Robert Marcos Romero’s case is one of those infuriating ones where the perpetrator is pretty obvious, but justice will never be done. Robert Romero, or Robbie, was only seven years old when he vanished while walking to a friend’s house in Santa Fe in 2000. In the years since, his case has remained unsolved and his body has remained unfound. He is presumed dead, and his case is being investigated as a homicide. It is thought he may be in the Santa Fe landfill.
Look at this cute little face. This case breaks my heart. I hate that another Robbie met a horrible fate in New Mexico.
Robbie Romero was last seen around 7 pm on June 7, 2000, walking to his buddy’s house on the 2900 block of Bellamah to go play Nintendo. The last person to see him alive was his older brother, Ronnie Romero. The little boy never made it to the friend’s and has never been seen or heard from since.
Robbie’s parents reported him missing eight hours after he was last seen. They had spent some hours trying to find him themselves before involving police. Police immediately honed in on the family, searching their residence for forensic evidence, but the house appeared clean.
The next day, the entire family went to search for him – except for his 22-year-old brother, Ronnie. Ronnie chose to sleep in. This struck the police as odd. They administered a polygraph, which Ronnie failed. He failed two subsequent tests, too.
Ronnie as a Suspect
So Ronnie was immediately on the police radar as Suspect Numero Uno. But he never confessed to the crime. His behavior was increasingly odd and erratic following his brother’s disappearance, however, casting him in an increasingly suspicious light.
During his initial interview, Ronnie claimed he had last seen his brother leave to play Nintendo at the neighbor’s. This made hin the last person to see Robbie alive, and the entire timeline of Robbie’s last moments is built solely on that. Ronnie also claimed that earlier that day, he had taken Robbie to a park, where they played football. Police soon determined Ronnie had actually been at a party on the night of the 6th and then slept all day on the 7th, never going anywhere near a park with his little bro.
Why would he lie about this, unless he was trying to seem like a loving big brother to police?
Ten days later, on June 17, a female acquaintance of Ronnie’s contacted police and said Robbie told her he had accidentally killed Robert. He told her that he had stashed the body somewhere really well, where it would never be found, and that police were “way off.” She said she wanted to stay anonymous out of fear, but police found her and took a statement. The young woman clarified that Ronnie was a friend of her boyfriend’s and he came to her house and demanded she let him in. Then he opened up about the murder and confessed all. The police were not able to prove her claim, but they state that they believe her to this day.
Consequently, the police kept re-interviewing him. A month after Robert disappeared, they pulled him in for an interview, where he inquired about penalties for accidentally killing someone. Detective Gary Johnson went over statutes with Ronnie and believed he was close to a confession. But then Ronnie had to leave for an unrelated court appearance, and he told his lawyer he was talking to police. His lawyer advised him to cease. Thus, no confession came.
Then, five weeks after Robert disappeared, police were watching the house while Ronnie and a female came and went for hours until about 3 am. Then, suddenly, Ronnie called 911 in hysterics. He claimed his girlfriend had confessed to running over Robert and dumping his body in a dumpster. Police approached the house, where he ran outside and demanded that they arrest his girlfriend. They woke up his girlfriend, who was in a very deep sleep. She was groggy and confused and incredulous. She had no idea what he was talking about.
I hope she dumped him after that – seems like good grounds for a break-up! (Later, in an anonymous phone interview, she told a reporter at The New Mexican that she wasn’t even Ronnie’s girlfriend, just a hookup, and that she was at the Romero house the night Robbie died but she never saw the child. She also testified at the grand jury trial. Detective Johnson believes she knows more than she is letting on but no one has been able to prove it).
Ronnie showed police just where Robert had been hit by the car and described his injuries in detail. He also described the way his girlfriend had dumped the body into a dumpster in vivid detail. Police then detained the girlfriend and Ronnie, and they agreed to take polygraphs. This was the second one that Ronnie failed. The girlfriend also agreed to the polygraph but then got nervous and stopped in the middle. Later, in The New Mexican interview, the girlfriend claimed she took the polygraph and was informed she passed and her mother took her home. It seems weird that she would remember this when police clearly have records that she did not complete the polygraph.
This girlfriend eventually moved out of state. Apparently she now works in law enforcement. Her name was never publicly disclosed. Investigators believe she knows more than she lets on and she may have witnessed the crime.
