Kansas City teen Jayden Robker told police he was abused before he was found dead

More than a year before 13-year-old Jayden Robker was found dead in a pond near his Kansas City home in the Northland, he told police he was being abused by his stepfather, according to a report obtained by The Star.

The report, written by Gladstone police after Jayden ran away from home in November 2021, led police officers to contact the Missouri Department of Social Services. It is unclear what actions were taken by the state agency, which is charged with responding to reports of child abuse.

But the report was made about 15 months before Jayden’s mother reported him missing from his home in February. His body was discovered by police five weeks later in a wooded area about a mile from his home near Northwest Plaza Drive and Northwest Plaza Avenue.

Now, police in Gladstone, where Jayden’s body was found just across the city limits, say the investigation into his death is ongoing and a detective is assigned to the case. The department has said preliminary autopsy results indicated no obvious signs of foul play.

Jayden’s mother and stepfather have moved away from the Kansas City area. Neither have been named as suspects or persons of interest in the investigation, according to Capt. Karl Burris, a spokesman for the Gladstone Police Department.

Jayden’s uncle, Derek Robker, and other loved ones told The Star they feel the Department of Social Services, or DSS, failed Jayden, regardless of how he ended up in the pond.

He and others believe Jayden was living in an unsafe home environment prior to his disappearance — and had even communicated their concerns to DSS, Robker told The Star.

Abuse reported to police

Just before midnight on November 30, 2021, Gladstone police found Jayden wandering near the 5700 block of North Walnut Street.

When officers contacted Jayden, he told them he had run away from an orphanage and “was hesitant to give his actual identifying information or any information about his family,” according to a police report obtained by The Star.

Jayden eventually told the officers he had run away because “his stepfather, Eric Givens, abuses him,” the report reads.

Officers then called Jayden’s grandmother, Kitty Robker, who picked him up that evening and took him home with her.

Kitty Robker described receiving a call in the middle of the night and driving over to pick up Jayden. When she arrived, she said she noticed two bruises on Jayden’s forearm and pointed them out to the officers.

“I really had to look and say, ‘Those are bruises,’” she said. “‘That is not a pigment thing.’”

The report shows Kitty Robker told police Givens kept Jayden, just 12 years old at the time, home from school and instead made him primarily responsible for caring for the other children in the home. In a separate interview with The Star, Derek Robker said he would receive calls from Jayden’s school about his attendance while the boy lived with Heather Robker and Givens.

Derek Robker said he was listed as an emergency contact for Jayden.

“There were times that my wife would have to go pick up Jayden because the school would call us … and she’d have to take him to school,” he said. “There was no one else at the house.”

Officers contacted DSS about the situation in November 2021 and attempted to reach Heather Robker that evening, who had not reported him missing, according to the report.

DSS has yet to disclose any records to The Star following a public records request made in March. Heather Dolce, a spokeswoman for DSS, said the department could not release information about whether they contacted Jayden or other family members following the incident, or if an investigation was opened.

Derek Robker said Jayden came to live with him for about eight months after he ran away.

While living with him, Derek Robker said, Jayden preferred not to talk about the situation with his stepfather, who married his mother in January 2021. But Derek Robker was vocal with DSS about his concerns.

“I told them, ‘Something’s going to happen if he goes back to this home,’” he said.

In a follow-up interview, Derek Robker said he believes from conversations with the caseworker that they were aware of physical abuse in the home.

“She knew Eric and Heather were fighting, and all that information together,” he said. “I felt like she could’ve done something to stop it, and it just wasn’t done,” he said.

According to Derek Robker, after DSS closed Jayden’s case under the stipulation that Heather Robker and Givens pursue family counseling, Jayden went back to live with his mom and stepfather. But Derek Robker said Jayden didn’t want to go back.

“That kid was literally crying — begging me — not to let him go,” Derek Robker said. “He said, ‘Uncle Derek, I’ll do anything. What do I have to do?’”

