MN MN - Christopher Kerze, 17, Eagan, 20 April 1990

SheWhoMustNotBeNamed

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Missing Since: April 20, 1990 from Eagan, Minnesota
Classification: Endangered Runaway
Date Of Birth: February 19, 1973
Age: 17 years old
Height and Weight: 5'11, 135 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes. Kerze had facial acne at the time of his 1990 disappearance. He wears eyeglasses or contact lenses. Kerze's feet point outward while he is walking. He has a one-inch scar on his forehead near the hairline and a small red birthmark on the bottom of his foot. His nicknames are Chris and Rick-o.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A long acid-washed blue denim trenchcoat, a large black cotton sweatshirt, blue Bugle Boy jeans with pockets at the knees, brown leather boat shoes, and a zebra-striped Swatch watch.
Medical Conditions: Kerze is allergic to sulpha drugs. At the time of his disappearance, he was ill with a fever.

Details of Disappearance

Kerze stayed home sick from school on the day he disappeared. He was last seen leaving his family's residence in Eagan, Minnesota on April 20, 1990. He was driving his family's blue Dodge Caravan at the time of his disappearance. He left a note saying he would return home at approximately 6:00 p.m., but he never came back. The vehicle was discovered abandoned one week later, approximately twenty miles north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. There was no sign of Kerze at the scene and he has never been heard from again.


Kerze carried a black leather wallet at the time of his disappearance. His case remains unsolved. Authorities believe Kerze left his family's home of his own accord.

Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Eagan Police Department

612-454-3900
 
Christopher has been ruled out as being this unidentified body:

The Doe Network:
Case File 1070UMMA

1070UMMA.jpg
1070UMMA1.jpg

Reconstructions of Victim by Mary Manheim
Unidentified White Male

  • The victim was discovered on November 28, 1992 in Newburyport, Essex County, Massachusetts
  • Estimated Date of Death: 1987-1991
  • Skeletal Remains
  • Cause of Death: Undetermined, Homicide not ruled out.

The Eagan Police Dept worked with the MA State Police, and by comparing dentals this past week, Christopher was ruled out.

Let's hope we can continue the search for Christopher and bring him home to his loved ones.
 
I often think of Christopher Kerze. I didn't know him but based on where he lived and the time frame we more than likely went to the same school but he would have been a year ahead of me.
In 2004 the Eagan police department received an anonymous letter saying to quit searching for Christopher and he would come home when he was ready. They were not able to verify who sent the letter ( postmarked Seattle). I hope it was him and he was ok and will come home at some point and really hope the letter wasn't a mean hoax.
Here's to hoping he is still alive and can be found. Merry Christmas Chris.
 
I often think of Christopher Kerze. I didn't know him but based on where he lived and the time frame we more than likely went to the same school but he would have been a year ahead of me.
In 2004 the Eagan police department received an anonymous letter saying to quit searching for Christopher and he would come home when he was ready. They were not able to verify who sent the letter ( postmarked Seattle). I hope it was him and he was ok and will come home at some point and really hope the letter wasn't a mean hoax.
Here's to hoping he is still alive and can be found. Merry Christmas Chris.

Welcome to WS. :seeya:
 
I just wonder why they think he left of his own accord.

If he really sent that letter himself I hope he would have contacted his family as well. Such a strange case.
 
NamUs - Christopher Kerze

It does sound like he left on his own. He stayed home sick, took the parents van and drove over 200 miles to Grand Rapids, MN. The area up there is heavily wooded, has many lakes, and is very rural. Then the letter arrives in 2004 from Seattle. I wonder if it was hand-written?

I found it interesting how detailed his description is... Right down to the brand of underwear he was wearing. Also, one of his photos on Charley Project and NamUs is a side-shot, sort of like what they do for mugshots.
 
I was thinking that the picture you're referring to was part an orthodontic after braces series. There are three of them with the same white background....a frontal, not smiling, a profile, not smiling, and a frontal smiling....just my guess.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I guess two of them have an off white background but they were obviously taken at the same time.
 
I was thinking that the picture you're referring to was part an orthodontic after braces series. There are three of them with the same white background....a frontal, not smiling, a profile, not smiling, and a frontal smiling....just my guess.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

You are probably right... I've never had to deal with that... Thank you!
 
[h=1]Eagan Police in Northern Minnesota Looking for Leads in 26-Year-Old Missing Persons Case[/h]
Eagan Police are looking for new leads in a 26-year-old missing persons case. Seventeen-year-old Christopher Kerze was last seen at home in Eagan in 1990. His car was later found abandoned in Itasca County.

...

