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GameChanger [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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the record on Stitcher premium and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair
00:03:23
grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] what's the address of your emergency um
00:04:03
I'm actually camping in leedor just outside of leor uh-huh um my 2-year-old son um we can't find him how
00:04:14
long has he been missing about an hour an hour yeah are you by water yes do you know which Campground you're in uh it's
00:04:25
Stone Reservoir Timber Creek Stone Reservoir yeah we Creek hold on we need search and rescue
00:04:36
Jessica Jessica yeah what's your son's name okay what is he wearing he was wearing cowboy boots a
00:04:47
blue um pair like pajama pants and a camel jacket and he's got shagy blond hair is your husband calling
00:04:58
too like all down where we were camping at and we can't find him at all okay we need you to stay within cell service
00:05:06
we've got people going on on the way thank you the 911 call that you just heard came in at 2:28 p.m. on Friday July 10th
00:05:35
2015 the caller is Jessica Mitchell she is calling because she cannot find her 2-year-old son Dior Coons she is calling
00:05:44
from a campground near Lor Idaho you see the day before Dior Coons Jr his father
00:05:52
mother great-grandfather and a family friend traveled 120 M from Idaho Falls to to the Timber Creek Campground in Lor
00:06:02
the campsite is very remote and takes about 2 and 1/2 hours to drive from where they live in Idaho Falls the day
00:06:11
before the evening of Thursday July 9th the family packed up their things and got ready to make the drive out to
00:06:18
Timber Creek along for the camping trip we have two-year-old Dior Coons we have his father Vernal Coons and the mother
00:06:27
Jessica Mitchell and her grand grandf father Bob Walton and his friend Isaac renwand yeah the great-grandfather and
00:06:34
the friend are going to ride together in a truck the couple with their child are
00:06:38
going to ride in a separate truck here's some important things to note and we want to do this right here before we
00:06:43
move on because this is a confusing case with a strange timeline but it is crucial to have a decent understanding
00:06:51
of the four adults at the campground with little Dior and that timeline okay so first Vernal Coons little Dior Coon's
00:07:00
father also goes by Dior at times I believe this is his middle name but to keep everything nice and tidy when we
00:07:09
speak of the father we will refer to him as Vernal and when we talk about the little 2-year-old boy he is Dior now
00:07:18
dior's parents Vernal Coons and Jessica Mitchell are not married in 2015 they were engaged to be married the
00:07:27
old man on the trip is Jessica grandfather so little dior's great-grandfather his name is Bob Walton
00:07:35
and he is elderly and he has some health issues he was on oxygen 24/7 in 2015 he
00:07:41
had a lug around an oxygen tank everywhere with him Jessica works for her grandfather as his caretaker it's
00:07:51
it's unclear if this is a paid position you know paid in cash under the table or
00:07:56
if this is just her helping him out well based off of interviews I would assume that she's actually getting paid because
00:08:04
one of the reasons why they took the trip was this is kind of also a celebration of her working for 6 months
00:08:13
where she never has stayed at a job that long yeah that was my vibe too that I got that she is being compensated or
00:08:19
paid in some manner for this work that she's doing but there's no real paper trail of such right the fourth adult on
00:08:28
this trip is Isaac renan he is a friend of the old man's a friend of Bob's yeah Isaac before the trip has never met
00:08:37
Vernal Jessica or little Dior this friend situation has been deemed online as strange or odd Isaac is
00:08:46
much younger than Bob in fact Isaac is probably closer much closer in age to Vernal and Jessica than he would be to
00:08:53
Bob Bob and Isaac have been friends for about 5 years leading up to this camping
00:08:59
trip they at one point were next door neighbors or neighbors Bob hired Isaac often to do yard work and then they
00:09:07
became fishing buddies so let's get into this timeline and this has been difficult to put
00:09:13
together for reasons that will make sense later but I used multiple sources to try to piece this together so this
00:09:20
was constructed using statements from the four adults on the camping trip and the sheriff from the lead investigative
00:09:28
agency after they packed up and left the group went to Isaac's house to pick him
00:09:33
up the group made the Trek and they traveled in two vehicles as the captain mentioned Vernal Jessica and Dior are in
00:09:41
vernell's black pickup truck Isaac and Bob are in Bobs and I believe this was a Chevy Blazer or a Chevy
00:09:51
SUV again this is taken from statements from the family and Isaac and these statements are not very
00:09:57
thorough we do know there was a camper involved as well but I'm not sure who was pulling this camper the grandfather
00:10:06
was okay it was his he owned it they all arrived Thursday evening first they started setting everything up they built
00:10:13
a fire and started it started to get dark shortly after they arrived mhm the next morning they all seem to have woke
00:10:21
up at different times and it's very unclear as to the order in which they woke up well let's start with where they
00:10:28
slept the friend is going to sleep in a tent the grandfather sleeps in the camper it seems like the couple with
00:10:36
their child sleep in the Blazer and we have Isaac who says he got up at least once or twice that morning and then went
00:10:44
back to bed so that adds to the confusion of the order in which they woke up yeah now they did have breakfast
00:10:52
at some point Vernal and Jessica and Dior leave they get in vernell's truck and they drive to Lor Lor is a very
00:11:01
small town and it's near where they are camping I think it's like a 10 maybe 15 minute drive I think it's a 7 miles just
00:11:09
to get into their campsite like a singular road now on this trip into town as we'll call it they are going to hit
00:11:18
up a couple of stops Vernal says they went to get diesel fuel for his truck Jessica says they go so she could buy
00:11:26
some tampons it's unclear what time they exactly left or how long they were gone
00:11:32
but going off of what Vernal says they returned to the campsite at approximately 100 p.m. and while they're
00:11:39
gone Bob is taking around his friend to show him some different fishing sites and different fishing holes that he
00:11:47
fished in when he was a kid now we have Jessica Vernal and Dior all back at the campsite and it seems like everybody
00:11:54
