Elisa Roberson Part 1

0:00This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Shopify. I think most people have a dream of starting their own business, but what they don't tell you is that you're going to be wearing a lot of hats and that your to-do list is never-ending and always growing. Finding that right tool that not only helps you out, but simplifies everything can be a game changer. For millions of businesses, that tool is Shopify. They're the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, like Mattel. They also help you build your online store with hundreds of ready-to-use templates. They can even help you write product descriptions, page headlines, and enhance your product photography.

0:38And marketing, they've got that covered too. You can easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling. If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. Turn your big business idea into with Shopify on your side. Sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash justice. Go to shopify.com slash justice. Shopify.com slash justice.

1:14When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp. The secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences.

1:55All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

2:15Today, I'm discussing the disappearance of 13-year-old Elisa Roberson from Aransas Pass, Texas. The case I'm going to tell you about today is truly filled with so many twists and turns that I couldn't fit it into just one episode. While researching and speaking with Elisa's sister, Ruby, it feels like she literally disappeared into thin air. But of course, we know that is never the case. So over the next two episodes, I'll examine the evidence and discuss the many roads this investigation has taken over the past 35 years. This is the disappearance of Elisa Roberson. At about 6 p.m. on August 6, 1989, 12-year-old Ruby Roberson took a phone call that would change the rest of her life.

3:05The call came from Debbie Green, a friend of her older sister Elisa's. She called to ask if Elisa was home, and Ruby was irritated. Elisa had left to go meet Debbie about 20 minutes earlier. It was a whole ordeal. Elisa and Ruby's mom, Marina, already didn't want Elisa to go. It was a Sunday night, it was getting late, and she had good reason to not want 13-year-old Elisa walking home alone at night, which we'll get into later in the episode. But like teenagers do, Elisa and Debbie had a plan. Debbie would meet Elisa halfway, and then Debbie's dad would drive Elisa home so she wouldn't be walking alone in the dark.

3:44Their plan was to just play with some Barbies. Now, Marina told NBC News that this wasn't the first time the girls used this plan to squeeze in some extra time together. It had worked well in the past, so Marina gave in and said yes. But during this call, Debbie tells Ruby that Elisa never made it to the halfway point. Here's Ruby to explain. Elisa had spent the night at her friend Sharla's house Saturday night. So she spent the night there. She was with Elisa, or Elisa was with Sharla that whole day. They just spent the whole day together. either. And my mom, Elisa would go to church with Sharla, that they would just go to church, and they were going to go to evening services.

4:30So my mom just assumed they were going to go, and that was, there was an understanding, you know, that she could go. And I guess when they were getting on the bus, the church bus would pick up the little kids. Sharla was getting on the bus, and Elisa just decided she wanted to come home. So she just came home. It was about, a, I don't know, six to 10 minute walk from Charlotte's house to her house. Everything was just so close to our, you know, our whole lives revolved around just a few blocks, you know, of this little small town. But, um, so Elisa came home. Um, she was home to stay, like she was done for the day.

5:07She was getting ready to, you know, let's call it a night. And, uh, Debbie Green called, our little friend, Debbie Green called and asked Elisa if she could come and, um, hang out with her. And my mom told Elisa to tell Debbie it was getting late that, you know, that it's time for you to stay home. And Debbie had told her, well, I can, I can walk halfway and meet you halfway. And then my dad can, can bring you home. So you don't have to walk alone. And when she said that my mom's, my mom agreed to it and said, okay, well, you know, that's okay. You know, we'd gone over to the, you know, Debbie's house, you know, we were family friends.

5:43My mom knew their parents, They knew us. So it was just a normal thing, you know, to have Mr. Green drop off, drop us off when it was getting late. So so so she had so she wasn't home very long when she got home. So the bus, school bus or church bus picked up the kids or Sharla. They said it was between 515 to 520 when the bus came. And so Elisa would have left, let's just say, about 520 by the time she got home, 530. A few minutes later, Debbie calls. So we think she was out of the house probably about 545, 545, 545. They were going to meet at the local school, the Keyberger School, which was just a six minute walk from our house.

6:30That was the meeting spot. When Debbie gets there, Elisa's not there. um so debbie walks um a little bit further and we have some friends on the corner um jennifer taylor her little brother nathan and their dad they were all outside um and they they saw debbie and debbie said oh did you see elisa because elisa would have walked that path and they said yeah we saw her we talked to her she she left just we just saw her a few whatever it was a few minutes ago uh she was walking to the school and so so then debbie turns around because our house was right there. She didn't come all the way to our house.

