"We have Robert" warns $750,000 ransom note
Produced by Allen Alter and Paul LaRosa
"I can't imagine anything worse... Somebody has taken one of your children, and is threatening to kill him," Tom Wiles said. "When I opened the email, it scared the hell out of me...I found the ransom demand from the people who had taken Robert:
We have Robert, if you hope to see him alive again, you must follow our instructions without deviation! Do not speak about this to anyone, including family...
When Tom first learned that his son, Robert, had been kidnapped, he had only one objective: Get Robert back alive, no matter what the cost.
"We've got to find a way to find him and rescue him," he told "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Peter Van Sant.
Immediately, Tom called in the FBI and showed them the $750,000 ransom note mysteriously signed by a person or persons going by the name "Group X."
"What do you decide to do?" Van Sant asked Wiles.
"We got the money," he replied.
"I understand the FBI said, 'don't pay it.' Is that true?"
"Yes," Audra Wiles, Tom's daughter, replies.
"And what does your family decide to do?"
"We want to pay it," said Audra. "It's almost like you go from not believing it to...'what do we need to do to get him back right now.'"
Audra and her mother, Pamela, helped wire the money from a bank in Toledo, Ohio to Tom, who had flown to Florida. Robert, 26, was the sales manager in the Lakeland office of National Flight Services, a private aircraft repair company.
"Rob wanted to dive right in there and be just like his dad. So he's always had an interest in the aviation business," said Audra. She says Robert enjoyed working in Florida because, aside from being an avid pilot, he loved the water.
Ever since he was young, Robert had an intense interest in boating and fishing.
"He loved being near the water and the closer he was to his boat, the happier he was," said David Palmisano, one of Robert's closest friends.
"I remember one day when we hooked a tuna and no sooner did we land that tuna on the deck, Robert cuts it open and he grabs a piece of fresh tuna meat out and eats it. And he said, 'Oh, there's nothing like fresh sushi,'" Palmisano recalled. "And that was Rob and he had a big smile on his face, he's laughing about it."
Video: David Palmisano reflects on his friendship with Robert Wiles
Robert, who spent years in military academies and was a star athlete, was in great physical condition. "He had shoulders like King Kong...he was strong, physically very strong," Tom said of his son.
Not an easy mark for a kidnapper, which only deepened the mystery. But at that point, all Tom Wiles cared about was getting back his only son. "I wanted to be ready and I didn't want to delay," he said.
Robert had vanished on April 1, 2008, and the kidnappers had set a deadline of April 8. The clock was ticking as Tom picked up the $750,000 that had been wired to a bank in Florida.
"And where do you go with this money?" Van Sant asked Tom.
"Go back to the hotel," he replied.
From that point on, an FBI agent was clued to Tom's side and the family's personal life was being examined closely. Tom and Pamela had separated years earlier but only recently had completed a rather unique financial arrangement.
"Pam had disassociated herself from the business...and she said what she would like to have is for me to give her...a significant amount of money...that she knew would not be invested in the business," he told Van Sant.
"And was that $750,000?"
"And that was $750,000," Tom replied.
"The $750,000 demanded by the kidnapper or kidnappers, this Group X, did that strike you as odd?" Van Sant asked FBI Special Agent Jim Bucenell.
"Yes," he replied.
"This is kind of intriguing. So what does that suggest to you?"
"That the author of the ransom note was very close to this business," said Bucenell.
"Did you ever for even a moment wonder if Tom was involved?" Van Sant asked Pamela Wiles.
"Oh, no. I knew Tom wouldn't be, no," she replied.
The FBI wasn't so sure. Agents zeroed in on Tom. After all, he was the one who had to part with $750,000 and it just so happened that his company had kidnapping insurance.
"We had people travel in South America quite often [and] want to make sure that we could come up with the ransom to get 'em back," Tom explained.
But the FBI could not ignore the possibility that family members, including Robert, were involved in a conspiracy. Agents went at Tom hard.
"Did they tell you you were a suspect?" Van Sant asked.
