1
00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:04,440
Speaker 1: Crime Alard hourly Update, Breaking crime news Now, I'm Drew Nelson.

2
00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:07,280
Speaker 1: In July of twenty fifteen, a two year old disappears

3
00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:10,600
Speaker 1: during a camping trip in Leodoor, Idaho. His parents with

4
00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:13,600
Speaker 1: some other family members are at the campground when he vanishes.

5
00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:16,520
Speaker 1: Crime Onlines Holden Zapple reports.

6
00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:19,520
Speaker 2: Vernal Koont's and girlfriend Jessica Mitchell lived together in Idaho

7
00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:22,319
Speaker 2: Falls with their two year old son, Dior. On a whim,

8
00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:25,520
Speaker 2: Kotz and Mitchell decide to take Dior camping outside Leodor.

9
00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:29,080
Speaker 2: Mitchell invites along her grandfather Robert Walton, and a brand

10
00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:32,520
Speaker 2: of Walton's, Isaac Reinwald. The group arrives to Timber Creek

11
00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:36,080
Speaker 2: campground after dark and sleeps in the next morning. Finishing

12
00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:39,720
Speaker 2: breakfast around eleven am, kots Mitchell, and Dior go into

13
00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:42,600
Speaker 2: town for gas and a few groceries, returning to camp

14
00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:43,760
Speaker 2: about two hours later.

15
00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,640
Speaker 1: Shortly after their return, Dior goes missing. Authorities are called

16
00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:50,559
Speaker 1: to the scene and an extensive search effort begins. Here

17
00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,160
Speaker 1: is lem High County Sheriff Lynn Bauerman on East Idaho News.

18
00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:58,240
Speaker 3: They supposedly thought they were turning their child over to

19
00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:03,560
Speaker 3: their grandfather. The child's great grandfather. They went down to

20
00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:06,160
Speaker 3: the creek, which was right next to the campground, and

21
00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:09,680
Speaker 3: with him. Ten to fifteen minutes, they go up to

22
00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,959
Speaker 3: find their child to show him some fish in the stream,

23
00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:16,440
Speaker 3: and he's nowhere to be found. The grandfather assumes he's

24
00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:20,880
Speaker 3: gone down to them because he was within their line

25
00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:25,120
Speaker 3: of sight and wasn't too far from the campground. They

26
00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:28,800
Speaker 3: started their initial search and eventually called nine to one

27
00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:31,039
Speaker 3: one when they realized they couldn't find the child.

28
00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,560
Speaker 1: Despite exhaustive efforts by dive teams and cadaver dogs, no

29
00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:38,200
Speaker 1: sign of Dior is found. Crime onlinees Dave Matt continues.

30
00:01:38,319 --> 00:01:42,080
Speaker 4: Two days after Dior's disappearance, Limai County Sheriffs receive a

31
00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:44,280
Speaker 4: tip from amm And, Idaho, some one hundred and twenty

32
00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:47,160
Speaker 4: miles away. The collar is a Walmart employee who sold

33
00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:49,920
Speaker 4: a man several boxes of diapers. The man was towing

34
00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:53,400
Speaker 4: along a blonde, hazel eyed todd boy. Police identify the

35
00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:56,559
Speaker 4: man's vehicle from surveillance footage, but when they track him down,

36
00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:59,640
Speaker 4: the toddler is not dire Frustrated by the dead end

37
00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:02,840
Speaker 4: of Lynn, Bauerman comments, every two and a half year

38
00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:05,080
Speaker 4: old with blonde hair looks just like Dior.

39
00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:07,640
Speaker 1: Vernal Coons is not willing to give up on his son,

40
00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,480
Speaker 1: Coon's hires. Search and recovery expert David Marshburn to return

41
00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:14,720
Speaker 1: to Timber Creek to continue ground searches with cadaver dogs.

42
00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:18,280
Speaker 1: Nearly four years after Dior's disappearance, Marshburn's dogs hit on

43
00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:21,280
Speaker 1: a bone fragment at the campground. Marshburn is certain the

44
00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:24,600
Speaker 1: fragment belongs to Dior, but after a year of forensic testing,

45
00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:28,360
Speaker 1: the FBI concludes the bone contains no human DNA. Jessica

46
00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:30,800
Speaker 1: Mitchell and Vernal Coons are named as suspects, but are

47
00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:34,480
Speaker 1: never charged. Years later, the case remains unsolved. Anyone with

48
00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:37,360
Speaker 1: information is asked to contact the lem High County Sheriff's

49
00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:40,440
Speaker 1: Office at two oh eight seven five six eighty nine

50
00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:43,720
Speaker 1: eighty For full details on the disappearance of Dior Coons.

