17 year old Kurt Sova's death has been riddled by one contradiction and cover-up after another. Kurt lived with his parents in Newburgh Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. He was the youngest of four sons and was close to his parents.
His parents recalled that he never got into trouble. On Friday, October 23, 1981, he left his house in the afternoon. A block away, he met up with a friend. The friend suggested that they go to a Halloween party at a duplex two miles away.
Kurt never returned home that night.
By Saturday morning, Kurt's parents were worried. His mother Dorothy called his friends while his father Ken searched the neighbourhood for him. On Sunday, the Sova’s registered Kurt as a missing person with the Cleveland police. Dorothy placed missing persons fliers in stores throughout the neighbourhood. That afternoon, she learned that Kurt had gone to the party at the duplex. She decided to go there and speak with Susan, who hosted the party.
However, when she arrived at the duplex, Susan was not there. Another girl was there who was babysitting, she said that Susan was at work at that time. Dorothy told the babysitter to have Susan call her. Susan contacted Dorothy later that night however, she said that she did not see Kurt, nor did she have a party that night.
Despite Susan's claims to Dorothy, a pizza deliveryman claimed that there was a party at the duplex on Friday night. Dorothy contacted Susan again this time, she admitted that Kurt was at the party.
It was composed of people from nearby Detroit, of which he was one of the youngest, and people to which he had never been acquainted with prior to it. Guests later commented that he had been drinking “Everclear” the strongest drink on the market and illegal in many parts of the United States.
Kurt's friend later said that he took an intoxicated Kurt outdoors for some fresh air, leaving him hanging on the chain link fence nearby. When he returned shortly with Kurt's jacket, he had vanished. It was not known if he had stumbled off into the back country due to his drunken state or if he had been abducted. His family feared that he met with foul play since Susan had changed her story about the party.
One day after he vanished, Kurt's parents registered him as a missing person and papered the neighbourhoods and local businesses with leaflets looking for him. One such business was a record store, which was visited by a strange man who told the owner that it was fruitless to have the leaflet of Kurt and remarked, "Might as well take it down, he's gonna be found dead in two days, and nobody's going to know how he died."(Now, this to me sounds suspish AF)
A sighting of a living Kurt came from a schoolmate of his who was enroute to a job interview on Monday, four days after he was last seen. The man was driving and saw him head towards a van with people who were not native to Newburgh Heights. He also reported hearing Kurt calling out, "Hey, Franco!" Unfortunately, he did not suspect anything out of the ordinary as he was unaware of Kurt's status as a missing person at the time of this occurrence. Susan later contacted Dorothy stating that he had “slept on a cot in her basement”
She was reluctant to believe her on the basis of her multiple lies, but Ken inspected the basement. He did not find him in there nor any of his personal belongings, but did find a cot which looked like it had been recently used. Six days after the party, on Wednesday October 28, three little boys were exploring a ravine on Harvard Street, they found Kurt's body. He was wearing a bright yellow T-shirt which stood out from the natural tones of the ground, as well as barefoot.
Police could not find any sign of assault. His body suffered no injuries expect for a few minor scrapes and bruises as a result of being barefoot. Nor could police find his right shoe, although his left shoe was found wedged in a pile of rocks nearby. The cause of Kurt's death could not be determined.
Coroners later concluded he died naturally or accidentally, but that is not accepted by his family. The autopsy also revealed that he had been dead between 24 and 36 hours. However, he had been missing for five days.
Furthermore, Ken claimed that he searched the ravine on Monday and Kurt was not there. The Sova’s believe that Kurt's body was dumped that evening or on Tuesday. They believe that he died in the duplex and was transported to the ravine. Some believe that his death may be related to the that of another boy from the local area, thirteen-year-old Eugene Kvet, in the same neighbourhood as the Sova’s, Kurt had been acquainted with this boy.
Now, I feel that some kind of “game” went wrong at this party, I mean, this poor 17 year old boy was consuming liquor which his body could not handle, I genuinely whole heartedly believe this was initially an accident, I think there was some kind of drinking game maybe a card game of sort, I’m obviously not a drinking game expert neither do I know what kind of games they would have played in 1981.
But my most important speculation is why was a 17 year-old partying with a mother who has a small child (I cant find an age for Susan but id assume she was 30+). Was Kurt doing some “favours” for extra money? Why would Susan lie about the boy not being there? After Kurts friend said he was there? Its just a bit confusing.
My strongest belief is the second one I have listed, this lady wanted some younger make company, she wanted to get them drunk and take advantage of them, I think things went to far with Kurt and then Susan and her accomplices hid Kurt in another room until they could do something with him, they decided to change him and then dump him in the ravine, hence the missing shoe.
I’m not sure, what do you think?!