"They treated me like one ... I was grilled a number of times. ...I was very angry," Wiles replied. "You know, 'How could you possibly be looking at me?'"
Pamela too came under scrutiny at what she says was the worst moment of her life.
"It's agonizing...it's hard to believe," she said. "I just needed the find my son."
Agents combed through Robert's life as well. He was dating but did not have a steady girlfriend and so the spotlight shifted to the family business.
"Do you believe your brother felt some pressure to stay in the family business? In any way, was he in a place where he didn't really want to be?" Van Sant asked Audra.
"I think the pressure didn't come from my dad, I think it came from more of himself... [because] he loved, loved, loved, loved his father... my father. Great man and no child wants to disappoint their parents," she said. "Even though my dad would never, ever, ever be disappointed if he decided not to stay."
Tierney, the youngest of the Wiles' three children, last saw her brother just days before he disappeared.
"Where do you think he was in his life at that moment?" Van Sant asked Tierney.
"If I remember correctly, he seemed a little stressed but he was still in good spirits," she replied.
In fact, Robert had told his friend that he'd recently become frustrated at work.
"He voluntarily opened up to me [about] what was happening at work, something he'd never done before and he mentioned he was having some personnel conflicts," Palmisano explained.
The FBI began looking at every current employee and some former ones, like Steve Lindsey.
"He was a Georgia boy. Had the gift of gab, was a good ole boy. He was a good mechanic. Had a drinking problem but if you met Steve Lindsey, you'd like him," Tom explained.
But when Lindsey's drinking got out of hand, Tom fired him.
"We can't have that," he told Van Sant. "This business is intolerant of alcohol and drug use."
Just a month before the disappearance, Lindsey had begged Tom to give him his job back to no avail.
"He was pretty desperate," Van Sant noted.
"He was," Tom agreed. "There was no doubt about it. He needed a job."
Agents were being pulled in every direction, but there was one immediate concern - the ransom deadline. The time had come to make the payoff.
Just a week after Robert Wiles vanished, it was do-or-die time. The kidnappers ordered Tom Wiles to put the money in a box:
Obtain an item of luggage of the appropriate size and place in it $750,000...place the box unopened in your son's office.
FBI agents rejected Tom's idea of using actual money. Instead, they filled the box with coffee - making sure it weighed the same as $750,000 in cash.
"We did in fact have a camera which was watching the package in Robert Wiles' office," Special Agent Dan Kelly explained. "We were able to monitor that 24 hours-a-day."
Operations manager Toby Holt, whose office was next to Robert's, was handpicked by Tom to help the FBI change the camera's videotape.
"We needed a person of trust within National Flight Services," Kelly explained."We had placed two SWAT team members in Toby Holt's office monitoring that package."
Out of sight but heavily armed, an entire SWAT was close by.
"Did it strike you as odd that whoever was behind this wanted the money brought back to what essentially would've been the scene of the crime?" Peter Van Sant asked Special Agent Jim Bucenell.
"Yes, it was very odd that somebody would want money placed inside of a locked building," he replied.
"Almost dumb in a way, isn't it?"
"Not very smart."
Everything was in place. Minutes, then hours, ticked by but nothing happened. Days passed without a word from the kidnappers.
"What was this doing to the family?" Van Sant asked Pamela Wiles.
"It affected all of us very differently," she replied. "I couldn't be the mother that I wanted to be because I was really - my priority was Robert at the time."
"To be honest, I felt a little neglected," Tierney Wiles said. "The repercussions left me in a pretty dark place my senior year of high school."
The Wiles' always had been a loving family, but now that reality was shattered.
"It's kind of like removing a single piece from the puzzle. It's Robert being gone. He was the glue. He wanted to keep us together...and he would hate this," said Tierney.
"My mom and my dad kind of split off and went to Florida to go search for Rob and then...my sister and I were kinda left behind," said Audra Wiles.
Tom and Pamela were determined to try everything - even going on national television and offering a $250,000 reward for any tips that led to Robert's whereabouts.
