The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali. And I'm Eli. Welcome back, everyone. Eli is back after being sick all last week. I'm so happy he's here. I'm very happy to be back in the booth. It's always difficult when you're on mic. When you're sick, there's just a lot of nasty sounds. And it was much better for me to spare y'all all of that. But I'm happy to get into this episode. Yes, but really quickly, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has rated and reviewed us recently.
We got some really kind reviews on Apple Podcasts. So thank you so much. And, you know, while I have your ear here at the beginning, if you have the time today to rate us, review us on your favorite podcast platform, it would mean not only the world to us, but it really helps get these cases into other ears, other people listening. Well, we are on episode 109 this week. So should we get into it? Let's do it. So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person.
Today we are talking about the missing person case of Jenna Ray Robbins. And this takes place in May of 1989 in Killeen, Texas. But first a little bit about Jenna. Jenna is nine years old in 1989. She was born January 24th, 1980, and she would be 44 years old today. Her mother is Dong Robbins. She's originally from Korea. Jenna is half Korean and half white. Jenna lived in Killeen, a city with a population of about 70,000. It sits close to Fort Cavasso's army base, which was formerly Fort Hood.
Jenna, her older brother and mother, live in an older part of the city. Jenna's parents were divorced. I couldn't find as many facts about Jenna as I usually like to bring to the podcast, but what I do know is that she is deeply loved by her family. She seemed to be a bright spirit in all of their lives. She was smart and made friends easily. And now a timeline of events. Sunday, May 14th, 1989. It was Mother's Day.
Jenna's mother and brother were running to the store, and they asked Jenna if she wanted to come along. They needed to pick up a few more things for dinner. Jenna wanted to stay behind and continue to play with her friend, Kimberly. This was no problem. Jenna's grandmother was still home to look after her. Jenna's mother and brother left around 5.30 p.m. Jenna was playing outside her home on the 1200 block of North 4th Street with her friend Kimberly who was six years old at this time.
Shortly after her mother and brother left, a man driving a light gray two-door Dodge or Plymouth car stopped to watch the girls play. The car looked new for 1989. He motioned for the girls to come over to the car. The man driving was white, between the ages of 20 and 22 years old, with short brown hair that had been slicked back. He didn't have any facial hair. The man driving the car persuades Jenna to get in the car with him. He offers to buy her gifts.
He also tried to lure the six-year-old in the car as well with the same promise of buying her a gift. But Kimberly gets scared and runs off. Once Jenna was in the car and it was clear Kimberly was not going to get in, the vehicle backed up on Garrison Avenue and headed westbound on Garrison. When Jenna's mother arrives back home and can't locate Jenna, she calls a friend and they begin looking through the neighborhood for her, thinking she was still playing with friends.
As the minutes tick by, they decide to call the police and report her missing. Police do appear to respond quickly and they begin to look through the neighborhood for her. As the night falls, police are out until 4 a.m. trying to locate Jenna. Now, Jenna's case did not get national attention despite it being a young girl who was abducted while playing in her neighborhood.
It's unclear how quickly police are able to talk to her friend Kimberly and realize that they had an abduction on their hands. Amber alerts weren't a thing in 1989, but it does appear that the news spreads locally. As news about Jenna's abduction begins to creep into the community, an 11-year-old girl comes forward and says that just days before Jenna was abducted, possibly a week before, this 11-year-old girl was approached by a man in a two-door gray car who tried to get her to get inside.
The description of Jenna's abductor had not been released to the public yet, but the young girl gives a description of the person who tried to abduct her and they are nearly identical. Two composite sketches were drawn. One of the man the 11-year-old saw and one of the man 6-year-old Kimberly saw take Jenna. They are strikingly similar. In the days that follow, both the FBI and the Texas Rangers get involved in Jenna's search, but they don't have any clues to go on.
Any possible sighting of Jenna is quickly ruled out as another child. In November of 1989, Jenna has been missing for six months now. In Minnesota, a young boy named Jacob Wetterling goes missing. Jacob's case is pretty well known throughout the true crime community.
