(NewsNation) — A year after their 16-year-old son stormed out of the house and broke his phone, one couple is hoping he is still alive after two mysterious texts sent to his mother.
From fishing trips around the family home in Anchorage, Alaska, to annual Hawaiian vacations, the Robersons were the picture of a happy family.
Especially in the magical time before teen hormones and ADHD made everything feel harder for son Mason Roberson.
“We do everything together, trying to eat a meal every day together, and doing lots of road trips,” said Marti Romero, Mason’s mother.
Mason Roberson struggled with loss
But Mason’s smiles also masked pain.
“Mason’s had quite a bit of loss in his life,” Romero said. “He lost a brother, he lost some aunts and uncles at a young age, and he was really questioning, ‘Why does this kind of thing happen to one family so much?'”
Mason Roberson’s parents believe he is still alive. (David Roberson) 
Mason Roberson disappeared last year. (David Roberson) 
Mason Roberson had begun drinking. (David Roberson) 
Mason Roberson argued with his father before he disappeared. (David Roberson) 
Mason Roberson’s parents want him to communicate with them. (David Roberson) 
The Robersons were a close family. (David Roberson) 
Mason Roberson’s mother received two strange texts. (David Roberson) 
Mason Roberson’s parents believe someone may have helped him disappear. (David Roberson)
His parents learned Mason had turned to the family liquor cabinet for relief.
“I think the alcohol, as he explained it to us, was a numbing agent for him. It made him not as depressed. It made him not think about all of those bad things,” Romero said.
Still, Mason’s parents couldn’t condone his actions.
“We’re not going to just let somebody who’s having issues with alcohol and who is a minor drink. We can’t,” Romero said.
Mason Roberson disappears
The issue came to a head on May 18, 2024, early in the morning when Mason’s father, David Roberson, confronted him.
“I went down to the kitchen and he was heating up some pizza in a microwave, and he was visibly impaired, and so I asked him about it, and he threw his plate of pizza and broke it and stormed downstairs, where his room is,” Romero said.
Soon, Mason’s parents realized he had gone out the basement door and he wasn’t answering their messages.
A neighbor’s Ring camera recorded Mason staggering down the street, where he sent a final text to his family saying, “I genuinely don’t need you.” Then, he destroyed his phone.
“He goes behind a tree, but you can clearly hear that Mason breaks his phone. He slams it against the ground, and it makes quite a loud pop,” Roberson said.
Mason’s mother has a theory about what happened.
“My theory has always been that he’s with somebody that he met online, who he knew, if he had his phone with him, he could be tracked or traced, and that’s not what he wanted,” Romero said.
Even then, the Robersons expected Mason to return home any minute.
“I seriously thought, okay, he’s going to blow off steam, he’s going to sober up, and he’s going to come home,” Romero said. “Mason’s a kid who didn’t spend a lot of time away from home. He didn’t spend the night at friends’ houses. Never in a million years did I think he would not come back.”
Searches of the surrounding area yielded no clues.
Mysterious texts arrive months later
Then, six months later, the family was shocked when Romero received a text.
“So on Mason’s 17th birthday, which was Nov. 1, I received a text about seven o’clock in the morning,” Romero said. “It basically said, long time, no see. I hope you are all right.”
The saying “long time, no see,” was one the family used as a joke when Mason would come up from the basement.
But when Romero texted the unknown number back, she got no answer.
Then, just weeks ago, around Mother’s Day, she received another text, from a different number, asking how her day was and if she had some fun.
Were the texts from Mason? Or just a simple “wrong number” text scam?
“Usually, when you have a person who either wants money or is just a troll, there’s communication back and forth, and it just ended there,” Romero said.
The Robersons hold out hope
“Without having a phone, without having a wallet, without having an ID, without having any money, there has to be a person who he was planning on getting some assistance from,” Romero said.
If Mason is out there, they have a message for him.
“We want Mason to know how much we love him unconditionally and that we recognize that he might not want to be home, but we just want to talk to him. We want to make sure he’s safe,” Romero said.
For Mason’s father, the message has roots in his own experience.
“I left home at 17 myself, you know. I went back a couple times, I didn’t leave like this,” Roberson said. “But just to communicate would be enough at this moment.”