wants to go fishing at this time and Bob and Isaac are back at the campsite as well Jessica asked Isaac to show her
00:12:02
where her inernal could catch some fish Isaac walks with Jessica to a fishing spot he says he thought Vernal and Dior
00:12:09
were right behind them Isaac shows her the spot and he continues on to another fishing spot Vernal joins Jessica and
00:12:19
now they are fishing casting and looking at the water you know just enjoying themselves this is only about a 10 to 15
00:12:28
minute time frame here so ve a very small window of time right Vernal says he saw some tadpoles and wanted to show
00:12:36
deor the creek so he walked back up to the campsite with Jessica Bob is still at the site little Dior is nowhere to be
00:12:46
seen Jessica asked Bob where is theor Bob says I thought he was with you Jessica says no we left him with you
00:12:56
okay so now Panic the parents start looking for their boy calling out his name as a search and then the search
00:13:04
widens we have Bob who stays he's the one that stays at the campsite while the parents are looking they look for Dior
00:13:12
for some time and then the call is made to 911 well like we said this is like a 7 Mile to 5 Mile Road just to get to the
00:13:21
campsite you're in the middle of nowhere you would be freaking out yes yeah and so the the call comes in as we said
00:13:30
earlier at 2:28 p.m. and it's Jessica on the call and you heard that call and she gives
00:13:37
their location she gives a description of her son who is missing and she says we've been looking for him for about an
00:13:46
hour she's told that they're going to send search and rescue out to help and assist and locate the boy yeah now one
00:13:55
thing that we need to point out here that is interesting about this call and this is we've reviewed many 911 calls
00:14:03
but one thing that's kind of stood out for me that at some point the dispatcher ask if her husband if Jessica's husband
00:14:11
is calling as well and to which she says yes so what's going on at this time is we actually
00:14:18
have even though they're not they're not married um I think the dispatchers making an assumption there but at the
00:14:26
same time we have both Jessica the mother and vernal the father they're both attempting to call 911 yeah now
00:14:34
Vernal couldn't get signal so he drives about a mile and a half down the road to
00:14:38
try to get signal and she actually had signal so a little strange to me though I think from the outside looking in
00:14:47
there's there's a couple things here so one yes I could I could see it being a little strange because it's difficult to
00:14:56
think that you would leave that air um I don't know exactly what Jessica is doing at this time we know that Vernal
00:15:05
drove off in his pickup truck right and look the father could have panicked and took off without trying to you know he
00:15:12
looked at his phone let's just assume right he looks at his phone there is no signal panics jumps in his truck drives
00:15:21
to try to get signal meanwhile his fiance has signal on her phone mhm like it could be as
00:15:29
something as simple as that but again the two calls to me I'd be if I didn't have signal I'd be asking everybody else
00:15:36
does anybody else have signal yeah so I think here you could look at it two ways
00:15:41
either we have a father who's leaving the area to make the call and they're both going to call and this is a very
00:15:49
thorough manner of making sure that you do get a hold of rescue efforts or you question the movements of why is is
00:15:58
somebody leaving the general area in which you believe this boy you know where you last saw your son and maybe it
00:16:04
doesn't matter either way but I believe they're able to corroborate his story by
00:16:10
cell phone ping technology MH saying that wherever he made the call from was roughly about a mile and a half away
00:16:17
from the campsite right so both of them are calling from where they say they are
00:16:22
calling from or at least there's some evidence to back that up right search Crews arrive and they begin to look for
00:16:28
the toddler they search until about 4:00 a.m. they don't find him then on Saturday July 11th Searchers look on
00:16:36
Horseback ATVs foot and in the water for Dior they focus on a 2 and 1 half mile radius around the
00:16:45
campground one area of concern is a creek this is one of the fishing spots right this is about 15 yards away from
00:16:53
the campsite the area is searched numerous times Sunday July 12th the liem high County Sheriff's Office reports
00:17:03
nearly 200 volunteers show up to look for Dior on Monday July 13th dior's parents
00:17:10
do a TV interview in this interview they explain what happened the previous Friday afternoon now they at this point
00:17:18
say they no longer believe that Dior is lost but think that someone may have abducted their son and they make a plea
00:17:27
for his safe return that evening around 200 people Gather in Idaho falls for a candlelight
00:17:34
vigil Tuesday and Wednesday July 14th and 15th search efforts continue near the campground dive Crews focus on the
00:17:43
stone reservoir located about A4 mile from where the family was camping this is because the creek near the campsite
00:17:51
runs to this Stone Reservoir yeah dior's parents remain camped near the site as deputies search the creek once again and
00:18:00
determine that Dior is not there Friday the 17th the Bonville County Sheriff's dive team is called in
00:18:08
to help search the reservoir divers use a sonar robot to assist in foggy Waters Crews on Horseback Return To The Hills
00:18:19
near the campground Saturday the 18th it's dior's father's birthday he spends the day
00:18:26
camped just yards away away from where his son disappeared and the search efforts
00:18:31
continue on Sunday July 19th it's now been 10 days since Dior was last seen the Timber Creek Campground has been
00:18:41
searched dozens of times Crews have scoured the stone Reservoir and Creek investigators release few new details
00:18:49
and dior's family remains desperate for answers up to this point now this is a statement released from the uh searchers
00:18:58
they say that after 10 days up to this point no evidence has been found to suggest where the 2-year-old boy may be
00:19:06
yeah so we have this little baby boy what are our options of what possibly could have happened to him so the lead
00:19:14
investigative agency the sheriff's department the liem high sheriff's department they state that they are
00:19:22
working under three possible theories one that it was some type of animal attack
00:19:28
so wolves was the main concern yeah there were wolves in the area some had suggested maybe a bear but we also
00:19:38
eventually this case is difficult in the sense that we have a lot of statements from different people that are involved
00:19:45
in this case and then later not involved we've had a lot of people come in and out of this investigation from 2015 to
