The Strange Disappearance of Robert Allen Meredith
In the summer of 1979, Robert Allen Meredith walked out of his Evansville, Indiana home after a heated argument with his wife and simply vanished into thin air. What made this disappearance particularly unusual was not the circumstances of his departure, but what happened next. For 28 years, no one bothered to file a missing person report. No police investigation was launched. No searches were conducted. It was as if the 39-year-old Marine veteran, bartender, and father of at least eight children had simply been erased from existence by mutual agreement.
The strange case of Robert Allen Meredith represents one of the most perplexing missing person mysteries in Indiana history, not because of the complexity of his disappearance, but because of the profound indifference that followed it. Here was a man who had been married four times and fathered children across multiple relationships, yet when he vanished, his absence was met with a silence so complete that many of his own children didn't even know their father was missing until decades later.
When Meredith's family finally demanded answers in 2007, investigators discovered a web of family secrets, failed relationships, and a mysterious death that may have been connected to his disappearance. The case would eventually reveal the dark reality of how someone can disappear not just physically, but from the very fabric of society itself, leaving behind only questions, regrets, and the painful realization that sometimes the people closest to us can be the most invisible.
A Charming Man With a Complicated Life
Robert Allen Meredith was the kind of man who left an impression wherever he went. Standing tall with a commanding presence, he was described by those who knew him as handsome and charming enough to "charm your socks off." Born sometime around 1940, Meredith carried himself with the bearing of someone who had seen the world and wasn't easily intimidated. His military service in the Marine Corps had left its mark on him both literally and figuratively, with distinctive tattoos that would later become crucial identifying characteristics: a Marine Corps bulldog on his left arm and the letters "USMC" along with an eagle, globe, and anchor on his right forearm.
By the late 1970s, Meredith had established himself in Evansville's hospitality industry, working as a bartender alongside his best friend David Moore. The profession suited his personality perfectly, allowing him to exercise his considerable charm while making a living in an environment where his ability to connect with people served him well. Bartending in a city like Evansville during the 1970s meant becoming part of the social fabric of the community, learning everyone's secrets, and often serving as an unofficial counselor to patrons who needed someone to listen to their problems.
However, beneath Meredith's charismatic exterior lay a life marked by complexity and instability. He had been married four times by 1979, a pattern that suggested either poor judgment in relationships or an inability to maintain long-term commitments. Each marriage had produced children, giving Meredith at least eight offspring scattered across different families. This complicated family structure meant that many of his children grew up without knowing about their half-siblings, creating a fractured family tree that would only be fully understood decades later when investigators began trying to piece together his life.
According to family members, Meredith struggled with alcoholism, a condition that may have contributed to both his relationship problems and his eventual disappearance. His drinking was described as serious enough to affect his health by the time he vanished in 1979, suggesting that alcohol may have played a role in the arguments and instability that characterized his personal life.
Despite his personal struggles, those who knew Meredith insisted that he was not the type of person to simply abandon his children or disappear without explanation. His sister Linda would later describe him as someone who would never "totally separate" from his family, a characterization that would become central to the family's belief that something sinister had happened to him.
The Final Argument
The events of 1979 that led to Robert Meredith's disappearance began with what appeared to be just another domestic dispute in a marriage that was already troubled. Meredith was living with his fourth wife in Evansville when they got into an argument that escalated to the point where she asked him to leave the house. According to her account, Meredith complied with her request and walked out, never to be seen again.
The argument itself seems to have been unremarkable by the standards of a relationship that was already strained. There were no reports of violence, no threats, and no indication that this particular fight was different from any of the others that had preceded it. Meredith simply left, presumably expecting to return once tempers had cooled, as he likely had done many times before.
What happened next would define the mystery for decades to come. Instead of returning home, as both he and his wife might have expected, Meredith vanished completely. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and still there was no word from the man who had walked out after a routine domestic argument.
The wife's response to her husband's prolonged absence was perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the entire case. Rather than reporting him missing to police or expressing concern about his wellbeing, she simply moved on with her life. She filed for divorce, citing abandonment, and eventually remarried. When asked years later why she had never filed a missing person report, she offered no satisfactory explanation for her lack of concern about a man who had simply vanished.
