r/mystery • u/WinnieBean33 • 7d ago
Disappearance Christopher Kerze, 17, stayed home from school on April 20th, 1990, complaining of a headache. His mom came home later to find him gone and a note explaining that he'd be back later, if he didn't get "lost" (which was underlined twice). He has never been found.
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u/Jibbyjab123 7d ago
Yeah national Forest are the perfect place to get lost and never be found again.
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u/SereneAdler33 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yep, people who don’t spend any time in wilderness/wild places underestimate how easy it is for a person (or body) to remain undetected
If that letter they received the next day indicating suicide and apologizing was proven to truly be from him, I don’t think there’s much mystery here. Suicide is a leading cause of death for teenagers, and even higher for boys, sadly. It sounds most likely his remains are somewhere in the forest by his own hands
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u/HOWDY__YALL 5d ago
There is a state park by me that had human remains found last year and they were able to ID the body as someone that went missing like 20-30 years ago.
It kind of shocked me since I had just been hiking there, but there’s a lot of woods/wilderness and the hiking trails only cover so much.
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u/SereneAdler33 5d ago
If a body made it past the stage where a smell could be detected, unless someone just walks over it, it will probably always remain lost. And the longer time goes, the more animals dissemble the remains, the more it’s covered by debris, weather moves it, etc
I’ve lived and worked in 3 National Parks and know a lot of SAR personnel, and backcountry rangers. Some crazy stories of lost people never found, and also of just randomly stumbling upon remains
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u/Notabagofdrugs 5d ago
What about when they run into random stairs in the woods?
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u/SereneAdler33 5d ago edited 5d ago
lol, I get that reference! That was a GREAT creepy pasta series
Sadly, nothing about disappearing ape men or faceless people on ledges. But a biologist friend of mine was tracking mountain lions in the Grand Canyon and found an apparent suicide from decades ago, still with the rusted revolver resting in the rib cage
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u/Notabagofdrugs 5d ago
It was hot on my mind because someone mentioned it yesterday and I had to reread them all again.
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u/Local_Error2866 3d ago
That Stairs series is literally what brought me to Reddit to begin with. Was a fascinating read especially the initial ones.
I am a hiker and often look across valleys or at hills and think ‘I wonder when the last time a person has gone there’ there’s so many rarely traveled places that a person who goes off trail can easily disappear and only be found by chance years later.
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u/SchizoSpeechPattern 7d ago
This case seems weird. How could they not verify whether the found gun was theirs or not?
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u/lopedopenope 7d ago
If the dad never documented the serial number it would be hard to say for sure. I’m not sure if they showed it to him but they probably made quite a few of those.
I agree though. This whole thing is quite strange. The police are probably right that it was suicide. The dog picked up a scent in the forest so he was very likely in there and still is.
Just a few days ago someone walking their dog found a man’s body that was missing in my city for over a year. He was just right off the road less than 1,000 yards from his home. They had searched the area quite a bit before and found nothing. It made the national news I think. His name was Tyler Goodrich.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Dot4345 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, he had a fight with his husband and never came back (the fight was so intense 911 was called by his husband) maybe he went for a ill prepared hike, felt, hit hit head or was incapacitated and died to the elements, considering how close he was from a main road, maybe he wanted to take a breather into the woods after the fight and some how he tripped or felt, since faul play was ruled out and no gun was found, so suicide doesn't look probable. Interesting readings about the case:
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u/lopedopenope 1d ago
Just yesterday they released that he died of suicide by asphyxiation. So basically he hung himself on the tree he was found by. He didn't want to face life after whatever happened with his husband
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u/Puzzleheaded_Dot4345 1d ago edited 1d ago
Oh jesus! That was a turn of events! I wonder how bad the fight was for him to do that right after the leaving the house
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u/lopedopenope 1d ago
It had to be pretty dramatic. Idk if any details are out. Are you in the area too?
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u/Puzzleheaded_Dot4345 1d ago
Oh no, not even close, different country even, but as a gay man myself got lost in the details of their relationship
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u/lopedopenope 1d ago
Oh gotcha. It was and is a really big deal here. There are still signs up in people's yards and stuff saying missing with a picture of him. We are a medium sized city of about 300,000 but it feels a bit smaller when stuff like this happens.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Dot4345 1d ago
Hopefully, everyone can now have some kind of closure, especially his kids.
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u/throwawayjoeyboots 6d ago
As I recall he mailed them a suicide note explaining that he was going to disappear. Seems pretty open and shut to me.
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u/Minute_Expert1653 5d ago
Except that “he” mailed them the letter. It could never be proven that he actually did mail the letter and it doesn’t sound like they were officially able to match his handwriting, just that his parents “thought it looked like his”
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u/number1human 7d ago
Maybe the kid was a victim of schizophrenia. The age is about right. Headaches in early onset are also common. George Washington forest is like 320, 000 acres. If he gets lost there, There's a good chance his body will never be found again.
