Mayer Family Wishes for a Christmas Miracle

There’s one thing the Mayer family wants for Christmas – to be together.

Robert Mayer, 46, who lives on the Dix Hills side of the Commack School District with his wife Ida and their two children, ages 11 and 15, has been missing since June 14. On that morning, he said his usual goodbyes, and headed off to his electrician job in Brooklyn. That was the last his family saw of him.

“It’s been an alternate universe,” Ida Mayer said. “We’re trying to keep moving. We’re still searching, but it’s hard, especially with the holidays coming.”

She said that since Thanksgiving, the holiday season has been especially hard on her family, but that her children’s resilience has kept her family going.

“We usually start putting Christmas decorations out the day after Thanksgiving. This year, I didn’t really feel up to doing anything, but that day, my kids took all of the boxes out, my son put up the lights and started decorating. He said that this was daddy’s favorite holiday and he wanted to do it for him,” she said.

As an electrician, Robert often made sure to have the most lights on the block, Ida said.

“My kids basically decorated the whole outside of the house. Because of them we have decorated, our tree is up and we’re trying to honor him by celebrating Christmas in the way he would want,” Ida said. 

While it will be the Mayer children’s first Christmas without their father, and Ida’s first without her husband, she said that their family, friends and the Commack and Dix Hills communities have been extremely helpful, especially the Commack School District in supporting her children, she said. 

“For Christmas, we’ll be with family and friends who love us. We’re asking and hoping for a Christmas miracle,” she said.

Ida and her family are continuing to lead searches trying and find signs of what may have happened to him. 

Since his disappearance, some information has surfaced, but the material often raises more questions than it answers.

When Ida returned home from her mother’s house on June 14 with their children, she found Robert’s cell phone, wallet and $300, on the dresser. She originally thought that he must have left his wallet at home, but surveillance footage showed that his car, a red 2004 Pontiac GTO, was seen pulling into their driveway and then leaving again after a 10 minutes. Ida returned home just minutes after her husband’s car was seen leaving the driveway. In the surveillance footage however, only the top of the car can be seen, she said, so it’s not clear if Robert was the one driving, or if he was the only one in the vehicle. 

Authorities also discovered that Robert had stopped at the Arrow Scrap yard in West Babylon, something his wife said he would do on occasion, the day of his disappearance to cash in scrap metal. Video cameras at the business show that he stopped there about 20 minutes before his vehicle was seen pulling into their home’s driveway.

Police found his car parked at the Long Island Rail Road station in Deer Park that night.

Why did Robert Mayer leave his wallet and cell phone behind? Was someone with him? Did he disappear on his own volition or did something happen to him? Why was his car at the train station? These are all questions that have yet to be answered, and the biggest mystery- where is he? – remains.

“As long as we keep sharing and remembering, I’m hoping someone will finally speak up. You don’t just disappear like this,” she said.

The case is still active in the Suffolk County Police Department, which is also offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 631-854-8252.