Wisconsin Department of Justice
Robert made plans with a friend who lived in Baraboo to go bow hunting on
September 17, 1977. Robert never made it to his friend’s home. His vehicle was found abandon the next day near the State Patrol relay antenna on Tower Road. The license plate was missing from the car and it no longer had wheels or tires or a car battery. Bloodhounds picked up on Robert’s scent near the area where the car was found, but they lost the trace when they got near Tower Road. The vehicle stripping revealed an unusual method of removing the wheels without the use of a jack. Police found the car’s hubcaps along with four old tires from another car in a quarry near the Badger Army Ammunition Plant by acting on a tip with information about this location. They concluded that the tires from his vehicle had been swapped with another vehicle’s worn-out tires and the hubcaps had just been dumped. Law enforcement is still uncertain if Robert’s car was stripped and ransacked in a separate crime unrelated to his disappearance or if there is a connection between the
events.