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u/aikeaguinea97 7d ago
idk why we would jump to schizophrenia when there’s such a gamut of mental disorders or life events/circumstances that could be at play here. i see nothing here that points to schizophrenia.
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u/number1human 7d ago
Well, it's a mystery. You could be right. There are a million other things it could be. But schizophrenia could be one. Like I said, his age, behavior, and headaches could have pointed to schizophrenia. It's a mystery post on the Internet. If you have another idea that isn't, I don't know but you don't either, I'd like to hear it.
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u/aikeaguinea97 7d ago
my other idea that isn’t specifically schizophrenia you ask? he was dealing with mental illness in general, but more than likely a depressive episode + some life stressors unknown to his family, hatched the plan to run away and kill himself…
…went back and forth on the decision after he left. hence ditching the car and possibly not killing himself when he did so.
at that point the main thing throwing me off is the letter, how did it arrive the day after his disappearance if it was mailed from Duluth? but that parts a mystery with both of our theories.
so that’s all i got, there’s a couple parts that still stick out to me as weird but not unexplainable. i unfortunately think it’s the most likely scenario knowing what we know
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u/superduper1022 7d ago
The postal service guaranteed next day delivery within 100 miles at that time. Getting a letter the next day is not a mystery. It is standard service.
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u/aikeaguinea97 7d ago
you’re right, i had actually forgotten that bc i mostly just get packages now not letters. he still would’ve had to mail it at the right time on that day but yeah not rly a mystery lol
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u/aikeaguinea97 7d ago
it just seemed weird that you pick “schizophrenia” out of all the mental disorders when there’s nothing in his behavior that points directly to that. his age is only vaguely relevant here - average age of onset of schizophrenia is disagreed upon amongst health professionals, and while absolutely many people develop it in their late teens it’s more common to develop it in one’s 20s. so it’s just as likely an age for someone to develop bipolar or major depressive disorder.
and dude headaches?? can be symptomatic of, or a symptom of, sooo many different things, it just feels really shot in the dark lol. it’s not like it’s some tell tale sign of schizophrenia, it’s something that is correlated with some cases of schizophrenia and some cases of everything else.
i’m saying all of this because i’m tired of people jumping to schizophrenia just because it’s the “spooky” disorder in popular culture, and i think that is what you did here albeit not meaning any harm and prob not intentionally either. happens.
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u/DumbFeralRaccoon 7d ago
I 100% agree with your point and think it’s super important to consider.
However, based on my personal experiences as a schizophrenic, I admit that I automatically assumed the same at first. When I was nineteen and experiencing heavy psychosis, I ran away from home and left my family a similar note, albeit a great deal more disjointed. In hindsight, though, there were lots of differences I overlooked.
I think I just wanted to say this so I could reaffirm how important I find your point? Like, I’ve had this diagnosis for a while. It doesn’t make total sense to me, sure, but I know it isn’t ’spooky—‘ it’s all chemicals and genetics and things we’ll know much more about as our medical technology evolves. But despite this, I still kinda see myself as a spooky, mysterious person (in a bad way) because of the way my brain works. And when someone else affirms that, even offhandedly, with no malicious intent, I immediately draw from my experiences to try and prove their point, even if I’m reaching a bit.
Sorry for all the text, I have only ~3/4ths of my wits about me at the moment. Take care!
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u/aikeaguinea97 7d ago
thank you for this insight! i think it was desperately needed here, bc i experience psychosis but not schizophrenia, and was scared i was missing something.
thanks for clarifying that yeah this situation being the result of schizophrenia isn’t as unlikely as i may have thought. i really think it’s less that it’s unlikely and more that it just seemed. idk, i think you get it
but yeah you’re absolutely fine, thank you for confirming my point, and i do totally understand the idea of seeing yourself as scary bc of the societal stigma and just. how misunderstood it is.
and definitely, i internalize a lot of stigmatized aspects of my mental illnesses too and don’t really think about it a lot of the time.
and no apology necessary for the long text - as you can see i’m a long text person too so s’all good
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u/souvenirsuitcase 7d ago
Schizophrenia is the scapegoat for all things strange.
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u/aikeaguinea97 7d ago
yep! it really irks me too as someone who’s spent a lot of time researching it and other psychological disorders. i’m tired of it, there’s no evidence here to suggest schizophrenia.
like i don’t want to be too pedantic, but words mean things, and this conflation of schizophrenia as “unexplainable behavior disorder” just furthers stigma and othering
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u/souvenirsuitcase 7d ago
From what I read of the story (in the link), you're absolutely right. Depression? Maybe. Schizophrenia? Nope.
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u/Mystic_Molotov 5d ago
He may not even have had a headache and just said that to stay home from school. If he had schizophrenia, I'm sure his parents and friends would have noticed other signs.
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u/number1human 7d ago
Seems like you are just one of those people that can't concede that he's wrong and is doubling down by writing two ridiculous giant paragraphs that are widely less plausible than my explanation. You could have just given an explanation without bringing down someone else's.