Just 8 days after Robbie disappeared, Ronnie was arrested for failure to appear for trial in a 1999 misdemeanor charge of assault and battery of his sister, brother, and brother’s girlfriend. He was arrested again August 26, 2000, for intimidating a witness in the same case, after which he filed a tort claim against the city for harassment. It is unclear what came of this claim. Instead of jail in the witness intimidation case, a judge sentenced him to a treatment center in November 2000, where he was soon kicked out for “fraternizing with a girlfriend.” He then wound up in the county jail, where he adamantly refused to talk about Robbie’s case. He wound up back in rehab and walked out yet again, claiming that the counselors kept questioning him about the case, which they denied. Sometime in 2002, he was ordered to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet due to a large number of traffic tickets as far back as 1996. But in July 2002, he broke off the bracelet to go get blackout drunk at a party. There have been several other arrests throughout the early 2000s, including an incident in summer of 2005 where he allegedly “went crazy” at his mom’s house and then later stabbed a nurse with a needle.
I think this establishes a pretty clear picture of Ronnie’s character and lifestyle. Doesn’t mean that he is a murderer – but he clearly wasn’t a healthy and sober person. However, his family insisted on his innocence. In 2005, when he was charged with the assault of a peace officer, the trial ended in a mistrial and his family triumphantly told the paper that the jurors knew Ronnie was being harassed by cops. From day one, Ronnie insisted that he was being unfairly targeted. But his behavior and weird pseudo confessions are what encouraged cops to target him in the first place.
Especially when he failed his third polygraph in September 2005. This polygraph asked him questions about locations around Santa Fe and gauged his emotional stress response. He only reacted strongly to two places – his home on Bellamah Drive and the Caja del Rio landfill. And then, even more incriminating, were the statements he made when he was arrested around Christmas 2005 for cocaine possession and assault. While being held, he told cops his brother’s body was “60 feet deep.” Then he said chillingly, “You know what I want.”
The cops then brought in District Attorneys to try to reach a deal with Ronnie: less time in exchange for a confession and the location of the body. But they wanted a confession before they gave a deal. Ronnie demanded a deal first. The two parties could not reach an agreement, resulting in Ronnie becoming belligerent and being escorted back to his jail cell. Thus, the confession never came. Police spent hte next 3 days excavating the landfill again and the grand jury trial commenced, but neither endeavor uncovered the truth.
Other Suspects
Evelyn Romero maintains her son Ronnie’s innocence. She thinks police fixated on her son so much that they overlooked the real kidnapper. She thinks someone random took her son and hurt him, especially because of dreams she has about him where he tells her “They hurt me, Mommy.” While there are no solid suspects, there are a few witness reports of suspicious individuals in the area when Robbie went missing.
Witnesses spotted a man with black, gray-streaked hair on a bike in the area that night. He might have witnessed what happened or he might have played a role. Police have never been able to identify or locate him. I hope that if he did see something, he comes forward one day. There are all sorts of reasons not to talk to police, I get it, but this little boy deserves justice.
Police also looked for another suspect, John David Martinez, who was an associate of Ronnie’s in some undisclosed capacity. They had trouble locating him but he did testify at the grand jury trial in 2006, which I talk about more below. Apparently he was cleared.
Witnesses reported a turquoise Plymouth Reliant or Dodge Diplomat in the Bellamah neighborhood that night. No one was ever able to identify the driver of the car.
Attempts to Find the Body
Police searched Bellamah Drive and road blocked it off the night of June 14, 2000, to question passersby. But mostly they seemed to center their search on the Romero residence. They searched inside vehicles the family owned and a truck they had sold to a local plumber. They made family members take polygraphs, and all of the family members passed, save for Ronnie.
Almost immediately, investigators searched the city landfill because a tipster called in and claimed he had seen an item that could have been a child’s body. But nothing was ever found. In 2006, their focus shifted to the waste transfer station. They were acting on tips given by Ronnie himself that the boy had been put in a dumpster. Sadly, nothing was found. They didn’t even find clues.
The family submitted DNA in 2007. A skull was found in California and compared to the DNA, but ultimately, it turned out to belong to a little girl abducted from California. Skeletal remains were also found on the Navajo reservation and DNA results were inconclusive at first, giving hope to everyone involved in the case, but a second round of testing determined that they were definitely not Robbie.
Two people, one a psychic, told police they would find the boy’s body in Fenton Lake. The lake was drug and divers searched it, to no avail. Evelyn Romero also relied on psychics and searched the town of Cerrillos for her son on a psychic’s tip.
A grand jury convened in late January 2006 to probe into the case. Many members of the Romero family testified, including brothers Ricky and Rudy. Ronnie was in jail at the time of the grand jury. He had been arrested for cocaine possession, assault, and failing a drug test just before Christmas in 2005.
