My boss portrayed the role of being in that area to hunt. And, hey, man, do you know of anybody down here with a hunting lease? We're looking for a place to hunt. And my ex-husband says, no, no, no, my wife's in jail, and I'm trying to figure out how to get her out, but doesn't mention that his child is missing. And we're back here for part two with Sharmin Roberson about the mysterious disappearance of her son, Stephen Keith Roberson. And in this part, Lance, we get a little deeper into search details and then some more mysterious details. Exactly. And I don't think that it was Sharmin's intent to lay this out in a way where she's unfolding these layers of mystery and creating this, I don't know, situation, this environment that is incredibly intriguing. But she's been living with this since 2018. So the story does play out, at least in her narrative, the way she's telling it in a very intriguing way. And there are some sort of bombshells that she delivers here.
Not substantiated by any direct evidence, but this is just circumstances and, again, detailed elements that contribute to how riveting the story is. Okay, so if you have any information, please contact the Sutton County Sheriff's Office. Also want to invite you to follow the links in the show notes. Sharman's got a Facebook group out there. And please let us know what you think on YouTube or Spotify. We're going to break quick here for commercial, and we'll be right back for part two with Sharman Robertson.
Well, can you tell us what the terrain is like in the surrounding areas beyond the crash site? It's very dense, lots and lots of trees and underbrush. And, you know, like I said, it's not improved land. It's, you know, as it were. But in that area, it's high fence ranch, game ranch, next to high fence game ranch. So initially, I start looking right away, driving the roads in where I grew up in central Texas.
especially in the years when I grew up or was growing up, you know, riding dirt roads was a big deal. And that's what we did as teams. And, you know, but I was surprised because this area is so, because of the ranches butting up to each other, you enter the ranch to intertwine, you know, in this ranch that we have searched on since and where that butts up to the crash site is a 13,000 acre bridge. And so that, you know, has been searched and we will, we are continuing. In fact, we have a search scheduled for.
April to search the roadways and all of that. But as far as I-10 goes, the median and the land next to the highway there is pretty wide. So without branching out, you know, where the crash site was, it was a lot of area, you know, surrounding. It's not like a very thin lane. There was, you know, some land there to look at. And so, but there's cactus in lots of trees, wooded area, but also rocky terrain as well. Lots of white rock there.
So has anything ever turned up in the searches in the surrounding areas? No. The day, two days after. So the crash happened on Wednesday night. Thursday morning, I find out that he's not at work and head that way, then find out about the wreck he was in. And then I start calling my friends.
My boss, my safety guy at the time had been a Texas sheriff for 12 years. My friend, Trace Hendricks from back home that I'd gone to school with, he was the chief of police in my hometown. I'm calling, I need help. And they start coming the next day. So here we are and it's Friday. Friday morning, very early. And I was so grateful because I'm just lost and I'm a mess and I don't know what to do. And the police aren't necessarily being transparent with me at all or won't even talk to me at this point.
And so my people start showing up. And two, here I am. I'm bringing my own cops to the party because I do believe in the very beginning of this statements were made to the effect that I was hiding Keith from this tragedy. You know, that he had, I had come and that I was, I had him hidden somewhere. So I'm not, not that this was intentional, but the people that I called happened to be in law enforcement. And here they come.
to to help and it it gave me some credibility I think um to be able to say look you know we're we're law enforcement and she doesn't know please help her you know and so we were We were contacted on Friday morning, but we did go down to the sheriff's department and kind of at that point in time, when there was another law enforcement agency from when Tracy came, let's sit down, let's have a meeting, let's go look at the truck, let's go look at the crash site. And we were in the middle of kind of doing all of that. And we got a phone call from the sheriff's department saying that they had accessed a private helicopter with a private pilot and that we would have to pay for fuel.
