife at
(24:54):
the time we were Mormon and so they my mom had gone to them and said I'm just I'm terrified
and I don't know what to do I don't have any money I don't have anywhere to go but I need
to leave and that's when I said okay do you care where you go because you know and they
we didn't even know where we were going we didn't know we didn't know when we landed
(25:17):
that we were in Idaho we didn't know they didn't want us to know because they were afraid
we might say some or it might slip right that's how secret that was wow that's why we ended
up in Idaho Falls and so and it's okay if either you don't want to talk about this or
maybe you don't even know but um was your mother's fear in 1993 to like move you all
(25:41):
away was that just fueled by the memories of Ralph or had he started like stalking and
intimidating her again um after Elisa's disappearance she saw him she saw him he was he was back
in town again he had been gone for a while and then she hadn't seen him um since 1989
(26:05):
and then all of a sudden he was back in town and so that's what that's what triggered her
her fear when she saw him coming around in 1994 an age-progressed picture of Elisa is
generated and sent out via mailers all across the country her mother had this to say at
the time quote this will be a big help because that shows we're not giving up on her I
(26:27):
just keep hoping that one of these days somebody who knows something will come out with some
information that way if she's dead I can put her to rest and if she's alive we can bring
her home some people say I'm living in the past I'm not living in the past Elisa still
is my child end quote the age-progressed photo does generate some tips about 60 from all
(26:50):
across the country however only 13 of the tips contained enough information for the
police to track them down police captain Mike Thompson at the time said quote several calls
were like I saw this girl coming out of Kmart six months ago how are you going to check
it end quote some of the tips did turn up girls that looked a lot like Elisa but further
(27:12):
investigation all revealed not to be her every lead a dead end the next big update comes
in June of 2001 so Elisa has been missing for 11 years and an anonymous letter is mailed
to Chris TV they received a map a map and somebody saying that this is where her her
(27:33):
remains are I don't even have a lot of information this part gets overlooked a lot I don't have
a lot of information on that if they followed up I I think they did follow up on it and
they looked in the area but I never saw the map the envelope contained a map that was
supposed to show the location of Elisa's remains police review the map and are able
(27:56):
to recognize the location but that's about it police captain Mike Thompson said quote
we haven't been able to find anything that matches the area on the map we would hope
that whoever drew it would be more specific and quote police never reveal the location
mentioned on the map and as far as I'm aware there were never any digs as far as searching
(28:18):
for remains in the location where the map was besides just like a physical eyeball search
of the area nothing more extensive than that as the years drag on the family will start
to work more and more on Elisa's case themselves the family is able to connect with a government
investigator that volunteers his time and resources to the case so he was able to get
(28:42):
some of the case files from the police department at the time but they were heavily redacted
yeah and very limited and this is why we're suing the police department now because we
want the case files in their entirety we don't want any redactions but what by law has to
be redacted like you know social addresses things like that right so and and we believe
(29:08):
if we can get in there to see certain findings there there are things that then we can look
at we can focus on we can then go down because honestly it's really hard it's really hard
for you get it if a police department is short staffed or if they're stuck in a loop and
they they can't that's why we have people from the outside coming in trying to help
(29:29):
we get it we get it you know people are you know police departments are short staffed
that's that's why they make you know special units for just you know the cold case homicides
and they they put a couple of detectives over that and say you guys are going to just focus
on the cold cases because there is it is a lot of time and effort and on top of you doing
(29:50):
your your main job in 2016 Elisa has been missing for almost 27 years at this point
and there is a shift in the case police get a tip that leads them to bring in cadaver
dogs and ground penetrating radar to the home where the family lived on Whitney Street when
Elisa went missing the cadaver dog indicates at a spot and the ground penetrating radar
(30:13):
finds an anomaly in the ground soil samples from the area are collected and sent off for
testing almost overnight the suspicion turns on the family when we went down in 2016 it
was a witch hunt they were coming after my mom they made it very clear to my mom that
they believe she she killed Elisa and they made it clear there was no mistake and like
(30:36):
not only on top of everything that was put out on the news to for everyone to know that
they were searching our childhood home for remains I mean it was put out there they all
told this to us told me that I I was covering for my mom that I knew what happened and that
I needed to it was time for me to come forward and to say what happened and and it's time
(31:02):
for my mom to you know to come clean the police get as far as saying they know where Elisa's
remains are at it's just a matter of logistics to get them what this tells me is with everything
that happened in 2016 they believe that my sister's remains are in our somewhere on the
(31:22):
premises of our childhood home they believe they they do they believe or they they've
put that out there but they do not want to move forward in what they need to do to recover
those remains because it would compromise the foundation of the home we we know her
remains are not there because we we know what happened that day she left our home that day
(31:47):
and we never saw her again and they really want us to believe that when you find where
you believe there is a body the next natural step is then to recover the body you don't
sit on it and for eight years rumors run rampant in the town and people were turning on us
(32:08):
as we're down there all of a sudden you have people who are supporting you who are your
friends and now all of a sudden they don't want to talk to you they don't want to have
anything to do with you people who were my friends like all of a sudden i don't see them
on my facebook anymore they're they've blocked me and i couldn't understand like what on
