Crime Junkie - MISSING: DeOrr Kunz Jr.

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

An idyllic family camping trip in the Idaho forests turns into a nightmare when 2-year-old DeOrr Kunz Jr. vanishes without a trace.For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/missing-deorr-kunz-jr/. 

Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and I'm Brett and the story I want to tell you today is as tragic as it is baffling. A family goes on vacation in an Idaho National Forest to take advantage of the great outdoors only to have their dream trip descend into a nightmare when their little boy goes missing. This is the story of Dior Coons Jr. On the afternoon of Friday, July 10, 2015, police and law enforcement in Lemhi County, Idaho get a panicked 911 call at 2.28 p.m. from a distressed mother named Jessica Mitchell. Jessica says her two-year-old son Dior has gone missing while her family was camping out in the Salmon Chalice National Forest at Timber Creek. The Lemhi County sheriffs respond immediately,

and once they arrive on scene, they get the story from a distraught Jessica. She and a few others left their home in Idaho Falls to go on a family camping trip the day before. The full group included Jessica, her son Dior, her fiancee, who's Dior Sr., and he also goes by the name Vernell, Jessica's grandpa Bob Walton and Bob's friend Isaac. Jessica says they all drove about two hours northwest and had gotten to Timber Creek campsite after dark. Bob used to go out to Timber Creek as a young man, and he says that he wanted to share his love for the outdoors and specifically for this place with his family and especially with little Dior. So the next morning after they get there, Jessica says that she and Vernell took Dior into town to go shopping at Ledor, which is like

the nearest town about half an hour away. When they got back, Isaac decided that he wanted to go fishing on his own, you know, just get some alone time. So he went off while Vernell and Jessica went to go fish somewhere else while Dior stayed behind with his great-grandpa Bob. When they get back to the campsite sometime afternoon, Dior wasn't playing near Bob like he was supposed to be. Their little boy was missing, and no one knew where he was. Bob said that he thought Dior was with Vernell and Jessica. They thought Dior was with him, and that's when they realized something was very, very wrong. Jessica tells police that she, Vernell, Isaac, and Bob searched for about an hour before calling 911 at 2.35 that afternoon. Right away, a search and rescue team is sent out

to scour the campsite for any trace of Dior. According to Jessica, when he disappeared, Dior is wearing blue pajama pants, loose boots, and a camel print jacket. Now initially, law enforcement are pretty confident that they'll be able to find Dior and get him back to his parents safely, because as one of the sheriff deputies told Idaho State Journal, kids Dior's age who wander off on their own don't tend to get very far, and about 75% of them are usually found within like one-fifth of a mile or so from where they took off from. Even though this is a dense and rocky terrain with some like swampy areas near the water, the deputy goes even further, saying that around 95% are found within 2.8 miles or less. So you can see why there's hope that Dior will be found safe and sound.

Okay, so this might be a dumb question, but I'm completely unfamiliar with Idaho. Is Timber Creek just a name, or is it like an actual creek nearby? So it is actually a creek. Timber Creek is a creek, and just like you pointed out, Dior possibly drowning is one of the searcher's first thoughts, and one of their biggest fears. So they search the creek right away, but they find no sign of Dior there. However, the idea of an accidental drowning can't be written off yet, because that's not the only body of water nearby. There's also the Stone Reservoir, and so police send divers up to that reservoir to search there as well. But just like at the creek, they don't come up with

anything to suggest that he was ever there. After 12 hours and help from over 170 searchers and volunteers who take to the woods on foot, horseback, ATV, I mean, they even have handlers with canine dogs out there, and helicopters. They all do scans throughout the entire daylight and into dark, but there's no sign of Dior anywhere. Now, eventually they have to pause the search when the darkness becomes all-consuming. No matter how hard they want to try, they just can't do a thorough search without daylight. The search resumes again the next morning, and it lasts the full day. And it's then on the second day that this case starts to get weird, because the Lemhi County law enforcement officials suspend volunteer operations after 48 hours of searching.

