FL FL - Miami, WhtMale 662UMFL, 16-20, blonde, alias 'Bobby Copeland', Jan'88

[Bit of hope]

I have a newspapers.com subscription, and I really can't find any information from the Miami Herald, at least not in 1988. I looked through the paper for a couple of days after he was found, since it can be difficult to know how the potential article would be phrased (murder, body, hotel v. motel v. motor inn, etc.), but this is rather a herculean task--the day after, there are 116 scanned pages. The law enforcement site said that he was found at the Marco Polo Hotel, so I searched that, which was also brutal--I think they ran a help wanted ad, sometimes multiple ads for different positions, sometimes ads for shows or deals, almost every day of 1988.

I'm sure I could have missed something, but I also wonder if, since they found the killer (arrested, but unclear if prosecuted?), who offered a potential identity, they were initially just trying to track down and find the re Bobby Copeland variants across the country in pre-internet times. Then when they figured out that was potentially false, they figured they already had the killer and *shrug*.

I did find out some info about the hotel--it has 550 rooms and offered long term occupancy (the owner received permission in March of 1988 to rent up to 25% of the units). It had an event space, the Persian Room, which hosted things like the Miss Florida Teen USA and Vegas style shows (a lot of the help wanted ads are for cocktail waitresses, bartenders). It billed itself as a beach resort of sorts, in the Sunny Isles community, and the owner said he expected many European tourists that summer. All of this . . . seems an odd choice for a kid selling magazines, maybe? It's currently operated as a Ramada Plaza by Wyndham. The hotel offers a history, but the 1980s are completely skipped over.

Thanks @Nancy Drew RN for searching. So there wasn't anything about an arrest in this case either?

 

[Nancy Drew RN]

It's difficult to say for sure--there are so many ways to phrase it.
1. I did find reference to someone being killed with a baseball bat (!) at the Marco Polo in 1975 by Luis Villageliu, who was a fugitive in January 1988 and was suspected of committing as many as four other murders. Drug trafficking was involved, although "Mr. Bat" gives the impression of being a contract killer.
2.Some teens also started a purse-snatching spree in the parking lot of the hotel in 1993 and stole a car there, which they drove to another location and stole some more purses before a chase ensued with police, ultimately resulting in one of the teens being shot in the face.
3. In an article from 1990 about a family of police officers, Patrick Hanstein is mentioned as "dodging bullets while chasing a murder suspect through the Marco Polo Hotel" "a few years ago."

 

[Grungster]

Apparently this kid's killer was arrested in 2014. No further info is available.

 

[Grungster]

I found this out on Christopher Vigil's facebook group

 

[Bit of hope]

I found this out on Christopher Vigil's facebook group

Sorry, but who is Christopher Vigil?

 

[Grungster]

Sorry, but who is Christopher Vigil?

Chris Vigil is a missing person. He sold subscriptions at one point

 

[mp_1989]

Does anyone know if he has been submitted to DNA doe project?

 

[Bit of hope]

Does anyone know if he has been submitted to DNA doe project?

I don't think so. Here you can look for yourself if you want to know more about the pending and active cases. Cases Archive - DNA Doe Project Cases

 

[Coffee56]

missingchristophervigil

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

 

[Grungster]

Does anyone know if he has been submitted to DNA doe project?

I did.

 

[Bit of hope]

I did.

Thanks @Grungster, good to know.

 

[apearn]

I found this person on Ancestry yearbooks. He was not reported missing as far as I know.
He is in the 1988 yearbook as a freshman in Groveland Florida (which should have been photographed fall 1987 ) but not in the 1989 or 1991 yearbooks from that school.

What do you all think?

 

[carbuff]

Well. That's interesting.

That's very interesting.

Hmmm.

I am not finding anything about him being missing, but I'm also not finding anything about him being alive.

 

[radiogagas]

I found this person on Ancestry yearbooks. He was not reported missing as far as I know.
He is in the 1988 yearbook as a freshman in Groveland Florida (which should have been photographed fall 1987 ) but not in the 1989 or 1991 yearbooks from that school.

What do you all think?

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wow they look eerily similar!

 

[Triss]

I found this person on Ancestry yearbooks. He was not reported missing as far as I know.
He is in the 1988 yearbook as a freshman in Groveland Florida (which should have been photographed fall 1987 ) but not in the 1989 or 1991 yearbooks from that school.

What do you all think?

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Did you call it in? If you didn't, I think you should. I can see the resemblance.

 

[madamx]

I found this person on Ancestry yearbooks. He was not reported missing as far as I know.
He is in the 1988 yearbook as a freshman in Groveland Florida (which should have been photographed fall 1987 ) but not in the 1989 or 1991 yearbooks from that school.

What do you all think?

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Wow great find!!!!.. looks similar even his teeth and his name is Robert Copeland wow

 

[Eman317]

I found this person on Ancestry yearbooks. He was not reported missing as far as I know.
He is in the 1988 yearbook as a freshman in Groveland Florida (which should have been photographed fall 1987 ) but not in the 1989 or 1991 yearbooks from that school.

What do you all think?

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This is an amazing find. The only major difference from what I can tell is that the eyebrows are completely different. Hope it turns out that's actually him. I'll be really disappointed if he isn't.

 

[apearn]

Did you call it in? If you didn't, I think you should. I can see the resemblance.

I did not. I wanted to dig around on Newspapers.com to see if I could find anything. I did find some mentions of some support hearings with a Robert Copeland as the father but I didn't get a chance to run that down yet.

 

[carbuff]

I've found a couple of references to a Robert Copeland in that area but I don't think it's the same guy. The real estate agent of that name resembles the high school photo but his other information doesn't seem to match.

 

[snowgoose]

I found this person on Ancestry yearbooks. He was not reported missing as far as I know.
He is in the 1988 yearbook as a freshman in Groveland Florida (which should have been photographed fall 1987 ) but not in the 1989 or 1991 yearbooks from that school.

What do you all think?

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That's a very interesting find. Did you end up reporting it? Or did you find out anything else about this Robert?

I noticed that Bobby's NamUs page was updated recently, but I don't have an account and can't see what changed.