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[music] [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
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for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who believes that Billy Milligan's haircut had a
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personality of its own. Here is the Captain. >> It's good to be seen and good to see
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you. Thanks for listening. >> [music] >> Thanks for telling a friend. This week we are very happy to be
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featuring Dish Lickers by the hardworking brewers and staff down at Tactical Brewing [music] Company. Dish
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Lickers is a triple New England IPA dry hopped using three hop varieties. Now, I
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can't remember if we have featured this one before, but I know for certain that we have featured several beers from
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Tactical as they are one of the very best in the business. Garage grade four and a half bottle caps out of five. Now,
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let's give some thanks and praise to some of the very best in the garage. First up, we have
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Bob Papst from Seabass to Humboldt. Cheers me. >> And a big we like to give goes out to
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Carrie from Los Angeles. Next up, here's a cheers to Ellen in Statesville, North
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Carolina. And a big talk hands in the air to Cyrus from Linwood, Washington. And last but certainly not least, we
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have another from the great state of North Carolina. It's Brittany Neff in Holly Ridge who says, "Love you guys."
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Well, thank you, Brittany. We love all of you, too. Especially the folks [music] that we just mentioned as they
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put a little beer in the old garage fridge and for that, >> [music] >> we thank you. Yeah, b w e double r u n,
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beer run. Check out true crime garage.com for recommendations. Check [music] out the store page. Check out
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the blog. And while you're there, sign up on the mailing list. And Colonel, [music] that's enough for the business.
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>> All right, everybody. Gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.
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>> [music] [music] [music] >> This week's true [music] crime story has it all. It starts with a missing young
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woman, then her connection to a married older lover, which leads to protection orders,
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lawsuits, rage, and vengeance, kidnapping and murder, and a cover-up, or perhaps
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cover-ups. Pointed references to Fatal Attraction punctuate this story. The difference is that was a movie.
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Today's story is real life and both the missing woman and the accused are police
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officers. This week we examine the mystery surrounding the question of where is former Will County, Illinois Deputy
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Robin Abrams. This is True Crime Garage. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Thursday, October 4th, 1990, Don Abrams
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is driving on Goodenow [music] Road. This is in Washington Township near the city of Beecher, which is located in
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>> [music] >> eastern Will County, Illinois. The time was just about 4:00 p.m. in the
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afternoon. Don was heading home from work when he spotted a familiar and welcoming sight, his daughter's vehicle
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traveling in the opposite direction. His daughter's car is a red Dodge Daytona hatchback and it was heading out
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of the subdivision where the Abrams family lived. Don was very proud of his daughter. She
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was smart and hardworking and stayed close with her folks. Don Abrams' daughter is Robin Abrams and
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on this day in 1990, she is 28 years old. She is living at home currently while she builds out her life.
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The two smiled and waved to each other as they passed on the roadway. Sadly, this would be the very last time that
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Don would see his daughter, Robin. Robin didn't come home that evening, but her father didn't
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fret about it. She was, after all, a grown woman. He told the Southtown Star that, quote, she was going out for the
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night. Everybody asked, "Did she say where she was going?" His answer, "She didn't have to tell us where she
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was going." But at 3:00 a.m., Don was contacted by police. This is in the nearby town of Harvey,
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Illinois. And they are calling to tell him that the car that Robin was driving, Robin's car, had been found. Robin's
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1989 red Dodge Daytona hatchback was found abandoned near the intersection of 152nd Street and Winchester Avenue.
