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 your co -host, Eli. Welcome back, everyone. Thank you so much for hanging with us. I'm so sorry we had to take last week off. As you've probably heard before, or maybe if you're new here, I'm somebody who gets chronic migraines and just had some really bad ones for the past month. Usually the weather changing kind of gets me. So I was... Down for the count. But I really appreciate your patience and for coming back to have another listen. Also, just
want to say thank you. We did have some really wonderful and kind reviews come through on our website, on Apple, on Spotify. Just all these places, they were really coming through some really positive comments and reviews. And also, somebody was so kind and used the Buy Me a Coffee link on our website to buy Eli and I coffee. So thank you so much for that. We so greatly appreciate it. It's such an honor that someone would use their hard -earned dollars to help
support this podcast. But that option is always there if you would also like to do that. Yeah, here at Cold and Missing, you know, we're a two -person team with Ali absolutely at the helm of our team. So, of course, you know, we never expect anything. So when it does happen, it's always wonderful and it is very helpful. Any coffee that's ever bought for us goes directly back into... making this podcast more accessible
to everyone. That's always Allie's drive here on the technical end and in everything else she does. So thank you so much. Yeah, it just goes right back into the podcast, into researching, into trying to help these cases. So thank you. But with that, I think we should go ahead and get into this week's episode. That's right. We are on episode... It's 126 this week, and it
is a missing persons case. And just as a quick content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person, and there are some brief mentions of death by suicide. Today, we are talking about the missing person case of Roger Ellison. And this takes place in February of 1981 in Cedar Edge, Colorado. But first, a little bit about Roger. Roger is 17 years old in 1981. He is a senior honor roll student at Cedar Edge High School, but was already looking forward to college.
He'd been accepted to Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, and he had won a skiing scholarship and had already put a deposit down and picked out his dorm room. Roger was a gifted skier. He had a dream of being on the U .S. national ski team, like his older sister had done a decade before him. He was the youngest of four siblings and the only one left at home. The rest of his siblings were older and married at this time.
Right before the timeline picks up, Roger had competed in ski races in Telluride, Colorado. He had been disappointed by the outcome. He was hoping to secure a place on the U .S. ski B team, but had failed to. His parents say that he was disappointed but was already looking forward to the next race, which was coming up that weekend. And now, a timeline of events. Tuesday, February 10th, 1981. Roger started the day very normally. He was eating breakfast in the kitchen with his
mother when he noticed the weather outside. It looked like it was going to snow. He told his mom it was a good sign for the upcoming race in Aspen that weekend. Roger got ready and left for school. He had his yellow backpack and $3 for lunch. He boarded the bus and headed to Cedar Edge High School, which was about six miles away from his home. Once at school, Roger caught up with his friend and locker mate at their shared locker, number 191. Roger shared the locker with
his friend Mitch. Mitch was just about to slam the locker door shut when Roger called out for him to leave it open. Roger and Mitch chatted for a second. Roger was dropping off some books at the locker and grabbing some stuff that he needed for the day. Mitch headed off to class while Roger was finishing up at the locker. Roger told him he would catch up. This appears to be the last confirmed sighting of Roger. Roger never
attended any classes that day. Even though Roger's attendance was perfect up until this point, his absence was not reported to his parents. Rogers' parents didn't know anything was wrong until he failed to get home from school that day. His mother, Evelyn, says, quote, When he didn't come on the bus, we thought he'd call. My husband and I waiting up all night. The next morning, we called the sheriff. He told us we had to wait
48 hours before he could begin a search. We tried to explain that Rogers never done anything like that before, that he always called or left us a note on the kitchen table. This time, there was nothing. End quote. Like Evelyn says in her statement, when they tried to call police that next day, Wednesday, February 11th, when Roger failed to come home all night, the police didn't take it seriously. They assumed Roger was with friends or maybe with a girlfriend. His parents
stressed that this was not the case. He had only taken his lunch money and the clothes he was wearing to school. His skis, his car, his motorcycle, and bank account were all untouched. Not wanting to wait for the police to start their search, Evelyn and her husband, Ernest, start searching. She says, quote, we drove down back roads, we combed the woods, we walked ditches. Gradually, it dawned on us that something terrible had happened
