Heather Tallchief and Roberto Solis

• Heather Tallchief
• Roberto Solis

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Real Names: Heather Catherine Tallchief and Roberto Ignacio Solis
Aliases: Pancho Aguila, Julius Gabriel Suave (Solis)
Wanted For: Theft
Missing Since: October 1993

Case

Details: Heather Tallchief was a twenty-one-year-old armored car driver for the Loomis Armored Car Company in Las Vegas. On October 1, 1993, she went with her two partners to refill the money at the ATMs at several casinos. Their final stop was near one's side entrance. Standard procedure was that Heather would pick up her partners once their job is finished. However, she drove away instead of going to the other side to pick them up. She then disappeared, along with $3 million in cash.
Heather's partners initially assumed that she had gotten lost or was stuck in traffic. They also feared that she may have gotten into an accident. A security camera showed her leaving the casino, which showed no signs of hijacking or foul play. The authorities were soon called, but they could not find her or the van. They concluded that she deliberately fled with the money.
Heather appeared to have pulled off the perfect crime. According to the FBI, this case is one of the largest armored robberies where the perpetrator was not brought to justice. Heather's family and friends could not believe that she would commit such a crime. She was a successful nurse from Buffalo, New York. Inexplicably, she quit her nursing job in San Francisco and turned up in Las Vegas. Authorities discovered that she had applied to work at Loomis two months earlier. They believe that she planned it from the beginning.
Shortly after the robbery, authorities searched Heather's apartment. They found fingerprints that belonged to a forty-eight-year-old convicted murderer named Roberto Solis. In 1969, he shot and killed an armored car guard during an unsuccessful robbery. During his time in prison, he authored several books. He was paroled six years before the robbery. He had met Heather in San Francisco where they began a relationship and also began planning their crime.
Two hours after Heather left the casino, she and Roberto arrived at McCarran Airport. They were disguised as an elderly man with his wife in a wheelchair. They only took three suitcases with them. Authorities believed that they had the rest of the money delivered separately. Three days later, the FBI tracked them to Denver, but they vanished again.
Authorities did find an address that indicated that Heather and Roberto fled to Florida. However, it turned out to be a postal drop containing two forged passports. Both were for entry into Suriname. The FBI, however, was not certain if this was their intended destination. It was possible that they planned on the documents being found and entered a fake destination to throw them off of their trail.
Two weeks later, the armored car was found in a building that Roberto had rented. Inside was found shipping supplies for the money. He and Heather had set up a phony business there, so people would not question why the van was there. However, almost a decade later, they are still at large.
Extra Notes: This case first aired as part of an FBI alert on May 25, 1994 and then expanded on the October 2, 2001 episode. It was also featured on America’s Most Wanted and Dateline.

Heather after her 2005 arrest

Results: Unresolved. In September 2005, Heather turned herself into the police at a Las Vegas courthouse. She said she was tired of running from the law after living with her ten-year-old son in the Netherlands. She claimed that Roberto brainwashed her, and that she left him after she learned that she was pregnant. She was later sentenced to sixty-three months in prison. In June 2010, she was released on parole.
Heather claims that she has not seen Roberto in over a decade. He remains at large. He is 5'10", 152 pounds, has hazel eyes and brown hair, and would now be seventy-five-years-old. His birth date is September 6, 1945.
Links:

• Roberto Solis on Unsolved.com
• Roberto Solis on Wikipedia
• FBI Wanted Poster on Solis
• Roberto Solis on Murderpedia
• Couple flee in armored car loaded with $3 million
• (1997 Independent Article) Trust me, I'm perfect
• Fugitive in Armored Car Theft Gives Up After 12 Years
• Fugitive surrenders for Vegas armored car heist
• After 12 years, fugitive surrenders in LV
• A fugitive turns herself in after twelve years
• Vegas Fugitive Pleads Guilty
• Former driver admits role in million heist
• A fugitive turns herself in after 12 years
• Tallchief Sentenced in Las Vegas Armored Truck Heist
• Woman Who Planned And Executed Sophisticated Armored Car Heist in Las Vegas in 1993 Sentenced to Just Over Five Years in Prison
• Vegas robber got $1.5M in casino chips. Now what?
• AMW Discussion Thread on Solis

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