Dear Kadoober,
Thank you once again very much for transcribing. Bringing this forward in text form so we can internally refer to and quote:
Ok my peeps, here is the first 10 minutes of the PC. I will pick back up tomorrow, I can't do this anymore tonight. <3
Press Conference Amiah Roberston, 3/23/2019
Press Conference Amiah Roberston, 3/23/2019
Press Conference Regarding the disappearance of Amiah Roberston, 3/23/2019
By
@Kadoober for WS
Police Chief Bryan Roach:
“Well thank you for coming, to discuss, the case of AMiah Robertson. Uh, it’s been a week, last Saturday was uh, we were notified of a missing person. Uh, I want you to know that we are here today, uh, because we’re frustrated, and quite frankly, angry, uh, because of misinformation, and lack of information, and uh, lack of cooperation from those most closely involved. This is a 8 month of child and I think all of us would agree that somebody knows her whereabouts. And the detective, who you will hear from pretty soon, asked for this, so this is not about just, uh, giving the media information, this is, this is a need that we have and so that’s why we’re here. Let me give you a little bit of the backstory, uh, and, and then we’ll let Detective Burkhardt kind of explain some of the details and then we’ll answer any questions.”
“If you remember last Saturday, on the 16th, our Missing Persons was notified of a missing girl, 8 months old, uh, Amiah Robertson. That date is significant, and you’ll know why, uh, when you listen to the detective. So last Saturday we were notified. Missing persons, because of their expertise, and experience, figured out quickly, through their investigation, that this was a little different than most missing persons cases, of a small child. They enlisted the help of our homicide investigators. So we’re telling you now, this is a homicide investigation. And it has been, all week. Uh, since early on, because things just didn’t add up. Um, I think it’s significant that, uh, that occurred quickly, because it gives you an idea of some of the frustrations that we’ve had in this case. On the 19th, uh, we let you all know, because we wanted to enlist the help of the community, because we just didn’t have that much information. Also on the 19th, if you remember, there was a Silver Alert that was done, we didn’t have enough information to do an Amber Alert, but a Silver Alert was done. Also on the 19th a search warrant was served, at a residence in order to gain physical evidence, in hopes of gaining physical evidence, and also, doing some additional interviews, to figure out what happened to uh, uh, Amiah.”
“On the 20th we got a tip, uh, that at McCarty and White River uh, there were some child belongings that may or may not have belonged to Amiah. We went out there, did a search, we enlisted the help - there were some items real close to the water, we enlisted the help of IFD and we collected some items from there, and we’ll let Detective Burkhardt kind of talk about what that did or didn’t do in this investigation.”
(2:49) “Um, the 21st? We expanded that search a little bit, went a little bit down stream, there was no additional information but it was just uh, to be thorough. On the 22nd there were a group of community members, unsolicited from us, that also went out and helped. I want to thank them, I want to thank all of you, uh, I also want to thank the number of detectives, that have uh, been working day and night on this case. And all those tips that have come in. I’d like to be mindful, that those tips, uh, should not be conjecture of what we are doing, or should be doing, or what people think we should be doing, because that interferes with our investigation but if you have any information at all, please provide that to us. Uh, up here with me is Lieutenant Bruce Smith, along with Detective Jeannie Burkhardt, and uh, our Major Turner from Investigations. So right now I”d like to introduce Jeannie Burkhardt.”
(3:47) [Jeannie Burkhardt]
“Thank you for coming. I’m going to give a brief statement, touch on a couple of things that the Chief spoke about, and then Lieutenant Smith will answer any questions you may have.”
“Um. I’m gonna just start out by saying on March 9th, at approximately 1:15PM Amiah Robertson was last seen alive, and well with Robert Lyons in the 200 block of South Holmes, Robert Lyons was driving a 1996 Izuzu Rodeo, maroon in color. It is in poor condition. Robert stayed on the Southwest side of Indianapolis until 10:00PM, when he returned back to the mother, Amber Robertson, alone, without Amiah. Amber gave permission for Amiah to stay with the babysitter, until the following morning. Um, the babysitter and the other witnesses, aw Robert leave her house at 1:15 with Amiah. Robert has told family, friends, and myself, where Amiah should be, alive and OK. All of these locations and homes, were checked, with full cooperation from residents. Some places she was said to be by Robert do not exist. Since March 10th Robert Lyons has taunted Amber Robertson about Amiah’s whereabouts. I’m asking the public to come forward, if they saw Robert or Amiah on March 9th, or any day thereafter. On March 9th, he was in the area of Rockville Road, and Mickley (sp?) Avenue, for an extended period of time. So if you live in that area, I would ask that you try to remember if you saw anything suspicious, if you saw Robert, or Amiah, or this truck. Um, quickly I’d like to say as far as the location site on McCarty and Tipp streets, the items that were found on the bank have been identified as belonging to Amiah. So, I will pass it on to Lieutenant Smith.”