What? Why would they do that? So they don't give an explanation right away. Like, all the public hears is like, no more volunteers searching. But the Sheriff's Department does put out a news release later that same day that clarifies things a little bit more. And basically, they say, hey, this is rough terrain out here. We're having trouble keeping track of every single volunteer coming in and out. And if someone gets hurt, like, we may not be able to go get them the help that they need, because this is such a remote area. So it kind of makes sense. Like, out there in the woods, it's actually reasonable enough for me to think like, hey, we don't want to put someone else in danger. So they didn't actually stop the search for Dior. They're just not using civilian

volunteer helpers anymore. It's more like a public service decision. Right. So around this time, then something happens. Tracking dogs pick up a scent. They pick up this scent out on stone reservoir, and the searcher's heart just dropped. According to Andrea Lutz from KTVB, the dogs are brought in on day one to try and trace Dior's movements. And, you know, in a worst case scenario, find his body. No one wanted this little boy to defy statistics and be found dead. But if the evidence is there, they have to follow it and get the truth. There's just one problem. As they quickly discover, the search area has been contaminated. What do you mean by contaminated? So according to Heather Trulley's article on Inquisitor.com, someone, and I swear

I never saw a name or anything like, I couldn't find hardly any details around this, but someone had come out to stone reservoir and scattered the cremains of a loved one around the water. So when the dogs got a hit, this is the scent that they're picking up on and fixating on. I mean, it's what they're trained to do, right? Like they're just fixating on the wrong person. Right. Now, this like blunder kind of forces the sheriff's deputy to admit that they really didn't secure the area properly, which allowed this person to get in with the ashes sometime after Dior went missing. Or I mean, even potentially, it could have been before he went missing. Again, they have no idea when this person came because they didn't cordon off the area or keep the scene secure. I mean,

almost at all, they just had people kind of like roaming free, coming in and out. And I mean, it's hard to do, right? Like it's a large state park. You know, personally, I don't think this was malicious. I don't think someone did this to throw police off and police don't treat it like a deliberate attempt to throw them off either. But they're embarrassed and they know that they wasted days searching for something that, you know, has nothing potentially to do with the case. And this is an awful mistake because police know that they're racing against time here. Every minute counts when a child is missing. And so they broaden their search to add more possibilities about what could have happened on that day. Like, could a wild animal have snatched

Dior or could someone have abducted him? Now, police get rid of the wild animal theory pretty quickly because there's just nothing to support it. If an animal had grabbed Dior, odds are there would be some blood. We would see pieces of his clothes ripped off or maybe one of his boots that had fallen off, right? But there's nothing like that, not a hair, not a fiber, nothing. And two, I mean, he's a two year old boy. There's no way Dior would have gone quietly if a wolf or a bear or something came and like dragged him off. Someone would have heard something. I mean, even Bob who's in failing health and on oxygen 24 hours a day would have heard a little boy screaming. So he was on oxygen and had like wasn't in great health. I guess as a parent, I'm

wondering why you would like leave your child with someone like that. I don't get me wrong. Grandpas and great grandpas are amazing and I rely on them a ton. But if I knew that someone wasn't in the shape to, you know, run after my kid, I don't know how comfortable I feel with that. Two year olds are fast. I can vouch for that. I was just gonna say May's like everywhere all the time. Like you can barely keep up with her. Yeah. And I guess it kind of baffles me as to why like Dior's parents would be very hunky dory with the situation. I don't know, right? Like so I think that maybe since it was a family trip and Bob had been to that area several times before, like maybe just didn't really cross their minds. You know, I mean, Jessica and Vernell

but trusted him. So while police are still digging into these possibilities and searching for Dior, they get outside help when the FBI offers their assistance on July 30. Now shortly after this, in August, a parallel investigation pops up when a retired US Marshal named Frank Vilt offers his services to Jessica and Vernell as a private investigator. Right away, Frank sets up his own tip line and starts conducting his own interviews with Jessica, Vernell, Bob and Isaac. And he starts working his own angles while law enforcement keep going down their own path. But little do police know their path is quickly going to change because Frank's findings are about to change the way everyone views Dior's disappearance. Frank is only on the case for about a week when he comes up

with a theory. To him, the only plausible theory is that Dior was kidnapped. Now this whole time, the Lemhi County Sheriff's never viewed kidnapping as a strong possibility. The probability to them was just too low. You see, there's just one road that goes in and out of the Timber Creek campsite. So pretty much it's a straight one way shot. So anyone in a car would have had to use that road and their car would make noise. People would have heard it. And same thing like with off-road vehicles like a four-wheeler, that's going to make noise too if the kidnapper took off on one of those. Jessica, Vernell, Isaac and Bob all told police that they didn't hear anything like that. And when you think about it, it's even less likely that a potential kidnapper would be on foot. So