00:19:53
current day so later on somebody would suggest that a bald eagle would be the main threat but it seems like the
00:20:01
sheriff's department and I'm going to go with them because they know the area better than anybody else right their
00:20:07
main concern was a wolves in the area so animal attack is one possible Theory and their second theory is
00:20:16
possible abduction and then the third theory is that either a family member or friend was somehow involved in The
00:20:25
Disappearance of this child yeah this this drove me nuts cuz they kept on saying there's three options and then
00:20:31
they give you four options drove me nuts the whole time researching this case and
00:20:36
then the other thing that drove me nuts was what was the fourth option well no they would always say so they would
00:20:42
always say you know the first one is he's he was taken by an animal second one was he was abducted third one was
00:20:50
that it was either accidental or homicide so you see what I mean that's your option so it always drove me nuts when
00:21:00
they went we we have three theories like well actually have four yeah I don't think I said that clearly I I went off I
00:21:07
went away from my paper here you're exactly right the third theory was that either a family member or friend was
00:21:14
involved in the accidental death or homicide I don't know if it's because of the search efforts that they're ruling
00:21:23
out the possibility that he just went off and possibly something with the water I
00:21:31
know those all those little fishing holes were search extensively and so maybe that's why that theory is not on
00:21:38
the table but again when you start looking into this case my first thought was okay he walks off and what happens
00:21:47
then and then he walks off and there's an animal attack and those are two viable options but when I think because
00:21:55
of the extensive amount of of search they did and then the searching to the water they were able to actually
00:22:01
actually rule that out as a theory yeah they they aren't giving current day they
00:22:06
don't give much weight to the possible animal attack Theory well that's because there's no evidence there was no item of
00:22:13
clothes right clothes that were left behind there was no uh blood left behind there was there's no evidence of any
00:22:20
kind of attack right the their General thought is this that if there were some kind of snatching grabbed by an animal
00:22:29
there would be evidence of such and they searched such a vast area that that would have turned up something they
00:22:37
would like you said piece of clothing some blood or something else and I do want to point out this item here as well
00:22:44
because I think this is extremely important um so regarding the missing persons flyer for little Dior Coons says
00:22:52
missing since July 10th 2015 missing from leor Idaho his date of birth was December 30th 2012
00:23:01
so he's about 2 and a half at the time where he's last seen blond hair brown eyes 3 foot tall about 28 lbs so small
00:23:12
little guy and the flyer says Dior was wearing a camouflage jacket and blue pajama pants what it does not include is
00:23:21
in the 911 called Jessica says that he was wearing cowboy boots yeah and the cowboy boots are are really something
00:23:28
that I think are very important because these boots have never been located yeah
00:23:33
the general thought of these boots is this and this is from the The Searchers and from the sheriff's department they
00:23:40
simply say these boots as described to them by everybody that knew the little boy and knew of These boots were boots
00:23:47
that he loved to wear he loved to walk around in them but they were many sizes too big for him you know we've all seen
00:23:55
this it's very cute when a tiny little kid puts on adult shoes or or teenager shoes or something that's made for
00:24:02
something much bigger than the little boy or girl right it's very cute he wore these a lot and they said that it was
00:24:09
described that they were so big that he would often come out of the shoes when he's just walking his feet would would
00:24:15
pop out of the shoes and you'd find these boots uh lying around whatever yeah so one they're probably hard to
00:24:22
walk in so he wouldn't get that far right two if if he walked far enough he' probably come out of them three if
00:24:30
somebody snatched him or if animal snatched him then he'd probably come out of the boots pretty easily no matter
00:24:38
where the animal grabbed him at right and their argument to suggest that the animal grab is not likely the biggest
00:24:46
argument is therefore the boots because they're they're saying look yeah you could you could present a case that in
00:24:53
this huge area that maybe we missed a drop of blood right but where not going to miss these boots and the thing with
00:25:00
the water is it was searched so extensively yeah the the creek and that Reservoir the stone Reservoir I've had
00:25:10
I've I've seen some statements to also suggest that that water is not necessarily that deep so it wouldn't be
00:25:17
we're not talking about something that would be incredibly difficult to search right so there's no evidence of this boy
00:25:25
in the water there is no piece of clothing that they find they do not find any blood and in one report it states that
00:25:37
the scent dogs never picked up a scent of this little boy at the campsite bringing into question was this
00:25:46
boy even at the campsite this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays maybe
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to answer call us at 1888 freedom all right cheers mates cheers to you Captain we wanted to take this time to
00:28:11
play for you that interview that TV interview that we discussed during the search timeline for little Dior here you
00:28:18
are going to hear his parents discussing how he went missing and what they hope they can find in their search for him
00:28:26
this is from East news.com um all right Dior so take us back was it Friday I'm not sure what day it is today
00:28:35
today Monday it was Friday Friday Friday about 2 2:26 is when I was it 226 236 when I called two was 236 is when she
00:28:45
called and I was in the truck hauling down to the road trying and get service cuz I didn't think one bar would get it
00:28:51
so she got very very lucky I was blessed that she was able to get service cuz I didn't I didn't want to try and risk
00:28:57
getting half halfway through my talking to the 911 and have it cut off so I went
00:29:02
down to where I knew I can get all service about a half mile down the road uh we searched
00:29:06
for after about 20 minutes and in a dead Panic not knowing where he was in such a
00:29:12
small area and not knowing never being there I knew I was in trouble uh so we decided to call search
00:29:20
