Money Crimes with Nicole Lapin - Kurt Sova: The Last Halloween Party

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

In October 1981, 17-year-old Kurt Sova stepped outside a Halloween party in Cleveland to get some fresh air while his friend ran back in for their jackets. By the time that friend returned two minutes later, Kurt was gone. Five days later, his body was found in a nearby ravine, posed with his arms outstretched and both shoes missing, with no clear cause of death. Decades later, the police department that botched the investigation has been exposed for corruption. For more, follow The Final Hours wherever you listen to podcasts: https://pod.link/1872821250 For Ad-free listening to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts.  🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Crime House 24/7, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Murder True Crime Stories, and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia YouTube: @crimehousestudios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. Before we get into today's episode, I want to tell you about another show I think you'll love, Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bot. Every Monday, Dr. Bot goes where history gets mysterious, vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena, and events that science still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files, not myths, not superstition, just incomplete explanations. waiting for a closer look. Hidden history drops every Monday. Follow now on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, or wherever you listen, so you never miss a mystery. This is Crime House. It's October 1981. You're in a quaint little area called Slavic Village on the southeast side of Cleveland, Ohio. You're walking along Broadway, the main street, flanked with rows of brick buildings, no more than three stories tall. Among them is a Gothic-style church, small family-owned grocery stores and bakeries, and a tavern or two. But you come to a stop in front of a record shop. Something there catches your eye, a missing person's poster taped to the window. The face printed on it is 17-year-old Kurt Sova, who's been missing for a day or two. Then you see a man walk inside. He's been in the shop a few

times before, but today he's not there looking for records. Instead, he points to the poster and tells the store manager that they might as well take it down. His reason, Kurt will be found dead in two days. The managers heard this guy say a lot of shocking things before, so she brushes this off like all the others, until three days later. The manager arrives at the store to find a bouquet of flowers waiting for her. It has a note inside it that reads, Roses are red, the sky is blue. They found him dead, and they'll find you too. The hymn he's referring to is Kurt Sova.

But what did this man know? And does he have the answers to something we're still trying to unravel 40 years later? Every year, over half a million people go missing, and that's just in the United States alone. Most of those stories barely get a headline. Some don't even get a flyer or a tip line. And when cases do get media attention, we usually only get. at the broad strokes. But for those of us who have lived these true crime cases,

we know the devil's in the details. This is the final hours, a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. I'm Sarah Turney. And I'm Courtney Nicole. Every Monday, Sarah and I will be looking at the final hours of someone's disappearance, the small, seemingly mundane moments

to see if there was anything hiding in plain sight. Looking back at all those last conversations, connections, and choices is critical, and it could be the key to unlock at all. Each episode all offer insight on what those close to the victim might have been going through. And Courtney will use her expertise to give more context into the crime scene, the red flags, and the investigation itself. And we want to thank you for being a part of the crimehouse community. Please rate, review, and follow the show. And for ad for access to every episode,

subscribe to Crimehouse Plus on Apple Podcasts. This week, we're discussing the disappearance of Kurt Eugene Sova. In October 1981, 17-year-old Kurt, went to a party with a new crowd. After drinking heavily, Kurt stepped outside with a friend to get some fresh air. But in the few minutes it took his friend to run back inside for their coats, Kurt vanished. And whatever happened during that time is the key to solving this mystery. It's 1981. 17-year-old Kurt Sova is a part of a very tight-knit family. His mom, 43-year-old Dorothy, and his dad, 48-year-old Ken, are raising four boys. Twenty-two-year-old Kevin. 21-year-old Kenny, 20-year-old Keith, and finally, Kurt.

Which has got to be a challenge, because the sofas never had much money, so growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, all four boys shared one room. They had a triple-decker bunk bed with a trundle bed that pulled out at the very bottom, and the spots weren't assigned, so they would fight over who slept where. The last brother in the room was usually stuck with the bed nobody else wanted, and that was usually Kurt because he was the smallest. In fact, when Kurt was little, they nicknamed him Mouse because he made this squeaking noise that cracked everyone up. He was a comedian, someone who loved to bring joy and laughter,

but it's possible that Kurt's sense of humor got him into trouble sometimes. At least the boys knew how to look out for each other, though. And since Kurt was the youngest, he got the most protection. The sofas could roughhouse with each other all day, but they wouldn't stand for anyone else hurting one of their own. And that was a good thing, because as the boys got older, their neighborhood got a bit rougher as more wealth and families moved to the suburbs. Dorothy and Ken wanted to get out as well, but by the time they decided to leave, they couldn't sell their house. So they stayed until they were burned out of the neighborhood. Sarah means that literally.