And none of us cared what we had to, you know, yay, we're so happy. And so they had told us to go to the ranch that butts up to the crash site there and outside of Sonora and go speak to the ranch manager. And there was an airport there and that the helicopter would be coming in to land. And a private pilot donated his time and they did an aerial search with this helicopter. Trace, my friend, actually went up in the helicopter with the pilot. And Trace, you know, before he got on, kind of grabbed hold of him and said, you know, you're looking for your kid right now, not mine.
I want you to be vested in this, that I want you to look for mine like you would look for yours. And of course he agreed. And I said that when he got back down, so they searched for several hours and rain was coming in. So they come back in and the helicopter pilot didn't want any money from me. I was insisting and he said, but I didn't do anything. And I said, oh, but you did. Because they were telling me how they searched and I compare it to mowing the yard or vacuuming. You do one time.
strip and then move over and come back. So you're covering thoroughly. And Trace said, I can see bunny rabbits. And he said that I can also see men on horseback and men on foot looking for Keith. And the funny thing is, is the police had never told me that they were doing those searches. They just left me in the dark about it. So I'm thinking that the helicopter is the only thing that anybody's doing. But there were, and they did later tell me that they were searching with drones, a seven mile radius, I believe, with drones as well. So that was done within the first days, but there has never been anything.
found other than pieces of the vehicle. Nothing personal of Keese. No, you know, and we've done several searches with the dogs now. And this dog team has finds underneath their belt, experienced, good, trustworthy people. And so there's not been anything turned up that indicates remains or anything of any of Keese's personal effects. And you did say that his wallet was left? In the vehicle, in the truck. His wallet was left in the truck. Was he in the habit of taking his wallet out of one of his pockets? Did he leave his wallet in his front pocket or his back pocket? I'm guessing that
In the vehicle, he may have had it in the console or in the seat next to, or probably in the console. But his wallet was always carried in his back pocket. Would there be any reason for him to take his wallet out? Comfort, not wanting to sit on it, or? Yeah, that was another reason why I was asking, like, does he usually, like, have it in the back pocket and he takes it out when he sits? Not always, but I think sometimes. You know, I remember riding in a vehicle with him where his wallet would be, you know, maybe in the console next to it. So I wouldn't think it would be uncommon for it to be out of his pocket.
and left in the truck. But too, with that kind of crash, I'm not going to say that if it was in his back pocket that that crash would have removed it from his back pocket and thrown it around the cab. But had it been in the console and had Keith intentionally fled, it would have not still been in the console in looking at the truck and the damage and all of that. It was a jolt, a huge jolt. You landed, you're airborne in land.
flat on top of, you know, another vehicle, but it was found in the vehicle. Funny to me, though, that the laptop was still in the passenger seat. Now, the police had been through it, of course, and so I don't know if it had been located or had been in the floorboard and they picked it up and put it in the seat, but while it was found, phone never worked out, nor did the police. ping it. I asked about it, and they said, you need to contact your provider. When I contacted my provider, my provider said, the police need to do it. So it was the two of them saying, no, they need to do it. No, they need to do it. So it never got done. Oh, that's very unfortunate. Now, you mentioned the upcoming search in April of 2026. Are you coordinating with law enforcement to conduct the search, or at this point, is there no reason to? In the beginning of this, I asked for a missing, immediately, a missing persons report to be filed, and they refused because they'd issued warrants.
What Sutton County was telling me was you don't need a missing persons report. And I'm sure you guys know, and there's no owner's manual for this. There's not a book that you pick up and say, what do you do when your child goes missing? And so in learning about NamUs, CODIS, databases where my son's my DNA. can be tested against unknown remains that are found. You need that missing person's report to get put into those. And that's very comforting for me to know that if Keith ended up in a different state, for instance, and his remains were found, there could still to this day, they could be linked and he could be identified and I could bring him home.
