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

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COD was possibly hypothremia
 
Height isn't a match.

Uah
 
thenotebook said:
On the Charley page it mentions that police think the gun was abandoned and later found by a hunter. Why would they think that? If it was suicide the guy would have been right next to his body.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kerze_christopher.html
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That is a really strange statement. Either someone found the gun or they didn't find the gun. If someone found a gun and turned it in LE should be able to tell if it was Chris's gun or not. Did some anonymous hunter call up the tip line and say they found a gun in the woods but sold it before realizing it could belong to Chris? That's the only scenario I can think of but even then I would hope LE would try to verify that and track down the gun, not put out that a hunter "may have found the gun". :thinking:
 
This is very odd. I seriously believe that this is a possible runaway. But the there's no absolute confirmation as to whether the gun was his, or better yet, even found. The possibility being thrown into the story is enough to believe that a gun was most likely found.

Uah
 
Been thinking a lot about Chris and if the gun was found but his body was not found what that could indicate. It could mean he ran away but then I thought about all the notes and the suicide letter and then the anonymous letter in 2004 telling his parents to stop looking plus the ATM withdrawal of $200... and the thought occurred to me, what if this was foul play?

Possible scenario:
Chris supposedly stayed home that day with "a headache" and his parents said it was unusual for him to miss school. I get the idea he was a good student and being a good student, who never misses school, a responsible kid who left notes for his parents, maybe someone was bullying him at school? What if he stayed home to try to avoid the bullies but those bullies skipped school and showed up at his house that day? Maybe they forced Chris to leave with the gun and his parent's van (and one or more kid followed with their car). Or maybe these kids had even convinced Chris they wanted to be his friends and he left willingly. IDK. Either way, Chris was smart enough to leave the ammo at home (maybe it was stored separately and he claimed they didn't have any). Chris, being a responsible kid, left a note saying he would be back soon. He may have really planned to come back. But even if the other kids forced him to leave they might have allowed him to write this note so his parents would not be suspicious.

Anyway, perhaps the other kids had him drive to the ATM and take out the money for them (other kids following in another car). Then they drove out to the woods north of Grand Rapids. Maybe as they tried to make Chris leave the van he insisted once again that he should leave a note. He writes a note saying the van belongs to his parents, just in case someone finds it. The kids walk into the woods. We know Chris walked in the woods because dogs tracked him for a while but lost his scent. What if he walked out there but was in a fight with the other kids, knocked unconscious, and carried out from the point where the dogs lost the scent? If several kids were involved they could have taken him elsewhere and buried him. Then the kids leave with the gun and the money. They leave the van behind to be found and take their car and go home. Maybe sometime later they decide to get rid of the gun and leave it in the woods at a random location for a hunter to find or they call in a tip themselves claiming to be a hunter who found a gun like Chris' gun.

The only thing I can't work out in all this is at what point the suicide letter was written and sent a few days later. If the suicide letter was typed it could have been written and mailed by anyone. But it would be hard for kids to do that without leaving behind forensic evidence on the letter--their saliva on the envelope, their fingerprints on the paper, etc. Could they have force Chris to write a suicide letter as well? Maybe he did write it, but under duress? Years later, in 2004, perhaps one of these kids wanted to put an end to the search and sends the anonymous letter, foolishly hoping it will make them stop looking for Chris' body. He figures if they think he is alive they won't be as motivated to continue to search the woods.

IDK if any of this makes sense and it is all speculative. It seems like there should be tons evidence if others were involved--evidence in the van, on the notes, maybe even at the house. But then again, if they found the van after the suicide and local LEO's think Chris committed suicide, would they still process the van as if it was a possible crime scene? Would there be any effort to check the house for fingerprints or to check the school to see if anyone else skipped school or "stayed home sick" that day? Is it possible some kids got away with a crime here instead of Chris committing suicide?
 
I threw the bully theory out there immediately. I think he ran from it. Possible he took the gun to get revenge or even protection. I think he's alive but that's my experience and my gut talking. Either way, there's holes in this story that need to be addressed before anyone can conclude anything.

Uah
 
There were ATMs in Minnesota in 1990? I don't remember that. Eagan still had bank branches with the air tube system - you wrote a check and then the teller gave you cash. Someone saw him.
 
Vail said:
There were ATMs in Minnesota in 1990? I don't remember that. Eagan still had bank branches with the air tube system - you wrote a check and then the teller gave you cash. Someone saw him.
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That is what I'm saying!! Maybe he is still out there as a whole new person. And if you're gonna committ suicide, why withdraw that much? Just because there's a letter, doesn't automatically negate suicide. The letter could very well be a ruse.