(5:59) [Lieutenant Smith]
LS: “Questions?”
Q: “Um, I guess the mother told us that the items were located involved some clothing and the carseat, is that accurate?”
LS: “Um, I, you know, just, for the integrity of the investigation I don’t think we’ll talk specifically about what items we did find, but we have confirmed, some of the items did belong to Amiah, or Amiah’s family.”
Q: “Um and, it seems to reason that you guys suspect Robert as doing something wrong in this case, are you guys speaking directly to him in this, is this why you guys called this today, or are you hoping to soften his heart a little bit?”
LS: “Well we certainly are speaking to anybody who would have information and if this, these, if this process here would bring him forward with accurate information as to what happened to Amiah, that would be great but, this is really for anybody who has information that has not come forward yet.”
Q: “Do you know where Robert Lyons is now?”
LS: “Uh, no.”
Q: “When was the last time you saw him, or talked to him?”
LS: “Um, I’m not real sure, I know he was released on a separate, unrelated charge, um, about 3 or 4 days ago.”
Q: “Lieutenant, put this into context, she went missing or was last seen alive and well on March 9th, she wasn’t reported missing until a week later. Is that concerning in this situation?”
LS: “Well it’s very concerning, and uh, you know I think that that has led to some of the difficulties we’ve had in tracking down exactly what happened.”
Q: “You mention your frustration with the family I know you spoke about Robert so the mother, has she been in contact with Robert has she told you all anything?”
LS: “Well, I don’t know if we specifically said the family we were frustrated with, I think we’re just frustrated with those people that may have had some information early on, and some of that information that we were given was misleading. There are certainly people that were, right away were providing good information, and there were some that weren’t.”
Q: “Is that just Robert, or are there other people specifically that you guys have a feeling aren’t telling you (trails off I can’t make it out)”
LS: “You know, I guess it’s, the big mystery here is um, what, we don’t know what we don’t know and uh, there are people we’ve taken statements from, that we’ve been able to verify the things that they’ve said, and certainly there are things that are unverified, so, um, as far as who those specific people are, you know, they know who they are and we ask that they come forward or anyone else that may have information come forward.”
Q: “Is Robert officially a person of interest?”
LS: “He is certainly a suspect in her disappearance.”
Q: “How do charges like that get filed, I mean, someone loses an infant child, you’ve spoken with them, are there criminal charges that he faces if, if the child is found? Is that we hasn’t been arrested yet, or have there been no arrests I’m just curious...”
LS: “Well, so, with, part of what besides looking for, verifying facts, we’ve been in communication with the Marion County prosecutors office, who ultimately decide what charges would be filed and who they would be filed against, um, you know, at this point, um, her disappearance is criminal, um, and, so, the persons responsible for that would be the ones we look to and hold accountable.”
Q: “********* relationship with Robert Lyons what else do we know about his relationship with this family other than just… boyfriend.”
LS: “Um, you know that, that’s the extent of it.”
Q: “*******relationship? How long had they ****”
LS: “You know I’m, I’m uncertain. It’s something that I’m sure that we have, I just can’t speak to that.”
Q: “Can you guys provide a little more clarity on I guess your timeline of dealing with Robert? My understanding was that he was arrested at some point between the 9th, and you said getting released 3 days ago, and has he not been since seen at all since that time, or”
LS: “So...”
Q: “When was he arrested?”
LS: “I believe it was the 16th or 17th. 17th, I”m sorry.”
J. Burkhardt: “HE was arrested on the 17th on a domestic related charge, based on that evidence having nothing to do with the, with what we’re talking about now. Um, he was released. Um, and as far as knowing his whereabouts, you know this investigation is ongoing, I just do not feel comfortable talking about what I’m doing as far as.. Robert Lyons.”
Pick back up at 10:29
(MOO)
