The Unexplained Disappearance of Abby Roberts and Phillip Johnson

Episode # 83 The Unsolved Disappearance of Abby Roberts & Phillip Johnson

[Shaun] 

She was 25 years old, a beloved sister and niece who always showed up for the people she loved. In September of 2012, just 2 months after coming home with a new baby, Abby Roberts disappeared without a trace. 

[John] 

Her boyfriend, Phillip Johnson, turned up days later in California, without her, but with their two-month-old baby, and then he vanished too. Their car was found abandoned in Compton, California, and 13 years later, no one knows what happened. 

(Music - Pause for 8 seconds)

[Shaun] 

Hi and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I’m your host, Shaun

[John] 

And I’m your co-host John. 

[Shaun] 

This week, we’re delving into the unsolved disappearances of a young Las Vegas mother, 25-year-old Abby Roberts, and her boyfriend, 27-year-old Phillip Johnson Jr., who both vanished in late 2012. This case has baffled investigators and devastated a family for nearly 13 years. 

Some facts of this case will definitely have some of you drawing some conclusions about what might have happened to the two of them, and to us, it sounds like investigators likely have their theories as well. 

We want everyone to keep in mind that for the last 13 years, these two have been missing without a trace, and with all the missing persons cases we share, we ask that you share their story and their photos because you never know if your share could be the one that leads to answers for their families, especially their children. 

Do you want to start us out with what we know about Abby and Phillip?

[John] 

Abby and Phillip were a young couple living in Las Vegas who began dating in the fall of 2011. The two of them worked for the US Postal Service at the location on Sunset Road, near the Harry Reid Airport (which was called McCarran Airport back then). 

Abby’s family lives in the Las Vegas area, including her aunt, Renee, and based on photos from the Las Vegas Sun and our research, it's clear that the Roberts family has lived in the Las Vegas area for many generations and are a very large, very close, very loving family. 

Philip’s mother was living in Southern California in 2012, but unfortunately, Phillip’s family has not given any interviews that we were able to find, so we are unable to share very much about him. 

Abby is known for being independent, with a big heart. Her family describes her as straightforward, open and honest, and also very loving and caring. 

Very early in their their relationship, Abby became pregnant, and in the late summer of 2012, she gave birth to their son. 

Phillip had a 5-year-old son from a previous relationship as well. 

Soon after the new baby was born, the family moved into a home not too far from where the post office where they worked. 

Sadly, just two months later, Abby and Philip disappeared. 

[Shaun] 

It was on September 29, 2012, that Abby and Phillip left their rental home in their black 2012 Chevrolet Cruze and never returned. 

A few days later, on the evening of October 3, 2012, Phillip showed up at his mother’s house in Torrance, California. He had driven there from Las Vegas in the Chevy Cruze, and he brought along his two children, his and Abby’s 2 month old baby, and his older son as well. 

He left both children with his mother in Torrance and then drove off again. Abby was not with him, and Phillip didn’t mention to his mom where she was. 

That night, October 3, is the last confirmed sighting of Phillip. 

At the time, Philip’s mother didn’t realize anything was wrong. Abby and Phillip hadn’t officially been reported missing. It was only in hindsight that people realized these were the last times anyone had seen the couple. 

According to Phillip’s mother, it wasn’t uncommon for him to sometimes ask her to watch his older son for long periods of time, so she did not think much of it. She likely assumed that Phillip and Abby were having some kind of issue or that Phillip would be back soon for the kids. But he never returned.

[John]

On October 9, about a week and a half after Abby was last seen, Abby’s family officially reported them missing. They were a close-knit family, and it was unlike Abby to just vanish without a word. The two hadn’t shown up to their jobs in nearly two weeks. 

Abby’s family went to the house to check on her, and what they found was alarming. The house was completely empty with no sign of Abby or Phillip.  It didn’t look like there had been a break-in or obvious struggle inside the home; everything was just eerily quiet and undisturbed, and the couple’s car was gone.  

