Dark Downeast - The Disappearance of Ralph Robbins (Massachusetts)

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

When Ralph Robbins went missing in 1993, his disappearance seemed to be forgotten almost as soon as it was reported. Now over 30 years later, his daughter is searching for answers, but more than anything, she wants closure. If you have any information about the 1993 disappearance of Ralph “Roby” Robbins, please contact Massachusetts State Police Lt. Ann Marie Robertson at [phone]. View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/ralphrobbins Dark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case

When Ralph Robbins went missing in 1993, his disappearance seemed to be forgotten almost as soon as it was reported. Now, over 30 years later, his daughter is searching for answers. But more than anything, she wants closure. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Ralph Robbie Robbins on Dark Down East. Ralph Robbins, who went by Robbie, never got angry. He was always a happy, playful guy. That's the version his daughter Vicky remembers most.

He was very outgoing, funny. He was usually like the jokester of the family, and there was never really a dull moment with him around. He did have, we would have serious talks, like he did have a serious side. But I only have happy, funny memories of him. He was a pretty cool guy. Robbie and Vicky's mother were young when they had her, and they didn't stay together as a couple, but they did stay friends and co-parents. Vicky split her time between her mom's house and her dad's place in Taunton, Massachusetts, whenever he wasn't traveling for work. They made special

memories as father and daughter. Robbie was a member of the Wampanoag Nation, so when they were together, he shared that with Vicki, as well as his love of motorcycles. And when I saw him, it would be sometimes every other weekend. It would just depend on where we were in our lives because he traveled a lot. But the times that we did have,

we'd go to the Native American powwows or he'd take me for a ride on his motorcycle. We had a lot of one-on-one time. She was always told that his traveling was because of his job as a commercial fisherman. From what I thought, so he traveled a lot. He'd be home and then he'd have to go away for a month, sometimes a few weeks. And I always thought what I was told was that he was a commercial fisherman. So that's where I thought he went.

But I didn't really know details. And I never asked at that age, you know, you just know your dad's working and that's what he does. When she was younger, Robbie had a steady girlfriend that Vicki really liked, but had more recently started dating a woman from Arizona who she only met once. When she was younger, Robbie had a steady girlfriend that Vicky really liked, but had more recently started dating a woman from Arizona who she only met once. She thought it was strange that her dad had a long-distance relationship, and she told me she didn't get a good feeling about the woman. But she was also 15 years old and didn't question what her dad was doing with his romantic life. Other than this long-distance girlfriend,

Vicky doesn't know much about her dad's social life outside of the time they spent together. She never met his friends or co-workers. And his social life, he didn't really have me around any friends. He kept me completely separate from that part of his life. Like when I say we had spent a lot of time together, it was, if we weren't with our family,

it was just him and I one-on-one. I was his only child. So I don't really know about his social life. He didn't talk about that a whole lot. All in all, Robbie was an involved, devoted father. It was just a good time. It felt like we were always bonding. It was quality time. We had good quality time.

Vicki and her father were making plans for more good quality time together in early September. She had no idea that an ordinary phone call one night would be the last time she ever spoke with her father. Vicky was getting ready for bed at her mom's house on September 1st, 1993, when her dad called. He wanted to bring her shopping after school the following day. But the last time I spoke to him was the night before he was supposed to pick me up. It was September 1st. And as far as I know, I think I'm the last person

that had known contact with him. But he called me maybe around nine o'clock, eight or nine o'clock before I was going to bed. And we had made plans for the next day. He was going to pick me up at four o'clock after school at my mom's to go school shopping. And he just, that was it. We said, we love each other and talk to you tomorrow. And he was going to call me before when he was on his way. Four o'clock rolled around on September 2nd, and then 4.30 and 5 p.m. But Robbie didn't show up.