So in the beginning, of course, I didn't know this either. And so I just went, you know, why won't you let me? And two, you know, I just think that that's the one thing you do know is that there is such a thing as a missing persons report. And I wanted one. And they would not oblige. So it took two and a half years to get the missing persons report filed. And it's my understanding, and we're going to get some clarification on this when we do go down in search, but it's my understanding that the case has been closed and he still is. And that it was closed a couple of years ago.
So that, yeah, that I'm looking at your faces. And of course, mine was and still is the same shock of why you asked if if this was the search will be coordinated with police. No, it will not be. Although Crystal, who is the leader of. the dog team that I utilize, Team Texas Canines. Crystal has a better rapport with Sutton County Sheriff's Department than I do. And I allow her, and she graciously complies with, she pretty much does all communication. Now, will she let them know she's coming? Yes, she will. But it will not be a coordinated search. She doesn't need them to be able to run her dogs to, or on the side of the roadway. You know, we have...
searched the ranch the ranch is all that butts up to the car side the ranch is also a working high fenced game ranch where people pay to come in stay and have guided hunts so that land is traveled upon and has been since 2018 since my knowledge of this ranch so there's people all over it all the time you know and so you know i'm hopeful that in that that that if his remains if if he If something happened to Keith inside of that ranch, that's kind of covered in a sense. Although we have done formal searches within the ranch and kind of exhausted the ranch, Crystal nor I feel, and this is just gut stuff, but we don't feel like he climbed that fence and moved over. In the body cam that I mentioned earlier, there is a reference by Cody Gann that I was never made aware of verbally, but there's a reference that there was a sighting of Keith at my marker 408, which is...
10 miles, 10 or 11 miles from where the crash site happened and that it was within 30 minutes of, although this has never been confirmed verbally with me, with law enforcement. This is just something that once I got the body cam video, you hear this and you're like, I was never told that. And so I want to discuss that when we go in April. I'm asking Crystal to contact the 2nd County Sheriff's Department to sit down and ask some questions. You know, why is the case closed? Will you reopen it? I'm going to respectfully ask first if they will reopen the case. Now, are they going to work it? No.
And I know that. But I want it open. And why wouldn't I? I mean, if I don't expect them to open to work it, there's no anticipation of that. But what's it going to hurt to open this for me? Because I want this done. Because I don't want him kicked out of NamUs. Because I don't want him. Which I've been told that that's probably not going to happen. You know what I mean? But what if you need a missing persons report to get in there once they close your case? You know, I think it closes doors for me in what I'm doing.
not having that missing person's case open. And so I would appreciate that. But that's something we're going to ask for. And we also have several questions, you know, regarding the circumstances or, you know, things that we haven't learned a whole lot. But, you know, there's still so many questions. And so, and two, in the past.
They have been very open, you know, whenever we do schedule searches and are in the area, you know, and they'll even assign a cruiser to be along the roadway with lots because we're on a very busy interstate in Texas during the day. It's pretty busy with 18 wheelers and such to keep us safe, you know, and to this area is close to the border. And so, you know, we canceled a search a couple years ago because of border activity because... Crystal and I aren't afraid of anything or anyone, but to ask people to come and help you search and then put them in an area that's dangerous, you know, maybe mules going through that area that might be armed, you know, you don't want to ask, you don't want to put anybody in danger. So, but yes, we will, we will let them know we're coming. We will ask for a sit down again to just revisit and ask the questions that Crystal and I want asked, but not with any expectation of any further investigation from them. We'll be right back after a quick word from our sponsor. And a thank you to our sponsors. Back to the program.
So do you think he got into a car? I do. I have no evidence of that. I do know, and this is moving on to a different aspect of this, that I had told you about when everybody started showing up on Friday morning. We had met with police and we were on our way to go look at the truck that Keith had been in when this crash happened. And the county sheriff in which Ozona, so I said that Ozona and Sonora are the towns next to each other, but they're in different counties, called Sutton County and said,
We got word, a tip, that Keith had made it to his dad's hotel room. They called Trace Hendricks, who, of course, my friend, who was the chief of police in my hometown, who had come down to help me with this and be with me for support. They called him because I was just a mess at this point. I probably couldn't have even had a phone conversation. But they stated that they had gotten word that Keith had gone to his dad, so I'm ecstatic. And Trace turns around to me and says, now listen to me.
