5 of 8: The Tip

There are moments in a case where everything feels like it's about to change, not because you suddenly have answers, not because the mystery is over, but because, after years of circling the same questions, after years of trying to piece together something that never quite fits, after years of feeling like you're standing in the exact same place, something finally points somewhere, somewhere real, somewhere specific, somewhere you can actually go. And when that happens, it feels different. It feels like direction, it feels like movement. It feels like, for the first time in a long time, you might actually be getting closer to something, to an answer. And in Elisa Roberson's case, that moment didn't come in the beginning. It didn't come in the days or weeks after she disappeared. It came years later, when attention shifted towards something very specific, a property, a place that, for the first time in a long time, it felt like it might hold something real, something that had been missed, something that needed to be looked at again. But in cases like this, even when something feels like progress, that doesn't always mean it is, because sometimes the moment that feels like everything is finally coming together is actually the moment where everything starts to unravel. By the time this moment began to take shape, Alisa had already been gone for years, and that matters more than people realize, because when a case sits that long, it doesn't just go quiet. It changes. The urgency fades, the calls slow down, the attention shifts, and what you're left with is something that still exists but doesn't feel like it's moving forward for the family, though it never stops. The questions don't stop, the wondering doesn't stop, the need for answers doesn't stop, but the world around it does. And when you live inside that kind of stillness for long enough, you start to feel like you're stuck, like no matter what happens, no matter what people say, no matter how many conversations take place, you're not actually getting anywhere. So when something new starts to build in a case like that, it doesn't feel simple. It doesn't feel like relief at first. It feels fragile, like something that could disappear just as quickly as it showed up. You can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't think straight, you're crying, you're panicked, you're upset, you don't know where to start, you don't know where to you just don't know what to do, and it just consumes your whole life. And even forty years later, I mean, I'm still living my life and trying to be, you know, be as happy as I can. I still have to live my life and I want to be happy. But but I still at Lease is always there. It's never going to go away. It's a part of my everyday life. And when people say you have to move on, you have to live your life and you have to be happy. And you know, I'm happy. I'm happy, but I cannot drop it. I can't leave it and say I'm done. I tried to do that before. I tried to say I'm gonna do it. And I told myself when this started, I'm going to give myself a year and if in a year I've gotten nothing accomplished, I'm gonna walk away. And it took a year for stuff to start happening. To finally start happening, it took as a year of pushing and my letter writing campaign and my post and everything. It took a year to finally start seeing results. And it's almost addictive and you can't stop because the next good thing is around the corner, and the next thing is around the corner, and the highs are highs and the lows are lows, but you just keep one step at a time. That kind of waiting it changes how you hear everything, every phone call, every conversation, every time someone says we might have something, because you've already lived through what it feels like when something sounds important and then leads nowhere. So when this started to build, Ruby didn't rush into it. She felt it, but she held it at a distance. This part of the case didn't begin with the search. It didn't begin with a team showing up, It didn't begin with anything public. It began quietly with people who had been paying attention to this case for a long time and believed something had been overlooked, something that hadn't been fully explored, something that needed to be taken seriously, and instead of letting it set, they pushed it forward. Linda Thompson is the one that actually reached out to There was a person that she knew from Ransa's past. I don't know what her actual role was with Texas Equisearch, but she was the way she presented herself to us was she was a representative with Texas Equisearch. She was also from Ransa's past Texas and Linda had seen her on social media and she reached out to her and kind of told her, you know, talked to her about Alisa's case and said, you know it, asked if there was any way that maybe Texas Equisearch would be willing to search some of Bob Green's properties, and that's how that started. She then got her in contact with Tim Miller, the founder of Texas Equisearch. That detail matters because from the very beginning, this wasn't about the family home. It wasn't about turning attention inward. It was about directing attention somewhere else, somewhere they believed had been missed. At that point, this felt like direction, not theory, not speculation, something tangible, a real place, a place that people connected to the case believed needed to be searched. And when Texas Equasearch became involved, it changed the weight of it because now this wasn't just a conversation, it was action, it was movement. It was something that could actually move the case forward, and after everything the family had been through, that mattered more than anything. Bob like can say, he was sort of the main focus of Lena's investigation. He apparently owned several different properties and one of those was on thirteen, and then one of those was I think on around the area of seventh behind the elementary school. Lynda. I believe searched those properties as I understand it, and they may have been searched more than once. I'm not sure those are looked at there was. Linda had real problems with his story because he claimed that he was mowing the lawn over on thirteenth and then he got tired and then went to his property on thirteen, and there was apparently had his car parked in the shed. So