Adding to the mystery were her claims to the Social Security Administration that she had received collect phone calls and letters from Meredith in Tampa, Florida after his disappearance. According to her statements, these communications continued for some time after he left, suggesting that he was alive and attempting to maintain some form of contact. However, no one else in Meredith's extensive family or social circle ever received any communication from him, and there was never any independent verification that these alleged contacts actually occurred.
The lack of evidence supporting these claimed communications raised serious questions about their authenticity. Were the calls and letters genuine attempts by Meredith to stay in touch, or were they fabricated by his wife to support her narrative that he had voluntarily abandoned his family? The absence of any corroborating evidence or witnesses to these supposed communications made them impossible to verify, leaving them as nothing more than unsubstantiated claims.
A Death in the Background
One of the most troubling aspects of the Robert Meredith case was its potential connection to the murder of his best friend and fellow bartender, David Moore. Moore had been shot and killed a few years before Meredith's disappearance, a crime that remained unsolved and may have created a dangerous situation for anyone who had been close to the victim.
The relationship between the two men went beyond mere friendship; they were professional colleagues who worked in the same industry and moved in the same social circles. In the bartending community of 1970s Evansville, such relationships often meant intimate knowledge of each other's business, personal problems, and potentially dangerous secrets. If Moore's murder was connected to something he had seen, heard, or become involved in through his work, it was entirely possible that Meredith, as his close friend and colleague, might have possessed similar dangerous knowledge.
The timing of the two incidents – Moore's murder followed a few years later by Meredith's disappearance – suggested a possible connection that investigators would later find intriguing. Had Meredith witnessed something related to his friend's murder? Did he possess information that made him dangerous to whoever had killed Moore? These questions would remain unanswered, but they provided a potential motive for foul play that went beyond the simple domestic argument that preceded Meredith's disappearance.
The unsolved nature of Moore's murder meant that the potential threats he had faced might have extended to his close associates. In the criminal underworld, witnesses and those with dangerous knowledge often become targets themselves, sometimes years after the original crime. If Meredith had been marked as a threat because of his connection to Moore or his knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the murder, his disappearance might have been the result of a calculated decision to eliminate a potential problem.
The family would later speculate that these two cases were connected, but without access to police files or evidence from Moore's murder investigation, they could only wonder about the possible links between the death of one bartender and the disappearance of another.
The Silent Years
What followed Robert Meredith's disappearance was perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of the entire case: a deafening silence that lasted for more than a decade. Despite having at least eight children, four ex-wives, siblings, and numerous friends and colleagues, not a single person reported him missing to law enforcement. This remarkable lack of official action meant that there was no investigation, no search, and no attempt by authorities to determine what had happened to him.
The silence was particularly puzzling given the nature of Meredith's relationships with his children. Several of his offspring would later describe him as a loving father who had been actively involved in their lives. His daughter Tammy recalled fond memories of him buying tricycles for his children, unable to wait to surprise them with the gifts. Such behavior seemed inconsistent with a man who would simply abandon his responsibilities and disappear without a word.
During this period, Meredith was declared legally dead by one of his ex-wives, Brenda, who stated that she believed he would have visited her and their daughters if he were still alive. Since he had made no contact, she concluded that he must be deceased and took the legal steps necessary to have him declared dead. This action allowed her to move forward with her life and provided closure of a sort, even though it was based on assumption rather than evidence.
Brenda's decision to have Meredith declared dead was both practical and emotional. As the mother of his children, she needed legal certainty about his status to make decisions about their future. However, her belief that he was dead was based not on evidence of foul play, but on her knowledge of his character. She was convinced that if he were alive, he would have maintained contact with his daughters, and since he hadn't, she concluded that he must have died.
The lack of any official investigation during this period meant that crucial evidence and witness memories were lost forever. By the time anyone began asking serious questions about Meredith's disappearance, nearly three decades had passed, and any physical evidence that might have existed had long since vanished. Witnesses had died, moved away, or forgotten crucial details, and the trail had grown cold beyond any hope of warm recovery.