and rescue uh and that's when I drove down she tried getting a signal out um soon as I got a hold of them I come they
00:29:29
told me that she was on the other line with them and they had our location and they were on our way
00:29:34
they they were amazing they are amazing and they still continue to be uh Liah High County sheriff and Sam in search
00:29:41
and rescue you could not ask for a better group of people volunteers and search and rescue and just everybody you
00:29:50
couldn't ask for better people so sincere so concerned and they were everybody was so emotionally attached to
00:30:00
this as anybody would be of a 2-year-old he's pretty small for his age but he he
00:30:06
moves pretty good and that was our concern he he uh was right with us uh where it's at is I mean I thought it
00:30:15
would be perfect to go camping there because it's enclosed by walls of mountains and there's not much space
00:30:22
around there that he could go and our biggest concern was the the cck which was knee knee deep few feet wide but
00:30:30
he's a little guy um they finally yesterday that we were able to put that to rest and Li
00:30:36
High County Sheriff um Sheriff Dave and the rest of the sheriffs have put out that there is they they assured me there
00:30:43
is 100% chance that he is not anywhere in that water around that water they have torn that cck upside down and in
00:30:50
and out divers uh have gone through wet suits along with the helicopter that was
00:30:55
the world's most advanced resch search and rescue helicopter uh volunteered out of Montana and those guys were just
00:31:01
amazing the accuracy they had with the night vision ability it has and the uh heat range it can see they were what the
00:31:11
one guy I can't remember his name um I've met so many people so many good people but um he was he his his own
00:31:22
safety he was he was more or less he was strapped in and he was on the side of that helicopter looking and I he was
00:31:28
looking down I remember them telling me that they um asked the search rescues to
00:31:33
go look over cuz there was an orange insect repellent can they think by the bank and they were dead on that's what
00:31:37
it was that's how accurate these guys are they thought it was it might have been like a part of a shoe or something
00:31:43
but they said go check that out that these guys search miles so the mile radius they have is it it is a very
00:31:52
Rocky terrain it is very open but it's not the helicopter that used is is used to back very deep Montana it it is
00:32:00
designed for a lot worse situations than this and there was not a trace of my son
00:32:04
found there still isn't but there the search is on that's the hearsay of things has kind of gotten way out of
00:32:13
hand the search is so far is has been put on that has been suspended and that is not entirely sure or true Sheriff
00:32:21
Dave of Liah High County I just spoke with him on the phone this morning he has got horseback Riders and trackers up
00:32:28
there right now uh and very very Advanced professional um I'll be I'll be going up um with and I've just come down
00:32:37
to get any resource I can get to go back right up back up today um what questions did you guys have tell
00:32:46
us a little bit about first of all how are you guys holding up I know everybody's a lot of people are praying
00:32:50
for you they're concerned friends and family and hoping to be this is what's I know keeping me together because if we
00:32:58
didn't have all of our family the minute I called my mom and she was up there in
00:33:04
a matter of hours and same with the rest of our family they were just up there those around us yeah luckily we a few
00:33:12
phone calls is all it took at first and we had just as Sheriff Davis said of the
00:33:17
news there was 175 plus people up there in the grid searches volunteers uh professionals and anybody I called there
00:33:27
the service up there is very here here there it's camping you know um we're we're trying to hold up the best we can
00:33:34
but with we have hope is the thing hope is what keeps it going hope is because the search is not over search is not
00:33:41
done we will find him no matter what you were you were in the truck so was it you
00:33:46
that first realized oh no dior's not here no we both did I we both did we after 20 minutes of up and down the
00:33:51
creek and up and around uh the camp and he wasn't there that's when I got in my pickup truck and drove down the road to
00:33:57
try and get some service especially after screaming his name we have nicknames for him no sound of him this
00:34:03
little boy he's a he's a goer and a mover but he's not he does not go away from his parents he does not yeah he's
00:34:11
very attached to us this is very unusual very very unusual sir and we didn't hear
00:34:16
people around us we didn't see anybody we have that needs to be addressed yeah I
00:34:25
know social media can be good thing but it can also be a bad going yeah we don't want to twist it
00:34:32
so clear up any rumors that you've seen or heard or we need talk about that one thing that we want to get to that what
00:34:41
most of the biggest rumors that are going around is I mean I have heard everything from the I mean why you would
00:34:46
make a rumor that has to do with a three-year-old is if you're not going to help please don't if it's not helpful
00:34:52
this is a this is a two almost three-year-old we're talking about please help us but but I've heard
00:34:57
everything from um I am I am a truck driver um I've heard everything from my company it won't let me come home off
00:35:04
the road to look for my son I was there the entire time and my employer 4 hours after my son went missing has been up
00:35:10
there day and night has not slowed down I've and that that one Bo that one bothered me and then it they just G they
00:35:19
got worse and they got worse and they got worse but there that's a handful of bad with a bunch of good the amount of
00:35:25
support is very overwhelming and it's good are there any rumors that you've seen or anything you want to clear up
00:35:33
Jessica I just somebody at the store um Lor said it was one of the ladies that had worked at the store said that they
00:35:45
saw um a gentleman and a younger blonde boy matching our description of our son really filthy buying candy for him and
00:35:56
he he was just balling in a black truck that is the only here's the problem other my pickup truck black truck as a
00:36:03
family we went down to get get a few things it could earlier it but but they claim it was at 6:00 that that evening
00:36:10
and I had we was were search and rescue until what A4 to 4 yeah from we never we
00:36:17
we haven't left the camp since 1:00 that afternoon so it's just a lot of hear say
00:36:23
and was anybody camping around you that we don't know know is I come to find I didn't know the area and I didn't know I
00:36:31
there's it's very open but you can't see much there's a a a road that goes up and
