A judge can raise or lower the amount of bail after considering issues of flight risk and community safety.

If a defendant and his family can't come up with the whole amount, they can go to a bonding company. The company will post bail, usually for a 10 percent nonreturnable fee. A defendant can pay $1,000 for a $10,000. That is the company's profit.

If the defendant flees, the bonding company stands to lose the $10,000. To recoup the loss, it can go back against the indemnitors --- usually family members who signed off on the deal and who may have put up property as collateral.

It can also hire a bail enforcement agent --- sometimes called a bounty hunter --- to track down the defendant before the bond forfeiture hearing. A bail enforcement agent's fee is normally 10 percent of the original bond.

The hunt for Roberts started before he even disappeared.

With bond set at $200,000, he was supposed make payments on his $20,000 fee, according to Dana Coleman, Book-Out's owner. She said the person who wrote the bond is no longer working for the company.

She said Roberts wasn't paying, so the company sought to revoke his bail and cancel the deal. That would have returned Roberts to jail and taken Book-Out's $200,000 out of jeopardy.