He didn't call either. Vicky was just confused at first. He wasn't an unreliable guy, especially not with her. Like when he said he was going to call, he called. If he said he was going to pick me up, he'd pick me up. She was 15 years old at the time, so old enough to work through some possible scenarios and cut her dad some slack if their plans had just slipped his mind or if something came up at the last minute. It didn't register in my head to be worried. Like, I was more confused, and I thought, well, maybe he had to do something and he forgot,

which my realistic brain knew, like, he did not forget. He has never forgotten. But, you know, then there's the other side, like, well, maybe he did. Maybe he just forgot. Maybe he had something to do, because you can't rationalize that, oh, he possibly could have forgotten me. She went to bed that night without hearing from her dad, still very confused, but not yet concerned. On the second day with no word from him, that's when the panic set in.

She started calling his apartment. I did, over and over. And at that time, we just had landlines. We didn't have cell phones. So when I would call, either there was no answer. I think the first week or so, there was just no answer. And maybe after that, his roommate would answer here and there and just would say, no, he's not here. Being gone for longer stretches of time wasn't out of character for Robbie.

He traveled for work all the time. But this was different. Vicky's mother had a sense something weird was going on too, but she didn't say anything to Vicky about it. I noticed my family was being secretive towards me about whatever was going on with him. When they finally did talk about her dad, it was a conversation that confirmed Vicky's worst fears. She sat down and talked to me. She had called my step-grandmother at the time to come over, and they sat me down and told me about the phone calls that they received and

that they don't believe my dad's coming back. No one had heard from Robbie for at least seven days when the phone rang at Vicki's house. Her mother picked up to hear the voice of a man speaking in an urgent tone. And he had said that he was an insurance adjuster or an insurance agency that needed to get a hold of my dad right away because there was this big insurance policy that my dad was to inherit. And my mom hadn't been with him in years, but she knew something was up. She'd already known he'd been missing and now this.

So she just told him that she hadn't been with him in a long, long time, that she doesn't know where he is. But the man on the other end of the line was insistent. Her heart had to have been beating into her throat as the man spoke these next words. And then he said, if they didn't find my dad soon, I would not come home from school.

And then the man hung up. Until that call, Vicky's family tried to keep their conversations about whatever was going on with her dad hush-hush, likely to not raise any more alarm than what she was already feeling on her own. But there was no putting it off. The man on the phone made a clear threat, and Vicky needed to know. My mom and my grandmother did sit me down and tell me that. It was a lot to take in for anybody, you know, especially being 15. So I changed my bus route.

I started riding my friend's bus. I just changed things up, you know, and I was more hypervigilant. Thankfully, nothing happened to Vicky. Either her hypervigilance and safety precautions worked, or it was an empty threat to begin with. But then the phone rang again. Vicki's mother recognized the voice as soon as she picked up the call. About a week later, she got another phone call,

and this was the final phone call. And she said it was the same man, same voice, and he had said, Do you know Robbie? And she says, yes. And the man said, well, you don't anymore. And hung up the phone and that was it. Robbie's family was already concerned for his safety after more than a week without any contact. But the threatening phone calls had them fearing the worst.

It was Vicky's grandmother, Robbie's mother, who ultimately reported him missing. My grandmother had to come home from Florida to file a missing person report on him. But I don't know the exact date, and I'm not sure what efforts were made. I was never asked anything. I never saw a law enforcement official or anybody. And maybe they shield me from that as well, but I would think, especially being 15, you're old enough to be asked questions. But I have no idea. I have no idea what efforts were made.

Based on what Vicky knows now, more than 30 years later, it's reasonable to assume that little was done to locate Robbie Robbins. Because about a year after he was initially reported missing, Robbie's family went to the Taunton police station to see if they'd learned anything or had any leads. But there were no updates to report. It seemed like the police didn't even know Robbie was missing. My family went to check on the report to see if anything has come up or just, you know, to check on it.