The Awakening of 1992
The first crack in the wall of silence surrounding Robert Meredith's disappearance came in 1992, thirteen years after he had vanished, when his sister Linda contacted the Evansville Police Department to inquire about her brother's case. What she discovered shocked her: there was no case. The police had never been notified that Meredith was missing, had never conducted an investigation, and had no record of his disappearance.
Linda's contact with police revealed the extraordinary reality that a man could vanish from society without anyone in authority ever being informed. The revelation that no missing person report had ever been filed highlighted the dysfunction within Meredith's extended family and the complex web of relationships that had apparently prevented anyone from taking responsibility for his welfare.
The police response to Linda's inquiry was understandably limited. By 1992, any investigation would have been severely hampered by the passage of time, the lack of a crime scene, and the absence of any evidence that a crime had been committed. Without a body, witnesses to foul play, or any indication that Meredith had met with violence, police had little to work with beyond the basic facts of his disappearance.
Linda's efforts to revive interest in her brother's case were met with the reality that missing persons investigations require fresh leads and evidence to be successful. After more than a decade, the chances of finding new information were minimal, and the case was treated more as a historical curiosity than an active investigation.
The discovery that Meredith had never been officially reported missing also raised questions about the family dynamics that had allowed such a situation to develop. How does a man with eight children and multiple ex-wives disappear without anyone contacting authorities? What kind of relationships existed within this extended family that no one felt responsible for ensuring his wellbeing or determining his fate?
Family Secrets Revealed
The investigation that eventually began in 2007, twenty-eight years after Meredith's disappearance, revealed the extraordinary complexity of his family life and the web of secrets that had contributed to the decades of silence surrounding his case. Many of Meredith's children discovered that they had half-siblings they had never known about, as their father's complicated romantic history came to light.
The revelation that Meredith had fathered children with four different women created a puzzle for investigators trying to understand his relationships and motivations. Each marriage had apparently ended in divorce, suggesting a pattern of behavior that made it difficult for him to maintain long-term relationships. This pattern raised questions about whether his disappearance was voluntary, representing the ultimate abandonment in a life marked by serial abandonment of families.
However, the children who came forward to demand answers about their father's fate painted a different picture of the man. They described someone who, despite his relationship problems with their mothers, had maintained connections with his children and had shown genuine affection and interest in their lives. This characterization conflicted with the idea that he would simply walk away from all of his responsibilities without a word.
The complexity of Meredith's family structure also meant that there had been no single person with clear responsibility for his welfare. Unlike a traditional nuclear family where a spouse or child might be expected to report a missing person, Meredith's scattered relationships meant that everyone assumed someone else was handling the situation, or that his absence was voluntary.
The children who eventually organized to demand answers about their father represented a new generation that refused to accept the silence that had surrounded his disappearance. Led by daughters Tammy and Denise, they approached authorities with a unified voice, insisting that their father deserved to have his fate investigated regardless of how much time had passed.
Their efforts revealed not just the details of their father's disappearance, but also the emotional toll that decades of uncertainty had taken on his survivors. For children who had grown up not knowing whether their father was alive or dead, the lack of answers had created a form of ambiguous grief that prevented them from achieving closure or moving forward with their lives.
The 2007 Investigation
When Detective Guy Minnis of the Evansville Police Department finally agreed to look into Robert Meredith's disappearance in 2007, he was taking on one of the most challenging types of cases in law enforcement: a decades-old missing person case with no physical evidence, no crime scene, and no clear indication that a crime had even been committed.
Minnis acknowledged from the beginning that the case would be difficult to solve. The passage of twenty-eight years meant that witness memories would be unreliable, physical evidence would be long gone, and many of the people who might have had relevant information would be dead or impossible to locate. The detective's willingness to take on the case represented a commitment to the family's need for answers, even if the chances of finding them were minimal.
The investigation began with the basic task of establishing a timeline and gathering information about Meredith's life, relationships, and activities in the period leading up to his disappearance. This process revealed the complex web of relationships, financial problems, and personal struggles that had characterized his final years.
