shadowangel
Black cats consider me unlucky.
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2005
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When I find an older case that interests me, I try to find as much info as I can-looking for coincidences or patterns that may not have been evident at the time. When I find one, a bug crawls into my brain and won't leave until I put the info out there for others to examine and comment upon. Links are at the end of the post and noted as such in the post. Here goes....
Robin was last believed to have last been seen at around 2am on Monday, January 20th, of 1997, leaving the Heartbreakers bar in Neptune NJ (but may have left as early as 12:30 [1]). Witnesses from the bar stated that Robin had asked for a ride to a bar in South Amboy, Delilah's Den, about 30 minutes north of Neptune. No one in attendance at Delilah's Den recalled Robin arriving there; however, her jacket and other personal effects were found in the woods behind the South Amboy bar (I have been unable to confirm if the jacket found matched the description of the one Robin was said to have been wearing when she was last seen).
At about 6:30 later that morning, a young woman was struck and killed along Rt 280 outside of Kearny, NJ, approximately 30 minutes north of South Amboy and about an hour north of Neptune [2]. The time of the accident can be found on the report the NJ trooper is holding in the article's first photo. It's stated that she was walking along Rt 280 when hit, but I'm not sure if that comes from other witness reports or is an assumption on the part of the police. The driver who hit her stated that he felt a "thump" and then called police from a local gas station.
At first glance, I admit there is little, other than timing, to connect the two. However, that in itself was the first thing that struck me. A young woman goes missing, and another young woman is hit by a vehicle within 4 hours and an hours' drive of where the missing girl was last seen? Add to that the distinct possibility that the missing girl was headed in the direction of where the accident occurred, and may have been less than a half-hour's drive away? Amboy to Kearny is nearly a "straight shot" along I-95, and then only a mile or so along Rt 280 (which is a heavily-travelled stretch of highway, by both commuters and truckers).
Now, where things get interesting-descriptions. Robin is listed at 105 pounds, which personally I have to take with the proverbial grain of salt. When she was dancing, maybe... But raising three sons and working toward a nursing degree? I have to believe there were many stress-filled nights spent cuddling a pint of Ben and Jerry's with a large spoon. The weight of our unidentified young woman (to whom I will refer as Rt 280 Doe) varies depending on the report. Doe Network [3] and NamUs [5] list her weight as 140-150, while the original posting by the NJ State Police (listed in Passaic County, for some odd reason, as the accident occurred in Hudson County) as 120-125 [4]. The reason for the discrepancy is easy enough to understand-280 Doe was so severely injured in the accident that neither her height nor weight could be determined accurately. In fact, law enforcement couldn't even create a reconstruction of her face.
Robin is listed as 5'02", and 280 Doe (in the single report that lists height) is estimated to have been 5'00 to 5'05".
Robin was 28 when she disappeared; 280 Doe is listed on all sites as being between 25 and 35.
Clothing? No one has, to my knowledge, accurately described what Robin was wearing when she disappeared (other than the possible coat, which may be the one found in South Amboy). As so much could have occurred during those early morning hours, I'm not relying too heavily on clothing as an identifier in any case. The temperature in the area dropped to below 20 during that night.
Eye color and hair color are similar, and straight hair of 5 inches or so in length could have been drawn back into a servicable pony-tail. Again, I refer to the condition of 280 Doe and make some allowances for any discrepancies there.
The largest discrepancy, and that one that generated the most research, is race. Robin is listed as either Caucasian or bi-racial, with some black ancestry. 280 Doe is listed as "race-black", "ethnicity-Hispanic/Latino". I have no idea why there would be two different listings here-was the assumption that she was either a light-skinned African-American or Latino? Having no facial features to which to refer certainly made identification extremely difficult. Could Robin have passed as either? The fact that she has at least some African ancestry is stated many times. I have tried to determine the exact extent of her ancestry, but haven't had an abundance of luck so far. I did discover that Robin has two half-sisters, twins, who are African-American (one of them, Teresa Brooks, changed her name to Teresa Africa upon joining the "radical lifestyle" group MOVE in the early 80s. In 1985, she was killed along with ten others when the Philadelphia police used military-grade explosives on MOVE's residential headquarters).
I found an article on another issue from Robin's disappearance. Doe Network, as well as most articles about Robin's disappearance, mention the man with whom Robin was last seen. According to this article [1], police interviewed the man who was positively identified by employees of Heartbreakers. Also in the article, Robin's mother states that Robin was having an affair with a married man. She had spent Sunday evening with him in his office before going to Heartbreakers. The mother states that this man told her Robin was upset that he was not planning on leaving his wife for her.
Very confusing and convoluted, to say the least.
