Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Disappearance of Elisa Roberson Part 2: Lost Time

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The Disappearance of Elisa Roberson Part 2: Lost Time · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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The Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter. Listener discretion is
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advised. Linda and Mike Thompson have several decades of law enforcement experience between them.
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In fact, it's how they met in the first place. In nineteen
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seventy seven, Linda was divorced, raising two kids and putting herself through the
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police academy during the day. While working the night shift in dispatch at Ingleside,
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Texas Police Department, she was dating the department's patrol captain, mostly just
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because she liked to dance and he'd take her dancing. Linda told us one
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Friday night, the night they usually went out, the single mother decided to
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take an overtime shift, which she did often. The patrol captain wasn't happy
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with her for missing their date night, not like Linda cared much about his
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catching a case of the feelings, and he brought his friend Mike Thompson along
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when he went to give her a piece of his mind up at the station.
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Big mistake, because sparks flew between Mike and Linda. And then the
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next day was community's big annual festival with parade and then street dance that night
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and a little carnival set up, and I was up there at the street
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dance part until time to go to work for me at midnight, and he
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showed up there and he would hold my stuffed animals while I danced, and
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then he walked me to work that night. And that was quit very much
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it. I mean, I had no intention of getting married again, but
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there was just something that worked. We were supposed to be together. Mike's
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family owned a shop that made cattle feeders and septic tanks that he ran with
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his brother, but he decided he'd like to be a cop too, and
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that's exactly what he did. We made a very good team when we worked
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together. We were wonderful together because we've been together now forty seven years and
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we're just each half of the whole. And he can look at things analytically,
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I look at it from my point of view, and we usually come
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up with pretty good answers. Linda and Mike were pretty good at their jobs.
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Six years before the disappearance of Alisa Roberson, we found the only other
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missing child k Nermsas ever had that was a true kidnapping. In nineteen eighty
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three, disseminating information nationwide wasn't simply a click of the mouse, and Linda
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created and sent posters featuring missing six year old Crystallynn Daikema to every highway patrol
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department and postal inspector in the United States. The adopted girl had been kidnapped
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by her biological mother, who'd given her up at birth. Because of Linda's
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quick and forward thinking, Crystal was eventually found safe at a tavern in Norfolk,
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Nebraska, where her biological mother and her mother's boyfriend stopped to get a
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drink while on the lamb something most of linem still getting chilled bun. But
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it worked and she was fine. No traum in us and we all pass
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the hat and got mom and us money to fly us and pick her up.
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And she would come from a fairly low middle income and there's no way
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she could afford to fly up there back on their own. We had a
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betty friend at the police department. People were always wanting to donate, and
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we saved it for things like that in our annual Christmas party. Listening to
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Linda tell stories gives you a pretty good sense of her skills as an investigator.
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She understands the complexity and fallibilities of people, and also understands that good
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folks sometimes do not so good things, but it doesn't necessarily make them bad.
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But on the other side of that coin, sometimes it does. Linda
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is kind and funny, yet you'll likely also walk away from the conversation with
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the feeling that she doesn't take much shit from folks who have no right to
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dish it out. Mike, on the other hand, is a man of
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few words, at least until he warms up to you some I never shut
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up, he never talks. I'm more of an emotional where I read the
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emotions involved in anything I ever investigate. And he's very much of the facts
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and the one facts you know. Mike is calm, collected and speaks carefully,
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characteristics that come in handy in virtually every step of an investigation. And
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you don't have to look at any further than a case he solved in Go
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Lead, Texas to realize the man's skills as an investigator. In two thousand
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and three, Patricia le Mills died in a house fire that almost killed her
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little boy too. Upon an investigation, fire marshals ruled it an accident,
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but her sister, Sharon Burdett believed Patricia was murdered. I was elected constable
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in two thousand and eight. I took office January two thousand and nine.
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Twenty ten, I got involved in a case where a house had burned down.
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The lady had died in the house fire back in two thousand and three.
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Her sister never believed it was an accident. She always thought the husband
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did it. Couldn't get the sheriff's office involved. Time rolled by, a
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new sheriff gets elected. She comes and talks to the new sheriff, and
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I happened to walk into the sheriff's office that afternoon, right after she had
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left, and the investigator says, here, you've been telling me you were
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bored. Take this home and read it. Tell me monday if you think
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there's anything there. I brought what they had in case by all home,
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looked it over between man and Linda. We thought, yeah, maybe the
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guy deserved to be talked to. Anyway, long story shore, it took
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me fifteen months, and I didn't do it by myself. I had lots
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of help. I finally got that guy arrested and he went to court.