In 1975, when Kurt was 10 or 11, the Sova family went to visit Kurt's grandparents. And while they were out, somebody broke into their house and set it on fire. I feel like when you grow up in a neighborhood that is not the best, it does shape you once you become like an adult. Now I will always lock my doors the second I get home or like the second I get into the car, I lock the doors even if I'm just sitting in the store and parking lot. Yeah, I can't relate to not locking doors. I've been this way my whole life. I also saw like people around me not have that same experience. You know, they succumb to the bad parts of growing up that way. So I think it truly just depends on the person.

Some people sink and some people swim depending on the circumstance. Yeah, that's a really good way to look at it. People don't really think about the kids specifically in these types of neighborhoods where Kerr is living. Like I feel like it could affect the kids when you have, I guess, all of the families kind of moving out to the suburbs, the families that are left behind, they often get overlooked. And in terms of when it comes to like law enforcement or like the government, I feel like they're not paying attention to these smaller communities that are like, like rougher, so to speak, compared to like other neighborhoods that are wealthier, which is really unfortunate. I just feel like they don't give a lot of resources to those specific communities. Yeah, well, we know that with more money comes more resources from the police, right? There are

studies to back that up. It's not just like an opinion thing. It's a matter of priority, unfortunately, for a lot of these departments. So I'm right there with you. It seems incredibly unfair, especially when we're talking about kids who don't really have a say in where they live. Yeah, they're just stuck there. And I feel like that is. it's just really unfortunate. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, childhood shapes your whole life so much. So it's insane what, you know, growing up in a certain neighborhood around a certain

group of kids might do to you. I know, I know in some cases like that could really shape the kids. And others, I feel like maybe they don't pay attention to it as much as we all think. Like, I don't know, sometimes you're just, you just don't pay attention to things like that when you're like a little kid. When you're really little, I feel like it's sometimes things that you can overlook because you're little and you're just like a kid, like having fun, like it doesn't bother you because you think, I mean, it's like just normal to you. Yeah, other times, you know, it could really

affect your mindset and like your circumstances. Yeah, I agree, especially when they're really little, right? I think that there's a way to speak to your kids so that they don't realize, perhaps that they don't have as much as the next person. Thankfully, later that year in 1975, Dorothy and Ken found a new place in a quieter neighborhood. It was the southeast, side of Cleveland called Slavic Village. Life was feeling safe and happy again. The boys made a lot of new friends, and the Sovas did more activities as a family together. They filled their days with pre-internet pastimes, sitting outside the airport watching the planes come in, going to see drive-in movies, watching their dad race stock cars. One of their favorite things to do was go camping. Kurt loved to fish,

and some of the other boys hunted. Their family also owned a farm outside of town where they rode horses and played with the chickens and pigs. Kurt just wasn't an outdoorsy kid, though. He and Dorothy had a really close bond. She always thought of him as her baby. And even throughout his teens, he loved to keep her company on errands and shopping trips. That meant Dorothy kept a close eye on Kurt and pampered him,

maybe a bit more than the rest. But that also meant he was kept on a tighter leash. Kurt wasn't allowed to go out very far on his own. But his two best friends lived within walking distance on the same street. John Miller and Danny Washington. They were so inseparable, the sofas called them the Three Musketeers. But like a lot of kids do, Kurt started pushing boundaries and experimenting as he got older. Every once in a while, he smoked to join or had a beer with his brothers.

Sometimes he drank with his friends on the weekend, but it wasn't really his thing. He'd rather be fishing or at home playing guitar. Those were the things that really made him happy. Well, that end football. In the fall of 1981, 17-year-old Kurt started 11th grade at South High School. He was an above-average student, artistic and athletic, and he really wanted to play varsity football, but he couldn't try out for the team that year because of a knee injury, which meant he had a lot of time for other extracurricular activities, and his circle of friends started to expand and evolve.

The Sovas no longer knew everyone Kurt was hanging out with, which wasn't exactly a problem, until Friday, October 23, 1981. So this is where things take a turn. That day, Kurt makes the uncharacteristic decision to skip school. Instead, he goes to a liquor store and talks an adult into buying him Everclear, a 190-proof liquor that's since been banned in Ohio. Kurt spends the afternoon drinking at a girl's place, not his old pals Danny or John, someone new.

That evening, Kurt plans on heading to a carnival, But instead, he joins a high school friend named Samuel C. Carroll for a Halloween party. I just want to pause here to say, it's always these last-minute change of plans that stick with me. I can't help but wonder if we would even be talking about this case today had Kurt just stuck to his original idea to go to the carnival. Sarah, I feel the exact same way. But whatever Kurt was expecting to get into that night, I don't think he was anticipating what came next. See, the party is less than two miles from Kurt's house at a duplex in suburban Newburgh Heights. Sam knows the host, Debbie Sams, who shares the upstairs unit with her brother, Clayton, and another female roommate.