By January 27, 2006, the grand jury apparently favored the conclusion that Robbie had been run over by a car, driven by a female acquaintance of Ronnie’s on June 7, 2000. That’s according to Evelyn, anyway. Evelyn said she did not even know the woman and had just met her the night Robbie disappeared, which would make the woman a convenient scapegoat. Authorities will not comment on the grand jury findings of an active investigation. That female friend also testified that day and refused to disclose what she had testified to reporters after. No indictment arose from the grand jury.
In 2006, Ronnie told police he wanted a deal, where he would get leniency in exchange for showing them where the body was. But a deal could not be reached and Ronnie died with the information he supposedly had.
The Toll on the Family
Evelyn Romero has never believed in her elder son’s guilt. You can’t blame her. Accepting that would be one bitter pill to swallow. But without proof, there is always the chance that something else happened to Robbie. General consensus is that his brother did it, though, and some thought the family was involved. Police acted on those rumors and seemed to fixate the investigation on the Romeros.
Rumors swirled in Santa Fe. Most people said that the Romeros were involved in drugs and gangs. They believed drugs played a role in Robbie’s death and he may have been given drugs or accidentally ingested them and died as a result. Not only did people think that Ronnie accidentally killed his little brother, but they also believed that the father, Rudy Romero, may have gotten involved somehow to cover it up. As a journeyman, he may have had access to the appropriate tools to bury a body well.
But these rumors fail to take into account the pain that the family undoubtedly felt. Evelyn Romero burst into tears while reading cards for Robbie’s eighth birthday from his class. She said that Robbie was “spoiled” and liked to still sleep with the family. One of the last memories she shares with her little boy was when he snuck into bed with her. Whether the family was more involved or not, many hearts were broken, especially Evelyn’s. People need to be careful with their rumors when people are suffering. There is no need to add salt to the wound.
Evelyn described how the police were curt with her and showed no compassion. As they dug up the backyard, unearthing the family’s buried pets, and as they combed through the family’s vehicles for evidence, the family felt accused, threatened, and intimidated. People showed them little grace, even driving by their home slowly and staring at them. That is just horrible for them to go through, on top of the grief and fear of losing their little boy.
Rudy Romero actually died on October 7, 2002. He never knew what happened to his son. He couldn’t get his mind off the case and began to drink heavily, which took a toll on his body. His family believes Robbie’s disappearance led to his death.
Ronnie must not have led a happy life after his brother’s disappearance. He died of a heroin overdose in jail on September 21, 2008. He was found in his cell with needle marks on his arm, morphine in his system, and a large balloon of black tar heroin stuffed up his butt. Inmates stated that he had been selling heroin to them just prior to that. With his lifestyle, it was only a matter of time. I’m sure he was tired of the albatross around his neck. He always maintained his innocence except for that incident in jail in 2005.
Evelyn still wants to know exactly what happened to both her boys. She lost two sons and had other children who were removed from her custody during the investigation but later returned to her home. That is too much stress and loss for one woman to go through. Evelyn believes that Ronnie was drugged by the other inmates, which COs say is unlikely, given how valuable drugs are in jail. Inmates would not want to waste drugs on murder. Evelyn also believes that Ronnie was innocent and someone else abducted Robbie. She shared about an eerie dream she had, where Robbie lay facedown on her lap and told her, “They hurt me.” Had Ronnie killed him, she thinks Robbie would have told her in that dream.
She keeps an altar for Robbie in her home and she dismantles it once a year and sets it up in Monica Lucero Park for a candlelit vigil in Robbie’s honor. The vigil is always held on the anniversary of his disappearance. She has had to go through so much: the loss of her son, her husband, and then her other son, as well as police harassment and community alienation. My heart breaks for her.
I even feel a little bad for Ronnie – the guilt he must have felt must have been enormous, if he was indeed responsible. And if he was innocent, well, that is even worse. His lifestyle and recklessness paint a poor portrait of who he was. But most people who act like that have some sort of unresolved trauma in their pasts or some undiagnosed mental disorder. Someone must have hurt Ronnie to make him the way he was, and he clearly needed help beyond rehab. He never turned things around and ended up dead on a jail cell floor, breaking his mom’s and brothers’ hearts even more.
Nevertheless, when something happens to someone, you always look at the people close to them first. Stranger abductions are exceedingly rare. Most murders are committed by family instead. I can’t say that the way the Romeros were treated was fair but I do see why police focused on them.
The Imposter
The case turned really bizarre in 2011 when a teenager called police and claimed he was Robert Romero, the missing boy. Police tracked the teen’s location and met him there. He not only bore a resemblance to Robbie, but he was able to furnish unspecified details about the case that police thought were “significant.” He agreed to a DNA cheek swab and met with Evelyn Romero, who was dubious that the young man was her son, though she did note the resemblance.