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Harvey police were alerted to the car when a town resident called in during the early morning hours of Friday
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and reported that someone was trying to break into this car. Officers responded and interviewed the
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caller. The caller said that the car had been in that spot, parked in that spot,
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since it was dropped off around 10:00 p.m. This was Thursday night and the caller
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said that it was dropped off by a red tow truck that was being operated by two unidentified men. The car was locked,
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but police opened it up and found the keys were still inside the car. In fact, they were in the ignition. Police also
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noted that a camera was found in the vehicle as well and I've seen some reports here, Captain, that they checked
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that camera later to see if maybe photographs that might have been taken with that camera could provide any kind
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of clues, leads in this case, but the film, there was no film in this camera when it was recovered from the abandoned
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vehicle. Were they able to find any, uh, ID or bank cards? No. So, this car was registered to Robin
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Renee Abrams, but there was no sign of her. Police called the phone number associated with the vehicle. Robin's
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father was the one who picked up the phone at the Abrams household. He knew then and there that something
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terrible likely had happened to his daughter. Don Abrams reported Robin missing as of
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that very moment. Robin's sisters, Donna and Jody, said she did not typically stay out all night
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and her car was her pride and joy and she would never, ever have abandoned it. I've seen some, a couple sources that
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say two items of interest regarding the placement or the location of where Robin's car was found. One, Harvey at
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the time might not have been the greatest of areas back then. And with her car being her prized possession, she
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would not have left it there. Two, her family says Robin had no ties to Harvey. In fact, they believe strongly
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that it's very likely that she had never, ever been there before. Plus, of course, we have
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the eyewitness who says the vehicle was dropped off by a tow truck with two dudes operating the truck. One item of
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note here on the tow truck, Captain, was I found this quite interesting. The The
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caller said that there was some kind of name or company name or logo on the side
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of the tow truck as we are used to seeing. Right. >> However, they could not give a great
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description of it, couldn't remember the name that was on the side of this truck,
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which that could have been an incredible lead for police in this case. So, law enforcement wasn't able to talk
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to either one of these drivers? Correct. These men are unidentified. >> And then obviously, they never came
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forward. As far as Robin's movements that evening after her father, Don, saw her, passed
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her on the roadway, we did find some local media reports that police were able to place Robin at a Joliet gas
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station near the corner of Jefferson Street and Larkin Avenue on the afternoon of the 4th. So, she was
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purchasing gas at this gas station. And this would be after 4:00 p.m. Then, as our friend Robin Gardner would
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say, the trail went cold. Then go to Sunday. Okay, so remember here, Captain, we got Thursday, Robin is last seen by
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her father, then she's getting gas per the police information, then vanishes. Her car is delivered via two strange men
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in a tow truck at 10:00 p.m. on that Thursday, and then Friday at 3:00 a.m. cops call about the abandoned vehicle,
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and she is reported missing. So, we are now 2 days later from that marker, and we are at Sunday on our timeline. And
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this is when Don says that he received a phone call from a woman who said that her dad had been out for a walk earlier
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that day and found a woman's purse on the ground. This is near the corner of 151st
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and Wood Streets. This was about three blocks from where the car had been dropped off in Harvey. The beige clutch
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that was found by this man was, in fact, Robin's. Her checkbook was located still
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inside of the clutch purse, although her wallet and credit cards were missing. And her identification
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was missing, as well. Don later said that he caught hell from the police because he went and recovered the purse
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from this man and from this woman who had called him. All of this was very, very odd. Of course, Don Abrams told the
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Chicago Tribune that Robin had no connection to the town of Harvey and had never been there. He believed that the
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car and the purse were, in fact, planted in those locations on purpose, possibly
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to throw police off of the trail of the person or persons who were responsible for Robin's disappearance.