to police that kind of just like rules out the theory and they never put out an amber alert or treat Dior like a kidnapping victim in those early days that he vanished. But to Frank, probable or not, he's sure that that's where the evidence is pointing him. And he even comes up with a possible suspect. So remember when I told you that Jessica and Vernell took Dior into town the morning that he went missing? Yeah. So Jessica tells Frank in his team that while they were at that stage stop general store, she noticed a strange man was staring at Dior and it put her on edge because like in her gut, the way this guy was looking at her baby just felt wrong. Like he was fixating and staring for way too long. So she ended up getting out of there because of that. She describes this man as

being in his fifties with long white hair that was curly at the bottom. And Jessica also says that he drove a Jeep. Now that's not a lot to go on, right? Like not for Frank and certainly not for law enforcement. But according to People Magazine Investigates, about a week later, Frank's tip line gets a call from a woman who says that she was out hiking with her little boys who are about the same age as Dior when she saw a guy out there in the woods and she got that exact same feeling Jessica did. Like this guy was looking too closely at her kids and maybe even like following or stalking them. Her description of this guy that she saw out in the woods matches the guy Jessica says that she saw at the stage stop. I mean, right down to the black Jeep Rubicon that the man was

driving. Frank shares his concerns and his evidence with law enforcement. Both the Lemhi County Sheriff's and the FBI take this seriously and they do get involved hoping that this is the breakthrough that they've been waiting for. They find the owner of this black Jeep Rubicon and he goes in for questioning. And while he says like, yeah, I'm friends with that stage stop manager. He's like, I wasn't at that store the day that Dior went missing. And he's also got an alibi that checks out, which puts investigators right back at square one. Throughout this family's worst nightmare, the police and the sheriffs are relieved that Jessica, Bernal, Isaac and Bob stay cooperative. They all volunteer to take polygraph tests and Jessica and Bernal do their part to

keep Dior in the public eye, even as August passes into September and the case starts going cold. While all of this is happening, local law enforcement has really seen how the community has rallied around Jessica and Bernal. I mean, these people are holding vigils, organizing fundraisers to help pay Frank's expenses. And they keep up a pretty steady stream of social media posts to keep attention on Dior's case. And then one day in the middle of September, a couple of months after Dior went missing, Facebook explodes after a picture appears online of an unidentified little boy who was just found in Stanton, California, which is down near LA. I mean, this is over a thousand miles away from where Dior was last seen. And this boy just happens to look a lot like Dior.

Here, Brett, I'm going to send you these two pictures side by side. They're from the East Idaho News. And you tell me which one you think is Dior and which one you think is the boy that was found. Oh, man. These kids look really similar. It looks like the same kid. Yeah. But I think I'm going to say that the one on the left in the lime green shirt is Dior. Yes. Yes, you're right. Okay. But it's bizarre, right? Like they have the same, to me, the same shape eyes, their noses are the same, the mouth, wispy blonde hair. Yeah, even the cut of their hair. It is bizarre how similar these two look. So for that reason, this post goes viral. I mean, totally bananas because this little boy was found at a motel in Stanton with zero clues to who he might be. He was just abandoned there?

Somehow he ended up there. And beyond the striking resemblance, like the age matches, the height matches, the weight matches, I mean, it could totally be Dior. So if this kid is Dior, then Frank was right all along and he really was kidnapped, right? Like that's the only way he could make it all the way down to California. Exactly. And so Lem High County law enforcement agreed that the similarities are striking. And they instantly make some calls to Orange County, California to follow up. And what they learn is both uplifting and devastating. So by the time they call, the child in the photo has already been identified, but it's not Dior. This little boy had wondered off and had been returned to his panic mom safe and sound. And he got his happy ending,

while Idaho police have to tell Jessica and Vernal that their son isn't coming home. This is a real morale blow for law enforcement, but they're not giving up yet. However, there is someone on the case who's giving up. Frank, who's Jessica and Vernal's private investigator, just up and quits the case out of the blue in September, about two weeks after this viral post. Now, he'd only been working for them for about like six weeks in total at this point. Wait, what? Why would he quit? So at first, he won't say. Now, Frank does send the family a resignation letter that privately kind of lays out why he's quitting, but there's no way for the public or press or like anyone connected to the case or looking in on the case to know what that