"We had several calls from psychics who pointed us in all kinds of different directions," said Bucenell.
"This guy called me in the middle of the night, a psychic, called me in the middle of the night and he said, 'I know where Robert is,'" said Tom.
The caller described a swampy area and said Robert was buried there in a shallow grave.
"We chartered a helicopter and the next morning, went out and we're talking to this guy on a cell phone in the helicopter and he says, 'Look for a backhoe, an abandoned backhoe," Tom explained. "Son of gun, there's an abandoned backhoe. 'Wow, this guy, this is for real,'"
Not quite. The information was later found to be bogus.
"Deep inside, I felt Robert was dead but I think as a mom...you just can't give up on your kids," said Pamela.
Was there a chance that Robert could still be alive? Well, there was a tip that came in from Robert's barber, Janie Beard.
"When I first heard he was missing, I said, 'Oh my God, he -- he actually did that? I can't believe he had the guts to go ahead and kidnap himself,'" said Beard.
Beard told FBI agents that she could not recall the exact date of the conversation.
"He was frustrated with his life and I said, 'Well, there's other jobs you could do. What do you wanna do?' He told me about the fishing and the captaining of the boat," she said.
Beard said that Robert had learned that his father carried a kidnapping insurance policy and that Robert seemed intrigued.
"He said, 'I could do that. I got some plans laid out for it,'" she said. "The last thing he told me when he left...he turned around with a solemn face and says, 'Please don't tell anybody I told you all this.'"
Family members say there is just no way Robert would ever be that selfish.
"It's just impossible. That's not the type of person he was. He's not someone who would just abandon his family, abandon his friends and just pick up and leave," said Tierney.
The FBI agreed and followed other, potentially more important, leads like one that came from Joel Valle, the owner of another airplane engine repair business. Valle and Robert were together the day before he disappeared.
Asked what it was like doing business with Robert Wiles, Valle told Van Sant, "Very nice. Very good...he wanted to bring fresh ideas to the company."
Valle and Robert had hatched a deal to partner with Tom's company. Steve Lindsey, who Valle considered a brilliant mechanic - would play a key role.
"We had already organized everything and Tom shut it down," Valle explained. "Tom Wiles told Robert no way he wants part of it. As long as Steve is involved he doesn't want any part of it."
Remember, years before, Tom had fired Lindsey because of his alcoholism.
"That was his last hope...his last chance to make something of himself," said Valle.
It was left to Valle to give Lindsey, who was dead broke and desperate for money, the devastating news.
"It's like the world just caved in on him and he just got this face of anger," Valle recalled. "I mean the rage in his face and his eyes...he said, you know, 'Tom is gonna know who I am. He'll pay for this one.'"
It wasn't long before the FBI questioned Valle about Robert's disappearance.
"They asked me if I knew anybody that was capable or willing to harm Robert Wiles," Valle explained. "I said, 'Steve Lindsey. Go on talk to him.' And they start calling him...He does not answer...and the FBI on the radio, it comes out, 'He's on the run.' I heard it right there and I just said, 'Wow.'"
Not only had Robert Wiles disappeared, but Steve Lindsey had vanished too.
More than a week after Robert Wiles vanished, the ransom package remained untouched, Steve Lindsey was nowhere to be found and the FBI was in full-tilt investigation mode.
"We had dozens of individuals that were out here at National Flight conducting-- a search," Special Agent Jim Bucenell said, recalling the scene.
"So it's not inaccurate to say every inch of this building was checked out?" Peter Van Sant asked Special Agent Dan Kelly.
"Absolutely," he said.
"Everything outside was searched?"
"Absolutely, correct."
"And what'd you find?"
"Nothing," Kelly replied. "From a forensic evidentiary standpoint, Robert Wiles had vanished."
Desperate for any real leads, agents first get detailed call records of Robert's cell phone. By tracking the cell towers his calls hit, they figure they'll know the route the phone itself - and presumably Robert - was traveling.
"We were able to issue a - a subpoena on the Florida Turnpike Authority and obtain video of the various toll booths on the Polk Parkway," Kelly explained.