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>> Well, if you're law enforcement, you don't want the family to get too involved at first because at this point,
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everybody's a suspect. >> So, as Don believed, this was an abduction and then a cover-up. Someone
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trying to throw the cops off, someone creating a false narrative that would generate incorrect theories. So, what
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Why would Don come up with this? What is Don talking about? Why would someone take Robin
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and why would someone try to cover it up? Well, hold on, folks, and I hope you brought your rain
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coats cuz there's going to be some >> Yep. >> But before we get knee-deep in some poop
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soup, let's learn some more about the victim here in this case. Robin Abrams was the fourth and youngest daughter of
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Barbara and Don Abrams. She grew up in Orland Park and then Beecher in a working-class family. Her father was a
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police officer for 10 years, and then he became a bricklayer. Robin graduated from Sandburg High School and received
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an associate's degree from Moraine Valley Community College. She then received a bachelor's degree from
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Governor's State University. She was the first in her family to go to college, and her sister said she aspired to
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become a lawyer. Robin put herself through school by working at several fast-food restaurants, including a
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McDonald's, where she worked her way up to manager. This was the branch in Frankfort. Now, it's unknown
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where Robin was headed on that afternoon when she left the house and she spotted
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by her her father driving out of the subdivision. When Robin vanished, she was wearing a
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white long-sleeve shirt, black slacks, black patent leather shoes, and a black leather jacket, and she also had on a
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gold pinky ring, as well. On Monday, the Will County Sheriff, his name is John Johnson,
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issued a press release stating that he was turning the case over to the Illinois State Police.
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He had to recuse his agency, the Will County Sheriff's Department, because some deputies were being questioned
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about the situation, about the disappearance. Lieutenant Larry Broke of the Illinois State Police later said
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that the case was handed over to ISP because, {quote} they weren't sure if there was a connection with some people
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at the Will County Sheriff's Office, {end quote}. This is not something that we're hearing typically when we cover
00:14:22
these kinds of cases. So, what is this all about? Well, quickly and easily explained, Robin was at one time a
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sheriff's deputy in Will County. This was from January 11th, 1988 until she was fired in December of that same
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year. So, she's given her pink slip just 3 weeks before the expiration of her 1-year probationary period as a new
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deputy. Even though she had graduated in the top half of her class from the Illinois Local Government Law
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Enforcement Officers 400-hour basic training course. So, her dream of being in law enforcement
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shattered. She had to return to working as a manager at the local McDonald's. Despite Robin's academic performance at
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the police academy and notoriously strong work ethic, Sheriff Johnson claimed that Robin was
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not unique. {Quote} Many people were let go before the conclusion of their year-long probationary period.
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People who weren't cutting it as deputies in training. But it sounds to me, Captain, like a lot of people were
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just not buying that story. But regardless if you are buying, believing, or otherwise, this story is much much
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bigger, I promise you. Because in December of 1989, before she vanished, Robin filed a civil lawsuit in federal
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court in Chicago for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and violations of her civil rights.
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The defendants of this lawsuit, well, some were male members of the Will County Sheriff's Department.
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So, makes sense that the Will County Sheriff's Department should not be the investigating agency in the
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disappearance of this young woman. And it looks like Robin wasn't just the typical woman in a male-dominated
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workplace who was subjected to crude remarks, gestures, and so on. Right. According to her
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lawsuit, it went far deeper than that. She had dated a fellow deputy from May to October of 1988. Her lawsuit alleged
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that she was harassed by Will County and Joliet officers because of this romantic
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involvement with a co-worker. It sounds like she believed that the harassment and the violation of her rights came
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about because she refused to keep quiet about this relationship. She was to keep quiet
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about this relationship for a couple reasons. One, this man was married. Two, it's a co-worker. And that's often not
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only frowned upon, but also can be grounds for dismissal with many outfits. So, for 5 months, from May to October
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1988, Robin had been seeing the head of the Will County Sheriff's Auxiliary Police. This man was 47-year-old Anthony
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Marquez, who went by the name of Tony. He was, one, of course, very closely affiliated with the Sheriff's
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Department. Two, 18 years Robin's senior. And three, a married man. >> Yeah, so do we know how their
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relationship started? >> I believe that their relationship didn't start until they started working
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together, but he, [snorts] from my understanding, frequented the McDonald's where Robin was once a
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manager and then later again a manager after her time with the Sheriff's Department. And it sounds like he,
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through chit-chatting with her there at the McDonald's, he sorted out that she was seeking a career as an attorney or
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in law enforcement and encouraged her to sign up as an auxiliary deputy for the Sheriff's Department. So, I don't want
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to get into this whole mess too much because I don't have a great understanding of how this department
00:18:45
works, and every department can be different, and often time is, but a lot of times, you can be an auxiliary
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officer, and in many locations, that's not a paid position. It's It's similar to being a volunteer firefighter who
00:19:03
aspires to get on with the force, right, at some point. And it gives you a leg up
00:19:08
on the competition when you when you are interviewing for an opening or want to be a part of that job and and and make
00:19:18
it a career and and collect a salary. Robin's sisters would later say that their younger sibling was naive, that
00:19:26
Robin was naive, and and they believed that early in that relationship, that she probably didn't realize that Tony
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was a married man, and they believed that she would not have dated him had she known that at the time. Tony Marquez
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met Robin, as we said, she was still student at the time managing the Frankfort McDonald's, and it was he who
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encouraged her to become a law enforcement officer. This is per Robin's family. And as we know, Tony
00:20:00
Marquez and Robin split up right before Robin was fired. And this again from Robin's family, from the Abrams family.
