Evan William Roberts

Evan William Roberts, 31 of Indianapolis, Indiana, passed away unexpectedly, August 20, 2023.

Funeral Services will be held at 11 am, Thursday, August 24, 2023 in the Eric MD Bell Funeral Home in Pittsboro, IN, where friends and family will gather from 10 am until the time of the funeral service. He will be laid to rest in the Lizton K of P Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts are suggested to Shepherds College.

All are encouraged to keep the family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

Below is a loving tribute from Evan's family.

Evan received his voice!

He received his voice on Sunday, August 20, 2023 when he made his escape to glory.  The cause of his death is somewhat of a mystery.  A day that started normally changed rapidly, and then he was gone.  The coroners have promised to be thorough because today this doesn't make sense.  It will take time, but we will eventually have answers.

Evan was born on May, 15, 1992.  It wasn't long before we realized he wasn't developing cognitively as he should and wasn't talking.  His eventual diagnosis was severe intellectual disability and fully pervasive autism.  He also had Pica.  The "fully pervasive" part was really the biggest challenge for Evan.  It was as though it was a cloak limiting his ability.

Dad's cherished memory of Evan's early years is that Evan would break into a bright smile whenever Bill would enter the room.  And there's that time when Evan was about 4 or 5 and we lost track of him in the home.  One of those "I thought you were watching him.  No, you were watching him," times.  Bill found Evan in the downstairs playroom.  He was sitting in the middle of the ping pong table.  To this day Bill has no idea how he got up there.

The million-dollar question was always, "What does he like to do."  Does he like to color?  Play with cars?  Action figures?  Run outside?  Well, no.  Evan likes to collect and connect.  What does that look like?   From the moment he could walk, he would take anything that had a cord and "connect" it from one place to another.  He would place his telephone toy on his bed, pull the cord across the room and place the handle inside his dresser drawer.

As he grew this behavior became his book bag.  He would always have a book bag with him.  He would gather anything and everything to place in his bag.  It had to be as full as possible and it was constantly rearranged.  The more belts and loops on a bag, the better.  Evan would spend hours zipping, unzipping and rearranging.  Oh, and the surprises you would find in the bag.  My favorite is the time I found a bra that Evan must have taken on one of his raids of the girl's room.  Loops and connectors.  I get it.

Another favorite memory of mine is the day I realized he wasn't my baby anymore.  It was one of Evan's early 20's birthday.  We were at Target and I was trying to direct him to make a choice of a gift.  He was interested in magazines at that time.  He liked the slick touch of the paper.  He would flip pages and look at pictures.  So, we were in that section.  I'm thinking Ninja Turtles or Power Rangers.  Nope, he went straight to the Cosmopolitan with the very pretty lady on the cover.  Oh my.  My mother's heart.  I wasn't quite ready.  But with this new perspective, I started noticing he was actually a pretty good flirt.  Maybe the young ladies didn't quite realize.  But Mom could see what he was up to.

We are so very thankful for the expertise and support of the administration and staff of Indianapolis Public Schools.  Evan received the best of services there.  The Riley Autism Clinic helped us navigate his autism.  He entered the care of Indiana Mentor's group home when he was 16 years old.  He was happy and content in his home, and we're grateful.

Evan is survived by his father and mother, William (Bill) Roberts and Joanne (Joni) Borgman, and his 2 older brothers, Patrick Evan and Joshua Frank Roberts.  His family includes his aunts and uncles:  Richard and Janice Carlson, Kathy and Ron Burke, Frank and Stephanie Beatty, and John and Laura Beatty.  And his loving cousins: Steve, Stephanie, Kristy, Sarra, Jessica, Allison, Morgan, Nora, Sophie and Carly.  Plus the Borgman step-family

Evan is preceded in death by his grandparents, Frank and Ruth Roberts, Frank Beatty, Sr. and Sally Daugherty Davis; his Uncle Frank Louis Roberts, and Aunts Eileen Harshman and Mildene Mauer.