Where Is Roxanne Paltauf?
Roxanne Paltauf
Roxanne’s case has bothered me for years. When the billboard about her disappearance went up on Hwy 183 in Austin, Texas I was driven to look into her story. It was clear to me her boyfriend, Louis Walls, played a critical role in her disappearance. I find it shocking this case is yet to be solved, fourteen years later.
In the summer of 2006 at the age of 18, Roxanne went missing after staying at a hotel with Walls, then 30 years old, who was her boyfriend of a couple years. According to Walls, after an argument she left their Budget Inn hotel room (near I-35 and Rundberg) without her purse or cell phone on the evening of July 7, 2006. He claims he briefly followed her stating that he only stopped because Roxanne said she wanted to be left alone and so he returned to the hotel room. Walls went on to claim he tried to look for her after twenty minutes had passed but said she was nowhere to be found.
Walls has a history of abusing some of his former girlfriends; some filed protective orders against him. One of Roxanne’s friends stated Walls had physically assaulted her, severely damaging her nose which required reconstructive surgery. Walls has a criminal record dating back to the mid 1990’s. His most recent arrests are for “prostitution” (sex trafficking?) and another for failure to provide child support (see mugshots below).
Enter Geoffrey Moore — who was accused of assault and attempted rape of a prostituted woman on July 13th, six days after Roxanne’s disappearance, at a Motel 6. This motel is next door to the Budget Inn where Roxanne disappeared. Upon his arrest, Moore was found with Roxanne’s Texas ID card in his wallet. Charges were later dropped but there is no clear explanation as to why he had Paltauf’s ID. Moore’s story continued to change and made little sense to detectives. Moore is known for being a john to prostituted women in the same area where Roxanne disappeared.
Louis Walls didn’t tell Roxanne’s family about her disappearance until the next day. Instead of alerting them on the night of July 7, 2006, he made over forty calls in a span of two hours on her cell phone. This is the timeframe Roxanne was supposedly out of the hotel room. The front desk clerk was invited by Walls to his hotel room where she remained until early the next morning. Walls kept Roxanne’s cell phone for almost a week after she went missing and used it to make hundreds of calls. Phone calls made during the time Walls had Roxanne’s phone were to the main number for a series of motels along the Rundberg/I-35 corridor, 1–800-sex lines, a strip club, several friends and ex-girlfriends before he finally returned the phone to her mother. The police were called by both Walls and Roxanne’s mother the day after her disappearance, a full 24 hours after she went missing. Walls checked out of the hotel on the morning of July 8th so any potential evidence was destroyed. Law enforcement’s handling of Roxanne’s phone appears to be another mystery.
My theory is that Walls prostituted women through sex trafficking. Whether Roxanne was groomed during their dating years for this final trafficking transaction or not, I’m not sure. I do believe Walls was the “boyfriend lure” and both he and Moore were involved in selling her to another group for the purpose of sex trafficking. I believe Moore was the transporter. Other telltale signs indicate Roxanne was sex trafficked:
- The physical abuse Roxanne endured at the hands of Walls is standard behavior in grooming and abuse that traffickers inflict upon their victims.
- Roxanne’s ID in Moore’s possession along with his criminal activity and abuse of a prostituted woman.
- The shady area they were staying in where sex trafficking of prostituted people and prostitution is common.
- The hotel clerk (a possible look-out/enabler) who spent hours in the hotel room with Walls after Roxanne supposedly went missing is suspect.
- Walls’ lax attitude and excessive phone calls after Roxanne went missing would be normal behavior for a trafficker conducting business.
- Walls returned clothing belonging to another woman to Roxanne’s family upon the return of her possessions — is he mixing up his sex trafficking victims?
Walls doesn’t see women as human beings but rather as products to sell. He has a lengthy rap sheet and I strongly suspect that it includes sex trafficking; the single most lucrative and fastest growing illegal trade industry in the world. It brings in more money than drugs and weapons combined. What is still unclear is why lead case investigators aren’t more vocal about a focus on sex trafficking as a motive for Roxanne’s disappearance. I believe if they had done this shortly after she went missing this case would have been solved years ago. People would have been looking out for her in places they might normally wouldn’t have checked. I think this failure of the police department speaks to either their incompetence or participation in the illegal trade. I don’t say that lightly because generally speaking, I support Law Enforcement. However, we cannot deny police corruption exists nor that the demand for sex with prostituted people is ever increasing — sadly even within the law enforcement community. It couldn’t continue on as strongly as it does without corrupt participation.
Roxanne was trapped from the beginning and I believe cannot exit. Provided the traffickers didn’t move her out of the country she may be prostituted here in some way — online, where she’d be advertised (porn, online escorting type ads) might be too risky. Roxanne has a distinctive face and even with dyed or cut hair may still be relatively easy to identify after all these years, if one looks in the right areas. I feel so strongly that Roxanne is still alive and I continue to pray for her safe return. I truly hope people don’t give up on this woman.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Roxanne Paltauf, please call the Austin Tx., Police Department: 512–974–5250.
sources: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2019-07-05/new-information-in-roxanne-paltauf-disappearance/
https://truecrimedaily.com/2017/09/22/the-texas-motel-mystery-where-is-roxanne-paltauf/