51
00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:46,440
Speaker 1: Join Nancy tonight at six and nine eastern on Merritt

52
00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:49,320
Speaker 1: Street Media. Check your local listings for channel number, or

53
00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:52,520
Speaker 1: follow Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on your favorite podcast

54
00:02:52,600 --> 00:03:02,600
Speaker 1: app more crime and justice news. After this, a West

55
00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:05,280
Speaker 1: Virginia team vanished after running from his home on a

56
00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:09,120
Speaker 1: cold winter night, leaving behind unanswered questions and a desperate

57
00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:13,280
Speaker 1: family searching. Michael Dillard, aged fifteen, disappeared January twelfth of

58
00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:16,200
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen from his home in Calvin, West Virginia. He

59
00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:18,760
Speaker 1: was last seen helping his mother carry wood into their

60
00:03:18,760 --> 00:03:21,720
Speaker 1: home around four thirty that afternoon. In the middle of

61
00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:24,560
Speaker 1: that Michael and his mother argued briefly about him carrying

62
00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:27,800
Speaker 1: two heavy bags of wood pellets. Suddenly, he dropped the bags,

63
00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:30,040
Speaker 1: said quote, I'm not going to listen to you, and

64
00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:33,000
Speaker 1: ran behind the house. He never returned. His family reported

65
00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:36,040
Speaker 1: him missing to nine one one thirty minutes later. That evening,

66
00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:39,240
Speaker 1: temperatures plummeted to twenty two degrees below zero with rain

67
00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:42,080
Speaker 1: and fog. Michael's family searched all night, but there was

68
00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:44,720
Speaker 1: no sign of him. A week later, his orange jacket

69
00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:46,840
Speaker 1: was found about three hundred yards from the house, in

70
00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:50,200
Speaker 1: an area that they had already searched. Michael's dog found it,

71
00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:52,320
Speaker 1: but there were no other clues. The jacket was in

72
00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:55,560
Speaker 1: good condition, stumping investigators as to how it ended up there.

73
00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:59,480
Speaker 1: Michael's family described him as quote sweet, funny, loving, and

74
00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,640
Speaker 1: silly with a bright future, but he battled severe depression

75
00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:04,920
Speaker 1: and spent a year in a mental health treatment program

76
00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:08,160
Speaker 1: before his release. Three weeks before his disappearance, his sister

77
00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:10,400
Speaker 1: noted he had been doing better, but recalled a shift

78
00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:13,320
Speaker 1: in his mood the day he vanished. A private investigator

79
00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,320
Speaker 1: called Michael's case one of the most puzzling he's ever encountered,

80
00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:19,000
Speaker 1: saying there is no evidence or credible leads. He says

81
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:21,920
Speaker 1: he doubts Michael planned his disappearance, noting he left behind

82
00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:25,080
Speaker 1: his phone and glasses. The investigator suspects Michael may have

83
00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:29,400
Speaker 1: acted impulsively and hitched a ride. Despite exhaustive search efforts

84
00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:33,239
Speaker 1: and multiple reported sightings, no further evidence has surfaced. Michael's

85
00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:36,160
Speaker 1: family continues to hope for answers. He is white, five

86
00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:39,720
Speaker 1: five one thirty three, brown hair, hazel eyes. He has

87
00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:42,920
Speaker 1: scars from self inflicted cuts. Michael would be twenty one

88
00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,680
Speaker 1: years old today. The three thousand dollars reward is being

89
00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:48,560
Speaker 1: offered for information leading to his safe return. If you

90
00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:51,760
Speaker 1: have any information, please contact the West Virginia State Police

91
00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,520
Speaker 1: at three oh four eight seven two zero eight zero zero.

92
00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:58,719
Speaker 1: For the latest crime and justice news, follow Crime Alert

93
00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:01,839
Speaker 1: hourly update on your favorite podcast app. But this crime Alert.

94
00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:02,679
Speaker 1: I'm Drew Nelson,