And they had to refile another missing person report because that original one wasn't in the system, but nobody knew why. So my grandmother filed a second one. Whatever the circumstances were, Taunton police didn't have any record of the initial missing person's report. It was like his disappearance had never been reported at all. There's really no telling just how detrimental this may have been to future attempts at locating Robbie. They lost an entire year. However, it seems things were finally happening in his case after that second report was filed. Sometime around the one-year mark, Robbie's car turned up in an unusual place it was found a year later and newark new jersey airport abandoned but here's the thing no one knows

exactly how long the car was there if anything suspicious was found on or in the car, or how it even got there. Because airport security had it towed before anyone took a good look at it. As far as Vicky has been told, police never recovered the vehicle as evidence. It was never processed for fingerprints or DNA, nothing. I believe it was the airport security that found it because it had been sitting there for so long and they towed it to a tow yard or a junk yard and pretty much that was the end of that. It wasn't gone through. There was nothing done with it. It's probably one of the most frustrating things I've ever heard in a missing persons case. I can't help but think, if the initial missing persons report hadn't mysteriously disappeared,

maybe police would have sent out a bolo for Robbie's car early on. Maybe if the airport found the car sooner, investigators would have been able to impound it and treat it as evidence. Maybe they would have checked flight manifests to see if Robbie boarded a flight out of Newark at some point. It was 1993, so certainly nowhere near the post-9-11 security we have at airports now, but it would have been worth a shot, right? Maybe there would have been CCTV footage to check or something. There are so many maybes and what-ifs and questions. And for Vicky, her dad's car being in New Jersey doesn't make a ton of sense. Sure, he traveled a lot, but the Newark airport is over four and a half hours away from Massachusetts. Vicki remembers flying out of Boston and sometimes

Providence, Rhode Island with her dad, but Newark wasn't his regular airport. So if he had to, if like if something happened and he had to leave immediately, I mean so quickly that he had to, you know, ditch our plans and not even call me or anybody, you would think he would go to the nearest airport because he was in Taunton. He wouldn't go all the way to Newark, New Jersey, is my thought. Without the car or any other leads, investigators didn't have much to go on after a year. But I don't even know if I can say that Robbie's case went cold because it seems it was frozen solid from the very start. Vicki learned most of what she knows about her father's disappearance

through conversations with her family members years after the fact. Her mother, grandparents, aunts, and uncles all sheltered her from it for as long as they could. And I understand they were trying to protect me and not hurt me, but I had to basically tell them, okay, I am of this age now and I need to know things. Whether it's going to hurt me regardless, I need to know. It hurts me to not know. So they told her everything they knew. One of the biggest revelations was something Vicki had begun to suspect as she got older. Her father was not really a commercial fisherman. That was a cover story for Robbie's frequent travels. In reality, he grew and sold weed. He had a weed farm. This part I found out years later from my family.

He had a weed farm. I don't know if it was in Idaho or Iowa or somewhere over there. And I guess that's why he traveled. And he would bring it home and sell it. There was no dancing around it. Robbie's activities had him running in shady circles. So when my mom sat me down, she told me a little bit, you know, that he was into the weed trade business. And I don't remember how much she told me at the time, but basically that he was involved with people that, you know, were not good people. She learned something else about her dad's activities, too.

Something that seemed like it could have everything to do with why she never saw her dad again. I was told that he was warned way back years ago to back off. Like maybe he was selling in their territory or maybe he was selling weed to their customers. I'm not sure. But I know this mobster group and him working independently was not working out. And from what I understand, he was either asked to take a hike or he worked for them. And my dad was very stubborn and very determined and said, no, this is, I'm doing my own thing. Was that the key to her dad's disappearance?

His stubbornness in the face of threats from a shadowy mobster figure? It might sound like a movie plotline, but the fact is, organized crime has deep roots in Boston and Greater New England. In Taunton specifically, where Robbie was living at the time of his disappearance, there's one name that kept popping up as I researched possible organized crime activity in the area. Gordon O'Brien. Gordon O'Brien was a known associate of the Patriarcha crime family, and the list of crimes to his name is long and violent. According to reporting by Karen Jeffrey for the Cape Cod Times,