This week a detective is in northern Minnesota working with the Itasca County Sheriff's Office, distributing a new age progression poster with landowners in the area where Christopher went missing.
christopherkerzemissingposter.jpg

http://kstp.com/news/eagan-itasca-county-sheriffs-office-kerze-missing-persons-case/4304599/
 
A shotgun? First time I heard about it in this case...Now that makes me think it might have been a suicide.
 
Lengthy article that focuses on a few of the children featured in the Runaway Train music video. It contains some additional information on Christopher Kerze's disappearance.

https://melmagazine.com/the-children-of-runaway-train-19ee8f6aabf8#.y370pg6cp

For me, the story begins and ends with Christopher Kerze, who disappeared that Minnesota spring 26 years ago. The arc of his life is devastatingly incomplete.

The day after he left, Jim and Alona received an envelope in the mail, postmarked Duluth. In it was another handwritten note, addressed to “Mom, Dad, And Readers.” Kerze explained that he’d lied about being sick in order to take the family’s 1988 light blue Dodge Caravan “to not even I know where.”

Furthermore, wrote Kerze, he intended to commit suicide. He declined to give a reason. But he understood how deeply it would hurt those he loved, and for that he expressed regret.

“Take heart,” he continued, “because if just one person is better off for having known me, my life will not have been wasted.”

The next day, two days after Kerze was last seen, police found the family’s van abandoned by the side of the road in Itasca County in northern Minnesota, about 20 miles north of Grand Rapids.

And yet: All these years later, no one can say with certainty what happened. When Kerze left the house, he took the shotgun but not the ammunition. No traces of him have ever been found — not the shotgun, not his glasses, not his clothes, and not his body. And, as Ernie Allen said, “He could’ve changed his mind. The reality is he is missing until he’s found.”

The uncertainty is, for Jim Kerze, both hope and torment. But he hasn’t given up. “My pipe dream is that Christopher works for a little company in Cleveland, is married and has three kids. He’s not a back room employee, but a very quiet employee. He’s not a person who would lead the charge. He’s one of those guys in the back to hold the place together.

“Smart, could do the job, hold the place together, be very relied on. But you wouldn’t want to ask him to try to sell stuff to the public because that’s not his personality. His personality is the other way.”

He paused. ”I know that the reality, intellectually, is probably a lot different. But you have to have some way to hope.”
 
Wow, very important information. Thanks for posting, JusticeWillBeServed! Now I'm even more convinced that this is a suicide.
 
He took the shotgun but not the ammunition? Could he have taken just the one bullet he needed and they didn't notice one was missing? If he really had no ammo but he was determined to carry out suicide he would need to change plans. They may have been focused on looking for John Doe's with self inflicted gunshot wounds but IMO, they should look for any COD. They also might want to consider that he hitchhiked to another place first.

They found his car 20 miles north of Grand Rapids, MN: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Gra...aa47fe781ceb12!2m2!1d-93.1668858!2d44.8041322

The map looks like it was a forested area but I wonder if he could have gone to Canada from there? Or the Dakotas? Unfortunately, there are also a lot of lakes up there.
 
In 2004 the Eagan police department received an anonymous letter saying to quit searching for Christopher and he would come home when he was ready. They were not able to verify who sent the letter ( postmarked Seattle).

I'm starting to think who could have sent that letter in 2004? I doubt that Christopher was alive long after April 20, 1990, sadly.

Maybe some friends or relatives who wanted to "ease" his parents' pain by writing that letter? Maybe a friend of Christopher? Maybe someone visited Seattle on vacation or a business trip and did not even live in that area. I kind of don't have the feeling that this was meant to be a cruel hoax.
 
The Dakotas are not close. Not sure why he would go there. The forests can be thick and not penetrable in Grand Rapids area. He may have died and different animals came and ........ Too sad to write.
 
[h=1]Eagan parents still hoping to find son missing since 1990[/h]
It’s been 26 years since Jim and Loni Kerze have seen Christopher, their son who said he needed to stay home sick from school but instead left a note and headed for northern Minnesota. He never returned.
Although the 17-year-old sent his parents a suicide note, his body has not been found, which gives them hope, as well as continued grief and worry about the unknown.
They do believe he is alive.
“In the absence of evidence of the contrary, you have to,” Jim said. “He’s your son.”
What they want most is resolution.

More at Link: http://www.twincities.com/2016/11/28/eagan-parents-holding-out-hope-to-find-son-missing-since-1990/
 
From article quoted above:

[...] In 2004, an anonymous letter postmarked Seattle was sent to Eagan police that claimed Christopher “was a guardian angel and we should stop looking,” Machtemes said. Bolks and investigators from other agencies determined the letter was not credible, he said. [...]

Anyone with information about Christopher Kerze should contact Eagan police at 651-675-5700.

So good to see this case in the news. Such a strange case though...
 

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