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in: California, 1986, Disappearances, Unresolved

Carol Ann Riley

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Real Name: Carol Ann Riley
Nicknames: Carol Macoubrie, Carol Wilcoxson
Location: San Diego, California
Date: April 5, 1986

Bio[]

Occupation: Nurse
Date of Birth: December 13, 1943
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 130 lbs.
Marital Status: Divorced
Characteristics: White female with brown hair and blue eyes. She wears contact lenses.

Case[]

Details: Forty-two-year-old nurse Carol Ann Riley vanished on April 5, 1986, after making plans to have dinner with her boyfriend, Robert Weeks. He is wanted for questioning in her disappearance, along with the disappearances of his ex-wife, Patricia, and girlfriend, Cynthia Jabour.
Every year, thousands of people are reported missing. Usually, the police are not overly concerned because 98% of them return within a few days, and disappearing is perfectly legal. Unless, of course, there has been a murder.
Cynthia and Carol both disappeared after going on dinner dates with Weeks. Both planned to end their relationships with him when they vanished. Weeks himself has also since disappeared. He is said to be intelligent, outgoing, pleasant, and mild-mannered but also to have a violent temper. No one is sure if his dinner companions triggered a sudden rage or if he is simply a victim of curious circumstances. He is a giant void in the investigation, and the police are still searching for him. They want to ask him what happened on those two fateful evenings. Were Cynthia and Carol's disappearances just a tragic coincidence? Or was there something more sinister?
Carol met Weeks in 1983 while he was recovering from a broken leg at the hospital where she worked in Longmont, Colorado. She was divorced and had moved to Colorado after receiving her nursing degree at the University of Michigan. Friends described her as sweet and supportive. After she and Weeks started dating, he convinced her to move to San Diego.
Three years later, on April 5, 1986, Carol spoke to a friend, Sheila Dimarzo, about her planned dinner date with Weeks (who she knew as Robert Smith) and about her plan to end the relationship that evening. According to Sheila, Carol decided that Weeks was not the kind of person she wanted to be with. Carol planned to tell Weeks that she was moving back to Colorado and marrying a doctor who lived there. She told Sheila that she was afraid that the conversation with Weeks would be awkward and difficult.
Around noon, Carol told her parents about her plan to break up with Weeks. That afternoon, a coworker saw Carol after a conference at their workplace, the Scripps Clinic. At 5:30pm, Carol spoke to her boss over the phone. It was the last time she was known to be alive.
The next morning, Carol did not call the clinic to check on her patients as she normally did. Her friends began calling her apartment. There was no answer. Her loved ones became increasingly concerned. Her fiancee hired private investigator Scott Gould. Two days later, he searched her apartment. As he walked through it, he felt some uncertainty. All along, Carol's family had been asking him if he felt she was dead. After completing his investigation, he told them that he believed she was dead.
Gould discovered Weeks' real name and learned about Cynthia's disappearance. Cynthia lived in Las Vegas, Nevada, and had dated Weeks for six years. She planned to have dinner with him on the evening of October 5, 1980. She told friends that she intended to terminate their six-year relationship that night. She said she was tired of his jealousy and possessiveness. She was last seen at 10:30pm in the lobby of his Las Vegas condominium.
According to Cynthia's friend, Susan Richard, Cynthia and Weeks had dated on and off for six years. Cynthia always said she would never marry him. Susan's husband said that Weeks had "shifty eyes". She agreed, noting that his eyes were "cool and calculating". Cynthia told Susan not to worry and that she could "handle" Weeks.
When two days passed and she still had not heard from Cynthia, Susan became worried and began calling her apartment. No one picked up the phone. Susan then contacted a locksmith. With the help of a security guard, she forced her way into Cynthia's apartment. She says the whole experience was strange and eerie. On the one hand, she knew she had to do it. But on the other hand, she was afraid she was going to find Cynthia dead in the apartment.
Once inside, Susan called out to Cynthia but received no response. She found clothes laid out on the bed, but no other trace of Cynthia was found. She believed that either Cynthia had gone with Weeks to northern California without telling anyone, or he had done something to her. Another friend noted that Cynthia left behind expensive clothing and $47,000 in a securities account. She did not believe Cynthia would have left without those items.
The police questioned Weeks about Cynthia's disappearance. He claimed that she canceled their date and that he did not know her whereabouts. He initially agreed to take a polygraph. However, on November 8, 1980, a month after she disappeared, he left the United States. He first went to Tijuana, Mexico, and then to Chile. Three years later, he returned to the United States through Houston, Texas, using a Libyan passport with the name "Robert Smith". He then moved to San Diego, California, and started a construction business. Soon afterward, he met Carol.
The police found many similarities between Cynthia and Carol's disappearances. Six days after she vanished, Cynthia's car was found in the parking lot of the Caesar's Palace Hotel in Las Vegas. And three days after Carol disappeared, her car was found in the parking lot of the Hanalei Hotel in San Diego.
Another intriguing piece of evidence was Weeks' personal diary, which contained death threats on Cynthia's life. At one point, she had been dating a man named Art, and Weeks wrote: Cynthia and Art, dead for sure, and Cynthia and Art, dead – dam you. In another passage, he wrote about Cynthia: You are a dead —. You have humiliated me beyond belief. I will even the score. A dumb — like you deserves what you get.
The pattern of Weeks' disappearing dinner dates takes one final twist. Since 1968, his ex-wife, Patricia, has also been missing. The couple had married in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1954 and moved to Las Vegas in 1955. They had four children. In 1960, he opened the city's first limousine service.
Weeks was reportedly "pathologically" jealous of Patricia and made her a virtual prisoner in their home. He beat her frequently and refused to let her even go to the grocery store. On one occasion, he found her sitting in a car with another man. He approached them, struck her, knocked her down, and kicked her.
One day in 1966, Weeks found Patricia sitting on a piano bench with their male neighbor, who was giving her piano lessons. In a jealous rage, he beat the neighbor so badly that he was unrecognizable. The neighbor was in a coma for three days but survived.
On two separate occasions, Patricia got a restraining order against Weeks. Finally, in early 1968, she filed for divorce. In April, the divorce was finalized. In the divorce settlement, she received custody of their children, along with the family home and car.
Two weeks later, on April 25, Patricia was visiting a friend when she received a call from Weeks. During the call, he threatened to kill her. Her friend noticed that she was pale and shaking. Later that day, Weeks asked Patricia if he could see her one more time, and she agreed. After dinner that night, she called her attorney and said she was afraid. After that, she was never heard from again. Like the others, her abandoned car was discovered in a hotel parking lot.
Shortly after Patricia disappeared, Weeks took their children to a movie and then went fishing. According to them, he rarely did either of those things. When they questioned him, he said that Patricia had abandoned them. However, her family did not believe she would voluntarily leave her children, especially since she had just obtained custody of them. After her disappearance, Weeks told a friend of hers, "She either had a nervous breakdown or is probably dead."
When Carol's friend Sheila discovered who Weeks really was and that other people in his past had disappeared, her first reaction was that he had done it again. She was horrified to think that he had gotten away with it three times.
Because no bodies have been found, the police have not charged Weeks with murder. In each case, he claimed the dinner dates were broken and that he had no knowledge of the whereabouts of the missing women. He is, however, wanted on a warrant for unlawful flight and embezzlement. He allegedly stole $250,000 from several of his Las Vegas businesses.
On April 7, 1986, just two days after Carol disappeared, Weeks left his Scripps Ranch home after telling his roommate that he was going away on business. He never returned. He was last seen in San Diego in January 1987, when he tried to close a bank account. Bank officials called the police, but by the time they arrived, he was gone.
Cynthia's friend Susan says that if Weeks is innocent, he has no reason to run and hide from the police. She wants him to come forward and tell the truth about the disappearances. Sheila believes that whoever Weeks is involved with now may end up missing as well. She says he seems like a normal person until "something" happens. She thinks there is a pattern and that it could happen again.
Suspects: Robert Weeks
Extra Notes:

