Robert Kovack, a Virginia Tech graduate student, went missing 10 years ago.
It was briefly conjectured that Rob had been 4-wheeling earlier, but the theory was ruled invalid shortly after, as the vehicle's exterior was not dirty enough, Michael said. He thought most of the dust had been blown onto the car as it sat on U.S. Route 19, unoccupied.
The Tracker was also found a half-mile past the nearest gas station, Mankins said.
"This wasn't a stupid kid," Michael said. "This was somebody who was very smart, very intellectual, and had driven that same course multiple times. Anybody who has driven that stretch knows that if you don't have gas when you hit Fayetteville, you aren't getting any until you hit Mount Nebo, another 15 miles away."
Lansing Road is the only access road to the Canyon Rim raft removal point after the Fayette Station rapids, though there are many other entrance and access locations along the New River for whitewater rafting. The road winds approximately five miles down to an area under the gorge bridge.
The Canyon Rim Visitor Center is located just a quarter-mile from the spot on Route 19 where Rob's car was found.
Park Ranger Leah Ferkowski has been employed at Canyon Rim in its present location for more than 15 years and was vaguely familiar with Robert's case.
Though she was never interviewed by investigators, she did remember seeing fliers posted in the area and hearing of the disappearance.
Ferkowski was surprised to hear that Rob has been missing for more than 10 years, and she noted the difficulty search parties would have in finding someone in the region because of how open and immense the space is. Ferkowski said the park service occasionally acts on reports of missing hikers and hunters, but added that none has been as mysterious as Robert Kovack's.
Dog teams, whitewater rafters and National Park Service rangers helped in multiple searches of the vicinity of where Robert's car was found. Their searches included door-to-door visits to homes on Lansing Road and the Canyon Rim area.
State police also conducted helicopter sweeps, while Rob's family and friends walked the area searching for anything that could shed light on his mysterious disappearance.
The searches turned up no useful evidence.
Perhaps one of the most inexplicable factors in the Kovack case is the absence of any signs of struggle or foul play in the vehicle, something extremely unusual for the 24-year- old who never backed down.
Chapter Four: Graduate studies
Robert Kovack loved life in Blacksburg and at Virginia Tech. He played softball in his free time and took up mountain biking as a student.
"He enjoyed the total atmosphere," Michael said. "That was his first experience at a larger college or university, and he made the best of it. He enjoyed the fact that everything was really close to his apartment, and typically he would ride his bike back and forth to class."
He excelled in Tech's architecture program, quickly rising to the top of his class.
But as a young man from Rivesville, finances were a strain. In the 2000 census, the median annual household income in Rivesville was slightly more than $20,000, or approximately $10 per hour for standard, 40-hour-per-week employment. He had come to Tech for the architecture program's prowess, but also for two other factors.
First, Tech was geographically close to home, something that Rob valued greatly because of his close relationship with family members. Secondly, with the program he was enrolled in, Michael said that Rob was offered in-state tuition to attend, despite his home residence being across state boundaries. Since there was no school offering the degree he wanted in West Virginia, he entered a program qualifying him for the reduced tuition rates at Tech.
During his time at Tech, Rob applied to be placed in a pool of students wishing to become graduate teaching assistants. To be a GTA, one must demonstrate a clear financial need, as the position provides the GTA with money to be applied to the costs of their education.
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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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