7:08We think she turned around because maybe I missed Elisa. Maybe she's talking to someone at the school because it was a big school. She could have been on the other side talking to a friend. That was like normal for kids to always be there during the summer playing and hanging out. So Debbie goes back to her house because she doesn't find Elisa and she calls us a second time and I answer the phone and she asked where Elisa was. And I know I've mentioned this before, you know, I don't know. I think I might have been irritated with Elisa. I don't know if we were fighting. I don't even remember what it was about, but I was annoyed.

7:43And I said to Debbie, I don't know and I don't care. And I've always felt guilt for that, for saying that. Their community, and specifically neighborhood in Aransas Pass, Texas, was close-knit. the type of neighborhood where people spent time outside, said hello to their neighbors, and where the adults weren't afraid to redirect local kids, which is exactly what Elisa and Ruby's mom did to Debbie. My mom, she's in the kitchen cooking. She says, tell Debbie Elisa should be with her right now. And there was a little bit of panic in my mom's voice when she said that, because it was almost like a, you know, a shout.

8:24Like, tell Debbie she should be with her right now. And it kind of shocked me. I remember when she said that, I'm like, oh, this might be serious. And so Debbie said, well, I'm going to go back and look for her. And then maybe when my, I can't remember. So she goes, I'm going to go back and look for her. Maybe when my dad gets back, we'll go look if we don't find her. So they go back out. I don't know how long it was. She goes back to her house and she calls again a third time. She says, we still, is Elisa there? no she's not here we still can't find her because she was with a little another little friend of hers they were walking together um at that time she goes when my dad gets home we're gonna go look for her so then my mom tells me start um start calling alisa's friends start calling all her friends um and so i just start um there a lot of her friends were my friends too and and i start calling, you know, I call her little friend, our little friend, Holly, you know, is Elisa over there?

9:28You know, are you with Elisa? Do you know where she is? No, I haven't seen her. I called a handful of people. But when I called Jennifer and Nathan, because Nathan was her little on-again, off-again boyfriend and Jennifer, they loved Elisa. She spent, it was like her second home there too. And so I called and I talked to Jennifer and she says, yeah, we saw Elisa. She walked past our house about whatever time, you know, she said she was going to go meet Debbie. So that was the first time that we hear that, you know, someone saw her. It's important to note here that Elisa's mom was raising four kids on her own and didn't have a car.

10:03So when Debbie's father, Bob Green, a good friend of the family, offered to look for Elisa, Marina decided to stay home while he drove the neighborhood to find her. Bob Green was on the phone call at one point and he wanted to talk to my mom and he said, Mrs. Roberson, has Elisa come home yet? And she said, no. And he said, stay put. We're going to go look for her. They go looking for her. I don't know how long it was they were looking for her. And they eventually meet back at our house. And they asked us, you know, is Elisa here? You know, has she come home? And we said, she's still not, we don't know where she is.

10:39None of her friends have seen her, but, you know, Jennifer and Nathan. And at that point, He said, you know, Mrs. Roberson, you need to call the police now.

10:52This message is sponsored by Greenlight. Money is this invisible thread that ties us all together. It's something everyone has to deal with. That's why teaching kids about money isn't just smart. It's essential. Greenlight is a debit card and money app for families. It's a safe way to teach kids and teens about money. With Greenlight, parents can send money quickly, get spending notifications, and even assign chores. Greenlight turns responsibility into real-world learning. Kids and teens learn how to save, invest, and build money confidence, skills that can really make all the difference in their future.

11:26If I had Greenlight growing up, maybe I would have learned that money is a tool I could use for my future, not something to fear or fall for, not to mention the magic of compounding interest. Give your kids the financial education many of us didn't get. Join millions of parents already using Greenlight, the number one family finance and safety app. Start your risk-free Greenlight trial today at greenlight.com slash justice. That's greenlight.com slash justice to get started. Greenlight.com slash justice.

12:01When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at GoodToKnowFacts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit GoodToKnowFacts.org. 13-year-old Elisa Roberson was reported missing to the Aransas Pass Police Department at approximately 9.45 p.m. on August 6, 1989. And the initial response was unfortunate.

12:47I was the one that made the call because it says my mom wants a police officer to come to our house. My sister's missing or we can't find my sister. And so then a police officer came to our house and took the report. And I remember, again, the kind of like the, you know, nonchalance, you know, well, she's probably talking to her friend or she'll show up, you know, you know, she doesn't then call us back, but she'll be home. You know, don't worry about it. So there didn't seem to be much urgency. The thing is, the responding officer didn't follow procedure. He was supposed to contact Lieutenant Linda Thompson about any incidents involving a minor.