earth is going on captain roads tells ruby that they also find bone fragments and tissue
(32:33):
and that an arrest would be coming within days they they told me captain roads told
me that they found what they believed to be bone fragments and and tissue and that they
were going to be sending in these samples to be tested and that they would be making
an arrest within days he told me this and in 2016 yes he told me that oh my god yes
(32:54):
yes and my mom says well should i get an attorney because they're already making turrets they're
going to arrest me yeah i was so naive i said no mom they have no but they have no they
can't there's no they're just lying to us mom they're just trying to riled up but you
know what people have been people have gone to prison with less but the days come and
go and police never arrest anyone alice's body is never recovered the soil sample results
(33:21):
are never released and there has been no confirmation that the bone fragments and tissue ever existed
or were ever tested and ided in 2023 and 2024 ruby and her family decide to put themselves
back out there and begin pushing for answers in alice's case again and and and that's
(33:41):
why in the last year we finally we we decided we need to take it into our own hands because
we're never going to get they're never going to be open about it they're never so we just
we have to do it and we're going to have to do it the only way we know how is to to talk
to the news the media and do do my own stuff online the podcasters and and i just started
(34:08):
writing letters to to anybody and everybody every agency every cold case agency foundation
for for help and and finally i think with all our pushing we finally finally finally
got the the the cold case missing persons unit with the attorney general's office now
(34:29):
now they they have agreed to look into my sister's case and so i think with all the
pushing and the pressure we finally the police department finally decided to ask them to
help and to to give them the files there's also new leadership coming into the aransas
past police department as of 2025 i think you know kind of my last question for you
(34:54):
is just you know over this next year what do you hope to see like what what would you
like to see happen in your sister's case oh my gosh well okay so first i know that now
that the ag is i hope i i know at some point they're going to reach out to us so i'm excited
(35:16):
for that because now it's officially there they're they're going to re-examine the case
and so i know two things can come out of this is number one once they they're able to do
their thing you know do their report i know that once they look at at everything that
(35:39):
was done they're going to there there's going to be vindication for my family there's going
to be they're going to be able to say what what what the hell was was all this you know
right they're going to be able to say you know the family is not anywhere near being
suspects so right we're going to have that but the most again no matter what at the end
(36:00):
of the day it doesn't matter what happened in 2016 does it matter who said what who hurt
at the end of the day vindication is not even the main thing right now you know at the end
of the day it's bring resolution to my sister's case and i have to remember that because as
angry as i get and as much as i want vindication and as much as i want them to basically you
(36:26):
know for lack of a better word apologize to our family and and just tell us once and for
all what what did you find in 2016 that doesn't matter none of that matters none of that really
matters at the end of the day at the end of the day it's bringing Elisa home and so i
have to step back to and as much as i'm hurt and angry at all of this you know that happened
(36:49):
um in 2016 it's just our our main thing our main goal is finding Elisax is bringing her
home i don't think that anybody will ever be held responsible for what happened to her
i don't think we'll ever find justice but i'm i hope that someday there's there's going
(37:12):
to be a somebody a set of remains that somebody finds that they are able to match with the
leases that's how i think it's going to happen i think it's going to be by accident that
a set of means are found and that they do dna testing and find it's Elisa i don't i
i truly don't believe that someone's going to come forward and say they know what happened
(37:34):
i just i just don't feel that but i could be wrong and i don't think it's going to
be a gotcha we solved this case i i think it's going to be a by accident thing that
that our case is solved or at least that her remains are found we we don't believe that
it's ever going to be solved quote unquote and that's where the case stands of today
(37:57):
if you know anything about the disappearance of Elisa Roberson in august of 1989 or her
whereabouts today please call the aransas past police department at 361-758-5224 or
if you want to leave a tip online you can use the attorney general's online tip submission
(38:17):
which the link will be in our episode show notes i just want to say thank you again so
much for ruby for her time we talked for almost three hours the other day but just a really
incredible sister and an incredible advocate for her sister's case she's really out here
doing the heavy lifting writing to podcasts a foundation so thank you so much again to
(38:40):
ruby for making time for me to chat with us um about her sister's case we will of course
have pictures of Elisa on our instagram you can find us at cold and missing and if you're
not please follow us there you can stay up to date with all the cases that we cover and
if there's ever any reason that we can't bring you an episode one week we'll always post
an update there thank you so much to everyone who's rated and reviewed us in 2024 we appreciate
(39:05):
it so much everyone makes me smile and everyone helps get these cases out there so if you
have some time today in your podcast player if you can rate us review us give us five
stars if you can leave us a written review in your podcast player that helps so much
other people finding the podcast it helps boost the podcast and the algorithm and ultimately
(39:27):
it boosts the case that we're covering so thank you if you've done that and if you haven't
today's a new day it's a new year please do it if you have the time and if you or someone
you love is hard of hearing we have our official transcripts on www.coldandmissing.com we also
have all our other episodes on there so if you ever want to look back through our back
(39:47):
catalog it's all on there but that's all i have for you this week next week we'll kind
of be back to our regular scheduled program Eli will join us and we'll just keep rolling
through 2025 thank you so much for listening to cold and missing i'm your host Ali have
a good week and stay safe y'all
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