Jayden Robker was found dead in a KC pond. His autopsy, police file leave out key details
A year after police said there was no foul play in the death of 13-year-old Jayden Robker of Kansas City, an autopsy report finally released by medical examiners leaves unanswered questions as to how Jayden died, and police records reveal investigators did not interview family members after he was found dead.
Despite unusual circumstances surrounding his death and allegations of abuse in the home before and at the time of his disappearance, no one was ever charged in Jayden’s death. Investigators provided little explanation of how they determined no foul play was involved, and for more than a month the medical examiner refused to release the autopsy, saying the record was closed when it had been open for nearly a year.
The Star reached Susan Deedon, Jayden’s aunt, by phone in November.
She said having no answers about how he died all this time has been hard on his family. “I just feel like there’s been zero accountability,” Deedon said.
The Star received the Gladstone Police Department’s case file for Jayden’s death the day after the request was made. But the six-page file details little information about how police determined there to be no foul play.
The case file includes no interviews with family members, does not detail a search for witnesses or mention state-documented accusations of abuse in the home.
Capt. Karl Burris with the Gladstone Police Department said this was because KCPD and social services had already conducted an extensive missing person investigation prior to Jayden being located.
That investigation — conducted while it was still a missing person’s case — included interviews of multiple family members, attempts to locate witnesses and details of searches for Jayden. The departments shared relevant information, like interviews with family, Burris said. Gladstone detectives kept in close contact with Jayden’s mother after the teen’s body was found, but Burris said those contacts are not considered interviews.
“There is no definitive answer as to how Jayden passed,” Burris said. “The forensic examination could not determine a cause of death … no other evidence was discovered that would lead to the conclusion that foul play was involved.”
Three months after The Star requested KCPD’s missing person case file on Jayden, the department has not yet provided the file. Capt. Jake Becchina, a spokesperson with KCPD, said in an email Dec. 17 that the department had been working on redacting areas of the file that are not public record.
A Missouri State Highway Patrol Dive Team incident report listed “drowning” in the “injuries” section, though medical examiners never determined that to be the official cause of death.
In the report, an officer said he searched the pond for evidence related to the “drowning.” The search came up empty.
The official cause and manner of Jayden’s death are “undetermined,” according to the autopsy. Manner of death, in an autopsy report, is a determination of how a person died.
The autopsy said body decomposition was consistent with the location and timeline for which the body was found, and showed no evidence of internal or external trauma that would point to foul play.
Diane Peterson, chief medical examiner in Johnson County, Kansas, reviewed Jayden’s autopsy report at The Star’s request. She said that an “undetermined” cause of death is made by a medical examiner when there is no clear evidence of something that could become fatal in a person.
“There’s nothing in there that necessarily points to (Robker) drowning,” Peterson said. “Dr. Martinez … called it undetermined because he had nothing definitive to point one way or the other toward any cause of death.”
Peterson said that when she reviewed Jayden’s autopsy, she, too, saw nothing that pointed to a definitive cause of death. And when the manner of death is also undetermined, she said, there is no clear indication of how a person died.
Peterson said there is nothing in Jayden’s autopsy that could help medical examiners indicate if he died before or after coming in contact with the water. The autopsy did reveal a small hematoma on the back of Jayden’s head, but it was not associated with any skull fractures or internal head trauma, the report said. Hematomas are a collection of blood that forms inside the body, usually due to an injury.
“Due to decomposition … of the body, assessment of this apparent scalp trauma is difficult” the autopsy summary said, indicating that the hematoma could have happened after Jayden was already dead.
Forensic Medical of Kansas and Topeka initially refused to release the autopsy report, which is a public record under state law, in response to multiple requests from The Star in September and October. It had been completed since April 4, 2023.
The agency cited the provision for jeopardizing an investigation in its response, claiming investigations were ongoing in relation to Jayden’s death. But all police investigations were closed by December 2023 according to records from the Gladstone Police Department, Kansas City Police Department and Missouri Department of Social Services — Children’s Division.
The Gladstone Police Department claimed the autopsy was sealed by the medical examiner due to Jayden’s age. But there is nothing in state statutes that gives the examiner that power.
After The Star confirmed all investigations were closed, and sent records of the closed investigations to Forensic Medical, the medical examiner did finally release Jayden’s autopsy — more than a month after the initial request.
Capt. Karl Burris, a spokesman for the Gladstone Police Department, said Jayden’s case was tragic and difficult for everyone involved.
“Since it’s not a crime, since it’s involving a juvenile, I really … don’t have a whole lot of comment about it,” Burris said. “It was just a terrible, terrible thing.”
The six-page case file provided by Gladstone police included summaries of anonymous tips, but few other details of the investigative process. The case file did not include police interviews with family members apart from one encounter with Jayden’s stepfather, Eric Givens, and mother, Heather Robker, soon after the medical examiner determined there was no foul play involved in Jayden’s death.
“You know, the system let him down,” Deedon said. “His mother let him down, first and foremost — that’s her responsibility. But then, the system let him down by not making sure he was safe and that he would stay safe. And then the police department, FBI, whatever, let him down by not getting him justice.”
The medical examiner’s office told Social Services officials in March 2023 that Jayden’s autopsy showed no signs of trauma, according to state records.
The small hematoma on the back of Jayden’s head could have been caused by a fall if he tried to walk or skateboard across ice in the area, officials said at the time. But the autopsy noted the hematoma could have also happened after he died.
X-rays found no healing fractures or other internal damage. The medical examiner’s office told Social Services they didn’t know how long he had been in the water, but said it’s possible he had been in the pond since the time he first went missing.
“It’s just a train wreck and I feel like Jayden never got justice,” Deedon said.
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