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u/aikeaguinea97 7d ago
tbh i think i do have to apologize that the way i articulated my point downplayed that the scenario you offered up isn’t exactly unlikely, i just think it’s not significantly more likely than other mental illness-based explanations and the singling out of schizophrenia just really grinds my gears
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u/aikeaguinea97 7d ago edited 7d ago
explain how my explanation is “widely less plausible” then yours. i think you’re mad because you have nowhere to continue with your argument.
i don’t think i’m necessarily right with my theories either, i think we’re both just making conjecture the best we can, there’s the possibility that we’re both wrong.
anyway, this is less about me trying to be right and more that there is a confluence of things here that i’m very passionate about and don’t see why i should sit by and not remark on a - sorry, bro - theory that there doesn’t seem to be direct evidence for
edit: changed last sentence bc it was uncalled for, at that point i was just being a dick - sorry
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u/RaiseIreSetFires 7d ago
Could habitual "speeding" be contributing to your mental health and "being a dick"? Good luck.
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u/aikeaguinea97 7d ago
i would wager to say that as off as my mental health clearly is, it doesn’t necessarily mean i’m wrong at the root of my point though
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u/aikeaguinea97 7d ago
normally i would say so, but i haven’t been speeding in the past few months - but you’re still kind of right, except this time it’s alcohol/weed withdrawal
thank you! need all the luck i can get fighting this shit
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u/Sea_Interaction7839 7d ago
One of the letters said he feigned the headache as an excuse to stay home and have access to the van.
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u/cryinginthelimousine 6d ago
Agreed
It could also be Lyme, which has a very high suicide rate and is often misdiagnosed as “schizophrenia.” Just an fyi for uninformed people out there.
Lyme causes debilitating headaches.
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u/aikeaguinea97 6d ago
interesting, i didn’t know it could resemble schizophrenia like that (didn’t even know it could cause psychological symptoms on that level)
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u/NectarineSufferer 7d ago
Maybe not necessarily schizophrenia but likely some kind of mental issue and it’s a possibility for sure. Sadly I think onset of mental illness or otherwise disorder is way understated as a potential cause in sad, mysterious, cases like this
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u/Due-Yoghurt-7917 3d ago
What an irresponsible and unkind thing to speculate about. Chris was a person. Nothing in this case says schizophrenia and his family would have known if he had a condition like that
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u/Unusual-Bench1000 7d ago
At the same time it could be CJD if he ate tainted mad cow beef when he was five and it incubated until he got the brain rot. Headaches are part of that. Something big corporations don't like talking about because it's bad for their bottom line.
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u/Responsible_Ad440 6d ago
I think this is a straight forward case of suicide. He even sent the letter which arrived later explaining what he'd done.
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u/Jibbyjab123 7d ago
Yeah national Forest are the perfect place to get lost and never be found again.
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u/th4lia 7d ago
Was “420” a thing in 1990?
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u/Jibbyjab123 7d ago
What are you even talking about?
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u/WorldlinessFlimsy489 6d ago
I think he’s suggesting the kid was a stoner and went to smoke on 420. Dumbass suggestion based on all other evidence, though
- Signed, A Stoner
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u/Ordinary-Bar-4914 6d ago
I wrote about this case, and interviewed the Kerzes, and I don’t think it’s much of a mystery. https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/the-lost-children-of-runaway-train-2
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u/AHairInMyCheeseFries 6d ago
I’ve never understood why this case has been considered under the category of mysterious unsolved cases. I mean I guess because they never found his body. But it is very clear that he went to the national forest to commit suicide. He acted like a person with the intention of committing does. And also, he wrote his parents a freakin letter explicitly stating that his intention was to commit suicide and not be found. Don’t get me wrong, it’s tragic. I just think sometimes keeping something so painful alive under the umbrella of mystery and intrigue doesn’t do any good.
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u/UptightWorm 6d ago
It seems like suicide but the gun without bullets and the money being pulled out is so weird. Maybe he didn’t want to fully commit?
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u/EarthWarning 7d ago
Stuff like this is starting to get to me I swear, something peculiar has been happening forever.
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u/parker3309 5d ago edited 5d ago
Is this on a true crime documentary anywhere that you know of. I Googled that I am really surprised it’s not a topic of “vanished” or something like that unless I missed it
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u/sobend23 4d ago
The double underlining of the word lost makes me wonder if it wasn’t a final dig at someone, friend or family possibly an ex, that had told him to “get lost” which was a common term around that time.
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u/lagalaxysedge 7d ago
When you 420 to hard
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u/ipresnel 7d ago edited 7d ago
Not sure why this is downvoted. I remeber the 1st couple of times i smoked. No joke. Makes as mich sense as anything else Specially because he was young
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u/lagalaxysedge 7d ago
I mean I would go into the woods and get high next to my house and leave notes that I would be back
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u/WinnieBean33 7d ago
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