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He didn't want a jury. He wanted to trial by judge and they found
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him guilty and Judge Simenstein Tolivee halfway into the story of the case that would
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not have been solved without him. Mike's humility kicked in at the end of
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the trial, after the sentence was pronounced and the lawyers are doing their last
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little thing, the DA thanked me for my case, my work on the
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case. And later when it's all over and everybody's leaving the courtroom, as
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he Judge walt by these touts shut my hand and said thank you. Never
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had a district judgeop and do that kind of made it all worthwhile. That's
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probably about his self congratulatory. As you'll hear Mike Thompson get he and Linda
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both become emotionally involved in the cases they work, and that's not a claim
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either of them made. Rather it is something easily picked up on as you
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speak with them. That can be a major source of strength as an investigator,
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regardless of the absurd and cliche notion that detectives should keep their hearts out
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of their work. And there's one case that thirty four years after the fact
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that Thompson's can't shake one they couldn't close the disappearance of Alisa Roberson. It's
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impossible to know if Alisa Roberson's August nineteen eighty nine disappearance would be resolved or
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even farther along than it is, had Mike and Linda been on duty the
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night she vanished, or at least notified. Likely, Linda told me Elisa
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was already gone by the time the police were notified in the first place.
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Dwelling on such a hypothetical anyway is not productive, even if it's a hypothetical
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that bothers both of them to this day. When they did find out the
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next morning that Alisa was gone, time was not on their side, but
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detectives Thompson hit the ground running Number one where she was walking, had no
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major traffics, very insred type of a neighborhood, and she came up missing
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within four blocks of her house. Something tragic happened in so fast. On
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the morning of Monday, August seventh, nineteen eighty nine, Lieutenant Thompson of
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the Aransas Pass Police was scrambling. Marina Roberson had shown up first thing,
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asking the detective to find her thirteen year old daughter, Elisa, who disappeared
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the day before. Between four thirty and five pm. Lieutenant Thompson immediately began
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analyzing the disappearance in her head. There were no highways or even major thoroughfares
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for blocks near the vicinity in which Elisa went missing, somewhere in the few
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blocks between her house and Key Burger Elementary School. It didn't rule out stranger
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abduction, Lieutenant Thompson thought, but it certainly lowered the chances. Some other
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things were far clearer. Whatever happened to Alisa happened fast, and they were
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already more than twelve hours behind. Why the hell weren't we told last night
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was a question that repeatedly made it into the detective's thoughts. Right away,
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the Ransis Police made arrangements to bring in a bloodhound from the department in nearby
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Rockport. The tracking dog, Clementine and her handler quickly headed that way,
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while Lieutenant Thompson and Captain of Detectives Mike Thompson began organizing searches and had officers
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began trying to get in contact with Elisa's father, Eugene Roberson. He was
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off in the Gulf of Mexico working on a shrimping boat when Clementine, the
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bloodhound arrived. She was taken to the Roberson's home to get Elisa's sent The
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scene there was chaotic. The home served as a kind of makeshift command post.
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Police were in and out of the house looking through the missing thirteen year
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old girl's possessions to see if there was any sign she might have run away.
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Considering the circumstances of her disappearance, it was a long shot, but
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it was necessary to either eliminate or keep the possibility on the list. Ultimately,
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the police found no evidence that Alisa Roberson ever even considered running away.
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While they were questioned. None of her friends were called Elisa talking about leaving
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home, and she wasn't over Lee Boy crazy, Lieutenant Thompson told local newspaper,
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The Aransas Pass Progress. Though nearly everyone in town got word of the
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disappearance fast, the fact that the newspaper didn't come out every day was another
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problem, and it meant the larger area of publication, the Corpus Christie Caller
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Times, didn't get wind of the story for days. Between that and the
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responding officer's failure to notify Chief of Detectives Mike Thompson, police and searchers tried
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desperately to make up for lost time. Police determined quickly that Elisa's disappearance involved
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foul play, a likely abduction, and when the bloodhound followed the scent,
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that determination was all but confirmed. After Clementine locked onto Elisa's scent, the
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first major clue in the case was found. While Boy Scout explorers canvassed the
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neighborhood's door to door, Police officers and volunteers searched fields, ditches, and
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bodies of water on foot and boat. As a chopper thrummed loudly above.
