Where's Robbie Alexander?

With Ken St. Marks' recent offer of $1,000 for any information on the whereabouts of Robert Alexander, who went missing April 2013, interest in the old case has been rekindled.

Ed Longknife, a criminal investigator for the Chippewa Cree Police Department who was in charge of the search for Alexander, said it all began April 29, 2013, at 12:10 p.m. That is the time of his wife's phone call to the police on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation to request a welfare check on her husband, who she had not seen for two to four days.

"She was worried about him," Longknife said. "That's how it started, right there."

Longknife said they had been told he might have gone to the Sandy Creek area of the reservation, at its southern end. When police went to the area, they discovered his vehicle on a road that led to Mount Baldy. The driver's side window was rolled down and the keys were not in the vehicle. Longknife and another officer began looking for him in the area.

Longknife said a possible clue is that there was a pack of Marlboro 100s on the dashboard, which was not Alexander's brand. He smoked Marlboro Lights. Near the vehicle, up a path into the woods, the search for Alexander found his pajama bottoms near the vehicle. A little further down the path, they found shoes. Both items were verified to have belonged to Alexander, but the trail went cold after them. The officers looked through the area around the car further.

"To no avail," Longknife said. "We could not find Robbie."

They put out a missing person's notice and posted his photo everywhere, Longknife said, but still did not find out where he might have gone.

"What we did is we organized a search party," he said. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Forestry Division, and Rocky Boy Emergency Medical Services helped with the search they organized for the following day, April 30.

Everyone checked in with the EMS for coordination on where they were to search the park for Alexander.

"We had anywhere from 25 to 75 searchers at one time," Longknife said. Eventually, the FBI showed up and United States Border Patrol brought K-9 units, all-terrain vehicles and a helicopter to help with the search.

Friends and relatives participated in the search and would some days continue to search even after the law agencies had called it off for the day. During the search, they spread as far as Fort Belknap, Harlem and Chinook.

"That went on for 17 days until, finally, we pulled the search," Longknife said.

Last sightings

A nearby ranch called Chouteau County Sheriff's Office with information about the last sighting of Alexander, and the office then called the Rocky Boy police.

The last reported time anyone saw Alexander was at the ranch Saturday, April 27, 2013.

"They told Chouteau County that he was seen there and that he left some items there," Longknife said. This was said to be between the hours of 7 to 8 a.m. that morning.

At the ranch, he complained about a wiretap in his phone and wallet. He left pieces of the phone and his wallet, with some of the contents of the lining he had torn out, strewn about at the ranch before he left and went missing.

His strange behavior at the ranch, in addition to reports from his family members, was part of a recent development at the time. He was reportedly acting strange for about two weeks before he went missing.

"He would say that his telephone was bugged and his house was bugged," Longknife said. " ... It was very out of the ordinary."

Alexander also complained about wiretaps in his vehicles, smoke detectors in his home, and other items. The EMS visited him in his home, and he complained about the taps to them as well.

"He would tell his relatives that he would hear things and that his house was bugged," Longknife said, adding that this behavior was not like Alexander's behavior before that two-week period.

Alexander was suffering from respiratory troubles and was using oxygen tanks to help with them. When the police acquired a search warrant for his home, they found numerous bottles of oxygen in it, as well as tanks in his vehicles.

Two hunters came forward later and said they had seen Alexander's vehicle at the location the police found it when the welfare check was requested on Thursday and Friday.

Alexander was seen Saturday at the ranch and his vehicle was found Monday by the police. According to Longknife, the location the hunters and the police found the vehicle was the exact same. This could possibly mean that the vehicle had been at the location since at least Thursday, but Alexander was last sighted Saturday and must have had some mode of transportation to get to the ranch, or he went by foot. The ranch is about a mile and a half away from where the car was found.

The owners of the ranch saw him get into a vehicle and drive away and then called Chouteau County Sheriff's Office about the incident.

Today

Longknife said that since they put the missing person alert out for Alexander, police have found many leads as to his whereabouts.

"We followed every lead we could come up with," Longknife said.

He said they have had reports that he was sitting on a bench in Harlem, was seen in Great Falls at a bus depot, he was at a shelter and others, but they found nothing.

"If we could get a good lead, and I think this (the reward) could get us something, we can actually open the case on this," Longknife said.

St. Marks said that he suspects foul play in his cousin's disappearance because Alexander required oxygen tanks and "could hardly walk from his house to his car." St. Marks maintained that there is no way he could have walked far from his vehicle on foot because of this, so he must have been picked up by somebody. He added that he believes someone parked his vehicle in the spot it was found to make it look like Alexander did it himself.

"They made it look like he parked it and walked away, but there's no way he could have done that," St. Marks said.

Anyone who has any information on Alexander's whereabouts can call the Chippewa Cree Police Department at 395-4513 or St. Marks at 395-4635.

St. Marks is offering $1,000 for information, but said anyone who wants to add to the reward can do so by calling him.

"I think a lot of people care about what's going on there," St. Marks said. "I think a lot of people will chip in and if they have any clues, they'll come out with them."

DOB: July 26, 1955

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown

Height: 5 foot, 9 inches

Weight: 190 in 2013

Tattoos: Knife on left forearm