O'Brien was one of four men who kidnapped and sexually assaulted a woman in Taunton before throwing her body out of a moving vehicle. He was charged and convicted of rape in 1971 and received a 40 to 50 year sentence. However, that conviction was overturned on appeal a few years later, and he took a reduced sentence for a lesser charge. In 1990, O'Brien was implicated in a plot to kidnap and kill a Providence, Rhode Island bookmaker with ties to the Patriarchal Crime Family named Bles Marfeo. I guess there was a power struggle between the Boston and Providence factions of the family at the time. The plot was foiled, but O'Brien and a few others were

arrested and charged in connection with the attempt. Among the other suspects was a man named Kevin Hanneran. Hanneran was a freelance enforcer working for the Patriarca crime family with a violent criminal history himself. Both O'Brien and Hanrahan's names are connected to a 1991 homicide case, that of Howard Farini. On August 21, 1991, the body of 53-year-old Howard Farini was found in the trunk of his Cadillac, parked in the garage at Boston Logan International Airport. According to reporting by Dave Crombie for the Providence Journal, a parking lot attendant saw blood coming from the trunk of the car while doing a routine inventory of the garage, and he called police.

Howard's death was ruled a homicide, and police were calling it a gangland-style killing. The autopsy found he was likely killed the same day he was last seen, about a week earlier, and he'd suffered a blow to the head with a hammer. His cause of death, though, was ruled asphyxia due to a plastic bag covering his face and tied around his neck. Howard Farini was known as a quote-unquote professional gambler in the greater Boston area, and he always carried a large sum of cash on him. He also hung out with some shady characters in the Fall River and Taunton area. In fact, police had reason to believe that when they were looking for Gordon O'Brien in connection with the plot to kidnap and kill Blaise Marfeo, O'Brien may have

been hiding out at Howard's apartment. But for some reason, back in 1991, police said that Howard's murder probably wasn't connected to O'Brien or organized crime. They theorized that whoever killed Howard probably knew he had a bunch of money on him, and that was the motive for the murder, despite the fact that his jewelry and wallet were still on him when he was found. Howard's murder eventually went cold. His daughter later said she believed because of his criminal history, Howard's case wasn't given much attention and it went unsolved for 30 years. That is, until the Bristol County

District Attorney's Office and Massachusetts State Police announced they'd reopened the investigation. According to Hannah Sudborough's reporting for the Taunton Daily Gazette, investigators announced in March of 2021 that they'd identified a fingerprint on the plastic bag found around Howard's head. It matched prints on file for Kevin Hanrahan, that so-called enforcer who was implicated in the kidnapping attempt with Gordon O'Brien and who had numerous other convictions.

But despite the fingerprint match, investigators aren't calling Howard Farini's case totally solved. Evidence showed that Howard was attacked at his home and then moved to his car, which was then driven and left at the airport parking garage. So it's likely more than one person was involved in his killing. Investigators are still looking for information relating to Howard's murder and have yet to identify additional suspects in the case. Now I'm bringing this all up because of one similarity to Robbie's case that is giving me pause.

As I told you, Howard was missing for a week before his car was found parked at an airport with his body inside. Robbie's car was found parked at an airport a year after he disappeared, but it was towed and never searched, so we don't know what was inside. I don't know what it means, if it means anything at all, but I can't stop thinking about both of their cars being parked at airports. There's another similarity between the two cases, too, though it's a little more nebulous. There's reason to suspect that Robbie had been threatened by members of an organized crime family before he disappeared, and we know that a member of the Patriarcha crime family

was identified as a suspect in Howard's murder. Although the suspect died in 1992, a year before Robbie disappeared, police don't think Kevin Hanrahan acted alone. The name I see most frequently paired with Kevin Hanrahan is Gordon O'Brien, who was alive and as far as I can tell, not incarcerated in 1993, and he lived and was active in the Taunton area where Robbie lived.

Again, I don't know what it all means or if these are mere coincidences rather than actual connections, but I can't stop thinking about what answers were lost with Robbie's car. Gordon O'Brien died in 2008. If he was sitting on any information in either Howard's murder or Robbie's disappearance, it died with him. Though, who's to say if he'd divulge any useful details if he had them anyway? It's all very frustrating, to put it lightly. Vicky has done her own research on the key figures in the organized crime world in Greater Boston, and she has spiraled thinking about possible connections to her father's disappearance. What it comes down to for her is this.