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Clementine led her handler to Key Burger Elementary School and then stopped dead in her
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tracks. Elisa's scent was gone. Though they didn't elaborate. The Aransas Pass
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Police reported they'd followed several leads, most it appears the result of callers who
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said they thought they'd seen Elisa. None checked out. Lieutenant Thompson was busy.
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Not only was she organizing efforts on the ground, but she was also
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hard at work getting Elisa's photograph and description out to other area police agencies.
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The family, of course, was not above scrutiny. Within days, the
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Texas Rangers were on the scene and Marina was extensively interviewed, brought in several
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different times for questioning, and given a polygraph, which she passed. Finally,
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six days after Elisa Roberson went missing, the first article about the case
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appeared in the Corpus Christi Caller Times, listing her description, which included a
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scar on her right knee and her left thigh, but the story offered nothing
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new. The searches continued day after day without result. The bloodhound Clementine was
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joined by other canine colleagues. At times, some cadaver dogs joined their handlers
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on boats to search the areas many water bodies. Lieutenant Thompson continued to work
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seven days a week for a while. It was a summer break. Even
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my son and Chief's son spent the last of their summer break helping us every
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day. The man that was a dog handler with Clementine the bloodhounds worked with
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me seven days a week for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. I
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don't even remember how long. It took a long time before I started just
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taking a Sunday off and then later a Saturday and Sunday. I still had
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four children I needed to raise two. It's hard to turn your back on
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it. When you've got a grieving mother and not a thing in the world
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you can say. She had no support, no family, no way to
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contact family. Missing persons posters were also distributed through Aransas Pass and the surrounding
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area is The waiting, waiting for answers that never came was hard on Marina,
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Eugene, and the kids. The loss felt either temporary or permanent,
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depending on the moment. With fatigue, stress and worry came pessimism and hopelessness.
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But when thinking about Elisa's strength and imagining her smiling and crying when they
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reunited, hope would return. The emotional roller coaster was exhausting and excruciating.
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Marina too feared that whoever was responsible for her daughter's disappearance might come back for
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Ruby, Tony or Alex. At the same time with Sab that whoever took
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Alissa, I thought they won't go, whoever I won't go to come back
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to think my kids, my other kids, because they never arrested any once.
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It was just me in my little world in my head. I didn't
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know anything what will happen in in the outside my house. As the weeks
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went on, the fear only heightened, and hope slipped farther and farther from
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reach. On the second week after the disappearance, the group Children's Education,
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Search and Recovery, or CAESAR, joined the efforts. CAESAR, based out
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of North Richland Hills, a suburb city of Fort Worth, brought with them
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a mobile command post, a repurposed free Doo lay box delivery truck equipped with
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desks and stocked with various tools to aid in the searches. The now defunct
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group also brought twelve well trained volunteers and the state's best tracking and cadaver dogs,
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three bloodhounds and four German shepherds. The group set up their mobile command
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post and the parking lot of the former Aransas Pass High School, not too
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far from the Roberson home. Sometimes they'd work fifteen hour days fighting the oppressive
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heat and humidity, only pausing to rehydrate and renourish. They were easy to
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spot. All the CAESAR officials and volunteers wore bright red T shirts. Basically,
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what we're doing is ruling out areas, CAESAR search coordinator David McGraw told
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the press. We feel like we've effectively ruled out about three quarters of the
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city limits but with the scorching hot days and the time that had passed since
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Elisa was last known to be seen, the dogs were having some difficulties with
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the scent. Unlike Clementine's virtually effortless tracking of the missing girl the day following
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her disappearance, Eugene Roberson had since been informed, quickly made his way to
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town and helped to where he could, accompanying both police and Caesar officials and
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volunteers on searches. Often. Although police usually persuaded the family to stay put
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at home in case news should come in, Marina, Ruby, Tony and
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little Alex did plenty of searching on their own, in dumpsters, abandoned buildings
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and alleyways. Eugene welcomed the media attention to the case, although it seems
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he didn't necessarily like talking to them himself. While Loransi's past police chief,
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Melvin Shed accompanied searchers many days, Captain of Detectives Mike Thompson kept a close
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eye on the efforts. They had god ever dog. They had one dog.
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We took him out in a boat around different areas down the channel in
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the harbor. Supposedly he was able he would There was a in the water
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he could detect it. We never got anything from that. There's there's just
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a whole lot of rest country around there. It's right on the coast.