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Her lawsuit claimed that Tony Marquez got her fired because of her refusal to keep the
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relationship under wraps. Right. >> And after that they broke up a or sorry, after they broke up a campaign of
00:20:23
harassment against Robin Abrams began. And when we say campaign, it looks like look, she's not just suing Tony Marquez.
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She's suing several individuals, some of them who worked for the sheriff's department. Whether true or not,
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Robin certainly believed, if she's bringing civil action against these guys and the sheriff's department, that
00:20:49
several people were in cahoots and working together against her to harass her and bully her.
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>> Well, this case becomes very complicated. And some people will say, well, this is a complete cover-up and
00:21:03
conspiracy by the whole department. I would say, nay. Because they did turn over the investigation, the missing
00:21:11
person case, they turned that over. If they wanted to control the situation, the narrative, the
00:21:18
evidence, you wouldn't want to turn this case over. And regard to the lawsuit, again, I can't stress this enough. That
00:21:26
the the complaint here is that the harassment went far beyond vulgar jokes and obscene gestures.
00:21:33
That this was directed harassment that deeply impacted Robin's life. Yeah, if I'm law enforcement and I'm looking into
00:21:42
this, I would want to interview Tony's wife to find out what information she was privy to
00:21:50
because it it's very possible that Robin finds out that Tony's married, she possibly threatens to go to his wife
00:21:59
and if his wife has no knowledge of this, well, let's just harass her to get rid of her, so then I can possibly get
00:22:08
away with this affair. And you're absolutely right here, Captain, because if her disappearance is because of foul
00:22:15
play or someone has abducted her or killed her, well, then obviously this relationship
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and the lawsuit opens the doors to many many possible suspects. >> [snorts] [music]
00:22:49
>> All right, we [music] are back. Talk hands in the air. Cheers to you, Colonel. Cheers to you, Captain. Cheers
00:22:55
to all the great folks out there in listener land. According to Robin's legal filings,
00:23:03
she says that she was arrested on December 16th, 1988 by sheriff's deputies. That she was
00:23:12
detained without any charges being filed. She was outside of a dry cleaner when she was arrested and she alleges
00:23:20
that Tony Marquez engineered, orchestrated this arrest. She was arrested again in May of 1989
00:23:29
for disorderly conduct. Right. >> This was a criminal complaint that was never followed up on by prosecutors, so
00:23:37
that is suggestive that it had no merit. Then on August 27th, 1989, Robin was pulled over by a deputy and told that
00:23:47
she had a warrant out for her arrest for reckless driving. Apparently, Tony Marquez had filed a complaint against
00:23:54
her for supposedly trying to run his car off of the road. The deputy was driving an unmarked white
00:24:02
minivan, pulled Robin from the car. Right? She's pulled over under the premise of we have a warrant for your
00:24:10
arrest for reckless driving. Right. >> And that deputy that that pulls her over, he is
00:24:17
in an unmarked white minivan at the time. Pulls Robin from the vehicle, takes her to jail, takes her to the
00:24:24
jail, she's strip searched, booked and printed, gives her a jumpsuit, throws her into a cell with 10
00:24:33
other prisoners. And later, so Robin's mother is in the vehicle during this whole arrest
00:24:40
incident. Right. Robin's mother, Barbara, later tells the Southtown Star that, quote,
00:24:48
"They," meaning law enforcement, "they were bouncing her head off of the car." End quote. I mean, this story seems so
00:24:56
ridiculous. It Yes, it seems ridiculous, but it also seems very something out of
00:25:01
a movie where you have and forget that it's law enforcement. Right. Right, because you if you're listening
00:25:10
to the show for the first time, we're not a show that that searches out these types of cases to bash law enforcement.
