Ex-Girlfriend Says Defector Wanted to Spy

An ex-girlfriend of an American soldier thought to have defected to the Soviet Union said today that “it doesn’t sound like something he would do” but recalled that he had wanted to be a spy.

And Wade Evan Roberts’ mother said: “I’m just in shock. I’m numb.”

Former girlfriend Geraldine Barylski of Riverside said she broke off her relationship with Roberts, who formerly lived in Rubidoux, after he joined the Army two years ago.

“When he joined the Army he came to see me and said he wanted to be an intelligence spy in communications,” she said in a telephone interview. “He said he had taken a test which showed he was qualified in communications. He said he wanted to be some kind of a spy. I’m not sure what he meant.”

She added that Roberts was “unpredictable and did a lot of things for attention. He once wanted me to run off with him to Idaho.”

The Pentagon is investigating whether Roberts, who deserted his field artillery post in West Germany on March 2, is the soldier identified by the Soviets as William E. Roberts of San Bernardino. (Story, Page 25.) Roberts, who will be 22 on April 12, joined the Army on Jan. 3, 1985. He was a second-class private and has been declared a deserter.

Alta Worley of Apple Valley, who acknowledged that she is Wade Evan Roberts’ mother, didn’t know if the Roberts mentioned by the Soviets is her son, “but it looks like it might be.”

“I’m just in shock. I’m numb,” she said today. “I can’t believe it happened. He should never have done that while he was in the Army.