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It's a sandy soil. It wouldn't be hard to vary well. Meanwhile,
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Lieutenant Linda Thompson was leading an investigation, sending officers out to interview area sex
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offenders and filtering the leads coming into the department. She and other detectives,
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in fact, were busy interviewing anyone and everyone. Everybody was a person of
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interest, different people that Marina had dated off and on through the years.
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You know, we talked to them, and you know, any of her
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teachers, We just you know, her friends. We just interviewed everyone.
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Though there were things in the process of panning out a suspect, specifically,
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none of the other interviews were going anywhere. When a psychic contacted the Aransas
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Pass Police, Lieutenant Thompson figured, what the hell, I had a police
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officer from Corps Christy reach out and give me a psychic's name that had helped
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them on some of their cases. And this psychic had contacted this officer and
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asked to bring us together. And you know, I had followed dogs for
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days and weeks on end. Why not follow a psychic that had crystals in
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a brawn a resume of helping corpse Christy and ironically, she took us to
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three or four places where a tragedy had occurred, but just not Lissa's tragedy.
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The local crime stoppers began offering a one thousand dollars reward in the case,
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their standard at the time, and a fund was established to help the
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family pay for a private investigator. In the Roberson home, Marina, Ruby,
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Tony, and Alan constructed an altar to both memorialize Elisa and kendall the
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hope that she'd return. Ruby and Elisa shared a bedroom, and Ruby began
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sleeping on the couch. I don't want to mess things up in case she
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comes back. Ruby tried to remain stoic and hopeful as the de facto big
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sister, but lost her composure when talking about being teased some of the kids
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teased that they saw Elisa's body in a funeral home. She told her reporter
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they make fun of her instead of praying for her. In the early days
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of the investigation, Elisa's mother, Marina, had continually insisted police look into
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her ex boyfriend and father of her youngest child, Ralph Gonzales. The terror
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and pain Gonzales inflicted upon Marina and the kids cannot be overstated, nor can
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Marina's fear of him. She spent every day of her life looking over her
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shoulder, expecting the man to strike, to hurt or even kill her.
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For years, Marina had endured Gonzales's physical and emotional abuse, and just months
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before Elisa vanished, had finally broken free of his controlling and oppressive grip.
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Gonzales wasn't happy about Marina's new found freedom from him. Around that time was
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about the time that my mom finally was able to get away from him,
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because he was really abusive and my mom would try to leave and he would
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always find a way to get her back. He was just very violent,
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and when she finally was able to I don't know how she did it,
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but when she finally did it, he did threaten her and told her that
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he would do something to her where she would always remember him, she'll never
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forget him. And so of course, you can't get any worse than that
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than take than hurting someone's child, you know, And that's something that's going
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to stick with you forever. So that's one of the first people that she
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had told the Randa's Past police department that he had done it, and he
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was capable of that, you know, with the type of person he was.
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He was involved in some Mexican drug cartels, so he wasn't a good
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person. I got into my head that he may have sick or mother me.
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But then I told the police right away, will hurrah? I think
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it will Hurralph. I think it will Hurrabh. She felt, however,
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that the police were not taking her seriously and had brushed off the possibility that
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Gonzalez was involved. Detectives tried to locate the man but couldn't and they were
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busy with other avenues of investigation. Will get to eventually. As the days
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rolled on, the missing girl's mother grew more frustrated by the day. Then,
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when someone tried to break into the wind of the Robson home and police
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didn't respond when Marina called, she decided to quiet down about the abuser,
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thinking the would be trespasser was Gonzales himself. Still, she felt she had
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to do something to make the cops realize that Gonzales was capable of harming her
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little girl before he decided to come for another one of her children. What
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happened next was a mistake in which Marina carries the guilt of making to this
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day. Letters cut from magazines and paste it on paper in criminal cases are
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far rarer in the real world than they are in popular culture. Generally,
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writers and filmmakers use it as a plot device for their antagonists to anonymously send
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ransom demands to the families of kidnap victims. The individual letters themselves cut out
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from different magazine articles generally, and then paste it on paper without placing a
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letter next to one from the same headline, provide a brilliant and mysterious prop
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in film, and one that is even easily imaginable in novels, evoking a
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detailed mental image almost instantly. The concept, in fact, first appeared in
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print. It was created by a prolific writer of mystery stories, Sir Arthur
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Conan Doyle, and his novel about the eccentric genius detective Sherlock Holmes, The
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Hound of the Baskervilles, And it wasn't a ransom note, but instead a
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warning. The author's clever idea, needless to say, has inspired many folks
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to do the same, both in entertainment media and in real life. After
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the disappearance of Alisa Roberson, there was a period of time right there at
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the start of the investigation. I don't know exactly how we got them through
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the mail or something, but we were getting these letters from someone trying to
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stare us towards Ralph Gonzales. It was words and letters cut out of magazine
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to take down on these papers. It wasn't handwritten or type it was words
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cut out of magazine. Captain Thompson certainly wanted to find out who constructed it.