anyway, he sort of remained a person of interest. Most of the officers that I spoke to, any people in official and official capacity, all tended to think that Bob Green was involved in some way. It was, you know, the perpetrator or involved in some way. And I got involved in the case and got in touch with Officer Deluna with the Texas Rangers, and he definitely felt that way. This wasn't random, This wasn't something that came out of nowhere. This was a direction that had been there for years, it just hadn't been fully followed through on. But even in the middle of that, something didn't feel right, not all at once, not in a way that immediately made sense, but in small moments in tone and the way people respond when something should feel collaborative and doesn't. Tim Miller, Linda Thompson, Mike Thompson went to talk to the Chief Blanchard and Captain Rhodes about what they were thinking. And Linda, who had spent she spent seventeen years on the police force in Ransa's Pass and served more than one term as the mayor pro temp in there in city council. So she was someone who a person who carried weight in that community, did a lot for the community, did a lot in the police department. And Mike Thompson spent twenty five plus years with the Uransis Past police department before he left there and went to Goliet County. So these are people who were well known and they knew them, and she said they were They came in to talk to the Chief and the Captain and they were treated very disrespectful, very rude. They basically told them they didn't they had no business being part of this. They didn't want them in it. They basically just cut them out. That kind of reaction it changes the tone immediately, because something that should feel like progress starts to feel like resistance. That was the first time Ecosearch went to Rand's Pass. They didn't do any actual search at that time. They just wanted to see the area, see the sites. We went with them. We got kind of a pretty much cold shoulder of both Chief Blanchard and Captain Rhodes. Matter of fact, when when we left the PD to go show ecuro search these different locations, Chief Blanchard took Captain Rhoades to do something else instead of patroling lovers. Actually, the attitude that I thought he put out was he thought we were there to steal his case. Rhodes, the facial expressions he gave us just like why are you here? Are you interfering with my cave? And when you hear both of those perspectives together, you start to understand this wasn't just tension. Something was off. From the very beginning. The family believed this was about those properties. That's what they were shown, that's what they understood, that's what they were preparing for and when you finally feel like you have something real in a case like this, you hold on to it because it feels like movement. My mom and I are down there. We had been contacted by Texas Equisearch. We knew Linda had reached out. They then reached out to us, and this representative had talked to us. She was a nice lady. I thought she was just very helpful and wanted to help us and get gathering as much information wanting to know about the case. And then we then get in contact with the police department or they contacted us, I can't remember, and they wanted to talk to us because we felt it was important that we went down. It was part of it was Elsa's memorial, and then part of it was we needed to be there for what was happening, and so my mom and I were on board. We went down there. They asked the police department asked if we would we would come in, and Texas ranger Tony Deluna came down. Captain Rhodes was there and they wanted to talk to my mom and I and they asked us if we'd be willing to come in to just go over just to talk about, you know, when Alisa went missing and answer questions. We just thought it was going to be just going over things and more in depth or whatnot. So we didn't see any harm in that. We felt, you know, it's important for us, you know, anything you need us to do where Lisa's family, we want to find a Lisa. We don't, We'll be there. And so now, because of how traumatic it was and how dizzying the whole experience was, I have a hard time remembering the sequence of events. My mom remembers a little bit more. For me, it's kind of all just thrown in in a bag and I remember certain but it's not linear. So so you'll have to forgive me. It's hard for me to remember those details. That's how traumatic that experience was. And my sister's experience was traumatic, but it was it was, it was. It was traumatic in a different way. This one. They were coming at us, like they were everyone was coming at us. We go into this these interviews, these initial interviews, and my mom said it felt like hours. So first I went in to talk to them and it just felt like they were asking the same question. They were asking a lot of questions, but one of the questions. I felt they kept trying to get me to talk about or to say that my mom was abusing us. It's like they were trying to get me to to say something that wasn't true, that didn't happen. They were asking me the same question in different ways, asking if my mom beat us, asking if my mom abused us, asking if I if she hit a Lisa, asking if they had a fight. I mean, it just was over and over again, and I just felt like how many times do I have to keep answering this question. That realization It doesn't happen instantly. It builds, and by the time you understand what's actually happening, everything already feels different. After that happened, you would have thought, and I don't know what we were thinking at the time, like we were, I don't even know we were just you know, when you're just kind of going through the motions because you're there's a lot of trauma happening. Just going back to my childhood home is traumatic. I finally am getting to a point that when I go, I have found joy again, some joy in it because there were happy memories there. You know, it's where my siblings grew up where we had good times and we laughed, we rode our bikes. And only in the last couple of years, even though it's sad and traumatic, I've only in the last few years been able to find some happiness and joy of being in where the beaches are, you know, where the shrimp boats, where my dad were as a shrimper, and where we'd come off the dogs, and