Steamboat Pilot & Today

Hayden — For four days this past July, an emotional Gayle Roberts had to retrace the 1995 disappearance of her father from Hayden.
Roberts led a television camera crew through the former town she lived in talking to residents about the unsolved disappearance of her father, Dick Roberts.
"The four days I spent in Colorado were exhausting," Roberts said from her home in Seattle, Wash., Thursday morning. "Talking about my father's disappearance is really hard."
Roberts is hopeful her courage to talk about her father's disappearance will pay off as her family's story will be featured on a network television program.
Dick Roberts' disappearance will be the focus of MSNBC's program "Missing Persons."
The program, which will air at 6 p.m. tonight, is hosted by Diane Dimond. The program focuses on the stories behind people who have disappeared.
Roberts is hopeful the one-hour broadcast will help in solving her father's disappearance.
"The more people that hear about it, the more people might remember," Roberts said. "We still are looking for him. We are not going to give up looking. We are not going to forget about it.
"We are trying to find people who can help us. We are trying anything because there is not much we can do at this point."
The family is also offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Roberts' whereabouts.
Dick Roberts was Hayden's mayor at the time he disappeared in February 1995.
The only clue in his disappearance is Roberts' 1991 extended-cab Ford pickup, which was found by a rancher on Feb. 27, 1995, just across the Utah border northwest of Grand Junction.
For the MSNBC broadcast, Gayle Roberts did an in-depth interview. A television camera also followed her around Hayden and Craig as she talked to local residents, she said.
Hayden Police Chief Jody Lenehan also was interviewed for the broadcast, said Roberts, 27, who has two sisters.
At the time Dick Roberts disappeared, he was having trouble financially and did not have a steady job.
The television network contacted Roberts in Seattle during the summer inquiring about the the family's interest in doing a story on the program.
"A producer was going through newspapers when they found an article about my father," Roberts said.
The decision to do the story for the network was tough for Roberts.
"I think about him every day," she said. "Sometimes it is really hard. It is a fact of my life.
"But working with the media is a catch-22. I want people to remember him and to know that we are still looking for him, but is it hard to deal with. It would be much easier on me emotionally if I did not talk about it."
Her mother, Linda, and two sisters, Teresa Wade, 32, and Cheryl Bruno, 23, have been supportive of Roberts' work with the network.
"They have supported me," she said. "My father's disappearance has been hard on them also."
Roberts has not seen the segment the network plans on airing tonight, she said.
"I am very nervous," she said. "I do not know what to expect."
Roberts, who works for a software company, plans to watch the broadcast with friends.
"Some days it seems like it has been forever since he disappeared," she said. "Other days it seems like it just happened. If I want this resolved, I had to do something about it. It is hard, though."

To reach Gary E. Salazar call 871-4205 or e-mail gsalazar@amigo.net