Will Co. Deputy Robin Abrams Vanished 29 Years Ago

JOLIET, IL — Friday marks a somber anniversary that some people who worked at the Will County Sheriff's Office, past and present, would probably rather you forget or not know about. On Oct. 4, 1990, former Will County Sheriff's Deputy Robin Abrams vanished without a trace. Her body remains hidden to this day.

Multiple people suspected of her murder were never arrested or prosecuted by the Will County State's Attorney's Office.

Her skeletal remains might have been moved over the years to different locations, in an attempt to prevent her killers from being held accountable for their crimes. Her family believes Abrams' murder was orchestrated by her former boyfriend, then-Will County Sheriff's Office Auxiliary Deputy Tony Marquez, along with help from his relative John Romo.

At the time of the slaying, John Johnsen was Will County's Sheriff.

The family contends the disappearance and murder of Abrams was politically and professionally advantageous to a number of key people employed at the Will County Sheriff's Office around 1990.

At the time of her murder, Abrams had a pending federal civil rights lawsuit that accused several people at the Will County Sheriff's Office of sexual harassment and for bringing phony criminal charges against her as a way to humiliate her and get her fired.

Her suit named Johnsen as a co-defendant. Other deputies named in the lawsuit included Marquez, Robert Brown, Charles Misicka, Thomas Carey, Lawrence Lauffer, Raymond van Dyke and Anthony Luccenti.

With Robin Abrams gone, her lawsuit against the sheriff's office and the men named as defendants, obviously, didn't continue.

According to historical accounts of the case, Abrams' job at the sheriff's office became a nightmare after she began telling several of her coworkers that she had been dating Marquez, a married man who was also a Joliet businessman.

After the romance soured, Marquez began to stalk her and he enlisted other people in the sheriff's department to get her fired and arrested on false criminal charges, she alleged.

"He was an auxiliary officer at the time, but he was best friends with Will County Sheriff John Johnsen, who was also my sister's boss, and he was running for re-election and she had a lawsuit against them at the time," Robin Abrams' sister Jody Walsh told Joliet Patch for an article published in April 2018.

On Oct. 9, 1990, then-Joliet Herald-News staff writer Nick Reiher wrote a front-page article headlined, "Former County Deputy Disappears: Sheriff Asks State To Investigate Case."

Reiher's article reported: "Abrams, who lives with her family in a trailer park in unincorporated Crete Township, was reported missing by her father, Donald Abrams, at 3 a.m. Friday. She had been last seen at 3 p.m. Thursday, (October 4, 1990). Mr. Abrams told authorities that he saw her car pass him Thursday afternoon on Goodenow Road near Beecher as he was on his way home from work."

The sheriff's office directed the criminal investigation for the first few days and then Johnsen summoned his allies at the Illinois State Police to handle the case. The Abrams family has maintained for decades the two police agencies were in cahoots.

The goal of the investigation was not to bring the perpetrators to justice — it was to make sure the guilty men didn't go to prison, according to the Abrams family.

"The cover-up still goes on," Jody Walsh was quoted as saying in my April 2018 article.

In 2017, a prominent true-crime show, The Generation Why Podcast, aired a 49-minute segment on the Robin Abrams case.

Co-hosts Aaron Habel and Justin Evans told their listeners how they have closely studied the Abrams case and spoken with several members of the missing woman's family on multiple occasions as part of their research.

I listened to their show on Robin Abrams for the first time this past weekend.

Here were some of their key observations:

• "In this case, it's almost like they don't want to investigate anybody."

• "In this case with Robin Abrams, it happens a number of times where different experts have come and said, 'I think we can solve this' and then (Illinois) State Police will just say, 'Nah, nah, we don't need any help.'"

• "Either their egos are preventing help from happening … or maybe they just don't want outside help because they don't want it solved."

• "Let's call a spade a spade. It's either total corruption and a cover-up or total incompetence. You choose. There's no other explanation."

One of the Generation Why co-hosts even raised the possibility the Illinois State Police were obstructing justice because the agency has rejected several chances over the course of many years to bring in outside national police and forensic experts.

• "I hate conspiracies," one of the Generation Why Podcast co-hosts opined. "Even in this case, I don't want to believe it, but, if I believe this isn't a conspiracy or a cover up, then I have to accept the fact that this is the worst investigation I've ever seen in my life. I have to accept the fact that this is the most incompetent police force I've ever seen. If you were to give these guys a Yelp review for this particular case, what would it be? 1-Star?

• "They don't tell the family anything and then it takes other outsiders to give the family any information."

The hosts of Generation Why, Evans and Habel, lamented that the absence of Robin Abrams' body definitely hinders efforts by the Will County State's Attorney's Office to convict the killer.

At the same time, they pointed out, they've done true-crime shows on several noteworthy cases that resulted in "criminal indictments, convictions and sentences with way less than this one."

• "She had a history with Tony Marquez … multiple witnesses put her and Tony together that day (she vanished). I can't cancel out a conspiracy at this point."

• "I think there's a chance there's a conspiracy. I don't know that I can prove it … it kind of looks like a conspiracy to me."

- This column is by John Ferak, Joliet Patch Editor and true-crime author of five published books. Ferak has also been interviewed on Generation Why Podcast to discuss his first two books, "Bloody Lies: A CSI Scandal in the Heartland " and "Dixie's Last Stand."