to Roger and was happening to us. Suddenly, I was living every mother's nightmare, end quote. Over that weekend, Roger has been missing for four days. His parents hope that he'll show up to the race in Aspen since he had already paid the entry fee. But he didn't show up to the race. It doesn't appear that any major searches were done for Roger at this point in his disappearance. On February 25th, so Roger has been missing for 15 days, and police believe that he's a runaway
at this point. They believe that he had run away to a ski resort and found a job or was looking for a job. When asked about the length of time and the fact that he hadn't contacted his parents in 15 days, the police said that it wasn't unusual for teenagers to behave this way. His parents, however, are worried sick and think something terrible has happened to their son. On March 11, 1981, Roger has been missing for a month
at this point, and it's his 18th birthday. Police and his parents are hoping that he'll reach out now that he's officially an adult and let them know where he is. But the phone doesn't ring, and he never calls. In May of 1982, so it's been 15 months since Roger vanished, and his father has also passed away as well. Rogers' family firmly believed that it was due to the heartbreak
of his youngest son vanishing. At this point, Delty County Sheriff Detective Keith Weibel says, It looks like Roger Ellison just disappeared into thin air, but I know that can't happen. We've never had a single solid lead. We can't find a trace of where he went. This case has turned me into a blithering idiot. I've known the Ellison for years. They're a good family, and I gradually became convinced Roger wasn't
a runaway. There was absolutely no evidence of a drug problem, no hint of mental illness, nothing to indicate Roger had been the slightest bit depressed." Investigators have asked the FBI to take a look at the case, but the FBI refuses since there is no evidence that Roger ever crossed state lines or that even a crime has been committed. However, a break in the case appears to come by the end of June of 1982, so just a few months later. Roger has been missing for a year and
a half. And police say that Roger was seen alive as recently as April of 1982, so just a few months before this. Roger was seen working at a plant nursery in Mississippi up until April. A co -worker at the nursery reported it after seeing a story about Roger being missing. Delta County Sheriff says, quote, Ellison had been on the nursery property in April, but he left and nobody knew where he was going. We were close, but not close
enough. If Roger reads anything about this, we're urging him to please contact his mother as soon as possible. End quote. Police do believe that this is a good lead and confirm that the person at the nursery was using Roger's name and social security number. However, years later, police will say that this sighting was a hoax. But this lead seems to stall the investigation for years, as it appears that Roger just didn't want to be found. But again, police say that this whole
sighting was just a hoax. However, by April of 1985, so it's been four years since Roger vanished, and his mother is still trying to get coverage for her son's case. She doesn't believe that he simply ran away or doesn't want to be found. She thinks something nefarious happened to him. She also confirms that even after all these years, his bank account, which had over $1 ,000 in it,
was still sitting untouched. In 1989, so it's been over eight years since Roger vanished, and the new Delta County Sheriff Bill Blair says, quote, we have followed lead after lead after lead, but nothing has panned out. It's really tragic that we can't come up with something, end quote. There have been sightings of Roger over the years that have been reported to police. There were reports of Roger living in a commune in California. There was a sighting of him at
a singles bar in Pittsburgh. And then a woman in Jacksonville, Florida, said that she had a child with a drifter that fit Roger's description. But none of these leads panned out. Investigators say that in each and every one of these instances, it was just someone who looked a lot like Roger. In March of 1994, so it's been 13 years since Roger disappeared, and police are taking another look at the case. They decide to re -interview classmates that were at school with Roger at
the time. During this process, a tip surfaces. The tip is around a teacher that was at Cedar Edge High School when Roger vanished. Pash had taught psychology and coached wrestling at the high school. Pash was also known to Roger's family. He had stopped by the Ellison's house after Roger vanished to tell his parents that he had been counseling Roger at his home before he disappeared. He shared with his family that Roger was suicidal, but this didn't sound right to Roger's parents.
They didn't know the counseling sessions were happening and were even more surprised as Roger had expressed that he didn't like Pash as a teacher. While it's unclear exactly what the tip was, it prompts a search of Pasha's former home. At this point, the home had been turned into a mortuary. Police bring in ground -penetrating radar to search the grounds. There are six spots that show an anomaly underground, four in the yard
and two under the concrete garage. Police dig in the four spots in the yard and nothing is found. However, it doesn't appear that they ever dug under the garage, so those spots remain unchecked. In February of 1998, so it's been 17 years since Roger vanished, and Sheriff Blair asks for the public's help. He says, quote, someone out there knows what happened to him. We don't have a body, and even if we found one, we would have to have someone involved say, this is what happened.
