July 3, 2009 - The Austin Chronicle

NEWSElizabeth Harris withtwo of her children,Rosalynn and RudyAll That RemainsRoxanne Paltauf vanished three years ago, leaving herfamily with only memories and investigators with few cluesBY JORDAN SMITHThe dreams are all strikingly similar.In the shadows of the hallway outside thebedroom door, the air feels thick and gloomy;it’s hard to see what lies ahead or behind, orany details of the surroundings. At the far endof the hall, the front door suddenly opens, andthere is Roxanne, wearing her yellow shirt, herhair brushed smooth and falling over hershoulders. She walks into the house – brightand light and so very real. Your eyes widen, andyou walk toward her. You can smell the powderyscent of her Love’s Baby Soft perfume. Youare full of questions: “Where have you been?What happened to you?” She smiles nonchalantlyand quickly brushes aside your inquiries.“I’m fine,” she says, “don’t worry about me.The real question is,” she says, “how are you?”And then you wake up.If you are Elizabeth Harris, or one of herfour children, this is the kind of dream thatconsumes your sleep. When you wake, youknow at least one thing is real: RoxannePaltauf – your first born, your big sister – isgone. She’s been gone for nearly three yearsnow, vanished in the dusk of a July eveningoutside the Budget Inn near Rundberg Laneand I-35. There are leads to finding her – somevery good ones, in fact – but as yet there areno answers. There is little hope that she willbe found alive. Indeed, for Roxanne’s siblingsand her mother, the reality that haunts wakinglife is that Roxanne is likely dead. Murdered.And what now remains are only questions:What happened, where is she, and will herfamily ever be able to bring her home?‘Have You Seen Roxanne?’The last time Elizabeth Harris saw herdaughter was just before July 4, 2006, whenRoxanne dropped by her mother’s Cherrywoodneighborhood home to pick up a few personalitems. She had been staying for the previousfew days with her boyfriend, then-30-year-oldLouis Walls, at different motels off the interstatenear Rundberg Lane. She and Walls, withwhom Roxanne had been romanticallyinvolved for nearly two years, had made ahabit of spending time together at one of themotels along that stretch of southbound I-35.Mostly it was out of necessity: Roxanne’smother did not like Walls, and for whateverreason, Walls’ mother, with whom he liveswith his two young children, didn’t particularlycare for Roxanne. If the two wanted tospend any time together, they had to findsomewhere away from home to do so.Truthfully, Harris didn’t like the idea that herdaughter would spend any time with this man– and at 18, Roxanne was still just a girl, Harrissays – let alone in a motel near Rundberg Lane,an area known as a crime hot spot. But whatcould she do? Roxanne was legally an adult,and she was going to do what she wanted.Walls is “a hustler. He’s a player. I think he’s aburden to society, to tell you the truth. …Before Roxanne went missing, I told her that,”Harris recalled recently. “I said, ‘This guy is nogood.’ [But] the more you pull her away, thecloser she gets to him. It was just one of thosethings. She was a young girl – she is young.”JANA BIRCHUMIndeed, Walls isn’t exactly a saint. Accordingto court records, he’s been in and out oftrouble since 1995 – for robbery, selling fakecrack, and more recently, for threatening hiscurrent girlfriend (who, like Roxanne, is alsosignificantly younger) and for violating a protectiveorder she has against him. Harris saidWalls boasted of being a member of theBloods street gang, but she thinks his involvementis likely marginal, that he only fancieshimself a player. Nonetheless, Walls’ behaviortoward her daughter made her nervous, andshe made it clear to Roxanne that she didn’twant him around the house. (Walls did notrespond to phone messages requesting aninterview for this story.)Despite how Harris felt about Walls, Roxanneand her mother were close. “She [toldme], ‘We talk two or three times a day,’” saidTim Young, a private investigator who hasworked pro bono onRoxanne’s case. “Motherssay that all the time, so Ididn’t necessarily believeit” – not at first. “But[Roxanne’s] phonerecords showed that wastrue.” Everyone connectedto Roxanne’s disappearance– friends, family,and Austin Policeinvestigators – agreesRoxanne and her motherhad a special relationship.In fact, their closebond made Roxanne’sdisappearance – andWalls’ account of whathappened – all the moredisturbing. “Wild horsescouldn’t have kept thatgirl away from this house,”says Harris’ longtime boyfriendPatrick Doyle.According to phonerecords, Harris last spokewith Roxanne on theafternoon of July 7, 2006.“The day she came upmissing … I asked her tocome home,” Harrisrecalls. The familyplanned a shopping trip to San Marcos thenext day, and Harris wanted Roxanne to jointhem. Harris wasn’t “jealous of her time withLouis,” but Roxanne had been with him fornearly a week, and her mother thought thatwas enough. “She said: ‘I’ll be home mom. I’llbe there; we’ll go shopping.’” Rox anne nevershowed up, “so we went ahead and went withouther.” By the time the family got home,Roxanne still had not returned to the house –Harris was puzzled by her absence but not yetworried. That changed several hours laterwhen Harris received a call from Walls. “Hegoes: ‘Have you seen Roxanne? Have youheard from Roxanne?’ I said: ‘Well, what doyou mean? She was with you.’”Walls said he hadn’t seen Roxanne sinceroughly 8:30pm the previous evening, whenCOURTESY OF PALTAUF FAMILYRoxannePaltaufFor Roxanne’ssiblings andher mother,the reality thathaunts wakinglife is thatRoxanne is likelydead. Murdered.the couple got into an argument “about thepast,” Harris said Walls told her, and Roxannestormed out of their motel room. Walls toldHarris that he went out after her but that shetold him to leave her alone and continuedwalking, along the service road toward Rundberg,making a left onto Middle Lane. Wallstold Harris that he went back to their room to“cool off” and that 20 minutes later he wentback out to look for Roxanne. He couldn’t findher. She had simply disappeared, he toldHarris. “Four hours after I talked to my daughtershe came up missing,” Harris says.Harris called police to report the disappearanceand, at her urging, so did Walls – althoughhe’d already checked out of the Budget Inn andreturned to his sister’s apartment at the WalnutCreek complex. But because he’d cleared out,taking Roxanne’s belongings with him, neitherHarris nor the police were able to search herbelongings, as they werewhen she left the room, forclues to her whereabouts.More disturbing wasWalls’ behavior in thehours and days afterRoxanne disappeared:According to Harris, hewas not at all interested inhelping her search forRoxanne. He kept her cellphone for nearly a weekafter she went missing andused it to make some 300phone calls, beginningwith a breakneck pace ofdialing all over town: tothe main number for aseries of motels strungalong the Rundberg/I-35corridor, to local singles“chat” lines, to a stripclub, to various friendsand ex-girlfriends – onecall after another, literally,for hours and hours onend – before finally returningit to Harris. He alsokept her purse and otherpersonal effects – includingclothing that has neverbeen returned. Indeed,when Harris finally got Walls to meet her toreturn Roxanne’s property, she said he providedher with a bag of clothing belonging tosome other female – clothes that were way toolarge for Roxanne, whom some friends lovinglyreferred to as “the pencil,” and that were notat all her style. Although Walls maintained –and continues to maintain to police – his initialaccount of the circumstances surroundingRoxanne’s disappearance, his behavior wasquickly making Harris very wary. Even theinitial conversation she had with Walls thenight after Roxanne supposedly took off startedto take on a different tone as she replayed itin her mind. “It was the way he asked aboutRoxanne, he didn’t ask, ‘Can I speak to Roxanne?’He said, ‘Have you seen Roxanne?’” sheCONTINUED ON P.2422 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E JULY 3, 2009 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m