Message and social media postings are riddled with theories about Christopher Virdell’s disappearance. They range from him simply running away, with possible sightings in Seattle and Bremerton, to being robbed and killed.
His father says those runaway ideas are all cases of misidentification. Christopher Virdell apparently looks much like his brothers Paul Virdell, Jr., 24, and Michael Dean Virdell, 20.
Left with few answers, theories abound. The father believes his son is dead, and has been from the start.
“I knew it from day one,” he said. “I just knew it.”
Paul Virdell believes that robbers were targeting another person and kidnapped his son either by mistake or out of desperation. The robbery became a homicide when Christopher Virdell struggled around 9:48 a.m. that day. The timeline was apparently established because Christopher Virdell had texted his friends six times between 9:42 a.m. and 9:48 a.m.
“Then it all stopped,” Paul Virdell said, believing that his son was stabbed as well as shot.
What followed was a reported flurry of some 60 text messages in the next hour that were likely sent by his attackers, he said, noting that he believes the killers then had his son’s body buried. A psychic has apparently created a map to where the body was dumped outside of Wenatchee. This working theory, Paul Virdell said, came reportedly from a man in Virginia who was involved in the robbery turned homicide who has since suffered burns in a car fire that sent him to the hospital where he confessed.
“I’m a firm believer in karma coming back,” Paul Virdell said. “I am not looking for a conviction. I just want Chris back. I want his remains. I want his body.”
Searches by family and friends around the abduction scene have yielded nothing. More searches are in the works as new leads come in and volunteers organize walks around the area.
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