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They are the last people to see Robin , plus the ONLY people to see the suspect ?I wonder. It's a really good idea, Markybug.
She was headed onto the freeway having no gas in her car.... She runs out of gas on the onramp.... She calls her parents saying she was out of gas... Police stops to help.... She tells him she called her parents. And a while later (?) the cop drives by AGAIN, sees a male out there...
She walked to a pay phone located where? and then back to her car? How long did that take?
Did the cop drive by earlier and see her, as she walked back and forth to a pay phone, before he offered to help? Did the "male" have a gas can? Was he old enough looking to be her dad? She said parents were coming....
I just think there are too many holes in this story...
Ok. And then the cop drives by again..... And claims to see a 25-26 yr old man.... This should have grabbed the officers attention, because she stated her parents were coming. That guy could not have been her dad... Was the cop that naïve or just acting stupid? There have been many officers who were actually killing people habitually in those days... They could usually get away with it...It is possible there was a police officer with bad intent. It seems just as likely to me though that having checked on Robin several times, and hearing she called home for help, then seeing her with someone helping her, they assumed it was a relative or friend. Everything I have ever read indicates the man was in his 20s, so I doubt LE thought it was Robin's father. I cannot fault them for not checking yet another time though, if she did not appear in distress and it looked as though he was helping her. They likely saw a young man and thought he was a brother, a boyfriend, etc.
And according to the Wiki, Robin actually DID use a call box.
"Graham had earlier used a call box to ask a CHP emergency operator to let her parents know she had run out of gas..."
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Disappearance of Robin Graham - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
IIRC, those call boxes were always free in SoCal. I am sure they saved lives. It is too bad they are removing them since some may not have a working cell phone when they need help. I can understand why they would, however, since that scenario may be relatively rare nowadays.I cannot speak for California in the early 70s, but elsewhere in the US, even until the early 00's some places still had pay phones at mile markers along stretches of interstate highways in case of breakdowns. I always assumed, perhaps incorrectly, this is the type of phone used when I read about a highway breakdown in this era.
Edited: I just found this. It looks as though some sections of highway in California still have call boxes, but they have mostly been removed. Riverside County to remove 225 highway call boxes, some are never used "Call boxes are mounted on poles that are 14 feet tall. Yellow boxes like the ones we have today debuted in 1962 in Los Angeles County and spread to Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in the 1980s and early 1990s. Droves of distressed drivers have sought them out when broken down on the freeway. But calls have plummeted in recent years"
I thought Robin said she called home and help was on the way, not specifically that her father was coming to help her? I may be mistaken though.Ok. And then the cop drives by again..... And claims to see a 25-26 yr old man.... This should have grabbed the officers attention, because she stated her parents were coming. That guy could not have been her dad... Was the cop that naïve or just acting stupid? There have been many officers who were actually killing people habitually in those days... They could usually get away with it...
Call boxes only connected you to an employee; so it wasn't a direct call home anyway. She did not speak to her family on that phone..I thought Robin said she called home and help was on the way, not specifically that her father was coming to help her? I may be mistaken though.
She was one of 9 childrenI think Robin had more than one sister, based off what her mother says in this article.
'I just wanted to show she wasn't forgotten.' - December 15, 1987