One of the most significant challenges facing the investigation was the lack of any official record of Meredith's disappearance. Without a missing person report, there was no initial investigation to review, no witness statements to examine, and no evidence that had been preserved. The investigation was essentially starting from scratch nearly three decades after the fact.
Detective Minnis and his team had to consider multiple scenarios for what might have happened to Meredith. The most obvious possibility was that he had indeed left voluntarily and was living somewhere under a new identity, as his wife had claimed through her reports of communications from Florida. However, the lack of any verifiable evidence of his continued existence after 1979 made this scenario increasingly unlikely as the years passed.
The alternative scenario, favored by Meredith's family, was that he had been the victim of foul play, possibly connected to his friend David Moore's unsolved murder. This theory provided a motive for his disappearance while explaining why he would never have contacted his children or family members in the subsequent decades.
The investigation also had to consider the possibility that Meredith had died by accident or suicide shortly after his disappearance, with his body ending up somewhere that had prevented its discovery. Rumors had circulated over the years that his car had been found in the Ohio River, though no official records could be located to verify these claims.
Theories and Speculation
As the 2007 investigation progressed, several theories emerged about what might have happened to Robert Allen Meredith in 1979. Each theory offered a different explanation for his disappearance, but none could be proven definitively given the lack of evidence and the passage of time.
The voluntary disappearance theory was supported by his wife's claims of receiving communications from Florida, but it faced significant challenges. If Meredith had chosen to start a new life elsewhere, why would he have made contact with the wife he had just argued with while ignoring his children and other family members? Why would these communications suddenly stop, leaving no trace of his existence for decades? The theory also required accepting that a man described as devoted to his children would abandon them permanently without explanation.
The murder theory gained credibility from the unsolved killing of his friend David Moore and the dangerous environment that bartenders might encounter in their work. If Meredith had witnessed something related to Moore's murder or had become involved in activities that put him at risk, his disappearance could have been the result of a deliberate act of violence. The complete absence of any trace of him since 1979 was consistent with a carefully planned murder and disposal of the body.
A variation of the murder theory focused on the possibility that Meredith's disappearance was connected to domestic violence or a crime of passion related to his complicated romantic life. With four marriages and numerous relationships, he may have encountered someone who viewed him as a threat or who had a motive to harm him. The argument with his wife on the night of his disappearance could have been followed by an encounter with someone else who had reasons to wish him harm.
The accident or suicide theory suggested that Meredith might have died shortly after leaving his home, either through misadventure or intentional self-harm. His reported alcoholism and health problems could have contributed to an accident, while the stress of his failing relationships and financial problems might have led him to take his own life. The rumors about his car being found in the Ohio River, if true, could support this theory.
A final theory was that Meredith had become involved in criminal activities, either through his work as a bartender or through other connections, and had been forced to disappear for his own protection or to avoid prosecution. This scenario could explain both his sudden departure and his inability to contact family members, though it still left questions about why he would never have attempted to reconnect with his children as they grew into adults.
The Ongoing Mystery
Despite the renewed attention brought to Robert Meredith's case by the 2007 investigation, no definitive answers were found about his fate. Detective Guy Minnis and his team conducted interviews, reviewed available records, and followed up on leads provided by family members, but the passage of time had erased too much evidence for any conclusive determination.
The case highlighted the challenges faced by law enforcement when dealing with decades-old missing person cases. Without fresh evidence or new witnesses, even the most dedicated investigators struggle to make progress on cases where the trail has grown cold. The Meredith case was particularly difficult because of the initial lack of any official investigation, which meant there was no foundation of evidence or witness statements to build upon.
For Meredith's family, the investigation provided some measure of validation that their concerns were being taken seriously, even if it didn't provide the answers they sought. The fact that law enforcement was finally paying attention to their father's disappearance represented a form of justice, acknowledging that his life had mattered and that his fate deserved to be investigated.
The children who had organized to demand answers about their father found that the investigation process, while not solving the mystery, helped them connect with each other and understand their shared history. Many had not known about their half-siblings before the case gained attention, and the process of seeking answers brought them together in unexpected ways.
The investigation also served as a reminder of how missing person cases can fall through the cracks of the system when family dynamics are complicated or when no one takes responsibility for reporting a disappearance. Meredith's case demonstrated the importance of having someone willing to advocate for missing persons, even when years or decades have passed.