resignation says or what reason that he gives. Now, this does feel a little weird to law enforcement, but I mean, they don't know exactly what to make of it. So they don't think too much of it at the time. I mean, they still have a little boy to find. Jessica and Vernal hire another private investigator in November, a man named Phillip Klein, who's based out in Texas, and they bring him in to work the case. And when he comes, he's really optimistic that he's going to be the guy who's able to solve it. As Phillip ramps up his own investigation, police and the sheriff's office in both Lemhi County and Bonneville County, where Dior and his family live, keep up their investigation despite the passing time. Search efforts out in the forest are hinging on the

hopes of making a breakthrough before winter. But despite more dives in the stone reservoir and more scouring the Timber Creek area again and again and again, they don't get their miracle. And then in January 2016, Frank resurfaces, going public with the formal resignation letter he sent to Jessica and Vernal back in September. And this sets off a media firestorm. In his resignation letter, which he sent to KID radio's Neil Larson, Frank outlines to Jessica and Vernal in detail why he's stepping away from the investigation. He initially sent this letter to them a few months ago, again, when he resigned, but he waits until January to send it to the press. And this letter is damning because he's very suspicious of Jessica and Vernal. And he's

angry because he thinks that they lied to him. So here, Brett, I want you to read the full resignation letter because I think it's super important. Okay, so the resignation letter says, Dear Dior and Jessica, as I previously informed you today via my text to your cellular telephone at 831 AM, I am withdrawing from the investigation because of circumstances beyond my control, including but not limited to a breach of trust on your part concerning your refusal to allow me to make this case national. I am perplexed as to why you did not want me to advertise the $20,000 award. I was willing to put up personal funds in the hope that the public could provide information leading to the whereabouts of your son. When I agreed to assist you, I informed you that I would

work for my out of pocket expenses. I was willing to forego my normal hourly fee. My stipulation was that both of you would be absolutely truthful. I told both of you that if I felt that you were not telling the truth, stalling me or otherwise misleading me, that I would withdraw from the investigation. In my professional opinion, both of you lied and misrepresented the true facts that could solve the mystery of your missing son. There are other aspects of this case that I cannot go into at this time, but simply put, I believe the searches will all be nonproductive. The searches are only used by you to cover the possible crime that one or both of you may have committed. My suggestion is that you fully cooperate with the Lemhi County Sheriff and tell the truth.

I do not appreciate the fact that one or both of you are spreading rumors that you have paid me. I have not received reimbursement to cover my expenses. I also feel that you are exploiting the public for financial gain. How can you live with yourselves? Sooner or later, the truth will come out. So that is a really kind of cryptic note. Well, not even too cryptic. I mean, it's kind of pointed. But like the sooner or later it will come out is eerie to me. But maybe I missed it. Did you mention a reward at all earlier? No, you didn't miss it, but that's the whole thing. So from his letter, it sounds like he wanted to advertise a reward, take this case national, and I mean, according to his letter, put up personal funds for it. But it seems what he's

insinuating from this resignation letter is that they told him not to. So when this comes out, police are stunned. But here's the thing, Frank's not the only one who thinks Burnell and Jessica have not been totally honest. After being on the case for about six weeks, the family's second private investigator Philip, who's turning over everything he finds to police, is starting to have his own suspicions. A big part of his doubt is coming from Burnell and Jessica's polygraph results. Because remember how I said earlier that they had volunteered to sit down for polygraphs, like back in August or something like that? Yeah. Well, they've both done the test multiple times between August and up to January, and both Jessica and Vernell failed, not once, but multiple times

over the course of the investigation. Now, Vernell, for his part, gets angry when he's asked about failing the test, and he lies to Philip's team about the results while Philip is still working with the family. And if Vernell goes from being like this mild mannered grieving dad on TV to like, how dare you when he's kind of confronted by his own private investigator? And he gets very, like, in your face, condescending and super defensive. Like, I want you to listen to this, listen to him talk to a member of Philip's team in this recording that was released to KTVB News, and tell me what you think. Why did you lie to me about your polygraph test? Because that's what I was told. Check, there's an interview. That's his exact words were,

it's inconclusive, but I'd say it's your inconclusive past. Where his exact words to me, I never lied to anybody. Okay, because when we've been told something completely different, that they told you that you absolutely failed with deception. Welcome to Idaho sweetheart, that's how this works, apparently. So you're saying that you don't need until proven innocent with everybody. Yeah, he sounds really defensive. He does, right? And so this puts Philip's investigative senses right on edge, like something isn't adding up here. So he tells Vernell and Jessica that he's suspicious, and he has his doubts about their stories. And as I'm sure you can imagine, that relationship breaks down in a hurry. And basically right away, Philip's contract