where my dad would take us when he was on a shrimp boat trip. He'd take us little kids and talk on the CBE radio and we'd go for a day or a couple days and he'd bring us back or take us to the beach and my mom. You know, there were good times. We had good times, even though there were hard times. And at that time it was just there was a lot going and it was more traumatic going back because there was a lot of unresolved pain that I hadn't yet quite So it's almost like going through the mulchs is the best way I can explain it. And so they're telling us, you know, do this, do that. We're doing it, and then they're asking my mom if she's willing to take a polygraph, and she said yes, And hindsight's twenty twenty. If I would have been Sharper, I would have realized they're looking at us. And if my mom and I would have talked more. We're more open now and we're open and we can talk to each other. But at that point in time, there's something that trauma does to you where it sometimes almost clams you up, sometimes where you just can't talk about it and it's just so painful. And I think that's what happened. We weren't really talking about it. And I wish I would have had the presence of mind to say, no, Mom, that's it. We're done talking to them. They're trying to get you to compass, and I'm not letting you go in. And I felt like I handed my mom over to the to the executioner, like you know, and I felt like I should have been. I have so much guilt for not protecting my mom when she needed me the most, and they were turning on her too, and my mom took the polygraph. I came and picked her up, and then they stopped me before I could even get to my mom and come pick her up. They stopped me in the parking lot and Captain Rhoades and ranger to Tony Deluna stopped me out in the parking lot and they said to me, your mom failed the polygraph. She failed the polygraph. She did something to Alisa. She she killed her. And you know what happened, Ruby, You know what happened. You were there, you witnessed it. You're probably blocking it. You need to just come. You're the one that holds the key to solving this crime, and you're gonna have to you. You just get You're gonna have to do it. Ruby. This is on you. And I'm crying and I'm upset, and I'm saying, what are you talking about? Like I was, I was there, and I will I will stand by it again and again and again. I was there. I was there when Alisa was home, I was there when she left the home. I was there when my mom was there, and I'm going to stand by it, and I'm going to stand by it till I'm blue in the face. There was never any altercation between my mom and Alisa. There was never a fight. They weren't even fighting. Alisa just came home and then her friend called and asked if she could go back out. My mom said no, and then her friend said well, Ken, I'll meet you halfway and my dad will drop you off. And my mom said, okay, then that'll work, and that was it. Alisa was out the door and so I'm trying to tell them I was there, that didn't happen, and it's they wouldn't listen to me. They wouldn't care, they wouldn't listen. They didn't even care. They had it in their mind. They knew what happened, and the only way to do it is to get me. They were All they were doing was you have to confess, Ruby, and you have to tell what you know. And it was so traumatic. And when I got my mom finally, because my mom said, they wouldn't let her leave the building. They told her you sit down there, don't leave. So she felt like she was going to be arrested. When they told her, she went to get up to leave the building and they told her you wait there, you sit there, And they came out and talked to me and she she literally she told me, she goes Ruby. I didn't think I was gonna be leaving. I didn't I thought they were gonna arrest me. So they illegally kept her, told her she couldn't leave held her there, and I get so angry because I didn't know all of this until we actually were able to get to a point to start talking about it. That they they wanted to get to me first before my mom did, I think, And they were trying to put a wedge between us. So when I finally got to my mom and got her in the car, and I and I'm crying and I'm upset and my mom. At the time, I didn't realize what it was. But looking back, I see what happened. She was she had been going She was like in shock, I think because she's sitting there, she's not saying anything. I'm like, Mom, what happened? Like what just happened? What just happened? Like they just told me this what just happened? And she's like, you know, trying to I said, what did they ask to you? What did they say? And she goes, well, they asked me if And I find I found myself and again I feel so bad. I'm sorry. I don't get so riled up like I get taken right back to the moment, but I found myself getting upset with my mom and I said, what did you say? Mom? Like, what did you say that made them think that you did something to Alisa, and she's like, well, I answered their questions, and then she goes, why what do you think now you're with them too, you think that you think that what they're saying to you is true, You think that that I'm lying. And so then we started fighting and at the time I didn't realize what was happening again until years down the road and she was telling me. They asked her, do you know what happened to Alisa? And she said no, But in her mind, she says, I'm thinking yes, because I feel very strongly that Ralph can that Ralph took her. So that's what I believe happened. And I know what happened. But then they're asking you, do you know what happened? So I said no, and she thinks that's the question that got her to show deception because she, in her heart of hearts, believes Ralph took Alisa. But she's saying no, And and so her and I were You know that the rest of that trip was horrible because we were so traumatized, and then we started going back and forth, you know, fighting, and it's hard to talk about, but I think the best thing for healing is sometimes to be honest and just to talk about it. And and I believe they purposely put a wedge between us to get us to fight, so that we can turn on each other. That was their mindset, that we're my mom's guilty, I know, and the way to make us turn on each other is to to do this wedge and make it so that we're that I turn on her or whatever that in their minds