Either he went to some house close by or someone was there to meet him and pick him up in a car. I just don't know what happened to him, end quote. During this plea for information, an English teacher that Roger had mentioned this about his time at school. She said, quote, he used to tell me stories that the kids would chase him and he would have to hide on rooftops. I don't think
he fit in all that well, end quote. Later in 1998, In September, a dying man comes forward, saying that he wanted to clear his conscience and that he knew what happened to Roger. Police report that the man and his friend, quote, Supposedly, it was over a bad cocaine deal. Ellison had absconded with the money and given it to his friends, end quote. The two men walked away and a few minutes
later heard two gunshots. The two men agreed to never talk about it and forget about it until one of them wanted to clear their conscience. The Hunter friend confirmed the story. They both were polygraphed and passed. They also both picked a picture of Roger out of a lineup saying that he was the young man being restrained. This confession prompts a huge police search in the area that the hunters pointed out. The Delta County Sheriff,
CBI, and the FBI all help search the area. They even bring in students from an anthropology department in case remains are found to help in the process of documenting and recovering. No remains were found, and this was really the last update we get on Roger's case and the last big movement on it that I could find. Over the years, Roger's case is brought up in papers as part of cold cases, but there's no new leads, no new evidence,
no new information on his case. So with that, if you know anything about the disappearance of Roger Ellison in February of 1981, or his whereabouts today, please call the Delta County Sheriff's Office at 970 -874 -2000. So that is the missing person case of Roger Ellison. This is one of those cases where, as I was listening to the timeline, I kept getting up because I wanted to walk back here to ask you questions
as you were talking about the timeline. And I think I may have mentioned this last episode when we were covering a case. Sometimes I can't write down the questions fast enough, and that's definitely the case here for Roger. Just first off, I guess there's no real good way to kick off rediscussing the timeline, but... I can't not mention how law enforcement bungled this,
in my opinion. I don't—I never understand the reaction of, wait, of wait, wait, wait, because that always seems to be where the case goes wrong and goes south for a lot of these victims, and it's— It's excruciating to listen to because some of the things that they are quoted saying, like it was painful to listen to someone in law enforcement say, it gradually came to me that this is what's happening is what the parents told us to begin with. And it's not. necessarily
an admission, but almost like a revelation. And there's no time for you to have a revelation about what you believe is happening to someone. I know I sound passionate, but I'm angry on behalf of this family. And now a lot of time has passed and some people are gone. And as a listener, it's just really difficult to digest that. To
digest that information, it's so unfair. Yeah, it's very difficult to imagine in this day and age telling parents of a senior who showed up to school but never attended any classes that they need to wait 48 hours before they can start searching for him. Like, I just imagine that story breaking today and it's like that whole town would be turned upside down searching for him. We say that sitting in 2025 and law enforcement has learned a lot over the years. But I agree
with you. It's so maddening and frustrating that these protocols, these things were put in place, especially for children. Just there's I feel like there's no excuse to not know where a child is. So if we don't know where a child is, everybody should be looking for them. Yeah. Again, to me and obviously to you, it's an all hands on deck.
situation and the fact that those two parents began the search on their own like I can barely take saying that out loud that is horrifying to feel I mean I don't know the feeling but to know that they were just completely alone at the beginning and you know his father passing not that long after like This family was dealt a lot and given next to nothing to deal with it. Yeah. You know, the resources in this case
just felt like it all came way too late. Just, you know, they missed, you know, that period of time where the most critical information was going to be. It was all missed. And that's really unfortunate for Roger and for his family to try to have to deal with that. Now, because the storyline that you so beautifully put together for us involves a lot of speculative nature on both law enforcement and witnesses and even family of what they think happened, I am kind of operating from asking
my questions because of those speculations. I think my mind just naturally... followed the speculative pathway but from multiple angles so I'm going to try to balance them out as I ask these questions. My first one being and I have my own answer for this but what would be his motive for running away? I was curious to know what you thought especially because that was something that was tossed around so much between law enforcement that that was the speculation
that he left because he was running away. Yeah, this is one where it's like, I don't really see him running away at all. You know, like, I get that he, you know, was kind of bummed at his performance on the race the weekend before. But, you know, he was getting ready to go to college, had put down that down payment on the dorm room, was looking forward to the race this weekend. And then, you know, he left everything that he would kind of need if he was running away. He
left his car. He left his motorcycle, he left his skis, which were pretty important to him, and left all his money. So I don't see him running away from those actions alone and what was going on around his life. It doesn't seem like a runaway. This is where I feel, I think, wishy -washy.