00:36:37
along the top by we're we're camped underneath the reservoir basically right below it and you can go up above the
00:36:42
reservoir and I didn't even know the road was did I didn't know the road was up there and as I traveled up there
00:36:47
myself I come to find out I can see everything going on in that campsite but you can't see out you can't see up you
00:36:53
can't see around and if anybody comes to the bottom of your Campground you can't
00:36:56
even see they are so they could have come into your they could have came in and you couldn't never know it and with
00:37:00
the water was not very it was not a fast running it's a cck but it is quite loud
00:37:05
moving through the logs and things like that so hearing range is not all that far either so if you couldn't hear
00:37:11
anybody coming up either so he was just kind of playing and you guys were doing your thing and then he noticed he was
00:37:17
playing he was playing with Grandpa he was over he was getting ready for a nap I say it was almost by that time it was
00:37:23
almost two and he usually takes his nap um we we we was just yeah we decided we're
00:37:29
going to go a little exploring he was going to be good with Grandpa by the campfire we were't more than probably 50
00:37:35
50 yards away in 10 minutes uh but the time we I seen him to the point I figured out he was gone and I come back
00:37:42
up in the criek and I've actually seen there were some things down by the little minnows that I thought he would
00:37:46
just love so when I come back up to get him and I yelled over to Grandpa of where is you know where's little Dior
00:37:56
he immediately shocked he says I thought he came up to you because it's such a small
00:38:00
area that's what a lot of people they don't understand is they just assume how could you let your kid out of your sight
00:38:04
this area is pretty well blocked in and you can see you could there's no way you
00:38:10
couldn't not see him in what we thought and it just in a split second your whole
00:38:14
world is upside down and vanished there's not a trace found that's the other reason why this has
00:38:21
been called on the news is a suspension because it is not a suspension but there's not a single trace of him this
00:38:27
this child loses stuff he's he's two almost three anybody who has a child in that age range knows he leave they leave
00:38:33
trails they lose stuff they she was nothing there's just nothing and that's where we're starting to move is there's
00:38:42
might there's a possibility that he may be with somebody and that's what's giving us hope that it's it's a bad
00:38:47
thing that he will be not with us right now but it also means that there is a good chance that he is alive and with
00:38:53
somebody so we are drying every aspect we can any any aspect we can is that what your gut tells you you know as his
00:38:59
father as his father I believe and I think after being up there and a lot of people agree with me a lot that he is no
00:39:08
longer up the mountain anymore the the the searching advances they used and was just very thorough for
00:39:19
Miles uh not every there wasn't a stone left unturned there still isn't and still we're going to continue to search
00:39:25
but being as father also that's where my art and my gut tell me but I'm not sure
00:39:30
so that's where I'm asking the Public's help anything um Liah High County sheriff is
00:39:37
who's handling this but they're not designed for systems quite like this they've got two phone lines and uh
00:39:44
please be patient they're doing the best they can we all are and we will find him
00:39:49
do you plan to maybe hold a vigil down here I guess you maybe haven't even thought about it or kind of do you want
00:39:54
the community in Idaho Falls to to R I mean I know they don't want a lot of people going out that's what we're not
00:39:59
real sure um I don't yet again as a father who's very concerned with the whole family we'll tell you yes if we
00:40:07
can get the whole stadi of Idaho up there we'd love to but in such a small area that has been combed and combed and
00:40:13
combed something may have been missed but I don't know I've been trying I'm going to be getting with the LI High
00:40:20
County sheriff and snake Riv or sorry the salmon uh snake and RI salmon search rescue uh to see what their thoughts on
00:40:29
everything is and trust me with such a small area 175 people there was nowhere to park nowhere to walk there was grid
00:40:38
searches up from one and that's there's ridges on one side of you and the other and they're not very far apart and it
00:40:43
was all searched all the way down to the bottom all the way the above the reservoir the reservoir itself I don't
00:40:50
lot a lot of people know the place the reservoir itself isn't but maybe a few feet deep you can see if you're up on
00:40:55
top you can see the bot bottom of the center if you're looking at the middle of the reservoir you can see the bottom
00:40:59
of it so everything has been 100% thoroughly checked but I nobody can guarantee me 100% so I'm going to keep
00:41:06
looking we'll continue to look until he's found we don't care how long it takes we and we think as many people
00:41:15
that have shared the story and continue to share his pictures and things like that if somebody has him they'll
00:41:23
eventually somebody will come forward wondering where this child with some s of that may not be the case
00:41:29
but it's it could be so that's why we're trying to look at this aspect as well and you want people keep sharing that
00:41:35
please please keep sharing his photo please keep him in your mind your hearts and your prayers and just keep look keep
00:41:40
your eyes open please social media in general in public just keep your eyes open and keep sharing tell me about the
00:41:48
blanket this is his blanket he doesn't go anywhere without his blanket his cup or his monkey and all three of them were
00:41:57
left at the campground and he he all three has to be with him he will trip over them if he has to but they are
00:42:03
going with him and this is the first time since he's been born pretty much he's been without these things and
00:42:09
that's why you another reason another reason why we're wondering yes because this is the blanket that we brought him
00:42:15
home in from the hospital this is his this is what Comforts him any and all times um this is an exact replica of a
00:42:24
security blanket for everybody this is his actual blanket he does not go anywhere without it that's another our
00:42:29
other concern of why yeah should should should he be out there and happen to see this what would
00:42:36
you say we're looking for you son and we will find you and we love you more than
00:42:41
anything in the world you have a lot of people love you and are looking for you buddy will find you Daddy will find stop
00:42:48
looking until we get you home after a two-year-old and you guys have been always thought about the past
