Member-only story
Alexander Walter Roberts
A missing child from Phoenix, Arizona
On July 29, 1960, Alexander Walter Roberts (12), better known as Alex or Chicano, went missing. He lived with May Booth at 6462 W Cavalier and was a registered student at the St. Agnes School. One newspaper reported that his uncle John Booth was the last to see him when he left his home at 1321 Brill Street. We do not know if he was going home to W Cavalier which was about an hour away by foot.
His parents divorced with his mother living in San Francisco, California, and his father in Glendale, Arizona at the time their son went missing. There is not an explanation for why he wasn’t living with his parents.
This case is another one that throws a bad light on law enforcement. I cannot wrap my mind around how they would believe a 12-year-old would run away from home and never contact anyone again. Not one word to his relatives and friends in all these years and he would be 77 years old today.
In the beginning, it’s a fair assumption that he could be a runaway, but at what time do investigators go in another direction? It is a recurring theme throughout many of the cases I have encountered.
How much did investigators miss by assuming and not pushing beyond the first belief that Alex ran away?
Thank you for reading,
SB
Sources:
NamUs
The Charley Project