is terminated. I mean, pretty much the same day that he tells Vernell and Jessica all of this. And, and that's that the relationship is over. Except Philip isn't done. Even though he's not working for Dior's parents anymore, he is still suspicious as all get out. And he claims an anonymous member of Dior's extended family pays him to keep investigating. Now the Lemhi County sheriffs agree with Philip's suspicions. And on January 25, 2016, this is six months after Dior vanished. His parents are publicly named as suspects in his disappearance. According to KBTV News, the sheriff decides to name them suspects because the stories that they tell to both local law enforcement and the FBI about what happened that day keep changing. Even little

things like where Dior's favorite blanket was and where his sippy cup was like kept changing every time that they tell their stories. And listen, like it's one thing to get little details wrong because trauma does weird things to the memory. But Jessica and Vernell go beyond that, like way beyond. Like let me just give you an example. So like they went to that stage stop in town to get some stuff, right? So Vernell tells investigators that Dior got really excited by this like beer delivery man parked out front. And the delivery guy was super nice and even took Dior to like sit in his truck. But police and private investigators found the delivery guy and he's like, I have no idea what you're talking about. I never saw a kid. I certainly never put

a kid in my truck because that's a violation of company policy. So police are like, why are you lying about this? And for Jessica's part, she tells investigators about a guy who was working at a feed store and he was like pumping diesel and playing with Dior through the truck window when they stopped to fuel up. Except again, they find this guy and he too is like, I never saw a kid in a car. So all of these changing stories and provable lies are really making the police like side eye the parents pretty hard. Yeah. And they were like such weird things to lie about too, like completely unnecessary embellishments to this really simple quick run to a store, in my opinion, like detailed enough to make it sound believable, but vague enough

for them to believe that the police couldn't really track them down in their lie. But obviously they did, right? Like they did track these people down. And to me, these people that they tracked down, like it makes no sense for these strangers to lie. Like if they saw a boy or interacted with a boy, they would have said it. So it makes no difference to these random people. They'll just tell the truth. But their truth is directly contradicting Jessica and Vernal's statements and what they're saying. Okay, so the parents obviously can't keep their stories straight or even settle on one story. But what about Isaac and Bob? Like are their stories checking out? So here's the thing. And I think it's super interesting. So Isaac's story is consistent,

but Bob's isn't. And obviously, Bob is like the one related to Jessica and Vernal. According to East Idaho News, Bob told Phillips investigators that he thought that there was an accident out at the campsite, but he wouldn't tell them anything else about what might have happened or what would make him think that an accident had happened. And since we know Philip worked for them from November of 2015 to January of 2016, Bob had to have made this statement sometime in that time frame. But get this, on a 2017 episode of People Magazine Investigates about this case, which it was called Where Is Baby Dior, Bob told them that Dior was playing over to the side of him after Jessica and Vernal left to go fishing. So he's saying like Dior was out of his direct line of sight. He glanced

over every once in a while to make sure Dior was still there. And he was like fine. And then maybe just like kind of went missing. So it's like another inconsistency. Like in 2017, he doesn't bring up this idea of a probable accident at all. But wait, didn't Bob originally think that Dior was with his parents and the parents thought Dior was with Bob? Yeah. So it's, this was so frustrating. Like it's super hard to put this all in a timeline. And like when these stories are being said, who they're being said to. But yeah, from what I can find, there's like three very distinct stories that Bob is telling as well. And I mean, again, we know his health is failing, we know he's older. So is this him lying and being manipulative? Or is this a sign of like

failing age and in memory and something like that? I just, I honestly don't know. Yeah, like there's so many stories at this point in time. And now Bob is adding even more. Yeah. And you're right. Like we know that the human mind is fallible in general when it comes to memory. But this seems even more extreme than that. Yeah. I mean, for Bob's inconsistent stories to make sense to me, I mean, someone would have to come out and be like, yeah, he suffers from dementia because it's not like, oh, Dior was, you know, playing to my left and really he was playing to my right. I mean, you've got one where he's with you, one where he's not with you. And all of a sudden, like an accident that you're talking about, it's very, very strange. And all of these

changing stories make the entire family look worse and worse in the eyes of both the public and police. And the once supportive community eventually turns against them. Even local law enforcement who usually temper their words in public go on the record with some pretty harsh words. The Lemhi County Sheriff at the time, this is a guy named Len actually says it has to be a homicide. Those are his exact words. But even with the numerous failed polygraphs and the lies and the changing stories, Idaho law enforcement know that they don't have enough to build a case against Jessica and Vernal. So while they are named as suspects, they're not arrested. Then in March 2016, we're now eight months after that fateful day out at Timber Creek, Philip drops a bombshell.