[1] http://articles.philly.com/1997-01-...fles-family-police-station-tuesday-night-sons
[2] http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/nj_state_trooper_hoping_dna_da.html
[3] http://doenetwork.org/cases/1014ufnj.html
[4] http://www.njsp.org/miss/ui_passaic_u016562720.html
[5] https://identifyus.org/cases/1776
Robin was last believed to have last been seen at around 2am on Monday, January 20th, of 1997, leaving the Heartbreakers bar in Neptune NJ (but may have left as early as 12:30 [1]). Witnesses from the bar stated that Robin had asked for a ride to a bar in South Amboy, Delilah's Den, about 30 minutes north of Neptune. No one in attendance at Delilah's Den recalled Robin arriving there; however, her jacket and other personal effects were found in the woods behind the South Amboy bar (I have been unable to confirm if the jacket found matched the description of the one Robin was said to have been wearing when she was last seen).
At about 6:30 later that morning, a young woman was struck and killed along Rt 280 outside of Kearny, NJ, approximately 30 minutes north of South Amboy and about an hour north of Neptune [2]. The time of the accident can be found on the report the NJ trooper is holding in the article's first photo. It's stated that she was walking along Rt 280 when hit, but I'm not sure if that comes from other witness reports or is an assumption on the part of the police. The driver who hit her stated that he felt a "thump" and then called police from a local gas station.
At first glance, I admit there is little, other than timing, to connect the two. However, that in itself was the first thing that struck me. A young woman goes missing, and another young woman is hit by a vehicle within 4 hours and an hours' drive of where the missing girl was last seen? Add to that the distinct possibility that the missing girl was headed in the direction of where the accident occurred, and may have been less than a half-hour's drive away? Amboy to Kearny is nearly a "straight shot" along I-95, and then only a mile or so along Rt 280 (which is a heavily-travelled stretch of highway, by both commuters and truckers).
Now, where things get interesting-descriptions. Robin is listed at 105 pounds, which personally I have to take with the proverbial grain of salt. When she was dancing, maybe... But raising three sons and working toward a nursing degree? I have to believe there were many stress-filled nights spent cuddling a pint of Ben and Jerry's with a large spoon. The weight of our unidentified young woman (to whom I will refer as Rt 280 Doe) varies depending on the report. Doe Network [3] and NamUs [5] list her weight as 140-150, while the original posting by the NJ State Police (listed in Passaic County, for some odd reason, as the accident occurred in Hudson County) as 120-125 [4]. The reason for the discrepancy is easy enough to understand-280 Doe was so severely injured in the accident that neither her height nor weight could be determined accurately. In fact, law enforcement couldn't even create a reconstruction of her face.
Robin is listed as 5'02", and 280 Doe (in the single report that lists height) is estimated to have been 5'00 to 5'05".
Robin was 28 when she disappeared; 280 Doe is listed on all sites as being between 25 and 35.
Clothing? No one has, to my knowledge, accurately described what Robin was wearing when she disappeared (other than the possible coat, which may be the one found in South Amboy). As so much could have occurred during those early morning hours, I'm not relying too heavily on clothing as an identifier in any case. The temperature in the area dropped to below 20 during that night.
Eye color and hair color are similar, and straight hair of 5 inches or so in length could have been drawn back into a servicable pony-tail. Again, I refer to the condition of 280 Doe and make some allowances for any discrepancies there.
The largest discrepancy, and that one that generated the most research, is race. Robin is listed as either Caucasian or bi-racial, with some black ancestry. 280 Doe is listed as "race-black", "ethnicity-Hispanic/Latino". I have no idea why there would be two different listings here-was the assumption that she was either a light-skinned African-American or Latino? Having no facial features to which to refer certainly made identification extremely difficult. Could Robin have passed as either? The fact that she has at least some African ancestry is stated many times. I have tried to determine the exact extent of her ancestry, but haven't had an abundance of luck so far. I did discover that Robin has two half-sisters, twins, who are African-American (one of them, Teresa Brooks, changed her name to Teresa Africa upon joining the "radical lifestyle" group MOVE in the early 80s. In 1985, she was killed along with ten others when the Philadelphia police used military-grade explosives on MOVE's residential headquarters).
I found an article on another issue from Robin's disappearance. Doe Network, as well as most articles about Robin's disappearance, mention the man with whom Robin was last seen. According to this article [1], police interviewed the man who was positively identified by employees of Heartbreakers. Also in the article, Robin's mother states that Robin was having an affair with a married man. She had spent Sunday evening with him in his office before going to Heartbreakers. The mother states that this man told her Robin was upset that he was not planning on leaving his wife for her.
Very confusing and convoluted, to say the least.
[1] http://articles.philly.com/1997-01-...fles-family-police-station-tuesday-night-sons
[2] http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/nj_state_trooper_hoping_dna_da.html
[3] http://doenetwork.org/cases/1014ufnj.html
[4] http://www.njsp.org/miss/ui_passaic_u016562720.html
[5] https://identifyus.org/cases/1776