Jacob, his brother, and a friend rode their bikes to a nearby video store and when they were returning home, a man with a gun told them to lay in a ditch and picked Jacob to abduct and told the two others to run and not look back where he would shoot. It takes years for this case to get solved, but it has been solved as of 2016. Jacob's case catches national attention and when flyers are mailed out, organizers also put in information about Jenna, hoping to get leads in her case too.
The flyers are sent to thousands of businesses and schools. A lead organizer, David Collins, who ran a foundation for missing children after his own son vanished, said, quote, we asked the Wetterlings if we could put Jenna on the poster because she hadn't had any exposure, end quote. David expresses concern about Jenna's case getting so little attention, quote, early on they wouldn't do anything. We called to offer help and one officer didn't even know that there had been a kidnapping.
He didn't know what we were talking about, end quote. Jenna and Jacob's picture appear together all over Minnesota, but Jenna's case never grabs that national spotlight. Her picture is featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show at one point, but her name does not become a household name like other cases. In February of 1990, so it's been nine months since Jenna vanished, and her pictures have been plastered all over Minnesota, despite her having never been to the state or have any ties there.
Her mother, Dong Robbins, is grateful and often thinks about Jacob when she offers up a prayer for her daughter's safe return. She says, quote, I miss my daughter so much. My daughter left nine months ago. Every day I chant and ask that the guy please will change his mind, end quote. In Killeen, Sergeant Steve Parker is the third officer to handle Jenna's case in nine months.
He does say that they get tips from all over the country due to the flyers, quote, she has been cited in four, five different places all over the country, all at the same time. Sometimes we get a good one with a license number or a name or something, but many tips we can't do anything about. I was at a truck stop a few hours ago and saw somebody who looked like her, end quote.
Police are skeptical about these sightings, quote, if you look at her picture in that flyer you could walk into any elementary school up there in Minnesota and see someone similar, end quote. In 1998, it's been nine years since Jenna was abducted, and she would have been 18 years old. Her mother wonders what her daughter could be doing. She says, quote, she would probably be finishing school, in college, and in love with some boy. I do a lot of crying. I have a lot of pain.
I still love my daughter very hard. I want her to come home. I miss her so much. The guy who took my daughter has to understand that he has hurt somebody. We are human beings and it hurts when you lose somebody like this. It's not right, end quote. Her mother still hopes that she is alive out there, quote, I have faith that she is and I want her to come home. I have to find her no matter what condition she is in, end quote.
But that is truly the last thing that we know about the abduction of Jenna Ray Robbins. Her case does come up periodically in the media, but no new information has been given and no new leads, no new searches, nothing has been done in Jenna's case as far as I can tell. So if you know anything about the disappearance of Jenna Ray Robbins or her whereabouts today, please call the Bell County Crime Stoppers at 254-526-8477. So that is the case of Jenna Ray Robbins.
One of the first things I wrote down after listening to you speak about Jenna was this is exactly why we do this podcast. When you said that you couldn't find a lot of information about her, you know, this is one of the exact reasons why we're reporting on it. You know, you specifically search for cases that are less known for a reason and I'm very glad to know her name and know her story. Her mother, you know, it's a case that should be known.
So I'm very glad that it was brought to cold and missing. Yeah, it was really sad to learn that this abduction had happened and it didn't really hit the national news at all. Obviously I'll see, you know, if something really hits the national news, like, you know, this happened in Texas. I'll see newspapers in Chicago and then in California, like also covering the case, at least like the Associated Press story will be run.
But in this case, I could really only find news articles local to Texas and then Minnesota. That was really all I could find covering it. Well, moving right into Jenna's abduction, I was very curious at least to know what you thought. Do you think that there was a possibility that she knew this perpetrator? It could be a possibility for sure. I don't think anything really has been ruled out. The one thing I do know that has been ruled out is that her father is not a suspect in this case.
