Eric Robert kidnapped a teen and spent time on death row. Did he abduct Alexis Patterson?
Alexis Patterson disappeared on her way to Hi-Mount School in Milwaukee on May 3, 2002.
She was 7.
The latest season of Unsolved, a true-crime podcast for USA TODAY and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, examines the case. The episodes feature exclusive interviews with Alexis' family and more details about the police investigation than has ever been made public before. Unsolved is available on all podcast platforms.
During the making of Unsolved, a possible connection emerged between Alexis Patterson and a Wisconsin native named Eric Robert, who was later executed in South Dakota.
Here's what to know:
Who is Eric Robert?
Eric Robert was a Wisconsin native who later began a life of crime in South Dakota. In 2005, he posed as a cop and pulled over a teenage waitress. He told her to get out of the car and then pushed her into the trunk. But he didn't realize she had a cellphone, which she used to call for help. He was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to 80 years in prison.
What is Robert's connection to Alexis Patterson?
A woman from Cable, Wis., who worked with Robert at the old Telemark Lodge in the 1990s, says she saw Robert rescue a little Black girl who was running into the road on the afternoon of May 3, 2002, the day Alexis disappeared. He also drove a red truck, which some witnesses reportedly saw outside Alexis' school in the weeks before she vanished.
Could Robert have abducted Alexis Patterson?
The police don't think so. The woman who suspected Robert of taking Alexis said the idea had come to her as part of a repressed memory.
South Dakota reporter John Hult said on the Unsolved podcast that a Wisconsin detective had asked Robert about a kidnapping here, but Robert denied involvement.
Are repressed memories real?
The theory of repressed memories was popular back in the late 80s and early 90s. The idea is that people can subconsciously block out traumatic things that have happened to them. And after a time — often years — something triggers the memories to come back into the person’s consciousness.
It's a controversial idea that hasn't been proven with scientific evidence, according to Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist at the University of California - Irvine who is considered one of the nation's leading experts on memory.
Why were Robert and Rodney Berget executed?
The two were convicted of killing prison guard Ron "R.J." Johnson during a failed escape attempt on April 12, 2011, which was Johnson's 63rd birthday. Johnson was supposed to be off that day, but had agreed to cover a shift for a sick co-worker.
The two convicts hit Johnson over the head with a metal pipe and covered his face with plastic wrap to smother his screams. Robert put on Johnson's uniform and tried to leave the prison pushing a laundry cart, in which Berget was hiding.
Both Robert and Berget were sentenced to death. Robert was executed in 2012. Berget died by lethal injection in 2018.
Learn more about the Alexis Patterson case by listening to the true-crime podcast Unsolved.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Eric Robert was executed for homicide. Did he kidnap Alexis Patterson?
