Robert Lee Kellar (Courtesy Iowa Department of Public Safety)

Robert Lee Kellar

Missing Person

The Details:

Robert Kellar (Courtesy NamUs)

Robert Lee Kellar, 20, was last seen on Feb. 12, 1990 in Muscatine, Iowa, right before he left on a cross-country trip. His family assumed he would be back, but they never saw him again.

At the time he went missing, Robert was described as a 6-foot-1 white male with brown hair, brown eyes, and weighing about 135 pounds. He sometimes went by the name of Rob Heuton.

Robert Kellar (Courtesy NamUs)

Kellar had always wanted to be a singer in a rock and roll band, was known to hitchhike to California, Colorado, and Florida.

Family members said he wasn’t acting like himself in the months prior to his disappearance and believe he may have been using drugs. They always assumed he’d be back, and didn’t report him missing until two years after he left on his last cross-country trip.

Robert Kellar (Courtesy NamUs)

The investigation concluded he left the area voluntarily because there was no indication of foul play in his disappearance when he left. Foul play is now considered a possibility because family members don’t believe Kellar would have gone more than 25 years without contacting any family members.

Robert has two small scars on his left cheek, a small scar below his right eye and a small scar on his right wrist.

Dental information and charting is available and entered into NamUs. A DNA sample also has been submitted and tests are complete.

Story from the Muscatine Journal

January 26, 2006

A son’s disappearance … a family’s pain: Nearly 16 years after Robert Kellar’s family last saw him, the Muscatine resident is still missing

By Melissa Regennitter

MUSCATINE, Iowa – Robert Lee Kellar always wanted to be a singer in a rock and roll band. He would hitchhike to California, Colorado and Florida, exploring the United States and chasing that dream.

Muscatine County in Iowa
 
Muscatine in Muscatine County

It has been nearly 16 years since his family has seen him. They haven’t forgotten his outgoing personality and contagious smile.

Now, they just wish they knew what has become of him.

His sister, Stephanie Ruefer, 35, of Muscatine remembers her brother leaving in February 1990.

“He didn’t say where he was going; he was always traveling here and there. He just wanted to do his own thing,” Ruefer said. “We didn’t talk to him much when he was away. Every two to six months, he’d come back, so we weren’t necessarily worried that we hadn’t seen him.”

Kellar was 19 when he left Muscatine for the last time. No one in the family has heard from him since then.

Having problems

Kellar’s mother, Verna Craig, of Muscatine had tears in her eyes when she talked about the boy she remembers and misses deeply. Craig, 57, said her son was having problems and may have been using drugs.

“He wasn’t acting like himself,” Craig said about Kellar’s behavior during the months prior to his disappearance. “I think he was depressed and also had other problems that were hard for him to handle.”

Ruefer reported Kellar missing in 1992, two years after he left on his last cross-country trip. She said the family assumed he would be back. Muscatine police took the report but didn’t find evidence of a crime.

Though they were worried, they waited. Eventually, the family lost hope of his return and grew concerned that something was wrong.

Ruefer has spent many hours searching Web site lists of missing people, wondering about the fate of her brother. A few weeks ago, she took Kellar’s photograph to the Muscatine Police Department in hopes of having the case reopened.

According to Capt. Mike Scott of the Muscatine Police Department, because there was no indication of foul play in the disappearance of Kellar, the investigation concluded that he left the area voluntarily.

In such cases, police enter the information they have into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), a computerized index of criminal justice information. If Kellar is ever located, the information of his whereabouts will be forwarded to the Muscatine Police Department.

Search network

Scott also passed the case information on to the Doe Network volunteers who search Web sites, news articles and law enforcement agency information looking for connections in missing persons and unidentified persons cases.

The Doe Network functions through a Web site that lists each incident by case number.

Angie Bunch, 31, of Williamsburg, Ky., is the Indiana and Iowa area director. She said the network began with two people in 1999 and now there are more than 580 volunteers. Donations support its operation.

There are 38 missing persons and four unidentified victim cases posted for the state of Iowa on the network’s Web site.

“That is nowhere near the number we should have,” Bunch said.

She encourages interested families to contact the Doe Network to place information about missing persons in the database.

To date, the Doe Network has not solved any Iowa cases. Nationwide, 34 cases have been unraveled, some with the assistance of law enforcement agencies.

According to Bunch, 15 volunteers have already responded to the posting of Kellar’s disappearance. One volunteer told Bunch she had a feeling that she had seen his face in past searches.

That feeling has yet to produce any useful information.

Those in the family of Robert Lee Kellar continue to seek closure to heal the loss and fill the void.

“Honestly, I think he is completely gone — passed away,” Ruefer said. “I can only hope someone, somewhere has a clue to his disappearance. We want to know regardless of the situation.”

Contact Melissa Regennitter at 563-263-2331 Ext. 317 or e-mail: mregennitter@muscatinejournal.com.

Information Needed

If you have information regarding Robert Kellar’s unsolved disappearance, please contact Lt. Tim Hull at the Muscatine Police Department at (563) 263-9922 ext. 608.

Sources:

• Muscatine Police Department
• Iowa Department of Public Safety Missing Person Information Clearinghouse
• NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)
• “‘Juvenile’ most common category for missing-person cases,” by Jason Noble, The Des Moines Register, August 17, 2013
• “A son’s disappearance … a family’s pain: Nearly 16 years after Robert Kellar’s family last saw him, the Muscatine resident is still missing,” The Muscatine Journal, January 26, 2006
• The Doe Network