So he's about the only person that they've ruled out. But for me, one thing that I kind of come back to again and again in the story is with it being so close to that military base, I can't help but think that this was somebody living on the military base. And again, this is pure speculation on my part, but a lot of things to me kind of lend my thoughts to that. It would be the first place I would try to look. Yeah, I agree with you.
I think having an army base, military base there, it is a designated concentrated group of people that are living amongst civilians. I think I'm speaking about that correctly. But yeah, it's not an anomaly type of like residence area, but it's different. So I do think that that would be a place to look for sure. Yeah, and a couple of things kind of pull me that direction. For one, the age is right in line with somebody who would have just joined the military 20 to 22 years old.
The fact that he didn't have any facial hair, you're not allowed to have facial hair. Well, I think you can have a mustache, but it's very limited. So he didn't have any, which also kind of leans that way. He had the shorter hair that was kind of slick back, like really has that kind of clean cut look. And then the other piece of it too was the car that he was driving is a newer car. And this is something that I kind of saw true.
My brother was in the military, so I saw a lot of his friends kind of do a similar thing where when they sign up, you get like a signing bonus and you buy a new car. Like I saw so many young military guys do that right away. So the fact that this is also a new car kind of leads me to think that, well, that would be the first place I would start looking. I would want to eliminate that as a possibility first. You're so brilliant to me because your mind can go so far investigative wise.
The only thing that I wrote down was he's a confident perp. And I think that you can align that with a young man who has just joined the military who, you know, if he is committing crimes like this, I would say there's a probability he's not in his right mind. And there's a possibility that he's a very, you know, like vicious person who is confident in what he's doing. And that's not to say that service people are like military service people are vicious or mean or have any sort of mindset.
What I'm trying to say is I've, you know, I've met a fair amount of people in the military, some family members, some not friends, and a lot of them are very confident just in themselves, in their spirit and you know what they're there to what they're in the military to do. So that's more of what I'm saying is someone who definitely believes that they can get away with it.
And another detail that also kind of led me to this mindset was the other girl, the 11 year old girl who said that she somebody had approached her trying to abduct her. The reports don't give me the definite timeline, but kind of again and again, it says that it happened like a week before Jenna. And so it's if you know, Sunday is the day off that this guy has, he's going to have that Sunday every single time. So if it didn't work one week, he went back and tried again the next week.
So that's just another thing that kind of led me to that direction. Again all speculation, maybe investigators did look into that angle and eliminated it, but we don't know that. So that's where I would start at least. Again I agree with you. I think that the statistics are there in that people who commit these types of crimes like to be familiar with the area that they are committing those crimes in.
And I mean you see it everywhere, especially I mean this is maybe a bit more in line with serial killers, but you know, people who commit sex crimes or sexual assault crimes, they also like to be in the same area because they like to know the I mean they want to get away with it. So they want to know the lay of the land. So again yeah I think if there is a possibility for him to repeat in that same area, he will. Especially if he's getting away with it.
Yeah and it's just so bold to like try it kind of two weeks in a row. The first time it didn't work and it seems like he just became that much more obsessed with the idea. This is kind of pivoting away from the crime itself, but I am curious to know the size of the police force because I don't understand the way the case was being passed around amongst the force. How did someone not know? Like even just like oh yeah I've never worked on it but of course I know that name.
That seems shocking to me. So it seems like whether it's small or large it doesn't make sense that officers wouldn't know. Again I've never worked on a police force but I'm curious to know more about that from you. Yeah that part felt bonkers to me that someone could call and like offer help and support. You know this is what this guy does. He travels around the country kind of assisting in missing person cases and helping the family.
That he could call and the officer not have any idea that there had been a kidnapping. That just blows my mind. But it kind of reinforces that that's how little Jenna's case was like really being covered. Even in the local media it seems like the coverage was very limited if somebody in their own police force didn't know. Unless he was brand new from vacation had been out of town for weeks and was just walking in and that was the first phone call he got that day.