I guess that's the best way to say it, about being speculative, because... I definitely don't want to add insult to injury, but when I asked myself this question, what would be his motive for running away, my general answer was kids can hide a lot. They can hide a lot from their parents. They can hide a lot from their teachers. They can hide a lot from their friends. I think it's possible that he has a motive that we don't
even know about. And I think because there are so few details in this case, it's absolutely possible that there is a motive. No, I think that's a really important point is that like truly we don't know anything. You know, at this point, police have like kind of labeled this as foul play is suspected. I think that while
not impossible, I think it would have been. harder for a 17 year old to vanish without a trace without taking some money taking some clothes like taking some things to just vanish kind of in a very short amount of time right before classes start not impossible of course but does feel slim in this case but I do agree with your point about hiding things because it took years and years for that english teacher to kind of come out and say like he was bullied at school that was
never mentioned before and i thought that that could have been you know again this is all speculative but it's like well that's was that ever looked at like could it have been bullies in the school and like something got out of hand like could that have happened I think what my mind is trying to do is draw correlations together and knowing, as we moved around in the timeline and found out much later, that possibly he was facing mental health issues and that maybe he was being bullied
in school. If he was trying to disappear himself, those seem like more... probable motives as to why for me I will say this though the the tip about the teacher and like the counseling and stuff like that I had the impression like based off of the reporting at the time that this was like kind of nefarious and suspicious that it was like strange that this teacher was doing this counseling like the parents didn't have any prior knowledge that their son was being
like counseled by a psychology teacher that Roger was even going to his house for this because Roger had said that he didn't really like this teacher so all of that was strange to the family so I had the feeling that this teacher that all that information was like very suspicious I also had written down it was the next thing that I was going to get to was that This child was essentially having an unknown relationship to his parents with another adult. I think that that will always
rise a red flag in my mind. And knowing that there was ground -penetrating radar in both the yard, which was dug up, and the... garage which was not I am very interested to know what is under that cement but I also know you know working in maintenance and just like general construction I know how expensive it is to pulverize cement and dig beneath it because there's a lot of stuff that you have to dig through and rip through and I guess what I'm saying is I'm also I also
have eyes on this teacher as well along with every other correlation my brain has tried to string up in this case. Yeah, I would also be interested to know, you know, in a perfect world where we could just throw money at this and make it happen. I would love to know just if there's anything of value underneath the garage, especially in Roger's case. I would also be interested to know just if police ever had the chance to talk to that teacher and interview him and interrogate
him. Because from my understanding, it didn't seem like they had been able to. That teacher had moved out of state at that point when this tip kind of surfaced and they started digging in what was his old yard. So it doesn't seem like they ever talked to him. So I would be interested just to know if. that happened and how police felt after that interview. Yeah, especially because there's such little information about it, but it seems like a poignant and important relationship
to take note of and investigate in. Again, to echo you, I'd love to know more information about if there was any investigation done on this person. Well, and also to validate his story, like, it's strange that after Roger disappeared, he, I don't want to say inserted himself into the investigation, but, like, came to the parents and said, like, you know, Roger was depressed. He was suicidal. I was counseling him. Like, you know, just to
validate all that, like, was that true? Was this just, like, a... that this teacher maybe tried to tell the parents to make them feel bad. You know, like, there's a lot of different ways to think about it. So I would just want to know, like, what parts of that story was true? Was any of it true? Like, what was the reason for all this? Yeah, and you say this to me all the time when you and I are just discussing true
crime and true crime cases. When people start to behave oddly around an event like this, around a person going missing, take note of that behavior. And to me, a teacher stopping by out of the blue, that's something to take note of. I had another question to ask you, and this is more just about Roger. I wanted to know what you thought of the untouched bank account. That's one thing that I come back to again and again that makes me think that maybe Roger didn't leave voluntarily.