He goes on record with the East Idaho news and announces that cadaver search dogs got some hits back during that initial search in July. And it's weird, he's like sort of cagey about whether or not it was the same hit that came from the ashes scattered at Stone Reservoir, which we already talked about. Like, obviously, that's everyone's first thought like, dude, you're late to the party. We heard about that. It turned out to be nothing. But Philip kind of persists with like this insinuation being that this is a different hit, but he won't elaborate on it because he says he doesn't want to damage a potential prosecution. So it's kind of a big question mark. And since Phillips, a civil investigator, I mean, he's got different jurisdiction and rights than

police officers conducting an investigation. Now, the Idaho law enforcement don't see him as being like a hindrance or anything. There's kind of this like mutual respect or, you know, they have at least the same common goal of finding the truth about what happened to Dior. So I think he might be, I mean, to what he says, he might be trying to protect the investigation, protect the prosecution. But obviously, he's also getting a little bit frustrated that, you know, they're not doing what he feels like they should be. And he's trying to like, drop hints here and there. Kind of like, even though he's cooperating with them, they may not be cooperating with him. Yeah. But here's the thing, that's not all Philip has to say, because he claims Jessica told him

that she knows where Dior's body is. According to Philip, Jessica broke down in an interview with him and admitted to knowing the location of Dior's body. And just when you're thinking like, oh, well, you know, like he doesn't work for law enforcement, he got fired, maybe he's just taking his own hunch too far and like making stuff up, he also says that she didn't just confess to him. He says that she also broke down in an interview with law enforcement and told them the same thing, which to me is a huge accusation. And it sounds like the case is over, right? Well, not quite, because as Philip tells the reporter, Jessica clammed up super tight after that and wouldn't say anything else about it, neither to him or police. Philip didn't give a

real good timeline of when Jessica made this revelation. But since he only worked for them for a couple of months, my guess is that it happened sometime between that November and January timeframe. Now, to be super clear, I couldn't find anything to corroborate Philip's story about Jessica telling him or law enforcement that she knew where her son's body was. But get this, while Jessica strenuously denies ever admitting such a thing to anyone, it seems like it could be a possibility because the police actually offer her an immunity deal in exchange for telling them where Dior is. In 2019, Jessica herself admitted to the offer being put on the table, but she's never clarified exactly when it happened. Now, obviously, police have already

named her as a suspect along with her fiance. They're already suspicious of them. So I mean, they might have just made this deal offer as like a shot in the dark, something to like shake the case loose, right? Or I mean, maybe it could be a little bit more pointed if she had slipped up at any point in time and said more than she meant to, then maybe that's why they made the offer. They made it confident that she could take them to where he was. Now, police have never commented on this, so any opinions either way would just be speculation. Ultimately, the whole thing just raises a ton more questions in a case that's practically bursting with them. Even though Philip's claims led to increased suspicion and scrutiny around Jessica and Vernal,

Idaho law enforcement still don't file any charges and the case stays cold. Except Philip isn't finished with his revelations and his next revelation poses even more disturbing questions. In July of 2016, around the one year anniversary of when Dior vanished, Philip posts a long report on Facebook claiming that his investigators searched Vernal and Jessica's old apartment in their home of Idaho Falls and found a toddler's camo jacket, some blue pajama pants, and a pair of boots. And if you remember, these are the same clothes that Dior was supposedly wearing when he went missing. According to KBOI news in Idaho Falls, Vernal and Jessica had been evicted from their property for not paying their rent.

