Robert Kovack, a Virginia Tech graduate student, went missing 10 years ago.
Chapter Two: Rivesville, W. Va
By most measures, Robert Leroy Kovack was not someone who stood out in a crowd. He was tall and slender at just over 6 feet 3 inches tall and 175 pounds. Rob had dark hair, frequently sported a goatee, and by his brother's standards, had the appearance of a typical college student.
Rob's dedication to tasks and modest nature were reflections of his upbringing, though the perceptions of a small town atmosphere may be deceiving. Rob's small frame and stature, as well as his boldness, made him an easy target for bullying - but not an easy victim.
"Where we grew up, you held your own or got picked on," his brother Michael said. "He was small and scrawny, but he was scrappy. He wouldn't take anything, despite the size difference. He would take his ass with him before he walked away."
Michael said that Rob would not back down from any situation, no matter how high the odds were stacked against him.
"He was one of the nicest guys in the world, but if someone tried to pick a fight, I don't care if they were 500 pounds and 10 feet tall, he'd go," Michael said. "They might beat the hell out of him, but he wouldn't shy away."
The underdog trigger inside Rob that brought him into brawls also pulled him closer to Michael.
"There were times when we were growing up where someone would say something, an altercation would go on, I'd step in, and they'd say, 'This isn't about you,' and I'd say, 'It is now,'" Michael said.
As children, Rob and Michael were inseparable, in a younger brother-older brother fashion. At close to one year apart, the two would patrol the neighborhood together, looking for something interesting to do. If Michael went to a friend's house, it was given that Rob would be just steps behind.
As the two grew older and went their separate ways through college, their brotherly bond faded but never dissipated. The two would get together as frequently as they could, usually in the summer.
Robert was a 1991 graduate of Fairmont Senior High School, and true to his roots, received his undergraduate degree at Fairmont State University in West Virginia, just miles from his home in Rivesville.
The two would talk infrequently, usually several times a month, but would spend the most of their time together when they could be home at the same time.
"In the evenings we'd go down to the local bars, have a beer, shoot pool, things of that nature," Michael said. "We'd go about our business the next day, and in the evening we'd get together again."
The summer before Rob's disappearance, Michael's home was being built in Martinsburg, W.Va., so he spent time in Rivesville with his brother and family.
And when Rob was accepted to Tech's architecture graduate program, the brothers shared the excitement.
Rob was set to begin a new chapter of his life, much further from home - a chapter that to this date still has no ending.
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Caleb, congratulations on writing the first decent article I've ever read in the CT. And I''m not being sarcastic.
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Nice article and the most thorough one I have seen on this case, which has bothered me for years!
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really well done.
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This was so interesting just by the way it was written! I feel so sorry for the family though! :( Definitely a lot of things not adding up!
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I believe he jumped into the Gorge after amassing a lot of debt, or somehow having an emotional breakdown.
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I think his body would have been found if he had jumped. Too many rafters around and too many rocks for him to be caught on to have simply disappeared if he had jumped.
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This is fascinating.
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Why did his roommates pack his things like that? That's very odd. Otherwise, I would have said maybe he just was so exhausted, as his classmate noted, that he didn't realize he'd left the Tracker in 4-wheel drive and failed to notice it out of gas. But the fact that at least two people state they did not see it within the time it would've been left there is extremely bothersome.
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This was a very well written article. Maybe if the state police release the reports on this case, some piece of information will trigger someones memory. His family deserves to know what happened!
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Hi, I just read this article after seeing that Caleb won the college reporter of the year award. Congratulations to him on the award, which was well-deserved after such a carefully researched article. I used to write for the CT and Caleb has made us all proud.
I did have one question though. The article mentions that Rob's roommates packed his things up despite being asked not to, so nobody ever knew what state his room was in when he left. But then it mentions that when investigators and family searched the room it looked like he'd never left town, and the backpack was still where he'd left it when he last came home. These two facts seem to conflict with each other. Was the room mostly packed up but there were still a few things out? It's VERY strange that the roommates would box up his stuff when he'd presumably at that point only been missing for a couple of days, especially after they were asked not to. I wonder if they ever gave any explanation for that.
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I just ran across this article while searchig for information on the Morgan Harrington case. I was a student at VA Tech when this guy vanished. Several friends of mine who were architechure majors knew him. back then everyone just assuemd that he was depressed and "took the bridge" and the area around the gorge was well searched. They had orgainized search groups and a lot of students went up there to help look for him. Nothign about the roomates boxing his stuff up ever came out back in 1999 when this happend. I think they may know more than they are lettign on.
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Yes, the roommates' actions were never explained in the article...presumably investigators questioned them and determined that they were not suspects, but why on earth would his roommates touch his room so soon after he left? Really, really strange.
My heart aches for his family.
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I was a student at VA Tech when this guy vanished. Several of my friends knew him well because he was their GTA. At the time this happened everyone was searching the New River Gorge because they thought he had jumped off the bridge. The fBI probabluy assumed it was a suicide. Based on the information in this article (some of which I never recall being made public in 1998) I think it is pretty clear they were looking for clues in the wrong place.
The roommates were clearly trying to hide something. Why would you dismantle your roomate's bed and pack up all of his belongings unless you were 100% sure he wasn't coming back? At this point nobody knew where he was! After reading this article I honestly don't think he ever left Blacksburg (no call home, shaving kit, backpack, and toothbrush at the apartment) and I think the roomates know what happened to him. I think his car was driven to the New River Gorge bridge and abandoned to create a diversion so everyone would assume he had comitted suicide by jumping off. This very likely gave the people responsible for his disappearance time to get rid of any evidence. I think all of the clues in this case points directly at the roommates!
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I agree that the roommates displayed more than a lapse in good judgment -- there was no reason, after the family requested them to leave his possessions alone, for them to be cleaning and packing things up. Since the article describes him as someone who stand up for himself, it's possible that a dispute got out of hand and resulted in his injury or death. Sad for the family that the investigator they hired didn't really put much effort into this case.
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Perhaps if you send copies to some FBI investigators they may take an interest in this case. Your article is well written and compelling enough to entice any investigator to search for answers.
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Perhaps if you send copies to some FBI investigators they may take an interest in this case. Your article is well written and compelling enough to entice any investigator to search for answers.
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