00:25:17
We're not the kind of show that looks for misconduct or claims of misconduct so we
00:25:25
can smear the sheriff's department or a police outfit. We're the kind of show that tells you we
00:25:32
we look at we research the case, take a hard look at it, and we kind of just call it like we see it. And we've
00:25:40
said it a thousand times on this show, there are great men and women that work in law enforcement, and there's also
00:25:48
some shitty men and women that work in law enforcement. Absolutely. And like I said, Just like any career
00:25:54
on this planet, there's good and there's bad. Here, a lot of this is allegations, a lot of
00:26:02
this is unproven. However, this is the facts of the case, right? This is the facts.
00:26:09
>> mother. Yes. We have no reason not to. >> I just want to be clear what I'm saying.
00:26:15
I think that's good by law enforcement to say, "We shouldn't be handling this missing person case
00:26:22
because we we had lawsuits filed against us, we had complaints, and she, meaning
00:26:30
Robin, had a relationship with people within the department." And so, that's great on law enforcement cuz then
00:26:37
somebody else can look at this, and sometimes you need the good cops to investigate the bad cops. But that
00:26:44
doesn't mean that there wasn't some kind of conspiracy by a few members in this department that were trying to help out
00:26:52
their douchebag friend, Tony. Yeah, and usually I'm pretty quick to rush to defend
00:26:59
members of law enforcement. I'm not so quick to commend them for handing over the investigation
00:27:06
on this case because I don't know what conversations were had behind closed doors. Right. It it may have been
00:27:15
pointed and suggested to the sheriff that we can take this case from you at some point because this does
00:27:22
this case does span more than one jurisdiction. And then on top of that, you have to keep in mind that the
00:27:29
sheriff himself is an elected official and it might not look so good to the public who you are asking to vote for
00:27:40
you next time around that you are named in a lawsuit and the person who is disappeared that filed that lawsuit,
00:27:49
you're investigating her case and making no headway on it. So, I I don't know. I
00:27:54
kind of sit on the fence on this one regarding the the sheriff and his decision, but
00:28:01
I I think I think you're right. I think it's I think it's interesting to explore
00:28:05
that idea. I think it's hard to say that there was somebody that was definitely in the right and somebody that was
00:28:11
definitely in the wrong regarding this without knowing more information about these individuals and uh
00:28:17
one thing that seems obvious to me though with this lawsuit here, Captain, is when you have somebody being arrested
00:28:25
multiple times and then there's no charges filed against them, that to me is a strong indicator of misconduct, a
00:28:34
strong indicator of harassment, strong indicator of bullying. >> Especially when you have individuals
00:28:41
slamming Robin into cars and then also strip searching her, you can make a argument that it's not just harassment,
00:28:49
but it's physical abuse and sexual abuse as well. And yes, and and physical and sexual humiliation as well. To to be
00:28:58
to be strip searched for what is probably not a legit warrant at all, that aggravates me to no end.