  • This case originally aired on the May 25, 1987 Special #2 episode of Unsolved Mysteries with Karl Malden as host. It was updated on the September 24, 1987 Special #3; May 18, 1988 Special #7; and February 11, 1990 episodes.
  • It was later re-profiled in the Dennis Farina hosted series on the July 30, 2009 and March 15, 2010 episodes.
  • It was excluded from the FilmRise release of Robert Stack episodes.
  • Some sources state: Carol had stopped seeing Weeks four months before she disappeared; and a waitress saw Carol at a restaurant the day she disappeared.

Results: Unresolved - On the night of the broadcast, viewers called television station KVOA in Tucson, Arizona, and the Tucson Police Department, saying they recognized Weeks as a local businessman named "Charles F. Stolzenberg". He was running a company called Snuff It, which made ashtrays. He had been living in a Tucson neighborhood since May 1986. One of the callers was his girlfriend; some of her friends had seen the broadcast and told her about Weeks. She was shocked to learn about his true identity.
At 3:30pm the next day, May 26, 1987, a detective approached Weeks at his business and said, "Hi, Robert." When Weeks responded, he was arrested without incident. Coincidentally, one of the detectives who arrested Weeks was the ex-husband of Weeks' girlfriend.
Weeks' business partner, Gene Irwin, was interviewed shortly after the arrest. He said Weeks was nice but secretive and rarely talked about his past. Weeks told Irwin that he watched the broadcast, but he "didn't figure any of [his] friends would be watching."
On July 6, Weeks was charged with first-degree murder in Cynthia and Patricia's cases. He was also charged with fraud and forgery. Nine years after Patricia disappeared, he had sold property that was granted to her in the divorce. When the sales were notarized, he brought other women along and claimed they were Patricia.
On July 27, Weeks was extradited to Las Vegas. In April 1988, he went on trial for the murders of Cynthia and Patricia. Prosecutors alleged that Weeks was a jealous, possessive, and violent man who killed Cynthia and Patricia to prevent them from leaving him.
Friends and relatives of Cynthia and Patricia testified that the women would never have left voluntarily. They said Weeks was controlling, abusive, and prone to jealous rages. A doctor testified that he had treated Patricia several times for bruises and cuts that she said were caused by Weeks. Two of the couple's children also testified that Weeks was violent and that they had seen him beat Patricia numerous times. A bank robber also testified that Weeks confessed to murdering several women and burying them in the desert.
On April 22, 1988, Weeks was found guilty of first-degree murder in Cynthia and Patricia's cases. On July 1, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It was the first time in Nevada history that someone was convicted of murder without a body. Although he was never charged in Carol or Jim's cases, he is presumed to be responsible. On September 20, 1996, he died in a Nevada prison at the age of sixty-eight.
Sadly, the bodies of Weeks' victims have never been found. The police believe he hid them in abandoned and/or collapsed mineshafts between Las Vegas and San Diego or in northern California, where he had mining claims.
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