The hope: If Robert's phone was used while on that nearby road, perhaps Robert could be seen on the video? Agent Bucenell explains what happened next.
"Tom Wiles is taken to the Lakeland Police Department to view the videotape," he said.
"...and they said, 'Do you recognize any of those cars?' And I said, 'That's Toby Holt's car' or one just like it," said Tom Wiles.
Toby Holt - the 42-year-old operations manager at National Flight and the FBI's point man chosen by Tom Wiles himself.
"Toby Holt is passing through the toll plaza...his arms were in a fashion like this," Bucenell said, bending his right arm with his hand close to his ear.
"Which suggested what to you?" Van Sant asked.
"That he is talking on the phone - "
But curiously, when investigators got hold of Holt's cell phone records, they showed his phone was not in use as he went through the tolls. That was enough to pique the FBI interest.
"I requested that Holt come into our offices for further interview on April the 10th," said Bucenell.
He willingly came in -- without a lawyer - for what turned into hours of questioning. They wanted to know where he was the night Robert disappeared.
"He indicated that he left National Flight at approximately 6:30 p.m. that evening. He went to Hooters," Kelly said. "...and then he subsequently had dinner at Outback Steakhouse on South Florida Avenue."
But the FBI found no proof whatsoever. For more than four hours that night, Holt's exact whereabouts were unsubstantiated. The FBI asked to search his car; he agreed. They asked if he had a gun inside; he said no.
But when they looked...
"Under the hood of that vehicle, in a mechanic's bucket, they discovered a Sig Sauer, 40 caliber firearm, a hand[gun]," said Kelly.
"Are you thinking to yourself, 'This could be a murder weapon?'" Vant Sant asked.
"That's definitely one of the thoughts that crosses your mind in that circumstance, yes."
Holt said at first he was scared to admit he had a gun. He then claimed it was simply for protection in bad neighborhoods. But the gun was legal and there was certainly no evidence a gun was even involved in the case.
But now, Toby Holt was a prime suspect in the disappearance and likely murder of Robert Wiles.
"Is the FBI telling you about what they're learning in the investigation?" Van Sant asked Tom Wiles.
"The FBI made it very clear from the beginning...they gather information; they do not disperse it. So most of what was going on, I did not know," he replied.
But the FBI was getting to know a lot about Holt.
"We discovered that he had several - female liaisons - outside of his marriage," said Bucenell.
Asked how many, Bucenell said, "At least a dozen."
When his wife, Beverly found out Holt was cheating with other women, she divorced him. But she remains supportive to this day.
"Toby is a heartwarming, compassionate, funny person and a loyal friend," she said. "But the murder is just not in Toby's character at all to do it."
Video: Holt's ex-wife and sister reflect on Toby and the case against him
In fact, Holt continued to work at NFS for Tom Wiles, who had no idea his operations manager was now suspected of killing his son. Tom eventually did fire Holt in August 2008.
"He wasn't performing very well as the manager of that facility prior to - Robert's kidnapping," said Tom.
The FBI continued to investigate other suspects, including Steve Lindsey, the alcoholic mechanic once fired by Tom Wiles. He finally surfaced, claiming he was wasted on alcohol and drugs during the time of Robert's disappearance. But he remained a suspect.
Months passed and there was still no DNA, no blood, no forensics at all to prove what had happened to Robert... whether he was really dead or maybe still alive?
"Essentially, after some months, this case had gone cold," Van Sant noted to Bucenell.
"It had gone stale. That's correct," he said.
So in March 2009, nearly a year after Robert vanished, the FBI called in reinforcements.
"We just systematically went through each and every thing," said Special Agent Tommy Ray of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Agent Ray dove right in as part of the new "Wiles Task Force" with Lakeland police and Polk Country Sheriffs detectives.
"We were there to kinda put the pieces together, and see if we could make a circumstantial case, because there was no smoking gun on this particular disappearance," he said.
