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Listen to Killer Queens: A True Crime Podcast here.
A case that has always had me wondering since I first heard about it was the disappearance of young DeOrr Kunz.
DeOrr was 2 years old when he supposedly vanished from a camp site where he was camping with his parents, great grandfather, and family friend. Even though he was wearing boots 3 sizes too big at the time of his disappearance, police never found a single boot or anything else connected to DeOrr during their search. From what the parents described, he was literally there one minute and completely gone the next.
The Killer Queens podcast covers this story in two episodes. Included in the episodes is a reading of the fourteen page police report handwritten by Jessica Mitchell (DeOrr’s mother) and the three page police report of Vernal DeOrr Kunz (DeOrr’s father). Jessica’s recollection of details in the report on the day he went missing is wildly fantastic. That is, if what she says really happened. I don’t believe her. I agree with the Killer Queens who have totally figured her out to a T! You would only go into that much elaborate and expansive detail if you were telling a false story. There’s no way you would relay all that detail if you’re a distraught mother with a missing child. And her recollection of the previous two days are not as detailed because she is probably remembering what actually happened and isn’t making much of that up, so she doesn’t feel the need to embellish to make it “sound” believable.
I believe DeOrr was injured and died or was accidentally killed by one or both of his parents either the night of the camping trip (the day before he was reported missing) or that next morning. The Killer Queens have a plausible theory that maybe Jessica and Vernal accidentally rolled over on DeOrr in the back of the suburban and suffocated him while sleeping. And because they were so scared they might get in trouble, they disposed of his body (I wish I knew where!) and came up with a missing child story. It was either that or maybe DeOrr had a medical event while camping and they were not able to save him so they felt guilty; or maybe they weren’t watching him, he did drown, and they found him and freaked out and disposed of his body.
There is just no way that he could have vanished in broad daylight like they claim. Unless there’s an alien theory someone wants to introduce. Or he encountered a portal to another dimension.
Everyone’s stories from the camping trip differ every time they tell them and the stories don’t match up with each other. If you’re telling the truth about what happened, there would not be so many discrepancies and inconsistencies.
Something doesn’t add up.
Police questioned all the locals in the area that Jessica and Vernal encountered on their gas and tampon run when they claimed DeOrr was with them that morning. But NO ONE they questioned remembers a little boy. One man did remember seeing a car seat in the back of the car but no child in it.
My biggest question is why and then how? Why cover it up if it was an accident? And how did it happen?
I don’t understand why the parents have not been arrested or charged. I would think they could be charged with child neglect at the very least because the child was in their care and is now missing. ?? It’s frustrating to know that this couple got away with something and wasted law enforcement’s time in a search and rescue effort.
What are your thoughts on this case? Did the parents do something and cover it up? Are the parents innocent? Did the grandfather and his friend have anything to do with it?