Lots of things start happening. You start hearing lots of things when something like this happens and you've just got to hang on and we got to see. Don't take it to heart until it's investigated. In hearing that, you can't help but just hope that he's safe and that he was with his dad. And so that county, you know, I want to say it's Cherokee County, went in to the hotel room and searched, you know, to see, is Keith here? And he was not. Although my ex-husband's wife had warrants and she was taken in to custody. And later that evening, the sheriff.
in that county where Ozona is, I surveilled his room and my boss went and they kind of targeted everyone that was around me was just had this gut feeling. We think that his dad, his dad knows his dad didn't come to the search. His dad didn't show up ever. And so my boss at the time was there, brought side-by-sides down to assist and brought the ex-sheriff with him as well. So I've got two law enforcement.
guys with me very knowledgeable law enforcement guys with me helping me and they wanted to go and you know and check out what the ex-husband knew um with law enforcement's remission and so my boss had rented the hotel room next to my ex-husband and he comes out and my boss portrayed the role of being in that area to hunt and hey man do you know You know, of course, he doesn't know my ex-husband. My ex-husband doesn't know him. Do you know of anybody down here with a hunting lease? You know, we're looking for a place to hunt. And my ex-husband says, no, no, no, my wife's in jail. And I'm trying to figure out how to get her out. But doesn't mention that his child is missing and has been in an awful wreck. And so we thought that was odd. And on that Saturday.
We felt like, I mean, I haven't slept. I haven't eaten. Minimally, I'm a mess. And we felt like by the, I mean, and this is like, I mean, me, 24 hours, I think the first time I slept was Friday night. And so on Saturday, we got in the helicopter. There's no sign of him. And what do we do now? And so everyone decides, you know, hey, let's leave it to the police. Let's go home.
and regroup and you know and I was so on the fence because how do you leave here if he's out here somewhere but then two I'd literally walked and driven and screamed and yelled and searched and been down every back road and every road in town and every hotel and every convenience store and everybody in Ozone and Sonora had had my phone shoved in their face with a picture of my child at this point and so we go home and I want I knew that I wanted the RV that Keith and I owned together that was on his location his where he worked the RV that he worked out of brought home. And my dad had passed in 2013 and he was an airplane mechanic and passed down his tools to my son. And all of that stuff was there and I knew I wanted it to come in. And so I had it towed in by a dear friend's employee, a young man that I trust. And he did that and I was grateful. So on Sunday morning, I go to the RV. I had it pulled into Augusta and went into it and everything of my son's was gone. And so I'm just baffled at this. So I called Keith's workers.
A young man, and his name was also Keith. And these guys were just amazing through this whole thing, by the way. And he said, oh, I thought you knew. Keith's dad packed that stuff up before you ever got here on Thursday. Why? Why? How long after the accident was that? So the accident was Wednesday night. I was called around 6 a.m. Thursday morning, get in the truck, drive three hours to Ozona. And before I arrived, his clothes were packed up by his dad. So it was the next morning.
Oh, wow. Yeah, before we knew he was missing. So I didn't find out until I got down there and went to that evening, four o'clock-ish at the DPS office. And they first had told me, we don't know what happened. And then they found the records. And I'm sure, okay, day shift, night shift. This was a night. So there's a night shift. And then there's a day shift. And you would think that they would tell, you know, every event that happened the night before. But evidently, these guys hadn't been bereaved. But they found it. We know what happened now. But it's a county over.