13:28She told Dateline that this was department policy. Basically, if a child was involved in any offense in any way, she was to be contacted immediately. But for some reason, that didn't happen. She also told Dateline that she believes had the officer followed procedure, they might have been able to find Elisa and solve this case. But it was also more than just procedure for Linda. She knew Elisa and her entire family. Elisa's younger brother Tony got in some trouble here and there, and since he was a minor, Linda was the responding officer, and who Marina would often communicate with using Elisa as an interpreter.

14:08I think now is a good time to talk about Elisa's family structure, because it is extremely relevant to her case. Here's Ruby again to explain. My mom was born in Nicaragua, Bluefields, Nicaragua. And she had Elisa. Elisa was born there too. Elisa's dad, they had been together for some time. And then he went to work in Puerto Rico. I think it was, he went to go find work. And the irony of this whole thing is that he was never heard from again. He also disappeared and never, no one ever knew what happened to him. They just assumed on his travels that he met with some kind of trouble and, and then just, yeah.

14:52And so that's, that's the sad part of that is, you know, it just from the very get go, there's been just so much pain and trauma for, you know, in my mom's life and in my family's life. And sometimes when you hear about like curses or, you know, and, and I'm, I'm always skeptical of things, but it's almost like sometimes certain things that happen when, when things aren't resolved, it just kind of leaks into the next, you know, next generation never gets resolved. So, so my mom had Elisa and my dad was a shrimper. He worked in with Gulf King Shrimp in South Texas and South Texas. That's, that's the king of the shrimping industry back in those days.

15:33And so my dad was a shrimper and they, a lot of the trips they made were on the coast of Bluefields, Nicaragua, Nicaragua, where my mom's from. And he had to go pick up some boat. There were some repairs that they had to be made and they sent him to go and pick up that boat or ship. And so that's how he met my mom. She worked in a little restaurant in the village and he'd go and eat there and talk to my mom, got to know her. Granted, he was only there for two weeks and he asked her where certain things were in the little town. And my mom showed him around like where the stores were and things like that.

16:12So So in that time, they kind of fell in love. And then when my dad was getting ready to leave, he asked her to come back with him. You know, he asked her if she would marry him. And my mom, my grandma was watching Elisa at the time because, of course, she was working. And so grandma was watching Elisa. So my dad didn't know anything about Elisa because, of course, he only saw my mom, you know, at work. and that was the first time she told him, well, I have a little girl and I can't come with you unless I can bring my daughter. And that's when my dad told her, you know, what kind of man would I be if I told you to leave your daughter behind?

16:55And so he says, absolutely. So before it was said and done, he married my mom, adopted my sister, and that was the end of that. I don't know exactly when they came to the States, but I was, I was born shortly after that. And then Tony, it's like, Elisa was born in 76. I was born in 77. And then Tony was born in 78. So it was like, bam, bam, bam. They were busy. And so, um, yeah. So then my dad, um, got into some trouble. He ended up, um, getting, uh, getting sentenced. He got into some trouble with, um, and then he got sentenced. And it was during that time that my parents separated, of course, because of the, you know, the situation.

17:37And from there, she ended up in a relationship with a man, Ralph Gonzalez, and they ended up having my little brother, baby brother, Alex, in 1984. Ralph Gonzalez was not the father figure Marina was hoping for, and Elisa's family life was turbulent. But in the chaos, the kids stuck together, and despite being so close in age, Alisa was really like a mother figure to them. Alisa was so much fun. She, so we, there was a lot of, there were a lot of things going on in our family, right? You know, there's, you have a broken home, you know, dad's in prison. I love my dad. He was, he was a good man, but it almost felt like, you know, trouble just seemed to find him or he seemed to find trouble.

18:29And so so dad was not in the picture at that time. He was later on when he was released in the you know, I think it was in 1986 when he was released. He kind of came back into our lives and tried to make amends was, you know, would take us kids on the weekends, take us to the beach or to, you know, have a barbecue at his place. So he tried to make amends towards those last few years. But when my mom got involved with Ralph, there was quite a bit of abuse that Ralph was inflicting on my mom and, of course, on us kids. And I would often look back and I'd say, you know, we were going through so much and there was just a lot of bad stuff going on and hard things.

19:13But why were we always laughing? I always think, why were we always laughing? And the best way to explain it is in between us three little kids, you know, because first it was me, Tony and Elisa. We kind of had our little bond. We kind of had to shelter ourselves and protect ourselves from the big people problems. Right. And in that little world that we created, there was a lot of laughter, you know, a lot of fun. Elisa was the oldest, kind of the mother hand, making sure that we were doing what we were supposed to be doing and that we were listening to mom. So she was kind of like the second in command.