Maybe but still you think he'd walk in and somebody say like oh my gosh while you were gone like a girl was kidnapped. You think it would be talked about you know just around the office even if you're not directly working on it. So we do know the FBI and the Texas Rangers do get involved so other police agencies do help but I don't know what happened here truly. Yet the last thing I wrote down was you don't get to be skeptical about tips.
This is this is the time in you know cases like these where you it's gum shoe detective work where you exhaust every resource every tip. And it definitely it seems to be that way in other cases. So again you know just to echo you I don't understand what happened here like how everything wasn't exhausted. Like there's no room to be skeptical of tips in a case where a child was kidnapped.
Again I know this is my you know my emotions are involved in this because it's the first time I'm hearing it but it just it doesn't make sense to me. The ball was really dropped here at least from my perspective and I am glad to know that the FBI was involved later but I I do think it's important to you know hold police forces accountable for when there are errors like this or at least to talk about it with an open mind.
Yeah I think that's should be a critical part of police work is to look at what you're doing how you're doing it and are there ways you can improve because I yeah you're exactly right there there's no time to be skeptical or to like brush off leads when you really don't have any coming in and you don't know what happened to this little girl.
And like yeah some of them would be harder to track down like the example was given like oh we saw a girl like this in a truck stop but it's like you you need to go and like contact somebody that day or at least call or like whatever you can do like call the police in that town ask them to swing by with a picture and see if anybody working there recognize the girl because that can help but it's not something you can really go back
20 30 years later and do because those people aren't working and they're probably not going to remember the day. It seemed like some of the leads they were getting maybe weren't taken as seriously I hope that's not the case I hope that they did do this follow up work but it really was just dead ends but yeah it just it feels like every lead has to be run down in any case but especially when you're not getting a lot you just run them all down.
Well I think with you bringing Jenna's case and name to our podcast today will will create a little bit of traction around just maybe her name and case even online with our listeners. I really hope that if you are listening and you are on social media take the time to you know share the pictures that we will eventually post of Jenna because I think this is a case that can be solved and absolutely deserves to be solved.
Especially with these composite sketches this is something we're going to have on our Instagram at Cold and Missing.
The two composite sketches one is from the six year old Kimberly who was there and saw Jenna get in the car and then the other one is from that 11 year old girl who had the encounter the week before with very likely the same man same car and when you see these two composite sketches they almost just look like photocopies of each other there's just minor differences in like the eyebrows but I think getting that picture out and Jenna's picture out can bring some answers in this case.
I think that man in the composite sketch is identifiable for sure especially given you know we know the kind of car he was in so if you recognize that guy and you know he had a gray car in 1989 that's a tip that's something.
So again if you know anything about the disappearance of Jenna Ray Robbins or her whereabouts today please call Bell County Crime Stoppers at 254-526-8477 and like I said we will have those pictures up on our Instagram at Cold and Missing we'll have Jenna's picture as well as a age progression picture of her so those in the composite sketch will all be up on our Instagram and please follow us there if there's any any updates that you need
about the podcast if we're gonna be missing a week or whatever happens we'll always post it there and we'll pin the post so you'll be able to find it and know what's going on with your favorite podcast.
I mentioned it at the top but again thank you so much for those who have rated and reviewed us also everyone who has reached out over the past few weeks I've gotten a ton of case suggestions so thank you thank you thank you that's advocacy work honestly like bringing the case to our podcast is like you advocating for that person and then we get to bring that person's case to lots of listeners and that's all the work it's all victim advocacy so thank
you so much for doing that and if you have a case that means a lot to you please reach out and we'll we'll chat and we'll hopefully be able to cover it here on the podcast and you can also go to our website www.coldandmissing.com we have our whole back catalog there as well as transcripts for every episode so if you or someone you love is hard of hearing you can follow along with the podcast there but that is all I have thank you so much for listening
to cold and missing I'm your host Ali and I'm your co-host Eli have a great week and stay safe y'all stay safe y'all