At that point, Abby’s family knew something was very wrong. Abby’s aunt Renee told the Review-Journal: 

“We’re very close as a family, but if she was going through something, she tried to deal with it alone.”

Almost immediately, everyone knew this was an emergency. The two wouldn’t have just walked away from their lives and their kids like this. 

[Shaun] 

On October 12, the Chevrolet Cruze was found abandoned in Compton, California using the OnStar GPS system.  Compton is not far from Torrance, where Phillip left the kids, so presumably Phillip drove the car there after October 3rd, but it’s not clear what happened. 

There was no sign of Abby or Phillip anywhere near it, so the vehicle didn’t provide any clues to police or the family. It was just sitting abandoned, without its owners. The rug had been removed from the trunk of the car, but there were no other clues or leads in the area. 

With the couple officially missing under suspicious circumstances, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department launched an investigation. They searched Abby and Phillip’s Las Vegas home for clues and they tried to retrace the couple’s last steps. 

Detectives Marty Wildemann and Barry Jensen discovered that Phillip bought a trash can on October 1 at a Las Vegas Home Depot. There was also evidence that he accessed his bank accounts: on October 4th in Englewood California and on October 5th in Long Beach California. 

As we mentioned, at the home there were no obvious signs of a crime, such as a broken window or overturned furniture. However, there was one extremely suspicious clue. Investigators found a scorch mark on the garage floor and ash and soot staining the garage ceiling, which they saw as clear signs that a fire had occurred in the garage. 

The scorch mark on the floor of the garage was round, and the investigators think it might have been left by the trash can that Philip had recently purchased since no trash can matching the one from Home Depot was found in the house. 

Police believe that something important might have been destroyed in that fire. As one search-and-rescue expert, David Cummings said to the RJ, “The trash can could provide clues into the disappearance”  If they could locate that missing can or remnants of it, it might “change the course of the investigation”, because it could hold evidence of what happened. 

[John]

As the investigation continued, Las Vegas Metro’s Homicide Division took the lead on the case, which shows how seriously authorities were treating the investigation. 

In June 2013, about nine months after the couple went missing, a volunteer group called Red Rock Search & Rescue teamed up with police in the hopes of uncovering new evidence.  

They focused on trying to find that metal trash can or any related evidence. Their search efforts ranged from the wetlands on the outskirts of East Las Vegas to more urban areas within a 10-mile radius of the couple’s home. 

By this time, the officials involved in the search for Abby and Phillip feared the worst, meanwhile, Abby’s family remained hopeful for the best.

The commander of the search team, David Cummings said 

“Starting tonight, the search will go on until the case is solved… We’re in a recovery stage” 

In Abby and Philip’s home, police discovered a receipt for a storage unit in Las Vegas that was searched, which turned up a receipt for a different storage unit in Perris, California that Abby and Philip had rented in July of 2012. Police searched that unit in December and again found nothing. 

Despite these extensive searches, no definitive trace of Abby or Phillip has ever been found.

[Shaun]

According to her family, in the weeks before she went missing, Abby had been planning to leave Phillip because she believed he had been unfaithful to her. 

And, after living in their new house for only 1 month, they were already planning to move out. 

A coworker of Abby’s said something similar – that she had texted with her on October 2nd, and she said she was planning to leave Phillip because of his infidelity. 

We mentioned earlier how Abby’s Aunt Renee told the RJ that Abby might have kept something personal like trouble going on in their relationship to herself, but the family agrees that Abby never would have left her baby behind. 

From Abby’s family’s perspective, this definitely paints a very worrying picture, with many unanswered questions. And until more information is found we won’t know what happened, and both families deserve answers.  

[John]

This uncertainty is agonizing for her family. They have been waiting for answers for over 13 years. After Phillip left the kids in California, Abby’s family brought Abby’s baby back to Las Vegas and have been raising him ever since. 

he was just a newborn when his mother disappeared, but he is now about 13 years old and in middle school, growing up surrounded by love. 