The task force zeroed in on the cell tower call records of Robert Wiles and Toby Holt and made an amazing discovery.
"You know, these two phones are together, traveling, you know, the same location," Ray explained.
"We're talking about Toby Holt's phone and Robert Wiles' phones seemingly synchronized?" Van Sant asked.
"That's correct. Robert Wiles phone was being utilized. Toby Holt's phone was off."
Tommy Ray is convinced that in the tollbooth photograph, Toby Holt was using Robert Wiles' cell phone.
"And so for us, that was a eureka moment," Ray said. "He's usin' Robert Wiles' telephone."
The task force concluded Toby Holt was Group X. He had used Robert's cell phone to make that ransom demand. And he had killed him.
"When you put them together - the pieces of the puzzle - it's - it's a very strong circumstantial case," said Bucenell.
And on Dec. 18, 2009, agents descended on Orlando International Airport. Their focus: A flight from Bogota, Colombia. Their target: Passenger Toby Holt.
"...he walks outta the jetway. They tell him that, 'We'll get your luggage, don't worry about it," Ray said. "I advised him that he's under arrest for first-degree murder and he's read his rights."
For more than two years, Stobert Holt, known as Toby, has been locked inside a Florida jail, indicted for extortion, kidnapping and the murder of 26-year-old Robert Wiles.
"No, I did not participate in any kidnapping of Robert Wiles," Holt told Peter Van Sant.
Holt has agreed to speak with "48 Hours Mystery" but it will be under unusual circumstances. Holt will be in jail, while Peter Van Sant is in a separate building, communicating through television cameras and monitors.
Peter Van Sant: Toby, did you murder Robert Wiles?
Toby Holt: "Absolutely not. I did not murder Robert Wiles.
Peter Van Sant: You did not harm him in any way?
Toby Holt: Absolutely not. I had nothing absolutely against Robert Wiles or his family.
Video: Watch excerpts of the South County Jail interview
Robert's mother, Pamela Wiles, believes Toby Holt is her son's killer.
"When I listen to Toby talk, I just don't - I just don't take anything he says seriously," she said. "I think he's - a sociopath."
But Holt's former customer, Joel Valle, is not at all convinced.
"Do you believe...that Toby Holt abducted and murdered Robert Wiles?" Van Sant asked Valle.
"I still don't believe that," he replied. "He doesn't fit the - the motives. It's just - there's nothing there."
And as this circumstantial case opens in January 2012 - a case with no forensic evidence, not even a body - prosecutor Cass Castillo reminds jurors just who last saw Robert alive.
"The evidence will demonstrate, the defendant in this case, Stobert Holt, was the last person to be with Robert Wiles," he told the court.
Castillo says the two men did not get along and repeatedly clashed over business deals. Their email exchanges sometimes got nasty, like this one about price quotes: "Thanks for throwing me under the bus," Robert wrote Holt.
The prosecution calls that motive, but investigators admit they still don't know what happened.
"I can't tell you what actually occurred at National Flight Services on April 1st, 2008. And it would be nothing but speculation," FBI Special Agent Dan Kelly told Van Sant.
The prosecution says on the night of Robert's disappearance, Holt called a local Home Depot. Holt admits he did call.
"I gave them a call to see if they carried mini blinds," he explained.
Mini blinds, he says, needed for the office. But Holt swears he never set foot in the store that night. Yet Castillo says Holt went into that store and paid cash for a box of plastic sheeting and two rolls of duct tape.
"The kind of materials that would be used for what?" Van Sant asked Kelly,
"To conceal a body," he replied.
Holt's lawyer, assistant public defender Howardene Garrett, says there's nothing that ties Holt to that purchase.
"Who knows who it was that bought that? ... There's no surveillance video ... This is just supposition. This is just innuendo. Once again, it's - it's an attempt to try to cover up the fact that they have no evidence," an adamant Garrett told Van Sant.
For prosecutors, too many coincidences is not a coincidence. Remember: Holt's whereabouts for over four hours the night Robert disappeared were unsubstantiated.
