Ex-St Stithian, Rob Gautschi has been missing for 17 years and his family is devasted

A bereaved mother is appealing to members of the public to help with information regarding the disappearance of her son 17 years ago. Rob Gautschi (37) went missing in 2000 and since then, there have been no new leads or any further information on his whereabouts.

Rob attended St Stithians School in Bryanston and matriculated in 1998. He then enrolled at the University of Cape Town (UCT) studying towards a law degree. It was during that time that Rob began spending time with a group of Rastafarians.

Rob’s mother, Jenny Gautschi said, “He was always a generous soul and as a kid would spend his pocket money helping homeless people. He matriculated with good marks from St Stithians and was head of his house.

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“When he enrolled at UCT he began smoking a lot of marijuana and using other types of drugs with his friends. He started to become psychotic and I believe the mix of anti-psychotic drugs combined with the marijuana altered his mind.”

During his time at UCT, the problems worsened with Rob not attending classes and spending his time in the garden of the campus doing strange activities. His parents became increasingly worried about him as he discussed being the prophet of Jah, a title of Haile Selassie, which is the Ethiopian word for chief or prince.

At that time, Jenny said, “He disappeared for three days. No one knew where he was and we didn’t know if he had taken his car, which was missing. Our family was notified that he was found by a group of hikers at the bottom of a mountain with a broken back and broken feet. It was alleged that a friend he was with, told him that if he was a true prophet he must jump off the mountain.”

Rob attended Riverfield Lodge where doctors performed various tests on him and found a mix of drugs in his system. He also refused any medication and was deeply psychotic.

Jenny continued, “Rob left Riverfield as he couldn’t be committed and wanted to go back to the UCT digs and start early. However, he attended a Rastafarian festival in Knysna instead, and again he disappeared. Another Rastafarian found his ID and alerted the police. Helicopters searched for Rob in the Knysna forest and when they finally found him he had cuts all over his body and a contusion in his lungs. “Allegedly he was part of an initiation, which meant beating my son and when we found him he was on the brink of death.”

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Rob was transferred to a rehabilitation clinic in Sterkfontein, where he refused all medication and in order to save his life, he had to be certified by a psychologist in order to be put on a drip and kept sedated for 10 days to repair his lungs. He then ran away from Sterkfontein as they wouldn’t release him.

Jenny said, “We received a call from his best friend saying that Rob had asked him for money. We rushed off and found Rob barefoot, in the middle of the highway. He was extremely psychotic so we brought him home and, in the middle of the night, he ran away again.”

After that, the only positive sighting of Rob was at the Woodstock Police Station in 2001, where a woman signing an affidavit recognised Rob’s missing person poster. However, police were unable to trace the woman’s identity.

Jenny then said, “The only other incident was when I received a phone call at a number only Rob and his sister know of. The call did not make any sense, the person sounded very distressed and sounded like it was in another language, but I did hear the words ‘mama’.

“Every day I think of Rob. To this day I’m still devastated and all we need as a family is closure.”

If anyone has any information on Rob’s whereabouts or if you think you have seen him, please try and take a picture of him and SMS your details to Jenny on 083 297 8986 or provide details on the Facebook page Missing Rob Gautschi.

Edited by Beryl Knipe

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