And when they left, they left behind a bunch of stuff. And so Philip's team of investigators got permission from the landlord to go in and look around. So in addition to the clothes, Philip said that they also found some toy cars that Jessica and Vernal had previously said were missing. They found a credit card used by an unidentified family friend to buy things Jessica and Vernal never told Philip or his team about. But they don't really like go into detail about exactly what those purchases might have been or how they relate to the case. But he like makes a specific point of talking about it. So at this point, the assumption has to be that Dior never made it to the campsite at all. I mean, first there's the witnesses that supposedly

saw him at the store and they're like, no, then there's no trace of him or his clothes at the campsite. And then the clothes he supposedly went missing in are found hundreds of miles away. There's no way. Right. So Philip's firm posted their report on their Facebook page. And it says that their investigative team quote, cannot find any person that saw the child go up the mountain either the day of the event or the evening before end quote. Here's the only snag though. So grandpa Bob's friend Isaac, the guy whose story has been consistent this whole time, the guy who was fishing when Dior went missing. Yeah. He is adamant that Dior was actually there. So does Philip think that Isaac is lying or is he kind of just lumping him in with everybody

else and considering him an unreliable witness? I have no idea. In an interview with the East Idaho News, Philip said that his team is vetting some statements Isaac made, but he really doesn't go into detail specifically about those. All they're claiming is that they don't believe Dior ever made it there. I have no idea how Isaac plays into that. I mean, like so much else in this case, there's nothing to 100% prove or disprove what either Isaac or Philip are saying. So, I mean, again, who knows? It's one big scattered jigsaw puzzle and no one, including the police, know how to put the pieces together. Law enforcement adds Philip's theory to their list, but they're not ready to discount the original story that Dior really was at Timber Creek.

I guess my biggest question would be like, what makes them think that he was at Timber Creek? You know, you know, that's what I don't know. Again, they're obviously and probably holding stuff back from the public. I don't know if they did find something that they're holding on to. I don't know. Again, if you go back to that, those cadaver dog hits that Philip was insinuating happened that was separate from the cremains, maybe that was something maybe they picked up on a scent of his, but the fact that they're not willing to like write it off, like the fact that he was ever there, I don't. Right. Like you said, like they added it to their list. They basically aren't ruling any options out. Yeah. Everything's on the table still. Now, Philip's claims don't

lead to any arrests, but as time goes on and Dior's case stays cold, relationships start to deteriorate. Jessica and Vernal break off their engagement in 2016 in the months after their name suspects and Jessica gets married to another man shortly after. And I know we talked before about how, you know, grief and the grieving process are huge structures on relationship and they can manifest in a bunch of different ways for a bunch of different people. So, I mean, while some people might look at this as a sign of whatever, I don't think that them separating or her getting with someone else is that strange. Well, and honestly, more than anything, I see this as an opportunity. Like if one or both of Dior's parents were involved in any way and

they're not together anymore, it seems like it would be the perfect time for one of them to flip on the other. Like we see it all the time. There's no alliance between them anymore. The relationship dissolves. Maybe there's some tension still left. Why not open that door? It's interesting you say that because in September of 2017, Jessica made a statement to Investigation Discovery where she says that she believes Vernal could have hurt Dior. Vernal disputes this immediately, of course, but when we look back on everything we know about the case, the lies, the inconsistencies, the alleged confession about Dior's body, Jessica being offered immunity, the finger pointing to Vernal. I mean, it all just adds up to

questions. Was there an accident that got covered up? Did something premeditated happen to him? Did he ever even make it up to that campsite? And if he did, where could he have gone that police didn't search? Like, I mean, I just want to take this case and shake it until everything comes loose and we finally get the truth. As recently as the summer of 2019, the Lemhi County Sheriff's Department is still making trips out to Timber Creek to search the area with cadaver dogs on the hunt for missing pieces. According to the KTVB News report from July of last year, the dogs get a hit and find a bone. But after the bone is sent to the FBI to be analyzed, it came back as just belonging to an animal. So to me, at least, if law enforcement are bringing

cadaver dogs out there four years afterwards, I feel like they think that Dior might have really been at the campsite and is still out there somewhere. So I mean, I agree. From everything they're doing, from everything they're saying, it still seems like they are so focused on that campsite. And whether that means they think it was an accident or a murder is kind of anybody's guess since we have no idea what really happened to this poor kid. And law enforcement has never officially clarified if they're 100% certain Dior was out there or not or what happened to him. As of today, no charges have ever been filed against Jessica, Vernal, Bob, or Isaac. Bob passed away in 2019. And to date, Dior's case is still officially opened. And if he is alive,

he would now be seven years old. If you have any information that might lead to solving this case, please call the Lemhi County Sheriff's Department at 208-756-8980. If you want to see pictures from this story or to view our source material, you can find all of that information on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crimejunkie is an audio check production, so what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?