On September 9th, 1957, two teenaged best friends from Plymouth, Massachusetts, disappeared after going out to swim in the nearby bay. What happened to Gerald Montrio and Robert Rasmussen?

Gerald Montrio was born in Bermuda on February 18th, 1942, but his family later immigrated to the United States, where they settled in the seaside town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Gerald spoke both English and Spanish. Robert “Bobby” Rasmussen, a younger boy from Plymouth, later became best friends with Gerald. In 1957, Gerald was 15 and Robert was 13. On September 9th of that year, the two boys said they were going to go swimming in the Massachusetts Bay by Plymouth Harbor after school ended at around 3:00 PM. Plymouth Harbor is where the Mayflower arrived in 1620, and nearby stands the Plymouth Rock memorial.

At around 4PM, a local woman reported to the police she heard someone at the beach call for help, but when she went to see what was happening, she found no one. A local man reported that around 4:30 PM, he saw two boys who resembled Gerald and Robert hitchhiking.

By the time night fell, the boys had not returned home. Robert’s mother Charlotte Rasmussen called the police to report them missing, and almost instantly search of the area began. During the evening of the 9th, the police found Gerald and Robert’s clothes folded near the water. The search continued, and the Coast Guard joined in.

Some witnesses soon reported they saw two boys, who they believed to be Gerald and Robert, holding some clothes and boarding a boat on the harbor and getting off of it. On the 10th of September, the searchers believed they found the boat in question and that the boys had in fact used it. The boys were still missing, however, and the next day, September 11th, 1957, the police ended the search stating that the boys likely accidentally drowned. Lenny Sullivan, a retired firefighter who was part of the search, said that the Bay was “all big stones” and that “The water was always very, very cold. If you’re a good swimmer, it’s still very, very cold,” indicating how dangerous and difficult swimming would have been for the two boys in the frigid Massachusetts water, which is often very cold even in summertime.

Both Gerald and Robert had difficult home lives, and it is considerably likely they tried to run away. Possibly they planned to go West, as Gerald had reportedly said he wanted to go West. It is possible they left behind their clothes deliberately as a distraction if and when they ran away.

Gerald’s sister Raquel Razbeau and Robert’s sister Joyce Balint, both younger sisters, met up in 2003 regarding their brother’s disappearances, communicating with the media to bring the cases back into the news. Raquel was 13 and Joyce was 8 at the time of the boys’ disappearances. After the boys disappeared, the girls were not allowed to see each other and their families rarely spoke of their brothers. They also stated that their fathers were abusive and “tough as nails,” and both boys may have planned to escape together using money they had saved. Raquel compared her brother to a “frontiersman” and said both boys were “very, very street wise,” and Joyce said “My brother was so independent, so able to take care of himself.” The two women believed and hoped that in 1957 their brothers had left town to begin again, and that their brothers were still alive. "In my heart, I've always known my brother was alive,” Joyce said, as well as stating “If they knew the fathers are gone, if they know we do understand why they went, if they knew that we can forgive them, maybe they would come forward.” Joyce also said that “The ultimate hope is that somewhere out there, we will have two brothers that we’ll get to see and touch.”

Since Raquel and Joyce reunited in 2003, neither Gerald nor Robert have been found, and their disappearance still remains unsolved.

Links:

Gerald’s Charley Project page: https://charleyproject.org/case/gerald-montrio

Robert’s Charley Project page: https://charleyproject.org/case/robert-rasmussen

Gerald’s NamUs page: https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/14586?nav

Milford Daily News article: https://www.milforddailynews.com/story/news/2003/06/15/sisters-break-their-silences/41205418007/

Boston Globe: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe/109947316/