Wife searches for missing husband

On Friday afternoon, Michael Roberts told his wife, Suni, he needed to go to the store.

He kissed her, told her he loved her, apologized for anything he'd ever done, got into his1984 Toyota Corolla and drove away from the couple's recently sold home on Kingsley Road.

"Two hours came and I realize something was wrong," Korean-born Suni Roberts said Tuesday, her voice breaking with the weight of her next words. "I know he is dead."

Roberts never came home Friday night, nor did he report Saturday to his job of 25 years as a dealer at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe.

Suni called his supervisors to say he was sick.

"Could he have a couple days off?" she asked.

On Sunday Roberts, 55, still hadn't reported to work.

Suni called his supervisor again, this time to admit he was missing.

"I knew I had to tell the truth. I knew I had to tell them Michael was missing."

She said Roberts had only $30 on him and two credit cards that have shown no activity in four days. By Tuesday, there was still no word on the whereabouts of her husband.

"We've been married for 16 years," she said, looking down at her hands as she clutched a Kleenex.

"I just know something has happened. I know he is dead. How will I ever go through this?"

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Suni said, her husband has been depressed. "He went berserk," she said. "He was crying, so depressed."

Recently, he began to see a psychiatrist, Suni said, and was given a prescription for an antidepressant -- medication he didn't take with him.

"He took nothing with him," she said.

Things were looking up for the couple, she said. They'd had their home on the market only one week before getting the full asking price for it.

Last Wednesday, the couple had put a deposit down on a Lake Tahoe apartment.

"He's never gone for more than one hour. He's not a goer. He goes to work, he comes home." she said, crying. "Why Michael? Why me?"

"She has felt this almost from the beginning," said Suni's friend, Realtor Marianne Rowland of National Best Sellers who sold the couple's home.

A missing person's report was filed at the Carson City Sheriff's Department on Saturday and the information was logged into a national computer data base, accessible by every law enforcement agency in the country.

Suni hopes someone will recognize her husband's photo and tell her where he is.

"If anyone knows anything, please, please call the police," she said.

Roberts is described as a white male adult, 5 feet 8 inches tall. He has short, thick silver hair, blue eyes and wears big-rimmed prescription glasses. He was last seen wearing a baseball cap and a light colored button-up shirt.

Suni said her husband was driving his 1984 gold four-door Toyota Corolla with license plate number 156CDX.

"If he read this, tell him, 'Your wife loves you and please, please come home. Friends love you.' I love you very much. We'll get you help, honey," she pleaded.

"Suni wants to get this exposed to as many people as she can in the hopes that someone has seen him," Rowland said. "He wouldn't just leave. If he misses one day at work, he loses his job. He wouldn't just give up everything."