The spine-tingling story of disappearance: Where did a 2-year-old baby vanish?
Unsolved mysteries attract many. After all, the thrill of trying to find out what happened after putting together the clues is unparalleled.
One such case is of Baby DeOrr, who seemingly vanished in the middle of a bright afternoon beside a lake. What happened to him is still debated.
But his story has become an urban legend because of the sheer circumstances in which this disappearance happened.
2-year-old Baby DeOrr has been missing since July 10, 2015, when the baby, his parents Vernal DeOrr Kunz Sr. and Jessica Mitchell, great-grandfather Bob Walton, and Isaac Reinwand, Walton’s friend, went on a camping trip to Lemhi County, Idaho. His parents informed the authorities at about 2:35 p.m. of Baby DeOrr’s disappearance. It’s not sure whether he is dead or alive since his remains haven’t been found as of 2023.
What Was The Case Of Baby DeOrr?
On the afternoon of July 10, 2015, at about 2:35 p.m., police authorities received a call about 2-year-old baby DeOrr mysteriously disappearing on a camping trip. The child was on the journey to Lemhi County, Idaho, with his parents, Vernal DeOrr Kunz Sr. and Jessica Mitchell.
Also, Bob Walton, his great-grandfather, and Isaac Reinwand, Walton’s friend, were there. The baby was left with the grandfather while his parent walked for about 50 yards before discovering minnows in the area.
The father, Vernal, walked back to get his baby so that he could show him the minnows that he loved. But found that he wasn’t with his grandfather. In the initial interviews with the Sheriff’s office, here’s what Vernal recounted (via Distractify):
“When I come back up to get him, I yelled over to Grandpa, ‘Where’s Little DeOrr?’ DeOrr Sr. said. “He [was] immediately shocked. He says, ‘I thought he came up to you.’”
The family then searched for him themselves before calling the authorities shortly after. A search party of 150, including search dogs, divers, volunteers, and horseback personnel scoured the area.
They searched for a radius of 2.5 miles for three days while keeping the camping spot as the center point but found nothing. Baby DeOrr’s parents were convinced that their son could have been kidnapped instead of just wandering off from the campsite.
In the years since, multiple volunteer groups have tried to find any trace of the child but have failed. A breakthrough was thought to be found in June 2019, when cadaver dogs alerted the police to possible human remains.
This was near the Timbercreek Campground from where baby DeOrr had disappeared. However, this was a dead end, too. Now, it has been eight years since the baby’s disappearance, and people wonder if the child is even alive.
Is Baby DeOrr Dead?
There’s no conclusive way to say what has happened to Baby DeOrr and if he is alive or not. During the investigations, some things happened that complicated the search. For one, authorities claim that two private investigators the family had hired had quit.
They said it was because of inconsistencies in the family members’ storylines. Also, Phillip Klein, one of the P.Is, was accused of planting false evidence and had multiple lawsuits against him.
It’s also interesting that back in 2016, the parents were put down as suspects in the disappearance of their baby, but no one was ever charged or arrested.
To make matters worse, the grandfather, Bob Walton, passed away in 2019 without giving any additional information about the missing Baby DeOrr. As such, the theories about the child continue to circulate even now.
One theory says that his parents arranged for an illegal adoption in that remote camping spot and fabricated the story so that they weren’t held accountable. Another theory states that the kid didn’t wander off because no remains were ever found.
After all, how far can a 2-year-old walk in a camping area? A third theory builds on this to state that he could have wandered off and gotten kidnapped by another person. But the ideas don’t end here.
On the “Deorr Kunz, Jr.: the boy who vanished” subreddit, user Noregerts8 had this theory:
“A possible scenario that makes sense to me is they had drugs with them on the trip, and the toddler ingested them. Now we have a dead kid with drugs in his system – can’t hide that. Can’t pass it off as an innocent accident. People are going to prison. He needs to disappear.”
The user further explained:
“Additionally, we need a large enough timeline for drugs to leave the parent’s systems enough not to appear impaired. Hence, the whole afternoon driving around, which also includes body disposal.”
For now, the case is ongoing, and the authorities are still looking to find a breakthrough.
What do you think happened to Baby DeOrr? Which theory do you agree with?
Let us know your theories in the comments below.
Source: Distractify