Even though DPS in this area, they serve more than one county. So I had gone out to the location. So it's five o'clock. I don't know that evening, four o'clock, five o'clock the next day. And then I get a phone call from DPS. Hey, this is what happened. That morning, the clothes were already packed up in my ex-husband.
had done that. And the guys that Keith worked with witnessed that and later told me. And so my ex-husband wasn't, like I said, he didn't come when the helicopter went up and looked for Keith. He wasn't there any of this time. Like I said, everyone in the whole town had my phone shoved in the room. Where's my kid? Do you know my kid? Have you seen my kid? I'm a mess. I'm badgering at this point in time law enforcement for answers and questions. And, you know, everybody's come. And my ex-husband is nowhere to be found during this entire event. And then we leave on Sunday. I mean, on Saturday. So sorry.
We all left on Saturday and he left the area on Sunday and he went to the Sutton County Sheriff's Department office. And I was informed about this after it happened because Sutton County called my buddy, Trace, and said, hey, dad, the dad came by here. You know, he hasn't been there through these three days at all. They don't know him. You know, they've never seen him in Sutton County. And they called it a heat check.
is what the police labeled it. He came, you know, it's almost like somebody returning to the scene of the crime that committed crime. He wanted to know what they knew. He was asking questions in a manner that made them suspicious of his intentions. And that was, of course, that's not my terminology. That's not what I dreamed of. That's what the police said that they felt like his line of questioning was. But so where have you been this entire time that we've been looking for? You know, very odd. And so going back to the close to kind of finish that part of that story, I think it was a year later. I just decide at Thanksgiving that.
I just have to know. I drove all the way home six hours and went to my ex-husband's and said, I want them. My son has not returned. And as a mother, I want pieces of him, whatever I can get. I don't care if it's a dirty t-shirt. I want this. And where is it? Where are the clothes?
And so we're at his property that he lived at with his wife around Lake Mahia, Texas. And it's a wooded area and it's rural. And he points and says over there. And about the time his sister came out and was discussing me and threatening the people that I had taken with me, friends, dear friends, kind of shuffled me into the vehicle and we left. And I never got an answer to that. And neither have the police as far as like, where's this stuff? You know, why do you have this stuff? And where is it? So I don't know of anyone that I've ever talked to that has physically seen Keith's belongings since.
So, of course, it makes you think he got this for Keith. I felt like that he was either traveling in the vehicle with him or that he picked him up. off of the roadway. The dog team that has promised, and she's the one with the knowledge and the know-how to work dogs to complete searches, and I trust that with her. But she has a radius and an area, and it doesn't matter how long that's going to take, Crystal's going to clear that. And when she says, he's not here, meaning...
Sutton County, the county in which I was on, whatever it is that she's got in her head, that this is where we're going to continue to search and say, and then says, he's not here. His remains are not here. Then I'll take that to heart. And maybe then we can get some law enforcement assistance to go beyond that. But I have always felt, and this is just my gut, that he was taken.
He was picked up or rescued and taken somewhere else. But then I also do believe that after the fact, something tragic happened to my son. I don't think he's moved off hiding. These charges are not life sentences of something that we couldn't get past, you know. So, yeah. We'll be right back after a quick word from our sponsor. And a thank you to our sponsors. Back to the program. Wow. And where is your ex-husband and Keith's father now? Is he involved in any of the recent searches?
Never. He's never been involved in anything. In fact, we've probably spoken twice since Keith went missing. No awareness. You know, I feel like it's my job to keep his case out there, his face out there, the story out there. You know, and as a mother, you want to do something proactive to ensure that anyone and everyone who might know something or who might have been on that roadway that night or who knew Keith, you know, keeping this alive. And my ex-husband has never showed any interest whatsoever in searching.
as far as getting updates on what's going on. So that's alarming. I don't understand it. As a matter of fact, I do not understand that. I do not comprehend it. I do not condone it. I'm baffled by the lack of interest. I understand that people handle grief differently. But if your child's missing, to me, the normal reaction is to go find him. And so I've never understood it. And I question it. And I think it's very suspicious. I know you said that.