00:42:55
two days is there anything you want to add anything we didn't get to just if somebody has him please don't hurt him
00:43:03
just bring him home safely to us what ites where he belongs even if you have to just leave
00:43:09
him at a store where somebody else will see him and bring him home safely to us I don't drop him yeah just drop him off
00:43:18
somewhere somebody is at so that they can see him and bring him home and if that may not be the case I we will
00:43:26
search for you and search for you and search for you until we find you okay so a lot to unpack here with that interview
00:43:34
mind you this is just days after Dior is missing so that opening statement where
00:43:42
uh Vernal says I don't even know what day it is today let's keep in mind that that seems like an odd statement to me
00:43:49
when I first saw this interview but then I look at the date of the interview and
00:43:53
realize oh this is just Within hours and days of this boy being missing right there's a good chance he may not know
00:44:01
what day it is and if he's been actively looking for his son this entire time which we know from the other Searchers
00:44:08
involved that the parents did remain up at the campsite for for a very long period of time looking for their boy and
00:44:17
I would say that their demeanor seems a little frantic um as far as you know he's not
00:44:25
waiting for his fiance to answer the questions he's jumping right in talking over
00:44:33
her and she obviously seems pretty distraught I mean her her tone is much lower and much softer and much more
00:44:46
worrisome but uh they definitely seem frantic about the situation and so to me that would point to them telling the
00:44:55
truth not knowing what happened to Dior and I agree with you vernold not only does he
00:45:02
you know interrupt his his fiance from time to time he doesn't fully let the interviewer finish the question right
00:45:11
he's so eager to kind of jump in and offer his words and his thoughts and as you said frantic it seems this is in no
00:45:20
way a scripted statement that they're giving this is very all over the place and and vernal is really just saying
00:45:27
what pops into his mind at that very moment mhm now and and they talked about their minds Racing for you know days and
00:45:37
weeks and months just constantly trying to figure out this puzzle in your head we walked up to see this little fishing
00:45:46
hole we thought we were clear with Grandpa hey you are now watching him right mhm uh um when they come back
00:45:58
where's our son I thought he was with you because you know the grandpa was also known to doze off from time to time
00:46:06
mhm and so you're then wrapping your head you start looking and you're thinking we're going to find him within
00:46:13
minutes and so what's your thoughts on they say they they looked for their son for about 20 minutes and then called
00:46:24
911 so that that's a difficult thing because we have Jessica's 911 call where she very clearly says that they looked
00:46:32
for Dior for about an hour before she called and then we have just Days Later where Vernal is very clear saying that
00:46:40
we looked for about 20 minutes M and then called that's I I say it's difficult because it it is really tough to track
00:46:49
time if you are in full panic mode right but at on the same on the at the same token here we have a situation now where
00:46:59
the two stories there's something that could be significant that is not lining up with both of their stories yeah but
00:47:07
see I wonder if it's a fall back on I call 911 how long have you been looking for your child if I say 20 minutes do
00:47:16
they tell me to hang up the phone and keep looking or do I say we've been looking for an hour mhm and if I say an
00:47:23
hour they're going to go oh [ __ ] we got to do something mhm and so that's what I
00:47:28
I wonder or is it manipulation 911 how long have you been looking oh 20 minutes but we'll tell you
00:47:38
an hour to seem like we're so concerned and then when we're interviewed by it uh
00:47:43
about that situation we're going to say less time to show that we were panicking
00:47:49
even faster than than we told 911 right is it controlling the narrative and you know what's also interesting
00:47:58
about this is you don't know that we don't know if they've had time to change their story because they have right what
00:48:05
if what if they're confronted by law enforcement at some point during the course leading up to this interview and
00:48:12
they're told why did you say an hour on the phone to 911 when we have Grandpa and somebody you know and the family
00:48:20
friends saying it was more like 20 minutes right you know what would be very curious to hear is how far along
00:48:29
did Vernal get in his 911 call because I couldn't find anywhere where they were stating that vernell's call was released
00:48:36
to the public we know that Jessica's 911 call was released to the public I believe within a week right of this case
00:48:45
so I would love to hear his 911 call as well to to kind of verify what it was that he was able to tell the dispatcher
00:48:54
in his call yeah maybe he told the dispatcher how long you been searching for him 20 minutes you know maybe the
00:49:01
story didn't change and again I think you have to put into context the idea that they are frantic and so now they're
00:49:11
doing an interview a couple days later they don't know what day it is they said 20 minutes MH is it something that
00:49:17
should not even be looked at as as as a evidence that they're not telling the truth the other thing regarding vernals
00:49:27
911 call he says there that he had a bar um a signal you know his phone is indicating to him that he has a single
00:49:37
bar of service right and then decides to get into his truck and drive to where he
00:49:44
knew he would have service again later he does say hey we were camping the the service is spotty at best out there um
00:49:53
so I I don't know that that's really something to really hone in on but it is it is just one of those uh old by the
00:50:01
way kind of things to note that he he references at the time when he looks at his phone that his phone is indicating
00:50:09
he does have some type of service before he drives away right and I think again put everything into context you're in
00:50:17
Walmart walking around with your kids and you turn around and one of them's gone you will push people out of the way
00:50:26
you will act like a maniac until you see uh your son or your your child and I think we've all been there anybody with
00:50:36
kids you know you turn around they're gone oh no and you just go into freakout mode and so some of these um reactions
00:50:48
and some of their actions I think can be explained Away by you're in panic mode mhm
00:50:56
yeah I had a situation once and this this is weird and it's the only way I can really relate to this but like you