So the scenario that I've always had in my head was that he was involved with the wrong people, crossing paths or doing his business with the wrong people, that he was warned to stop and that he did not take heed to those warnings, and he's no longer alive. And of course, my mind has also played out, how did that happen? How did they kill him? What were his thoughts? Was he scared? You know, you have all those thoughts. It was those thoughts that motivated her to get involved in the search for answers in her father's case, but also what made the task so daunting. If what she believed about his disappearance was true, Vicky could potentially put herself and her family in danger. She had children to protect. But after her kids grew up and moved out of the house, she'd find moments of courage and picked

up the phone. Vicky made calls to Taunton police, trying to speak with whoever had the case, and attempted to request records from his file, but she always got the runaround. They'd tell her it would take some time to find what she was looking for, and then they never called her back. Or she'd reach one agency, only for them to say that someone else had her father's case, and to try calling them instead. It was like pushing a boulder up the hill, only to have it roll back onto her toes every time she tried to make any real progress. It wasn't until the last few years that Vicki really connected with the current investigators on her father's case. In 2022, the Bristol County District Attorney's Office announced their initiative to review unsolved missing persons cases alongside the Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Unit and local police departments.

Ralph Robbins was included on their list. The detective on Robby's case is Massachusetts State Police Lieutenant Ann Marie Robertson. You've heard her name before on Dark Down East. Vicki met with Lieutenant Robertson and the team about two years ago. She was hopeful she'd get some answers, maybe a few records, or at least some new information about what was done to locate her father in the last three decades. But instead, to Vicky's surprise, the current investigators couldn't locate any missing persons report for her father. Years later, I'm being told now today that neither report is available because they were both washed away in a flood. So both the original report filed by Vicky's grandmother in 1993 and the second report

filed the following year were just gone, destroyed. Vicky had to file a third missing person's report. This time around, investigators asked her to provide a DNA sample in the event unidentified remains were discovered anywhere across the country. It was the first time she was asked to do anything for her father's case. She's proud to take that step for him, but it doesn't erase the frustration she feels now. Best case scenario, something gets found somewhere with his DNA matching to mine. But if not, you know, if that doesn't happen in my lifetime, I hope it happens in my children's lifetime.

In the meantime, what she wants is simple. I would like to see him recognized that he is a person that has not been found and there's no answers. I would like him to be recognized as missing. I would like him to be looked for a little, at least a little bit. I don't think that, honestly, that I'll really ever have an answer. Vicky is less focused on bringing charges against anyone or seeing justice done in a courtroom. My goal isn't to get anybody in trouble or look for justice. I just want closure, you know, no judgment

or anything, you know, I just would like some closure. In Vicky's experience, there's no grieving a missing person. It's an open-ended loss unlike anything else. I haven't grieved, like I've, I get sad, but I haven't grieved. Like I've lost my mother, I grieved her. I lost my grandmother, I grieved them. I haven't grieved him. And my mind goes back and forth. I know he's not alive. I know that I'm a smart person.

I'm realistic. But then there's that little bit of you because you really don't know. You're laying in bed in the middle of the night and you're like, whoa, he was really resourceful. He could have done this. He could be alive. So it's like a mind game. And then you try to figure things out. I'm just, I'm stuck. You know, when you grieve, you can feel it. You don't get over it, but you feel it. Like you're moving the feelings around and you're going through a process. With that, I can't. I'm just stuck.

While her grief hangs in the balance, Vicky has grown up, started a family, and she shares the memory of her father with her kids. Robbie's playful, happy spirit has never been lost, no matter how many years have passed since she last heard his voice. You know, we talk about him as if he was here yesterday. We're never quiet about him. And all our memories are fun and funny. You know, when we talk about him, we're not in a sad place. It's a good place.

You know, it's a good time. I love the way Vicky responded to my final question. What's his legacy in your life? So, I would say his legacy in my life is perseverance, determination, and being stubborn. When he was in the Army, he did so much and he was so determined, but he always stayed focused and had a good attitude. And I've tried to live my life that way. If you have any information

about the 1993 disappearance of Ralph Robbie Robbins, please contact Massachusetts State Police Lieutenant Anne Marie Robertson at 508-961-1918. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram at darkdowneast. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers.

I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East. Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and Audiocheck. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?