The Star reached Givens by phone on Tuesday, who confirmed they are not still living in Missouri.

In April, Derek Robker said he was contacted by a caseworker with the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services and was alerted that Givens’ and Heather Robker’s children had been taken into the state’s care. Louisiana DCFS denied The Star’s request for information about any potential cases involving the family.

Before ending the phone call, Givens said Jayden ran away in 2021 after being disciplined for a disagreement with his siblings.

“Jayden got put on his knees because he was doing something to the kids,” Givens said. “That was it.”

In 2013, Givens was charged with domestic battery against a household member in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, according to court documents. The assistant district attorney filed a motion to abandon the charges less than five months later, noting that Givens had been placed on a pre-trial intervention program.

The Star also contacted Heather Robker, who ended the conversation before answering questions about the November 2021 police report.

Missing more than a month

On Feb. 2, Jayden’s mother, Heather Robker, called Kansas City police from her home on Northwest Plaza Drive and Northwest Plaza Avenue in the Northland to report him missing.

In a March interview, Heather Robker told The Star she had gotten home from her first job around 4 p.m., and Jayden wasn’t there. She went to take a nap before her second job and woke up to discover her son had still not come home, she said.

It was around 10:40 p.m. that she told Givens they should call the police, according to Heather Robker. She reported Jayden missing that evening.

But it wasn’t until four days later that police released Jayden’s photo to the media, which Kansas City police attributed to a “delay in information exchange.” In a previous interview with The Star, Heather Robker said she couldn’t find a recent picture of Jayden to give police right away.

Givens told The Star in March he had seen Jayden come home from school around 2:30 p.m., and he was flipping through Pokemon cards. Givens said he saw Jayden grab a couple cards before he left on his skateboard.

“Jayden was in a rush, and he was very fidgety,” Givens said. “I definitely know he was heading somewhere to meet someone or to do something because he was in a rush that day.”

A manager at the QuikTrip off Northwest Englewood Road and North Broadway said surveillance footage captures Jayden coming in to use the restroom around 3:30 p.m. that afternoon before heading east on Northwest Englewood Road and disappearing out of view.

It wasn’t until March 10 that crews pulled Jayden from the waters surrounded by trees in a quiet neighborhood near the QuikTrip where he was last seen.

The day after Jayden’s body was found in March, Heather Robker contacted The Star for an interview, saying she felt like she and Givens had been wrongly placed “under the microscope.”

“I kept telling people, ‘Something is wrong,’” she said. “My son did not run away. Someone took him or did something to him.”

Since then, authorities have released little information about Jayden’s death. The Gladstone Police Department denied The Star’s request for an autopsy report, saying it could not release records in an open investigation.

Burris, the Gladstone police spokesman, said the department, with four detectives and a detective sergeant, has one detective assigned to the case, with other investigators following potential leads as needed.

Moving forward

Nearly two months after Jayden was found dead, memorabilia in his honor sits along a grassy patch in Gladstone.

Purple flowers, stuffed Pokemon characters and crosses keep watch over the area where Jayden was discovered in March.

His aunt, Susan Deedon, has been hard at work organizing fundraisers and events with the help of other family and community members. She wears T-shirts with his smiling picture and purple wristbands that say “#JaydenStrong.”

Many questions surrounding Jayden’s death have yet to be answered, but Deedon says she will continue to keep her nephew’s memory alive while fighting for reforms within the child welfare system.

She has plans to start a nonprofit advocating for children who have been victims of abuse, as well as a scholarship fund in Jayden’s honor. She also hopes to organize a major birthday celebration for him in July, complete with bounce houses and food trucks.

Jayden — her bright, caring nephew — would have been 14 this summer.

“I’m not going to let his name be forgotten,” Deedon said. “It seems like the ones that need saving don’t get any help.”

The Star’s Laura Bauer contributed to the reporting of this story.