Keith had probably fallen asleep at the wheel, but was there any talk or any indication or anything that would lead you to believe that he was fleeing from somebody or somebody was chasing him, that this might have been some sort of pursuit? At one point, there was a young lady who actually was involved in a podcast and she and I became friends. She asked if she could do a podcast and we went down to Sonora together. And she lived at the time in Lubbock, Texas and said that she had come from a law enforcement family and was tied into law enforcement. in Lubbock, Texas, in that she had asked friends, not in an official capacity, to take a look at the body cam video, pictures of the truck, etc. And she ended, now again, this is an opinion, this is nothing official, but she did say that she had law enforcement agents off the clock, of course, this isn't their jurisdiction, take a look at it to get an opinion, and that they felt like.
the truck had been in a pit maneuver. Now, I don't have access to the truck or I would have that investigated. So, you know, that's honestly, that's neither here nor there. But, you know, it is something that I was told that another law enforcement agency looked at and stated opinion on. And so I've always, you know, you keep stuff like that in the back of your mind as far as something that could have transpired. We don't know because it wasn't investigated thoroughly. So we just, you know, literally you're open to anything.
You don't want to block anything out because nothing has been officially ruled out as far as the circumstances of the wreck. And sorry, what did you refer that to? What kind of maneuver? A pit maneuver. Pit maneuver. What is that? How I was explained is, so...
Say in a police pursuit, and this is kind of dukes of hazard stuff, but a managed wreck almost to where an officer or person doesn't, you know, doesn't have to be exclusive to law enforcement, could tap with another, with their vehicle, a certain area on a vehicle that they wanted to disable or stop. So I believe it was on the bed of the truck where there wasn't previous damage before this happened, but it wasn't consistent with. the vehicle landing on top of that there was an area that these off-duty Lubbock cops said that wouldn't have happened in this wreck that was intentionally done and it looks like this truck was that that was a pit maneuver and so it's where someone could have run him off the road but it looked Like it could have been law enforcement just because of where the damage was, that it looked intentional, if that makes sense. I had no idea that that was called a pit maneuver because you see it in videos and stuff of police just coming up and they'll like get on the right or the left-hand side and they'll nudge the car a little bit like right at the tire. But it actually turns the car, right? I didn't think that that would send the car flying, you know, over like a median. Like it feels like it stops the car really. Yes. Because it's almost perpendicular, I guess, at that point. Yes. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting detective work though. I think that when your child goes missing, you become...
an FBI agent in training yours. You just dial it instinctively and do whatever it takes to get some answers when you don't have the guys that are supposed to be doing it doing it. So, you know. I guess if you can tell us a little bit about your advocacy efforts so our listeners can follow you on social media, that would be great. On Facebook, I do have a page for Keith and it's called Bringing Keith Home. And so you're...
podcast is a series of one in a series of podcasts and I'm so grateful for you guys for doing this but I do I try to do one at least once a year and if somebody approaches me I'll never say no because I as I stated I feel like It's my job. And too, it makes me feel useful in this to advocate for Keith and all of the missing. It's very hard for a mom of a missing child to dive into everybody else's cases. I've tried. Brandon Lawson is one that's dear to my heart. And Tyrese Gibson out of Jacksonville is another one. And so it's hard to get vested in others because you're just so emotionally attached. But I do.
try to update my son's page, my own personal page, you know, flyers, just awareness, podcasts, any, I feel like that's, that I'm doing something to assist by doing all of that. And he's also in NamUs and can just be looked up in NamUs by searching the NamUs records by his name, Stephen Keith Robertson. Really, Facebook is the only platform that I use, but anyone, I think I can approve, and I have a team of administrators that assist me with the page, but it's a page that you do have to join, but we're not real particular. If somebody's interested, we'd love to have them. And it has more details about Keith, some anecdotes, stories about him, and then diving into the horrors of all of this as well.