00:51:04
said you you go into this survival type mode and your your reactions and your movements might not always be logical to
00:51:14
others at a later point right but I was in a situation once where somebody had a
00:51:19
horrible accident in a lower level and I was the only person there this person was bleeding and was not
00:51:28
conscious and so I had to call 911 with my cell phone now this was many years ago and I I
00:51:36
can't remember if it was a flip phone or what but for whatever reason I couldn't
00:51:40
even make the emergency call to 911 in that lower basement level right so I had to go up to another level of this
00:51:49
building and call 911 and the dispatcher is telling me to we need you you to stay
00:51:55
on the line sir and I'm trying to explain that I can't tend to the accident victim right and stay on the
00:52:03
phone with you it's not humanly possible I have to make a decision right now being the only person here is it more
00:52:10
important that I drop the call and just trust that you are on your way and you know my location mhm or or do I leave
00:52:18
this person alone that may need some kind of assistance now I know CPR and stuff like that I don't know how much
00:52:24
assistance I was really going to be able to offer but in the moment I felt that it was more important to be with the
00:52:31
person you start screaming I'm not a doctor I'm not a doctor oh man it was it was stressful I solve crimes I never
00:52:39
want to relive that moment again but some other things here that that were brought up in this interview so we have
00:52:46
her missing her uh 911 call sorry and then we have the missing Flyers so 911 call is said that uh Dior was wearing
00:52:54
camouflage jacket blue pajama pants and those cowboy boots which we've already discussed and then also in this
00:53:00
interview they bring up a blanket a cup and a monkey like a stuffed monkey these
00:53:06
were his dior's prized possessions these were things that he always brought along
00:53:12
with him and these items were left behind all three of these items were located somewhere at that campsite yeah
00:53:20
and a lot of people then start saying that this is where they start Shifting the blame
00:53:26
maybe he's lost at this point they don't they're they ruled out the water they're
00:53:34
kind of ruling out that he just wandered off they're almost W you know ruling out
00:53:40
that he was wandered off and was attacked by an animal pretty quickly in the search and they start going hey we
00:53:51
uh possibly he was abducted mhm and and and I think again your brain is frantic and you're searching everywhere and you
00:54:01
have all these people on Horseback you have a lot of dogs searching you have you have a lot of people and this
00:54:11
small area looking for your son and they're not finding anything so does your brain go
00:54:19
to you know are they Shifting The Narrative Again by pointing out that he could have been a abducted or is their
00:54:27
brain going okay we can't find him we're trying to solve this puzzle in our brain
00:54:32
maybe somebody else was up there um so it's very difficult because on one hand you
00:54:40
go okay maybe they're Shifting The Narrative or on the other hand you go they sound so panicked that they are
00:54:49
grabbing at straws to figure out the answer we also have in that interview where Jessica references that a possible
00:54:56
eyewitness may be seeing Dior later with a man buying candy and as they indicate
00:55:03
in the interview this would have been been in like the 6:00 6: p.m. time frame yeah this is kind of strange and I'm
00:55:12
going to jump ahead a little bit in the story but we have the situation being that they go to town to get gas
00:55:22
or uh because she had her period so it's one or the other right and well I think it could be
00:55:31
both right but it seems like when you hear it from one part of the story it's this and when you hear it from the other
00:55:39
part of the you know when it's coming from the father he's saying we need to get gas when it's coming from her it's
00:55:45
no we you know I had a a female emergency right so but they stopped at multiple places when they go back to
00:55:53
interview those people not takes them a while to go back to interview those people but they don't remember seeing
00:56:01
the mother with the child mhm so then again that leads to the speculation of is this child even at the campground was
00:56:13
he even there at all and you claim that you went to all these spots and there's no eyewitnesses
00:56:21
saying that they saw this child mhm but that is factually in correct because we do have a
00:56:27
situation here where we have eyewitness days after you you know the search begins
00:56:35
saying hey I saw this child with a messy man so one was it a child with a messy Man black truck there's a lot of black
00:56:46
trucks there's also uh sightings of a black Rubicon Jeep so is this eyewitness mistaken the Jeep for a truck was this a
00:57:01
messy man giving candy to a kid around 6:00 possibly or was the time wrong and but either way it is an
00:57:15
eyewitness that is claiming they saw this boy in that area which would put him at that campsite a small blonde boy
00:57:25
crying right would be going off of their interview that's the the statement as far as we know so that's tough it's it's
00:57:34
really that that part of the interview might be the weirdest part and I say that because look we now
00:57:43
have a situation where the parents are saying in this very same interview we've now shifted our personal belief that
00:57:49
he's not lost up there that it was not an animal attack these Searchers are doing a damn good job and they can't
00:57:55
find any trace of our son right so now we're shifting gears in our beliefs that he was
00:58:02
abducted I would love to know how I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall there and to figure out how
00:58:08
this conversation went down when they were presented with this thought and with this eyewitness
00:58:15
account that someone's saying hey I saw a guy that drove up in a black truck with a with a small blonde boy who's
00:58:23
crying the guy is buying candy for this boy and this took place about 6:00 p.m. on the day that this child went missing
00:58:31
so roughly 3 to 4 hours after Dior is last seen right but then we have the parents very
00:58:39
quickly going here's the problem I have a black truck M and we went to probably that same location MH and so that is
00:58:50
very very difficult because now you either have a you have this information where you can go oh that's a breadcrumb
00:58:58
it follows along with what we now personally believe could have happened to our son but but they dismiss it right
00:59:05
but again they're trying to analy they're trying to analyze all this stuff with a frantic brain and so it's like
00:59:12