Uah
 
Vail said:
There were ATMs in Minnesota in 1990? I don't remember that. Eagan still had bank branches with the air tube system - you wrote a check and then the teller gave you cash. Someone saw him.
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I remember using ATM's in the 1990's but they had expensive fees and you are right they were not everywhere. May not have been any in Minnesota, IDK. I looked back and the part about him taking out money is not in the Namus description nor the Charley Project description. We learned about it from a recent interview with his parents and they only said he took money out of his savings account:
Jim and Loni learned Christopher withdrew $200 from his savings account after leaving in the family’s blue Dodge Caravan.
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http://www.twincities.com/2016/11/28/eagan-parents-holding-out-hope-to-find-son-missing-since-1990/

You are right that he probably had to go into a branch bank and wait in line to do this. Still possible someone else threatened him if he didn't give them money or he thought he could pay someone to leave him alone. If he was planning suicide, what was the money for? As far as we know, he was not seen in a store buying anything. Could he have gone someplace where he would not be recognized and bought items to carry out a suicide? I supposed it's possible because of how far he drove the van. But then I think about his parent's statements about the word lost being underlined in that article link above. It was a joke that he got lost easily because he had not been driving very long. He got lost whenever he left his neighborhood. So if he committed suicide, it likely was not pre-planned in a place he knew the way to. There was no personal GPS back then. He would have had to have driven randomly and happened to find those woods he walked into 20 miles north of Grand Rapids. And also stopped in Duluth and found a post office to send the suicide letter in the mail. It seems like a very deliberate trip looking at the map. Duluth is sort of on the way to Grand Rapids: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Eag...58e8856131!2m2!1d-93.5302142!2d47.2371658!3e0
 
Soon after, Jim Kerze says a letter arrived from Duluth. "That was his last communication with us. And basically it said I'm not coming home."
Then, Jim says the phone calls began. "Now there was a person who called us from northern Minnesota, who hedged around the fact he picked up somebody on Highway 38 around that time and they took him to Duluth."
Within a week, they started getting hang up calls at the house. "So we'd pick up the phone” Jim said. “There would be a noise in the background, often it would sound like a party. We would try to talk and there would be a hang up."
Loni believes it had to be their lost son on the other end of the line. “And that's what I'm guessing, because we never had calls like that before. And his best friend, our neighbor kid, was also getting hang up calls," she said.
^^quoted from an article I will post below.

The eerie phone hang ups makes my stomach turn due to the other cases I've read where there was similar calls, the end result was never good, often taunting the parents in an unusual manner. In my opinion I don't necessarily believe that it was Chris but perhaps someone who knew them, someone who knew something.

Why don't we know anything that his friends have to say? Like was he having and troubles his parents didn't know about?
The whole case makes me feel like it is/was much more than a run away or suicide. I hope something surfaces.

http://kstp.com/news/kerze-missing-...ul-asylum-1990-grand-rapids-loni-jim/4325208/
 
Anita Drake's family would receive mysterious hang up calls at Christmas and were so sure it was the murderer calling to taunt them.
It wasn't. She wasn't murdered, but if I had to guess, it was most likely Anita herself, as she had been in contact with her youngest sister for a short time after her disappearance.
 
Seems like more and more information keeps surfacing about this case. Maybe it's just my impression, I don't know. When I first came across this case there was barely anything out there. Well, it's great there are more details available to the public now of course.
 
Mother Has Message for Missing Son

http://www.fox21online.com/2017/02/21/mother-message-missing-son/

Today marks the 44th birthday for Christopher Kerze, who went missing from Eagan April 20, 1990 when he was 17-years-old.

This week his mother left a heartfelt message on social media for her lost son.
Click to expand...

[video=youtube;kS8bdTs0B78]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS8bdTs0B78"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS8bdTs0B78[/video]
 
Wow, how sad...Made me tear up a little. So sorry for his family, so much pain they endured and will endure until they have some answers.
 
Btw, Kerze is the German word for candle.

I kind of keep coming back to that letter sent to his parents in 2004. It reportedly mentioned that Christopher is a guardian angel now. Who would have sent it 14 years after his disappearance? I don't think it was from Christopher but maybe someone he confided in back then?
 
Just heard about Christopher Kerze through Caleigh Elise's YouTube. [video=youtube;8a9wof46OwI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a9wof46OwI[/video]
 
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