In the early morning hours of June 12, 2003, 39-year-old Robert Louis Vance was at an acquaintance's home in Detroit, Michigan. At approximately 6:30 a.m., he departed from the residence located in the vicinity of the 3200 block of Burlingame. He was reportedly on his way to his own home to change his clothes before heading to work. However, Robert never arrived at his destination and has not been seen or heard from since that morning.
His disappearance is considered endangered, and the circumstances surrounding his vanishing remain unknown.
At the time he went missing, Robert was described as a Black male, standing at 5'10' and weighing 185 pounds. He was bald, had brown eyes, and wore a mustache or goatee. Distinctive features included a horizontal scar, about one to two inches in length, just above his left eyebrow, and a pierced right ear where he wore a round diamond stud earring set in silver. He may have been known by the nickname 'Roscoe.' Also missing is Robert's vehicle, a white 1996 four-door Cadillac DeVille with the Michigan license plate number XCU341. He was believed to have been driving the car when he left his acquaintance's house.
The lack of any contact from Robert or any sign of his vehicle has left his loved ones with unanswered questions for years. The Detroit Police Department is the investigating agency for his case. Despite the passage of time, the case remains open with few details available to the public regarding the investigation into what happened to him after he left on that June morning. The mysterious nature of his disappearance, coupled with the absence of both him and his car, has created a void for his family who continue to seek answers.
Robert Louis Vance was a 39-year-old male last seen on June 12, 2003, in Detroit, Michigan. He was last known to be at approximately 6:30 a.m. at an acquaintance’s residence in the vicinity of the 3200 block of Burlingame, where he had spent the early morning before leaving to go back toward his own residence. Public missing-person records say he was headed home to change clothes for work, a routine and practical errand that should have brought him back into contact with the people who knew him. Instead, Robert vanished during that morning window, and no confirmed public account has explained what happened after he left.
Robert, who was also known by the nickname “Roscoe,” is listed in missing-person records as a Black / African American man, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and approximately 185 pounds. He had brown eyes, black hair, and was described as bald because he shaved his head. He wore a short or closely shaven mustache or goatee, had a pierced right ear, and had a horizontal scar just above his left eyebrow, about one to two inches long. At the time of his disappearance, he was known to wear a round diamond stud earring set in silver. Those identifying details have remained important because the public record contains very little about his final movements beyond where he was last seen and where he was believed to be going.
The missing vehicle has always been one of the most significant facts in Robert’s case. Public records state that his white, four-door 1996 Cadillac DeVille, bearing Michigan license plate XCU341, disappeared along with him. The vehicle was still listed as missing in available case information, and that makes the disappearance more troubling than a case where a person leaves on foot and the trail simply goes cold. Robert was reportedly driving when he left, and both he and the Cadillac failed to reappear. The fact that the car was not quickly found abandoned, recovered after an accident, or publicly tied to a known destination left investigators and loved ones with a wider and more unsettling field of possibilities.
The available online information does not identify a suspect, arrest, or confirmed explanation for Robert’s disappearance. There is no public account of a struggle, no released evidence showing that he reached his home, and no confirmed report explaining whether he was intercepted, diverted, harmed, or chose another route that morning. Public summaries describe the circumstances as unknown, and that word carries the weight of the case: a man set out in the early morning to change clothes for work, and then both he and his vehicle disappeared without a trace. For his family, the absence of answers would have meant not only wondering where Robert went, but also why a normal workday routine became the last known chapter of his life.
Robert’s case is listed in NamUs as Missing Person case MP858 and is associated with the Detroit Police Department under case number 10M293. Public case materials list Sergeant Shannon Jones as a contact in the investigation, and family DNA samples from his mother and brother have been collected for comparison in national systems, helping preserve the possibility of identification if new evidence or unidentified remains are ever connected to him. Still, no public resolution has been reported. In overview, Robert Louis Vance’s case is the story of a 39-year-old man last seen in Detroit, Michigan, on June 12, 2003, after leaving an acquaintance’s residence to go home and change clothes for work, whose white 1996 Cadillac DeVille vanished with him, whose disappearance remains unexplained, and whose case continues to depend on any credible information that could reveal what happened after he drove away that morning.Last Seen: Jun 12, 2003