But they say one fact is crystal clear: Toby Holt repeatedly used Robert's cell phone - even sending the ransom demand to Tom Wiles.
"The phone was with him. He was using that phone. Every piece of evidence in this case screams that that's what occurred," Castillo told the court.
Holt says he bluntly told investigators, no way, no how.
"He was, like, insinuating that I had Robert, or his phone," Holt testified. "I basically told him, 'I - listen. I watch "CSI." I watch "48 Hours". I watch "Criminal Minds". ...I know you can track cell phones. ...why would I take Robert's cell phone, and-- with me on the trip? It just didn't make any sense."
But the State says it has more than just cell phone records - it has pictures. But even the FBI questions what they truly reveal.
"With that tollbooth - photograph. The fact is, you can't tell what's in his hand, correct?" Van Sant asked FBI Special Agent Jim Bucenell.
"That's correct," he replied.
"So it's not definitive."
"It's not definitive. There wasn't anything really definitive in this case," said Bucenell.
"I never had Robert's cell phone - ever," Holt told Van Sant. "I could have been adjusting my glasses, I could have been scratching, I could have been taking a drink 'cause I - I - that's something I do - all - when I'm driving is I always have - a soda or whatever."
Like a can of Dr. Pepper which he always seemed to have nearby.
"Holt says he was taking a sip of Diet Dr. Pepper at that time," Van Sant commented to investigator Tommy Ray.
"Well, unless he was pouring it into his right ear, that's-- that's impossible," Ray replied.
"If you're like Toby Holt or millions of other Americans," Garrett said, "when the car slows down, then you can take a drink and look up."
Howardene Garrett (in court): Now, when you left Robert on April 1st, 2008, where was he physically?
Toby Holt: He was in his office.
Howardene Garrett: Did you see or talk to him again?
Toby Holt: No I did not.
Howardene Garrett: Do you know what happened to him?
Toby Holt: No I do not.
Howardene Garrett: Did you kill him?
Toby Holt: No I did not.
Howardene Garrett: Do you have any idea where he might be at this time?
Toby Holt: No I do not.
For Holt's attorney, the state's case is just plain weak.
"(Sighs) I have never tried a case, or been involved in a case, that was so completely circumstantial," Garrett told Van Sant. "It's remarkable...that the quality of the evidence...is so elusive."
"Are you telling me, basically, they have no case?"
"That's my position, yes. Yes, except for, sort of, innuendo and coincidence. And, you know, where there's smoke, there must be a fire. But sometimes, there's just smoke," said Garrett.
And her defense points squarely at Steve Lindsey, the alcoholic engine mechanic furious at Tom Wiles for firing him.
"Steve Lindsey said he would like to 'break a chair across Tom Wiles' back and breech-load the splinters,'" Garrett said. "That's how Steve Lindsey felt about Tom Wiles. ...I think the motive is much greater for Steve Lindsey."
So does Joel Valle, who heard Lindsey threaten to "get" Tom Wiles.
"He's trying to hurt Tom as much as he can," Valle said. "What's the best way to hurt him? Through his son."
But Steve Lindsey isn't there to clear up the mystery. In the midst of the "Wiles task force" investigation in 2009, he died of lung cancer.
And as for friction at the office as a motive for Robert's murder, Holt's lawyer calls that ridiculous.
"If you apply that same level of problems in the workplace, well of course I'd like to suggest that half of the United States would be dead. And the other half would have killed them. Because that's taking place in every workplace in the United States," said Garrett.
After more than 75 witnesses, over 200 pieces of evidence and two weeks of trial, the case is about to be decided.
"The honest truth is there's no conclusive proof of anything," said Holt.
"Where is Robert Wiles? How did he die if indeed he's dead? Where is his body? What was the mechanism? Where did it take place? How did he get from National Flight to wherever he is? These are so many unanswered questions and I think that's what reasonable doubt is all about... more than reasonable doubt, it's a mystery," said Garrett.
