Robin Ann Graham (June 22, 1952 – disappeared November 15, 1970) is an American student and missing person. She was last seen on a Los Angeles freeway in the early hours of November 15, 1970 after her car had broken down. She has not been heard from since, nor are there any clues as to her whereabouts or subsequent fate. Graham's case is often included in television programs focusing on missing persons.
California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers had earlier noted Graham stranded beside her vehicle and had stopped several times and talked with her. They did not stop one final time when they observed her talking with a young man, now believed likely involved in her abduction. Their actions were consistent with existing policy, which was modified after Graham's disappearance to better ensure the safety of stranded female motorists.
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Disappearance
Graham was a graduate of John Marshall High School and a student at Pierce College. At the time of her disappearance, Graham had long brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin and was 5'6" in height.
Graham was last seen by California Highway Patrol officers at approximately 2:00 a.m. on November 15, 1970, beside the vehicle she had been driving on the shoulder of the southbound Hollywood Freeway near the Santa Monica Boulevard off ramp in Los Angeles, California. Graham had been out on a date Saturday night and got a ride back to her car at 1:45 a.m, which was parked at her workplace, Pier 1 Imports. While heading home, her vehicle stalled at 2:00 a.m. Graham was last seen receiving mechanical assistance from a dark-haired white male, who was estimated to be in his mid-twenties and who drove a late 1950s model Chevrolet Corvette C1, pale blue or green with primer. The man appeared to try and help Graham get the car started, but gave up and they both rode off in his car.
Graham had earlier used a call box to ask a CHP emergency operator to let her parents know she had run out of fuel. Graham's younger sister took the call and relayed the information to her parents upon their return home at approximately 2:30 a.m. They went immediately to the site where they had found Robin's car, but she had disappeared and the vehicle was locked.
No note was found on her locked car. The CHP officers had seen Graham several times earlier and spoke with her, but officers had not stopped when they saw her talking with the young man. The patrolmen assumed the young man with Graham was the person she had called for help. The CHP officers were acting in accordance with policy of the era. As a result of this case, CHP policy was changed to ensure the safety of stranded female motorists. The initial missing persons report had Graham leaving voluntarily in the Corvette, which was confirmed by the CHP officer who said she appeared to willingly be in the Corvette.
After the Los Angeles Times did a story on her disappearance, a woman wrote a letter to Graham's parents and said she, too, had stalled on the road. The letter writer said a man driving a Corvette approached and claimed to be an off-duty police detective and offered her a ride. The woman refused his offer. It is not known if this man is the same person as the man last seen with Graham. The woman identified former Manson Family member Bruce McGregor Davis as the man she saw. He has not been charged in relation to Graham's case.
Potentially linked cases
Graham's case was handled by detectives at the Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department who thought Graham's disappearance was possibly linked to a number of other similar cases involving young women during the same time. The crimes involved female motorists throughout California who were attacked by an unidentified male perpetrator who targeted the drivers by offering help while they were vulnerable. None of the other cases have been solved and some of the victims were found dead in the Hollywood Hills. The cases are as follows:
On May 18, 1969, Rose Tashman, a 19-year-old Israeli-born student at San Fernando Valley State College, disappeared a few miles from the location of Graham's car. Tashman's vehicle was found abandoned after it had broken down with a flat left tire at around 2:00 a.m. on her way from a friend's home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood, coming to a stop on the Hollywood Freeway at the Highland Avenue offramp. Flares had been set round the car. Tashman's naked body was found at 6:00 p.m. that day in a ravine within the Hollywood Hills at Mulholland Drive. She had been strangled with a panty and raped.
Cheri Jo Bates, 18, was stabbed to death and nearly decapitated on October 30, 1966, at Riverside City College in Riverside. The following morning at about 6:30 a.m., a groundskeeper located Cheri's body on a gravel driveway close to the library. She had been stabbed in the chest, back, and abdomen after being beaten, kicked, and stomped in the head, face, and feet. Moreover, her throat had been cut. Her body was found fully dressed, with nothing missing. Police discovered Cheri's Volkswagen Bug with the keys still in the ignition and three library books on the passenger's seat about 100 yards from where she was found dead. The car's ignition system, which included the distributor coil and engine condenser, had been torn out. Authorities conjectured that Cheri's assailant had disabled her vehicle and was waiting for her to get back from the library before returning to it. At one-point, Riverside police investigated a possible link to the Zodiac Killer after they noticed a number of similarities in Cheri's murder and those associated with the serial killer. However, her murder still remains unsolved.
Months before Graham's disappearance, 19-year-old Cindy Lee Mellin was last seen on January 20, 1970, in the parking lot of the Buenaventura Shopping Centre; she worked there as a sales clerk at Broadway Department Store. She left work shortly after closing and was last seen standing next to her car at 9:40 p.m. She was accompanied by an unknown Caucasian man between 30-and-40-years-old. The man drove a light-coloured vehicle. He appeared to be helping to replace Mellin's left rear tire. Mellin has vanished without a trace after failing to return home from work. When her father arrived at the shopping centre the following morning at 7:00 a.m., he saw her car parked on the bumper jack with the flat tire still in place. Nearby, on the ground, was the spare tire. A sharp object had perforated the sidewall of Mellin's flat tire. She was not at the scene, and no one has ever heard from her again.
Aftermath
Seventeen years after Graham's disappearance, an advertisement appeared in the Los Angeles Times classifieds which caught the attention of the Graham family as well as KFI disc jockey Geoff Edwards, who read it on the air: "DEAREST ROBIN You ran out of gas on the Hollywood Frwy. A man in a Corvette pulled over to help. You've not been seen of since. It's been 17 years, but it's always just yesterday. Still looking for you (signed) THE ECHO PARK DUCKS."
It was later revealed the ad had been placed by Al Medrano, a high school friend of Graham's, to demonstrate people still remembered her and hoped for answers in her case.