Lessons from a Life Interrupted
The strange case of Robert Allen Meredith offers sobering insights into how people can disappear not just physically but socially, vanishing from the collective memory and concern of those who should have cared about their welfare. His disappearance revealed the dark reality that having multiple families and complex relationships can sometimes mean having no one who feels responsible for your wellbeing.
The case also highlighted the importance of immediate action when someone goes missing. The 28-year delay between Meredith's disappearance and the first official investigation meant that any chance of solving the case had been severely compromised. Physical evidence had vanished, witnesses had died or forgotten crucial details, and the trail had grown impossibly cold.
For the children who finally demanded answers about their father's fate, the case became a lesson in the importance of family connections and the dangers of allowing silence to persist around traumatic events. Their eventual decision to organize and demand an investigation showed how family advocacy can sometimes succeed in bringing attention to forgotten cases, even when decades have passed.
The investigation into Meredith's disappearance also demonstrated the challenges faced by law enforcement when dealing with cases involving people whose lifestyles or relationships place them at risk. Bartenders, like others who work in industries where they encounter troubled individuals and potentially dangerous situations, may face risks that their families don't fully understand.
The case served as a reminder that every missing person deserves to have their fate investigated, regardless of their personal circumstances or the complexity of their relationships. Meredith's struggles with alcohol, his multiple marriages, and his complicated family life didn't diminish his right to have his disappearance taken seriously and investigated properly.
The Enduring Questions
Today, more than four decades after Robert Allen Meredith walked out of his Evansville home and vanished, his fate remains unknown. The Marine veteran with the distinctive tattoos, the charming bartender who could "charm your socks off," and the father of at least eight children exists now only in the memories of those who knew him and in the cold case files that may never be reopened.
If Meredith were still alive today, he would be well into his eighties, an old man carrying the secrets of where he went and why he never contacted the children who spent decades wondering about his fate. The statistical likelihood of his survival decreases with each passing year, making it increasingly probable that the mystery of his disappearance will never be solved.
The questions that drove his family to demand an investigation remain unanswered: Did Robert Meredith choose to disappear and start a new life elsewhere? Was he murdered because of something connected to his friend David Moore's death? Did he fall victim to an accident or take his own life in a moment of despair? Or was he killed by someone from his complicated personal life who had reason to wish him harm?
The claims by his wife that she received communications from him in Florida remain unverified and suspect, particularly given that no one else ever heard from him. If these contacts did occur, why did they stop? If they were fabricated, what was her motivation for lying about them?
The case of Robert Allen Meredith stands as a testament to how someone can vanish not just from sight but from society itself, disappearing so completely that even their own family forgets to look for them. It serves as a reminder of the importance of human connections and the dangers of allowing people to fall through the cracks of social responsibility.
For the investigators who finally took on the case in 2007, Meredith's disappearance represented both a professional challenge and a human tragedy. Detective Guy Minnis and his team knew from the beginning that their chances of solving a case that was nearly three decades old were minimal, but they understood that the family deserved to have their questions taken seriously, even if those questions could never be definitively answered.
The enduring mystery of Robert Allen Meredith continues to haunt those who knew him and serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of family communication, the dangers of complex relationship dynamics, and the critical need for immediate action when someone goes missing. His story reminds us that behind every cold case file is a real person whose life mattered, whose absence was felt by someone, and whose fate deserves to be remembered even when it can never be fully understood.
In the end, Robert Allen Meredith remains what he became in 1979: a man who walked out of his life and into a mystery that time has only deepened. Whether he lies in an unmarked grave, lives under an assumed name in some distant place, or met his end in circumstances that will never be known, his disappearance stands as one of Indiana's most perplexing missing person cases and a reminder that sometimes the most profound mysteries are hidden in plain sight, waiting decades for someone to care enough to ask the right questions.
Sources
- The Charley Project - Robert Allen Meredith
- 14 News - Missing Mystery: Reopening a cold case
- NamUs Missing Person Case MP33190
- Websleuths Forum - Robert Allen Meredith Case