00:29:06
Now, Robin's family, of course, paid her $500 bail Right. >> at the earliest possible
00:29:15
date. This would be the next day. Her sister, Donna, told the Star, quote, "She had bruises on her forehead and a
00:29:21
purple a big purple bruise on her wrist from the handcuffs. There was no evidence of reckless
00:29:29
driving and Robin was acquitted." That's when she filed her lawsuit. Robin claimed that she had performed
00:29:37
well on the job and that she was fired for, quote, no good reason per her court documents. The Joliet Patch newspaper
00:29:46
summed up the situation as such. At the time of her murder, Abrams had a pending
00:29:51
federal civil rights lawsuit that accused several people at the Will County Sheriff's Office of sexual
00:29:59
harassment and for being and for bringing phony criminal charges against her as a way to humiliate her and get
00:30:08
her fired. End quote. Interesting there that the newspaper, the local newspaper,
00:30:13
right Captain chose to use the word murder when we are simply talking about a missing person
00:30:20
case here. It sounds like collectively this area, this people that know this case
00:30:30
agree that her disappearance is only because someone killed her. I want to put Robin's case into the missing person
00:30:38
file. I'd put this into a murder investigation. >> Yeah, strong strong suspicion of foul play here is
00:30:46
Absolutely. why she is missing. So the lawsuit sought $50,000 in compensation and $500,000
00:30:56
in punitive damages for this harassment. >> I A lot of money at the time. A lot of
00:31:01
money at the time, but frankly I think it's a a little lenient for considering that you were arrested, your head is
00:31:07
bounced off of a car and you're strip searched, you're arrested multiple times, pulled over. I mean this is
00:31:14
why she So she when the harassment began, Captain, she moved back in with her parents. She was afraid. I I just
00:31:21
wish, you know, you we have this half a dozen times in every case that we look at, but you wish you could just go
00:31:28
back and grab her and go get the hell out of there. Get out of this county. Get away from these people. So I think
00:31:34
it's a little light. The The first of the seven defendants that was named in this lawsuit, of
00:31:41
course was the man she dated, Tony Marquez. Several others were Will County Sheriff's deputies. One was a former
00:31:49
Will County Sheriff and one was the sheriff himself, John Johnson, who handed over the case to ISP, to the
00:31:56
state police. According to the Joliet Patch, quote, other deputies named in the lawsuit included Marquez, Robert
00:32:03
Brown, Charles Masika, Thomas Carey, Lawrence Lofer, Raymond Van Dyke and Anthony Lucenti. Robin's
00:32:12
suit was still pending in the US District Court in Chicago when she went missing. The first hearing with the US
00:32:22
District Court in Chicago scheduled for 18 days after she vanished. So she would have testified in a
00:32:30
deposition then. Right, there's her motive. Apparently though, Robin wasn't the only one who
00:32:37
had filed a lawsuit. So in 1989, Tony Marquez, in retaliation, files a complaint Sorry, complaint after
00:32:45
complaint against Robin for harassing him. He cited 103 incidents of harassment according to Robin's family. Tony
00:32:55
Marquez claimed Robin had followed him around, hidden in the building where the insurance agency he owned was based out
00:33:03
of so that she could spy on him. He also said that she crashed her car into his and harassed him via telephone.
00:33:11
Tony Marquez also charged her with assault for an incident in January of 1990 when he says she, quote, raised her
00:33:20
hand to me in a threatening manner. End quote. According to Robin's lawyer in the case,
00:33:27
his name is Winston Block, none of these allegations were true. As we said, Robin was acquitted on the
00:33:34
reckless driving situation and also later on the these harassment charges. And the state's
00:33:42
attorney wisely dropped that assault charge. All I want to point out here is right or wrong or otherwise,
00:33:51
all of these allegations by Tony Marquez, anytime they reached the next level, right? The next step just above
00:33:59
Tony's head, Right. the charges are always dropped or the person says there's nothing here.
