Seven Years, No Answers:

This story was written by the author with editorial assistance from AI for grammar, structure, and clarity.

By Kyle Fields

October 9, 2025 — Lake County, Florida

Deep in Central Florida lies Lake County. Home to roughly half a million people—444,204 to be exact—it stretches across 1,157 square miles of lakes, marshes, and small towns most people describe as peaceful.

But underneath the charm is something far less picturesque: a culture of silence and avoidance that has turned one missing person’s case into a masterclass in bureaucratic indifference.

We’re not here to talk about Lake County’s charm. We’re here to talk about how one agency, whose mission is to protect its residents, has failed at the most basic level of accountability.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) employs roughly 850 people. Most do their jobs with integrity and dedication. But inside the Criminal Investigations Bureau, transparency seems to have gone missing—right along with Robert Snowberger, whose 2019 disappearance is still a so-called “cold case,” even though it’s officially “active” enough to keep the truth locked away.

If you live in Lake County and remember the Sheriff’s Office conducting an extensive, impartial, and transparent investigation into Robert’s disappearance, raise your hand. I’ll wait.

You can’t.

Because it didn’t happen.

We are four months away from the seven-year anniversary of Robert’s disappearance, and the public has fewer answers now than when he first went missing. If you file a public records request about his case, you’ll be met with legal jargon, redacted pages, and a tone that makes it clear you’re not welcome to ask questions.

When I filed my own records request, I received what can only be described as a skeleton of a report—one page, mostly blank, with a case number that doesn’t even mention Robert’s name. Is that all he became to them? Just another number? Another statistic quietly forgotten?

After the first inquiry, the response was a single line citing Florida Statute §119.071(2)(c)(1)—the go-to excuse for stonewalling under the claim of an “active investigation.”

No greeting.

No explanation.

Just a copy-and-paste legal citation.

When pressed for clarification—including whether there was more than one missing person named Robert Snowberger in Lake County—the office went silent.

Hours later, Records Custodian Sunny Beseler finally replied. His email confirmed the case number but refused to answer anything meaningful. His statement read:

“While our office is required to provide access to public records, we are not required to provide information or answer questions from the records or case.”

And there it is—the official stance of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office on public trust and transparency.

Not “we’ll do our best.”

Not “we want to help the public understand.”

Just: we’re not required to answer your questions.

In one sentence, Beseler summed up what so many agencies think but rarely say out loud. And if that’s how they speak to a journalist, imagine how they treat families of the missing.

At this point, the citizens of Lake County have done more to investigate Robert’s disappearance than the Sheriff’s Office. The community has scoured the same limited records, cross-referenced every lead, and pushed for answers that law enforcement either cannot—or will not—provide.

It took filing a formal complaint with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) just to get the agency’s attention. Even then, the response was another redacted page, another brush-off, more silence from an office that seems allergic to accountability.

Sheriff Peyton Grinnell is fully aware of the situation. How do I know? Because I made sure to CC him when I was ignored the first time.

Seven years.

One missing man.

And an agency more focused on protecting itself than protecting the truth.

If the Lake County Sheriff’s Office can’t find transparency, how can we expect them to find Robert Snowberger?

The following is a fact-based editorial reflecting publicly available information and the author’s opinion on transparency within Lake County law enforcement.