they were thinking. And to the state, because my mom's never been able to We've requested her records for that polygraph test and they said they won't give it to her. To this day, we don't know if she even failed it, because we know that it's a technique that a lot of detectives will use, is that they will tell you failed the test to then again rattle the cage and get you to you know, but but you passed it. And so we don't know if that's just what they told us, or if that's the truth that she failed it. We don't know because we haven't been able to verify that. So after that, I think I just had a you know, I had a mental breakdown from that thing. And on top of that. So that was just the beginning. Right then you get Texas Eco Search coming in and they did a search on our house. And then pretty soon the you know, Debbie Green is talking to me at the beginning, and then they stopped talking to me. The representatives start to stop answering my questions because I just wanted to know, you know, as a family member, I felt that it was it was our right to know what was going on as family members of a missing person, and they were not talking to me. Tim Miller wouldn't return my calls, he wouldn't answer my emails. Nobody was answering my emails or my calls to tell me. You know, I need to know as a family member. We need to know because they they required that we filled out something as the family so that they can continue this search. At the very beginning, they had us fill out a form or something saying where the family almost not necessarily giving them permission. I'm not sure what the form was, but it was something saying that we almost like were on board. And so they stopped talking to us, and this we could we couldn't get the truth from the police. Nobody would tell us. The only thing that we know is a couple of within days of the search, Captain Kyle Rhodes either he called me or I called him, but he told me that they found what they believed to be human remains in this home. After they excavated, we found what we believed to be human remains. We're gonna be sending these soil samples to be tested, and there's within days, we're gonna be making an arrest within days, is what he told me. I'm not lying, that is what he told me, not lying. And so I'm telling my mom this and she goes, what is he talking about. So they're saying he found they found Elisa. Like I said, Mom, they said they found remains and they were going to be arresting someone. And she goes, what are they talking about. Like I said, Mom, they're talking about you. They're they're making threats that they found Lisa's body, her remains, and that they're going to arrest you. And we kept asking for information. Weeks go by, months, years, year after year. I call, I call and call, and never could get never could get a the straight answer of what was done, on what was found, never found any of the results. We have scoured records here and there trying to find the results of these remains that were supposedly sent to Texas A and M. Nobody can find them, so we don't know if it was done, if they did follow up, if they didn't follow up. We just know they just close shop took off. That was the end of that. We were left to pick up the pieces because this representative from Texas Equisearch went online and started harassing our family, blasting everything that happened at that search, said they had a cadaver dog that made a positive hit and that there were remains that were evidence of remains that were found, and that we're guilty. We killed Elisa, we buried her. She lasted it all over social media. It took me five years to finally reach out to Texas Equisearch again to find out if this is standard procedure. Do you have a representative of yours? Is this something that you encourage your represent to do after a search, is to go on social media and talk about what was done with these digs, what was what was what was found it everything that I've found. You know, there's a form that volunteers have to fill out with Texas Eco Search that say you're not to talk to social You're not supposed to post anything about these searches. This is supposed to be. If anybody makes any kind of statement, it's Tim Miller. I asked him about this representative. Did she really work? Because I to this day I don't know if that was something she was lying too. I mean, we had so many people lying to us, and all she could tell me was all I can tell you is she no longer works for us. And we don't condone this, but we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna look into this. And and she never got back to me. That's the part that stays long after everything else moves on. And for Ruby, that moment didn't just change how she saw the investigation, It changed how she experienced the entire case moving forward. This didn't solve the case, It didn't answer the question, but it changed everything around it. Because once trust breaks, it doesn't come back the same. And from that point forward, every new development, every new lead, every new moment that should feel like progress, comes with something else attached to it. I don't know what they think they failed. I don't know what they said, what kind of evidence they think they have. If you got some kind of evidence. What are you sitting there for? This is something we were looking for. We know what this is. There's no reason to sit on it for ten years. That question, it stays. The tip didn't solve Alisa Roberson's case, but it changed it because for the first time in years, it felt like the case had direction, like it was finally moving towards something real. But what followed didn't bring answers. It brought something else, something that would stay with the family long after the search ended. Next time, on The Unseen Truth, you'll hear directly from Ruby her story, what she lived through growing up, what her family experienced behind closed doors, and everything they've been carrying all these years, because this case isn't just about what happened to Elisa, It's about what her family has been living with ever since. The Unseen Truth is a Reignited Media production, hosted, edited and produced by me John Rivera. A special thank you to Reignited Media's own Sam Cole and Rose George for their support in scheduling and conducting the interviews that made the season possible.