00:34:06
So you don't have to take our word for it. Just I mean look at the the evidence and look at the the court
00:34:12
documents. >> A lot of this would become he said, she said. >> All of the other harassment claims were
00:34:17
not followed up on. A quote from the Southtown Star, information came out in the trial indicating that the man who
00:34:24
initiated the charges against Robin Abrams allegedly had beat Robin about the face
00:34:31
on October 6th, 1988. Robin said Tony Marquez hit her and that is why she ended the relationship. So
00:34:40
according to her, she's the one that ended the relationship after it became abusive. Yeah, but that also kind of
00:34:47
coincides with she didn't know he was married. So is was that confrontation, was that a
00:34:54
assault, did that take place when she confronted Tony about him being married? I I I don't think we're 100% clear on
00:35:03
that information. >> Yeah, we don't have a clear understanding of that. And the other
00:35:06
thing too that we we should keep in mind, how many of these stories do we hear where it's the
00:35:16
male individual or the female individual, whoever's running around on their spouse,
00:35:21
and and sparks up this new relationship with someone, it's the age-old story of, oh, yeah, I'm
00:35:28
married, but I'm I'm we're in the process of splitting up. We haven't been together for quite some time. We're
00:35:33
we're separated. We're separated. We're The divorce is is going to happen. You hear that all the time. So while we
00:35:40
don't know the particulars of their relationship early on, that's that's where my mind goes in a lot of these
00:35:48
a lot of these stories when we hear persons close to one or both individuals saying, we're
00:35:56
pretty sure that he or she didn't know that the other person was was married or didn't fully
00:36:04
have a full understanding of their current relationship and their relationship with their their spouse or
00:36:10
marital spouse. One of a lot of these claims I think by Tony is also we don't know
00:36:16
because I haven't been able to find this anywhere, what was his wife saying? What was she
00:36:22
privy to know? And is it possible that Tony was making these claims against Robin to then go
00:36:28
back to his wife and go, you can't believe anything she said. We didn't have a relationship. This lady is just
00:36:34
crazy. Mhm. From my understanding, Tony and his wife stayed together. Um I don't know for how long, but I
00:36:44
believe for for the extent of of most of our story here. So a little more information on to
00:36:53
what was going on and what Robin was experiencing, her the tires to her vehicle were slashed on
00:37:01
several occasions. This was outside of her apartment. And this that fear of living alone in the apartment, her
00:37:11
tires being slashed repeatedly, that led her at the age of 28 to move back in with her parents for her
00:37:21
own safety. Right. Which is sad. Yeah, and her sister Jody told the Southtown Star she moved back
00:37:28
in for her own safety. Her tires were slashed four times at that apartment. And as we know, that's when Robin filed
00:37:34
her own lawsuit. Much like Tom Petty said, she was determined not to back down. Robin was going to stand up for herself
00:37:42
and not cower to Tony Marquez's bullying. The Southtown Star reported a charge of criminal damage to property
00:37:49
against Tony Marquez was dismissed in April of 1989. Prosecutors said they did not believe that they had enough
00:37:56
evidence to obtain a conviction. Yeah, but see, when you're a evil bastard and you have other evil bastards
00:38:04
that are going to help you out, you can be at the police department uh talking to your boss while your your
00:38:12
goon buddies are out slashing your ex-girlfriend's tires. And what's sad is yes, there was money
00:38:21
involved in this civil suit, but I think Robin was doing this cuz she knew I have to do something to protect
00:38:29
myself. I have to do something that gets all this stuff on the record and I'm assuming because she worked with these
00:38:37
individuals that that she thought, okay, well, some of them will side with Tony and some might even help him
00:38:45
harass me and bully me, but what what we normally see in police departments, the
00:38:50
reason why it's hard to have a whole department covering something up is yes, there's douchebag cops, but there's
00:38:59
good cops and those good cops aren't going to always turn a blind eye or help cover something up for the douchebag
00:39:07
cops. Well, and the other thing too, forget about The reason why the money is part of the lawsuit
00:39:13
is not because she's looking for a handout. It's because there needs to be some type of penalty, some type of
00:39:18
punishment for this kind of behavior. And if she's if she's able to prove that this kind of behavior was was going on
00:39:26
and that these individuals were the ones responsible for these actions and for behaving this
00:39:31
way, then they they don't deserve to be police officers. Right. >> Any police officer
00:39:38
any good police officer would tell you that. They don't want to work with these kinds of uh
00:39:43
of asshats. And so, what would happen here especially, I don't know who would have to pay this
00:39:49
out. I'm getting the defendants would, but if if many of those defendants are working for the Will
00:39:55
County Sheriff's Department, one of them's the sheriff himself, it stands to reason that the Sheriff's Department
00:40:00
might be the one paying out the $500,000. And believe you me, if a police department or Sheriff's Department has
00:40:08
to pay out $500,000, they're going to fire everybody that was named in that lawsuit. Right.