All the Wiles family has left are memories, videos and voicemails to remind them of their beloved brother and son:
"Hey Mom, it's Robert. I just wanted to call and thank you for... Anyway, I hope you have a good weekend and a happy Easter, and I'll talk to you later."
"I'd give anything for - to hear him again. Just to touch him again," Pamela said tearing up [after listening to the voicemail from her son.]
Nearly four years after Robert Wiles went missing, the man accused of taking Robert from his family is about to hear his fate.
The jury spent only four hours deliberating.
"It was almost an adrenaline rush. I was shaking," said Tierney Wiles.
Then, the judge read the verdict: "We the jury find as follows as to count one of the charge - the defendant is guilty of manslaughter."
"It was clearly a compromise," defense attorney Howardene Garrett said. "When you have one side saying, 'He didn't do it at all,' and the other side saying, 'He did it, and it was kidnapping and premeditated and et cetera.' And then you get a verdict of manslaughter, that's a compromise verdict."
"Were you disappointed that it's manslaughter and not first-degree murder?" FBI agent Jim Bucenell.
"Not at all," he replied.
"It's like a high-five moment for all the members of the task force. Felt justice was served, with the exception of finding Robert Wiles," said Tommy Ray.
Surprisingly, Holt is found not guilty of kidnapping. But Robert's family knows he's going to prison.
"I'm very happy. I'm very happy he's going away," Audra Wiles told Van Sant outside of the courtroom.
"I was basically in disbelief. ... There's no evidence to support the conviction. I think the FBI failed to-- follow up on some unanswered questions with other people," Holt told Van Sant in their jailhouse interview. "I'm upset because I'm an innocent man convicted of manslaughter."
Six weeks later, at Holt's sentencing hearing, Tom Wiles addresses the court:
"Keep this man off the street, and maybe someway, somehow, somewhere he'll decide to tell us where, what he did - what he did with Robert ... We have a son ... We don't know where he is. We wanna bring him home. I wanna know where my son is," he said, choking back tears. Addressing the judge, he continued, "I'm sorry, I'm not doing very well..."
Then, it was Holt's turn to speak:
"Thank you, Your Honor. As everyone else has done, my heart goes out the Wiles family ... I still maintain my innocence. I have from the beginning."
"They're probably hopin' that I'm gonna tell them where to find Robert. And I just do not have that information," Holt told Van Sant in his jailhouse interview.
"He knows. He knows what happened to my brother," Audra said. "Why doesn't he just come out and say it? Why don't you just tell us, you know? Just, just tell us. What's it gonna hurt anybody? You're already done."
The Wiles family isn't buying Holt's story and neither is Judge Donald Jacobsen.
"A young man, Robert Wiles, is dead as a result of the actions of Mr. Holt," Judge Jacobsen addressed the court. "...in what appears to be, in my mind, a failed attempt at an extortion."
Holt is sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison for manslaughter and extortion.
"Toby didn't do this. I know he didn't do this," his ex-wife, Beverly, said. "To be taken away just because he had affairs and he can't account for an alibi I think is just ridiculous ... Toby would never ever take a life."
Despite Holt's conviction, Robert's mother still has unanswered questions.
"I can't imagine just one person bein' a part of this," she told Van Sant. "I believe there was a plot. ... Right now, it's a mystery. A mystery to be solved."
With Robert's body not yet found, no remains yet buried, no memorial service yet held, one yearning never dies.
"Do I hope every day that he's still alive? Absolutely," Tom Wiles said. "I'd give everything I have, everything I could borrow or steal or anything else to get him back."
"You have no idea how awesome it would be," said Tierney, "if he just walked through the door. We would all lose it. Oh my gosh. Give anything for that to happen."
"Do you ever dream of your brother?" Van Sant asked Audra.
"Yes. All the time," she replied, smiling. "One of my favorite ones is of him taking me out on the boat. And he's smiling... He's so happy in my dreams. That's what gets me through, 'cause I know wherever he is, he's happy."
Toby Holt is appealing his conviction based on insufficient evidence.
Holt is currently scheduled for release in 2039. He will be 72 years old.