Sadly, all hope was dashed when the DNA did not match Robbie Romero. The young man was named Robert Terrazas and he had grown up in Utah. His mother didn’t have a birth certificate for him or pictures of him before age 7, which made police think he was a viable candidate for Robbie. But he wasn’t Robbie. So why did he claim he was? Did he just want the attention? And why didn’t his mom have his birth certificate or photos of him as a little kid and baby? Was he the victim of a different abduction?
Police Incompetence
From the start, the police investigation has been called under question by many people. It is thought the police bungled this case beyond the point of redemption. Their incompetence may have let the real perp get away with it.
The police entered the investigation eight hours after Robbie went missing. The family waited to call because they thought they could find him themselves. They also thought their neighborhood was a safe one. That first night, one of the cops allegedly told Evelyn Romero, “Your son was dead before you even called us.” This gutted Evelyn. The police indicated tremendous callousness in their dealings with the family. They even attended anniversary vigils for Robbie and distressed the family with their presences, showing no grace or empathy.
The police did not take serious action and begin excavating the Romero yard or blocking traffic until June 14, a full week after little Robbie vanished. Supervisor Jerry Archuleta was actually demoted from lieutenant to sergeant due to that. Later, in 2002, he was fired over it. That week-long delay may have resulted in Robbie’s death. He may have been found had they acted sooner.
The family filed multiple lawsuits against the city and the police. The first, in 2002, alleged that police had mishandled the case so much that Robbie may have died as a result. In 2007, they claimed that police had entered their home without a warrant and removed Evelyn’s other two minor children, and later, CYFD case workers entered without permission and inquired about the two grandchildren adopted from Ronnie. They claimed harassment and mishandling of the case to the point that the real perpetrator has managed to get away with it. After Ronnie died in a Santa Fe County Jail, Evelyn Romero sued yet again.
The Romeros had to turn to psychics and private investigators due to feeling the police would not tell them anything. Unfortunately, these avenues proved fruitless, as well. In 2003, Evelyn requested records from the police and judge ruled she did not have a right to them. Then, Evelyn appealed and a Supreme Court judge ruled that the records could be released to her in 2004. However, the case files had to be turned over to the District Court judge and the judge had to determine what files the family could have access to. So who knows what Evelyn actually got and what was withheld? From the beginning, Evelyn felt like she was being kept in the dark.
My Theory
Given Ronnie’s drug-addled, crime-ridden lifestyle and his poor judgment, I think it is perfectly plausible that he did it. He was probably drunk or high on June 7, 2000, and he accidentally ran over Robert. Ronnie may have been playing around with him, driving up close to him to scare him, or it may have been a total accident. He didn’t mean to kill the child and he panicked. Then he hid the child, maybe in a mine shaft near Santa Fe.
Like he told his friend, the police were “way off” in their search, so he probably didn’t put Robbie in the dump. He simply made that up to throw police off when he tried to throw his hookup under the bus. Later, he had that strong emotional stress reaction to the Caja del Rio landfill on his third polygraph simply because he associated it with the lie he had made up.
Ronnie’s girlfriend was probably the passenger that night, and she probably helped Ronnie dispose of the body, hence why she bolted during the polygraph. I doubt the rest of the Romeros had anything to do with the death and they are undoubtedly devastated.
Who Was Robbie?
Regardless of what happened, Robbie’s disappearance is a tragedy. This little boy never got to grow up and experience the wonderful things that could have been in store for him. He never got to become somebody. I don’t know what happened to him, but I wish it never had. I wish he could have gotten to grow up.
Robbie had brown hair and brown eyes and a winning smile. To seem more mature, he preferred to be called “Robert.” He would come to his first grade classroom at Kearney Elementary School to assist his teacher in pulling chairs from atop desks. He also liked football and karate. When he disappeared, kids at school asked about him. He had been well-liked, and he was deeply missed.
The last time Rudy Romero Jr. saw his brother, he was wrestling with his brother Ricky. The last time Evelyn Romero saw him, Robbie was clambering into bed with her in the early hours of the morning. This was a sweet little boy who loved his family and who was “spoiled” by his older brothers. He was especially close to Rudy and the two shared a resemblance. Rudy now has a tattoo in Robbie’s honor on his arm. It is his only tattoo.
At this point, I doubt this case will ever be solved. Justice will never be served. But we can keep Robbie in our hearts. And we can take care of our own kids and teach them not to go with strangers or put their trust in the wrong people.