00:40:15
>> That And And And that is the That is set aside that Robin's missing here. I'm
00:40:22
talking about as of the filing of this lawsuit, those individuals not being allowed to be a police officer makes all
00:40:30
the sense in the world to me. And that's my speculation on why the sheriff would
00:40:35
hand over this case. Anyways, I think he knew there was a lot of tomfoolery going
00:40:40
around. And but if I turn over this case, maybe that saves myself. I think this next bit of information is one of the
00:40:50
key details in the story here. Because while we just said that the charge a charge of criminal damage to
00:40:59
property against Tony Marquez was dismissed in April of 1989. Remember, this is for the the tire
00:41:07
slashing. They didn't have enough evidence to convince anyone that he was directly
00:41:14
responsible for that damage. So, those charges are dismissed. That's if you're keeping score at home, that's one in the
00:41:21
Tony column. But, the result of this criminal charge, regardless of it being dismissed, they
00:41:29
determined that there was in fact enough evidence for an order of protection. So, Robin petitioned for this, stating
00:41:37
in her petition that Tony Marquez falsely accused her of crashing her vehicle into his vehicle, as well as
00:41:45
calling him and following him, Abrams and her mother were afraid of Tony Marquez and claimed that he carried a
00:41:52
gun and abused his position as an auxiliary officer, the petition says. Robin and her mother were both awarded
00:42:02
Both Robin and her mother awarded orders of protection against Tony Marquez on November 1st, 1989.
00:42:11
And Robin's was extended for a year until November 27th of 1990. Now, clearly, this order of protection was not a
00:42:21
deterrent because someone disappeared Robin while the order was still in place. Right. And
00:42:29
whoever that order of protection was against, that's your number one suspect. Robin
00:42:35
Renee Abrams has been missing from Beecher, Illinois since October 4th, 1990. Robin was born August 13th, 1962.
00:42:43
She was just 28 years old when she vanished. Make no mistake about it, this is a foul play case. Robin was a former
00:42:51
Sheriff's Deputy with Will County. At the time of her disappearance, Robin was 5'4" inches tall. She is a Caucasian
00:42:57
female with brown hair and hazel eyes. There is a Facebook page dedicated to Robin's case. It's Help
00:43:06
Find Robin Abrams Facebook page, and her case is also profiled on The Charley Project. At the time of her
00:43:14
disappearance, it's believed that she was wearing a white long-sleeved knit pullover, a black leather jacket, black
00:43:20
slacks, black patent leather shoes, and a gold pinky ring, carrying a light beige pattern clutch purse. Remember,
00:43:29
Robin's purse and checkbook were recovered, but her driver's license was not. Anyone with information, including
00:43:35
the known whereabouts of the previously mentioned items, please call the Illinois State Police
00:43:42
at 815-726-6291 or submit a tip at [email protected]. >> [music] [music]
00:44:06
[music] >> Stick around for part two. So much more to get to. >> [music] >> Until then, be good, be kind, and don't
00:44:22
litter. >> [music] [music]