Robyn Pettinato
Missing From: Whitefish, Montana
Missing Since: July 5, 1975
Age: 14
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 100
Case Number: MP070575
Summary
Robyn Ann Pettinato went to watch a softball game in Whitefish, Montana on July 5, 1975. She was walking on west Second Street towards a softball field, en route to a residence just two houses down from her own. She has never been heard from again. She left her purse behind, and she wasn't wearing shoes when she went missing. She was last seen wearing cut-off jean shorts and a tan patterned halter top.
Robyn Ann Pettinato
Last seen July 5th 1975
Age 14
Location: Whitefish Montana
Precursor: Some missing person cases rock and haunt small towns and in the case of Robyn Ann Pettinato, the small town of Whitefish Montana has been haunted by her disappearance for decades.
Circumstances:
In the small town of Whitefish Montana lies a 50 year old mystery, it is a mystery that has haunted this small town since July 5th 1975. On that date, Robyn Pettinato was walking west 2nd street towards a residence that was only a few houses down from her parents house. She has never been seen or heard from again. According to (Hintz, 2015) “ Her diary, turned over to law enforcement officers by her older sister, Rhonda Dudis of Kalispell, gave detectives insight into her personal life and a few leads to follow, but they were all dead ends.” Her boyfriend at the time was even given a polygraph test, but he passed and was cleared as a suspect in her case. The police ended up following every single lead that they could even going as far as Alaska to follow a lead (Hintz,2015), but still nothing. Her sister Rhonda, became the family spokesperson because the family was so devastated by what had happened. She submitted DNA and has done all that she possibly could to find her long lost sister.
On February 12th 1998 Esther Pettinato, Robyns mother died, and just 7 months later her father Romolo also died in September of 1998 and in his obituary it mentions that he Robyn pre-deceased him as she was declared missing in 1975. Over the years the Whitefish police department has visited the case to see if anything was missed and they have checked on leads and tips.
Side note:
This is a very sad case, because we just don’t know what happened to her and their has not been too much written about her case. Back in the counter culture times of 70s, it was not uncommon for teens to go missing and it was certainly not written about much in the news as it is today. At the time, their only one small article in the local newspaper written about her going missing.
https://charleyproject.org/case/robyn-ann-pettinato
https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2015/jul/04/without-a-trace-6/