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They began looking a little harder for Gonzales too, but pretty quickly Lieutenant
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Linda Thompson began feeling like something was off, and upon a visit to the
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Roberson home, took a peek in the dumpster outside. There she discovered a
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magazine, the pages of which were all cut up. I did something really
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real, a little bit crazy, but at that time it was not crazy
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to me. See, when I thought the police is not believe in me
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that I said that that Ralph did, so I'm going to do something to
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make them believe, I thought. So. Anyway, I put some a
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letter together with letters from a magazine because I was so scared to be taking
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to the police because I thought Ralphin's gonna kill me if you know that I'm
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talking to the police. And I did something crazy, but I thought I
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was doing something really good. It was with the letters of a magazine anonymous
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anonymous. I didn't want nobody to know that it was me, of course,
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but I say something. I don't remember what I said. We believed
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that Ralph too, the little girl something like that. I don't remember exactly.
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And I know is that I was trying to mass to point Ralph to
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the police. I tart to give them a little push because nobody was believe
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in me. I don't remember what I put believe a new exactly, and
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you find out why did you do that? Morena? What were you thinking?
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Because when when I mailed the letter to the police, because I was
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too terrify to walk to the police station, I thought I was going to
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get killed by Ralph, and I mailed at that point to the Texas Rangers
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had already become involved, and they pushed for Lieutenant Thompson to place Marina under
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arrest, bless her her and there yeah, the Texas Rangers were involved in
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that part, so trust me, they looked at things I wouldn't find charges
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on her, trying to get me to file the charges of terroristic threat or
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whatever else that I knew her to be a grieving mother. My job was
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to find her little girl, and I didn't, and she was a very
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much grieving and devastated. The mother kind only knows what I would do something
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have the one I for Yeah, and as a woman and a mother,
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not as a police officer, but a woman and a mother. I couldn't
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have lived with myself to file charges. It didn't hurt me physically, a
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reputation wise, anything. And she wasn't real good at it. We caught
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her a real quick and I, oh no. She has apologized to me
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for thirty some years for that, and there's nothing to apologize for other than
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the time and energy that we should have been spending looking. She was convinced
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in her mind that rousted this. And I don't blame her. She's a
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mother, she's visited her Jill. In her mind, she thought it was
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Ralph Gozales, and she didn't think we were looking hard enough. I don't
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blame I don't blame Marina, but it did cost some time. It was
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then the police finally took Marina as seriously as they should have at the get
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go. So in a way, her plan worked for a brief moment in
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time. Ralph Gonzales became the prime person of interest in the case. And
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I know he was an abusive man. I worked a case against him involving
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his own son a couple of years before that. But he was in prison
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in Mexico, and our chief and one of our detective sergeants actually went to
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the prison in Mexico and that man had not snuck out and done anything.
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That man was barely alive, skin and bones. He had no outside support,
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you know, bringing him soon, whatever else he needed to get by,
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so that totally eliminated him as a suspect. According to a newspaper article,
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Gonzales seemed nervous as he approached a Mexican customs guard on his way into
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the country at eleven am on Wednesday, May third, nineteen eighty nine.
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He appeared so nervous, apparently, that it prompted guards to search his vehicle.
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Inside they found a television, a pair of stereo speakers, and two
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pistols A three eighty and a nine millimeter. There was also multiple rounds of
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ammunition for the two firearms. Bringing the guns in was illegal, but the
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article doesn't make clear whether the television and speakers were stolen property. Ralph Gonzalez
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was arrested, of course, which only backs up the Aransas Pass police claim
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that he'd been in a Mexican prison since May and could not have possibly kidnapped
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thirteen year old Alisa Roberson. But in Marina's view, Gonzales was hartily eliminated.