19:49And we listened when she said, well, not always. But so that was that was Elisa. And she was funny. She was always laughing. It was the 80s. So 80s butt rock music was the thing. And so I remember she loved to with the money she would make from babysitting jobs, she would buy her little tapes, play them. MTV. Oh, my God. It was MTV was the best. And we would just sit there. I remember she'd sit there with a notebook trying to write down the lyrics of the songs, the really cool songs. So Bon Jovi, Poison, Lita Ford, Motley Crue. I mean, my sister was a true 80s rocker and she would have been a rocker chick, I think, you know.

20:32So, yeah, it was really fun. And I loved to hang out with her. I know it was a pain in the butt, but I just always wanted to tag along with her. And so that's just that was Elisa. But right before Elisa went missing, Ralph Gonzalez seemingly disappeared as well.

20:54This episode is brought to you by Cars.com. On Cars.com, you can shop over 2 million cars. That means over 2 million new car possibilities, like making space for your growing family, becoming the type of person who takes spontaneous weekend camping trips, or upgrading your commute. Wherever life takes you next, or whoever you're looking to be, there's a car for that on Cars.com. Visit Cars.com to discover your next possibility.

21:19This episode is brought to you by Rakuten. If you're shopping while working, eating, or even listening to this podcast, then you know and love the thrill of a deal. But are you getting the deal and cash back? Rakuten shoppers do. They get the brands they love, savings, and cash back. And you can get it too. Stack sales on top of cash back and feel what it's like to know you're maximizing savings. It's easy to use, and you get cash back sent to you through PayPal or Check. The idea is simple. The brands you love pay Rakuten for sending them shoppers, and Rakuten shares the money with you as cash back.

21:52Download the free Rakuten app or go to Rakuten.com to start saving today. It's the most rewarding way to shop. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N. Rakuten.com. My mom, for years, I mean, and we're not talking, this is like a whole other level, and I wish people, I don't know if people really understand the extent of it and even when I speak about it sometimes it's hard for me even to believe it it sounds like it's just not real and not true because it's so bad like the things that were happening in our home and my mom had tried for years and we're talking brutal beatings these weren't just like a slap here and a you know these were like down on the ground choking in front of us children you know choking her you you know, lifting her up on the wall, bloody face, you know, while us little kids are watching, trying to protect our mom, the things he did to us kids.

22:48I mean, it's just horrible things, horrible things, you know, and nothing my mom could do. She could never get away from him. It just felt like she would leave him and he would physically drag her back by her hair. Like there were several times, you know, she's kicking and screaming and he's dragging and us little kids, just kind of trying to process that as a little child. And many times he would drive her to these really deserted locations and he would tell her, you know, I can kill you and no one would ever find your body and nobody would even care to come looking for you. And so those threats were very frightening, especially when he inflicted that much pain.

23:34And then he also had, he was into, he was a drug mule. So he was dangerous. And the friends that he hung out with were very dangerous. And there was one time I was with my mom when one of his friends actually attacked my mom. We were in the back seat and he actually attacked her with a knife. And my mom took off running. with kids in tow, my little brother Alex and me just running to get to the nearest gas station. And she went to hide and the gas station owner told her, lady, what are you doing with those people? Those are very dangerous people. And if I help you, they're going to come after me and my family.

24:13I mean, that's how dangerous the situation it was. And no matter how many times my mom called the police, we were astonished when I did a records request last year that of all those times that the police were called, the only record, there was only one record of Ralph beating my mom and being arrested. So we found that kind of ironic. When my mom would make reports or would call the police, he would tell her, you know, I have guardian angels in the police department. They run my errands. So then, of course, there's that thing in the back of your head, you know, is there corruption in the local police department at that time?

24:53were they paying him off somehow was he paying you know so when he would make those threats and he may have just been making them but why on earth would he always no matter how many times he'd get picked up or my mom would make a report he never ended up arrested but that one time and my mom said that what would be strange is he'd be arrested and by the end of the day he'd be out right back at the house after he, you know, beat her. So that's just the one thing I just want to make very clear that this wasn't just a, you know, a little, this was like very dangerous. And my mom knew and she realized her life was in danger towards that time.

25:31I don't know how she was able to do it. I don't know if he just ended up, but he threatened her when she said don't, when she just finally had it, which she had told him several times before. She told him, you know, again, don't come back. And he had threatened her and said that he was going to do something to her where she's always going to remember him by, that no matter if she's not in his life, if he's not in her life, she's always going to remember him. And for a long time, she thought he was going to take our little brother Alex. So she was vigilant in making sure he was safe or that we were all watching over him because she said any minute Ralph couldn't take off.