are are they grabbing at straws too quickly to go no no no no that's not that that wasn't some shady man that was
00:59:19
actually me you know you just got the time wrong that's where I question it I don't I question is is it in fact that
00:59:27
they are grabbing at straws or is it such that they are trying to put the boy with one of them at one of their
00:59:36
locations when later we have people that can't put the boy with them at any of the locations right but the mother later
00:59:45
says that when they were at one of the stores that she saw a creepy older man kind of staring blankly at at her son
00:59:56
which they call little man um and again is that it's one of those things where it's like is she just
01:00:05
trying to remember everything that's possible so she can give you as many pieces of the puzzle for for law
01:00:13
enforcement and for the public to to figure this out or is it Shifting The Narrative and was there even a creepy
01:00:21
man that was staring at her son well and at some point in the investigation as an
01:00:27
investigator you're left with with looking across the table talking to a person that may have been one of the
01:00:34
last people to see little Dior and you're asking the mother or the parents at some point when you've run out of
01:00:39
questions this is where you go you go okay now I need you to think really hard and really think about that day and tell
01:00:48
me was there anything anything any way that was out of the ordinary seem strange or odd to you about anybody or
01:00:59
anything that day you're left with that really kind of dumb open-ended question right right but but when you can't find
01:01:08
any trace of this person that's all you're left with and you have to ask that question and now you have a
01:01:13
situation where you say okay do we have parents that are going okay I'm I'm thinking really hard
01:01:19
oh wait oh I remember this dude he was kind of creepy he was staring down my boy and M okay that's that's a possible
01:01:28
lead or is that an opportunity again for the parent to deflect away from themselves to deflect possible guilt and
01:01:38
suspicion away from themselves and onto just another possibility of what could have happened well the snit tuation in
01:01:46
the poly D and the T-shirt time what look what drives me nuts about all the scenarios and then I don't know how it
01:01:57
it exactly went down but to me it's like okay we have these parents that say our
01:02:04
our child is missing from this spot and to me it needs to be it almost seems like they just went okay we're going to
01:02:12
take their word for it we're going to search the area and that's all we're going to do where it's like on some
01:02:19
level it's like you have to then like pull these individuals aside questioning them right away we got
01:02:28
cadaver dogs and scent dogs in that truck and and in the other truck and the camper you see what I'm saying like I
01:02:38
think um you know I think sometimes we assume too much we go okay these parents are
01:02:45
telling us the truth and we're going to do all that we can and then it's it's the days that
01:02:51
pass you know like if she was questioned right away about this would she bring up
01:02:57
this creepy guy that was in the store um and and so I mean I know that's difficult and you can't go into every
01:03:05
situation and go well what's all the possibilities and we need to explore all those possibilities right now and not
01:03:12
focus on the search but it it just seems like um I don't know this one's this one is
01:03:19
very difficult well in regards to This creepy guy my belief is that this is not information that was presented to the
01:03:27
investigators early on it was presented at a later time and what we do know according to the leam high sheriff's
01:03:37
department they say that at some point now mind you they do specifically say it did take a good deal of time to track
01:03:45
down who we think this individual that she saw was that she's referencing as staring at her boy right and they say
01:03:52
look we've we've tracked this individual down they they are local we questioned them we investigated them and we don't
01:04:00
believe that this individual had anything to do with The Disappearance one and then on top of that this
01:04:05
individual does not remember seeing the boy they and we got to be clear about that because the sheriff's statement is
01:04:13
not that the the man did not see the boy right the statement is the man does not
01:04:19
remember seeing the boy right so then on that level you go okay well this manand
01:04:25
did exist so she's not just making up some random person so to me that is trying to remember everything you can
01:04:32
and put out as many pieces of the puzzle out there for people to to be able to find the answer to but this guy doesn't
01:04:42
remember look there's a lot of times you're in a store you're at a restaurant kid walks by you they do something silly
01:04:48
you kind of smile and that's it and if somebody asked you about it two weeks later you'd be like I don't know you're
01:04:54
talking about but this this person took months to to find um but so again I to me the person existed she wasn't just
01:05:05
making up this person at a thin air so that makes me want to believe her more not me cuz I feel like she could
01:05:16
have just she could have saw this guy and remembered him and she's now just throwing another M another variable out
01:05:23
there what what's interesting about the sheriff's statement regarding this creepy man MH is he never once says that
01:05:32
the man does not remember seeing Jessica so it it that doesn't mean that he he did say he saw Jessica that day
01:05:41
but the Sher just going off the sheriff's words is simply that the man doesn't remember seeing the boy well and
01:05:48
again that goes back to the people that Jessica said hey look I ran into this lady at the store
01:05:54
uh she was working there I ran into this other lady she saw me with my son and the two people that she claims saw her
01:06:03
with her son in town when they went to go get gas claim that they never saw her with her
01:06:21
son so much more to get to join us tomorrow in the garage make sure you tell a friend and share on social media
01:06:30
yes sir and until next time be good be kind and don't [Music] litter [Music] the Angie list you know and trust is now
01:07:03
Angie and we're so much more than just a list we still connect you with top local
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pros and show you ratings and reviews but now we also let you compare upfront prices on hundreds of projects and book
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a service instantly we can even handle the rest of your project from start to finish so remember Angie's List is now
01:07:22
Angie and we you're here to get your job done right get started at angie.com that's a ngi or download the app
01:07:31
today