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It wasn't that the fear of this man had made her irrational. She
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had reasons, good reasons to question what had transpired, not the police work,
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rather Gonzalez's criminal acumen and connections, And when we meet private investigator Richard
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Norgard will discuss those. But until then, there's something else that backs up
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the notion that Ralph Gonzales is not responsible for Elisa's disappearance. Marina wasn't the
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only adult civilian desperate for answers. Elisa's father, Eugene Roberson wasn't a guy
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to be messed around with. He thought, alongside anti Castro Cubans in what
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could only have been operations at least sanctioned by the CIA, not fully funded.
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Eugene was a mercenary. While at a bar just before he went to
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Nicaragua and met Marina, Eugene walked up to a woman he had dated to
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speak with her. She was with three men who didn't take kindly to the
34:17
interruption. A fight broke out, instigated by the three men, and when
34:22
it was all said and done, Eugene Roberson was the last man standing.
34:29
He'd been jumped, but he was also the only one who got arrested.
34:32
Marina told me and ultimately walked away with a lengthy probation. Fast forward a
34:38
few years and Eugene was popped for carrying a small pistol while on probation,
34:45
and he was sent to prison for seven years. Marina and Eugene had their
34:51
problems, namely his predilection for drinking at the local bars, but had he
34:55
not been sent up the river, they'd have likely patched things up up and
35:00
Ralph Gonzales perhaps would never have had the chance to physically, emotionally and sexually
35:07
abuse Marina and the children. But that's hypothetical and not the point here.
35:14
The point is that when Alisa went missing. Eugene was also desperate for answers
35:20
and haunted by the agonizing feeling of uncertainty. Ruby told us how her father,
35:25
Eugene reacted to Marina's insistence that Gonzales was responsible for Elisa's disappearance. My
35:34
dad even went to Mexico and he actually confronted Ralph. He found him,
35:40
He got him at a I know it was probably probably not legal. He
35:45
would have definitely been arrested, but he you know, he's trying to find
35:47
his daughter, and he was desperate, and he just asked him if he
35:51
knew anything about his daughter. Well, he had him, had him at
35:53
a knife point and made it very clear to him, you know, if
35:58
you were in any way involved with taking my daughter, then I will kill
36:01
you, and so had his choice words. He's like when he came to
36:06
my mom, he told my mom, look, I know you think it's
36:08
him, but it's not him. I will promise you that he did not
36:12
have anything to do with her disappearance. He's a piece of shit, scum
36:15
bag, but he didn't take her. He's capable of doing that because of
36:22
the type of person he was. He was pretty abusive and almost sociopathic.
36:27
To us kids, like he just did some you know, he was just
36:30
abusive to us all and so my dad told my mom he didn't have anything
36:34
to do with it. Coming up on Gone Cold, the cops prime suspect.
36:40
Later investigations, Ripple Effects and private investigator Richard Norgard I found thirteen total
36:50
folks who at one time or another were associated with Children's Education, Search and
36:54
Rescue or CAESAR. I could only get a hold of one, and he
37:00
didn't participate in the searches for Elisa. If you did, if you were
37:06
ever a part of CAESAR searches, or if you were the handler for the
37:09
bloodhound Clementine from Rockport, please contact us at Goncold podcast at gmail dot com.
37:19
If you have any information about the disappearance of Blanca Elisa Roberson, please
37:23
contact Tri County Crime Stoppers at eight hundred two four five eight four seven seven
37:31
or submit a tip online. We'll provide a link to that in the episode's
37:36
show notes. We'd like to thank Linda and Mike Thompson, Ruby Roberson,
37:43
Hall, and Marina Kingtana Tomchak for their contributions to this episode. If you
37:51
like Gone Cold's mission to raise awareness for unsolved homicides, missing persons cases,
37:57
and other mysteries across Texas. We'd greatly appreciate your five star rating and written
38:02
review on Apple Podcasts, particularly, or if you can't do that, wherever
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else you listen. It bumps the algorithm and helps the show's visibility, gets
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the podcast in the ears of more folks, and gives us a better chance
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at reaching someone who might be able to provide law enforcement with information about the
38:24
cases we cover. You can also support Gone Cold at patreon dot com forward
38:31
slash Gone Cold podcast. There for two and a half bucks a month,
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search at Gone Cold podcast at all of them, or just click on the
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link in bio in our show notes. Thanks for listening, y'all.