From my understanding, this was money that he had been saving up for and that he had won through ski racing. As I was researching Roger for years, I just saw him being awarded these skiing competition titles. I don't know a lot about skiing, to be honest. He was winning a lot and being mentioned in the paper a lot for it. So if somebody, you know, just a month before their 18th birthday is going to take off, I think they would just take a little bit of money with them, especially,
you know, 1981. Like there's no debit cards. Like people would write checks. But he wasn't even doing that. You know, none of that money was being accessed. I think he would have taken more than just the $3 for lunch and then the clothes on his back. There would have been some more outfits missed, just something else. It
would be really hard for him to just leave. The reason I brought up the bank account is because that is the one, honestly, fact about this case that ties me to the reality that he didn't leave willingly. As many correlations I can draw and speculation I can come up with, that untouched bank account stands out to me. And I thought that it would for you too as well. And it seems like we have the same thought about this is that he would have taken just a sliver of something
else. And, you know, another like fact in this case that I keep coming back to is just. If it wasn't Roger, then who was the boy in the woods that these hunters stumbled upon being restrained? Like, what was that situation? Because if it's not Roger, then it's somebody else. So who is it? And, you know, just because nothing was found in that area, like, you know, we've seen bodies be moved before from one spot to another. Like, that can happen. What is that story? What do
we know? What do we not know? These two people kind of told the same story, saw the same thing, backed each other up, passed the polygraph. So something happened. And if it wasn't related to Roger, it was related to somebody else. So I think we need some answers there. Yeah, that revelation in this timeline kind of came out of left field for me. I wasn't expecting it.
At all. But I also, I left a little bit of room in me to know that like both of those men could have 100 % believed that it was Roger that they saw. So therefore, they would pass that polygraph test. Yeah, I just, if it wasn't Roger, then who was it? In this scenario, I don't want to believe that it was him because I know what the end result is. I don't know what to make of that deathbed confession. I think it's fascinating.
I think it's completely possible that because of what we said earlier about how kids can hide things and teenagers do all the time, that it's possible that this was absolutely happening in the woods and these men stumbled upon that and then his body was moved and never recovered. Yeah, I don't know. This case is tough. I get why somebody would want to maybe get that off their chest towards the end of their life. I know we could speculate and try to draw conclusions
for hours. We do this when we're not on the mic. So I don't think there's any great way to wrap up discussing this case. I'm just very grateful that you brought it to... My attention, our attention, and I'm hoping that, you know, people who engage with true crime do their thing and investigate more and we get to hear more about just who Roger was and maybe a few more of those details will trickle in and fill in the gaps here. Somebody absolutely knows what happened to Roger. That
much I do know. I think there's more information. I think maybe somebody he went to school with. Somebody knows something that they haven't come forward with yet. Roger's siblings, you know, still want answers for him. And, you know, I hope someday that we're able to get those answers and we're able to bring Roger home. However that
is, we're able to get him home. So again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Roger Ellison in February of 1981 or his whereabouts today, please call the Delta County Sheriff's Office at 970 -874 -2000. As always, Eli will have graphics on our Instagram for you. It will show pictures of Roger and also some age progress photos. So what he would have looked like towards his later 20s and then into his 40s as well. So please take a look and share in your communities,
share in your stories. Just get Roger's face, get his case out there so other people know about him and are talking about him. And like I mentioned at the top, thank you so much to everyone who has left us a positive review, a positive comment, five stars, thumbs up, whatever it is. Thank you so much. Thank you to those who went to our website to review. Appreciate it so much. And extra special thank you to our listener who bought us a coffee this week. And if you want to do
that, you can find that on our website, www .coldandmissing .com, where we also have transcripts. So if you need those because you might be hard of hearing, you can find those there as well as all our old episodes. That is all I have for you this week. Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing. I'm your host, Ali . And I'm your co -host, Eli. Have a good week and stay safe, y 'all. Stay safe, y 'all.