June Robles

June Cecilia Robles (June 11, 1927 – September 2, 2014) was a notable kidnapping victim from Tucson, Arizona. Though she survived her ordeal, the person or persons responsible for her abduction were never apprehended.

Personal life June Robles came from a prominent Tucson family, and was the daughter of Fernando Robles, owner of the Robles Electric Company. Her grandfather, Bernabe Robles, was one of Tucson's wealthiest citizens. Her mother was Helen Robles, and she had one other sister, Sylvia Ann, who was not named in press reports. She was also the niece of Carlos Robles who, at the time of her abduction, was the Assistant County Attorney for Pima County, Arizona, and also a distant relative of U.S. Olympic weightlifter, Sarah Robles. and Dallas architect Celeste Clayton.

Kidnapping

Disappearance Six-year-old June was taken by an unidentified man on April 25, 1934 at 3:00 pm. The man was described by witnesses as wearing glasses and as dirty and emaciated. She unwillingly entered the stranger's Ford sedan outside Roskruge School. Witness Marguerite Smith saw the event as she was picking up her son from the school, but assumed it was a family matter and decided not to interfere. June had been walking home from school and was on her way to the home of her aunt, Mrs. Herman F. Kengla, when she was abducted.

Ransom At about 5:00 pm that same day, Fernando Robles was handed a note by a child, Rosalio "Goyo" Estrada. The boy had been paid 25 cents by a member of the kidnapping party to deliver the message, which demanded $15,000 for June's safe return. The second ransom note reduced the ransom to $10,000 and instructed Robles where to deliver the money. Robles attempted to deliver the money on a specified strip of highway, but no recipients emerged. On April 28, two men in a brown Chevrolet robbed a cafe near Fort Huachuca. In their company was a child said to resemble June Robles.

Recovery On May 14, after much searching and scant communication from the abductors, Arizona governor B.B. Moeur received a postcard at his office describing June Robles' location in the desert outside Tucson. The postcard bore a Chicago postmark. A team that included Carlos Robles, Pima County Attorney Clarence Houston, and several highway patrolmen searched the area for two hours before discovering a small metal box, sunk three feet into the ground and disguised with some shrubbery. June was inside, alive and in surprisingly good health, although filthy, blistered by prickly heat and bitten by ants, and her ankles chafed by chains attached to an iron stake after having been chained in the iron box in the desert for 19 days. She said she had subsisted on fruit, bread and jam, potato chips and graham crackers that the kidnappers had left. She had made do with a ceramic pot for a toilet. A dance hall proprietor named Oscar 'Buster' Robson was initially charged because of similarities between his handwriting and the "Z" ransom notes. The charges were eventually dismissed. Bryan Foy and Sid Grauman both approached Robles, hoping to sign her for personal appearances.

A year and five days after June was recovered, an unnamed dying man came forward with more evidence, implicating three people, and J. Edgar Hoover announced that the case had been solved. However, the deathbed confession did not result in any convictions.

Two and a half years later, the investigation was reopened due to "sensational discoveries." However, no charges were brought against anybody.

For nearly the next 80 years, Robles led a fairly anonymous and routine life, and remained in Tucson. Although the kidnapping was discussed in newspapers and on television on occasion, she never gave any subsequent interviews or wrote any memoirs. A wedding announcement in 1950 did not even mention her ordeal. David Leighton, a columnist with the Arizona Daily Star, who at the time was working on an article related to her wealthy grandfather Bernabe Robles, learned of her death, but was asked by a family member not to publish information related to her death in his story that was published on September 8, 2014 As a result of this omission, everyone except family and close friends were unaware of her death until three years later when The New York Times learned of her death and published an obituary on October 31, 2017.