Renee has spoken to the press about the pain of not knowing what happened to Abby. In an interview a few years after the disappearance, she expressed the family’s desperation. “We’re frustrated and we want answers… We want our Abby back,” she said. 

As we mentioned, we don’t know the specifics of how Philip’s other son, mother, or the rest of his family and friends have coped with his disappearance, but we think it’s safe to assume they also want answers as to what happened. 

[Shaun]

The investigators feel the weight of this case too. Veteran detectives Marty Wildemann and Barry Jensen from Metro Police were nearing retirement in 2015 when they were interviewed about Abby’s case. In that interview with the Las Vegas Sun, they talked about her as if they knew her personally.  

They’d gotten to know Abby through stories from her loved ones. They reflected on “her big heart, her independence, and her passion for family” 

Detective Wildemann said, “Abby was so loving and caring,” recalling how much she loved her family and her baby. 

It was evident that she had left a profound impression on them. They were hoping to get more coverage for her case and hoping that they could find her and Phillip before they retired, but that did not happen. 

[John]

Here we are now, in 2025, and the disappearance of Abby Roberts and Phillip Johnson remains unsolved. It’s been over 12 years of silence, leads that went nowhere, and a family still hoping for a breakthrough. The Las Vegas Sun called it a story of “frustration and desperation” in a cold case of a missing mother and father. 

There have been no arrests, no confirmed sightings of either Abby or Phillip since 2012, and crucially, no physical evidence to provide answers. Their cases are classified as endangered missing and the authorities still consider the circumstances suspicious. 

We want to emphasize that this case is still open. Detectives are still actively seeking tips and information. 

Sometimes all it takes is someone remembering something unusual or deciding to come forward after years of silence. Maybe a friend of Phillip’s or Abby’s knows something, or someone saw or heard something near the couple’s home around the end of September 2012. 

Maybe somebody in California noticed Phillip driving the black Chevy Cruze in early October 2012 or even saw who parked it in Compton. 

Any detail, even if it seemed insignificant back then, could be the missing piece that finally leads to answers. 

[Shaun]

Here are the details: Abby A. Roberts was 25 years old when she went missing. She’s a Pacific Islander (Samoan) female, about 5’3” tall and 125 pounds. She has long brown hair and brown eyes. Abby has distinctive tattoos: the names “Semba” and “Michael” on her wrists, a tribal design on her left wrist, and the words “Respect” and “Loyalty” on her torso. She’d be 37 years old today. 

Phillip Johnson was 27 at the time he disappeared, an African-American male about 5’5” tall and 175 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He’d be 39 today. 

The couple last lived together on Aldon Ave, which is near Harmon and McLeod. 

They were last seen driving a black 2012 Chevrolet Cruze (unregistered) with no known license plate number. That car was later found in Compton, California, abandoned. 

[John] 

If you lived in Las Vegas or Southern California in late 2012 and recall anything about Abby and Phillip – any encounter with them, any rumor, any piece of information – now is the time to speak up. Even if you think the police must already know about it, please consider reporting it

After over 12 years, the family deserves answers and the investigators need the public’s help to finally crack this case.

You can call the Las Vegas Metro Police Department Homicide Section at 702-828-3521 or, if you wish to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 or submit a tip online at www.crimestoppersofnv.com. The goal is just to get that crucial information to the authorities.

[Shaun]

Abby’s family has never stopped looking for her. They still hold onto hope that one day they will know the truth. It’s unimaginable to not have those answers. 

We truly hope that sharing Abby and Phillip’s story today will reach people who lived in Las Vegas or Southern California during 2012, who have new tips for law enforcement. Cases like this remain unsolved until someone comes forward. If you’re out there listening and you know anything, even if it seems small, please make that call. 

After 13 years, it’s long overdue. 

As always, thank you for listening, and we want to remind you to please follow us on social media so you can see photos of Phillip and Abby and share their missing posters. 

Hopefully, one day, we’ll be able to update you on Abby’s and Philip’s story. 

Until then, remember what happens here happens everywhere.