In some of our research, she was referred to by different names, but we'll call her Missy. Kurt doesn't really know anyone at the party, and a lot of the guests are older, but he keeps drinking throughout the night. And at 5-11 and only 136 pounds, he doesn't have the highest alcohol tolerance. So it's not long before Kurt's stumbling around, knocking things over, and making a bit of a scene. Then he gets sick. Missy asked Sam to get Kurt out of the house. So Sam helps Kurt down the stairs and takes him outside for some fresh air. I think a lot of us can relate to that moment.

Like one of the first times, and who knows with Kurt, right? But I'm assuming one of the first times where he drinks too much and he gets sick, it's so sad to see. Yeah, I feel like even well into adulthood, You may get a better understanding of your alcohol limit, but like you truly never know when it comes to drinking alcohol, especially not a young kid like Kurt. I mean, it's not a perfect science and everybody reacts differently to alcohol, right? It depends on, you know, your weight, your height, but also like, did you eat that day? There's a million different factors. I think what's really scary to me is like Kurt is getting to the point where he is, I mean, it seems like he's pretty intoxicated.

He's getting sick. But he's in this house. He's surrounded by people that he doesn't really know. And I think that makes him pretty vulnerable. Yeah. I mean, especially when you get to that level where you're sick and you know, mostly can't take care of yourself, I'm assuming. And you're just past that point of reason.

And it's definitely when scary things can happen. Yeah. I mean, especially like with him, like he's kind of leaning on his new friends that he doesn't really know very well. are, in this case, like maybe even strangers, to help take care of him. And I think when your guard is down like that and you're intoxicated, it definitely opens up the opportunities for something really, really bad to happen, unfortunately. Yeah, especially at like a random house party, right? You can think that you're surrounded by your peers and, you know, friends and people that you know, even if it's for a short amount of time, you know, maybe you've grown close to them very quickly. I think that happens a lot

when you're a kid, but anything can happen in a house party. And, you know, kids can do bad things too, It makes me wonder, you know, if something could have happened with an adult walking in. Like, that's my fear, right? I'm not really super scared about the kids around him. Again, it can happen. I'm more afraid of when adults enter that situation and see vulnerable children. Well, that night's a chilly one for October. Sam and Kurt spent 20 to 30 minutes pacing up and down the driveway trying to keep warm in T-shirts and jeans.

So around 9.30 p.m., Sam decides to run back in to get their jackets. He leaves Kurt holding onto a chain link fence to keep himself steady. Two to three minutes later, Sam is back outside. But Kurt's nowhere to be found. And this isn't the kind of place you want to be stumbling around drunk. Debbie and Clayton live on a main road at the edge of a small residential area surrounded by businesses and industrial sites. So Sam goes off in search of his friend to make sure Kurt is okay.

He works his way up and down nearby streets looking for Kurt, eventually coming to a parking lot at a nearby J.L. Goodman furniture warehouse, just a block away from the party. When he can't find his missing friend anywhere, Sam assumes Kurt found a way home. In fact, Kurt disappeared so fast that Sam thinks someone must have picked him up in a car. So he goes back to the party. What he doesn't realize is he might have been one of the last people to see him alive. Think about some of the cases that defined true crime in America.

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available now wherever you get your podcast. It's Saturday, October 24th, 1981. Kurt's brothers wake up that morning and realize he still hasn't made it home from the night before. The sofas don't panic at first, but Dorothy's concerned. This is her baby, and she usually knows where Kurt is when he's out past 10 or 11 p.m. He almost never spends the night out, and definitely not without telling her. Plus, you have to remember that this is a time long before cell phones, so she can't just call him.

Instead, the family starts by calling Kurt's best friends, Danny and John. But neither of them know where Kurt is. Ken searches the neighborhood for any place he thinks his son might be, but he doesn't find a trace of Kurt. Now, all of the sovas are panicking. Dorothy tries to file a missing persons report that afternoon, but for one reason or another, the police won't take one until the next day.

Courtney and I have said it once, and we'll say it a hundred times more. Nobody should ever have to wait to file a missing person's report. But the Newburgh Heights police have their own set of issues, which we'll get into soon. In the meantime, a small army of the Sova's friends and family keep searching. They break up into teams and spread out across the area. They look through alleys, ravines, schoolyards, and dumpsters.

They ask every person they pass if they've seen Kurt. Then the following day, on Sunday, October 25th, Dorothy and Ken go back to the police and finally register Kurt as a missing person. Kurt's older brothers print flyers with his picture and information. They put them up on stores and utility. all over the neighborhood. And their efforts pay off. That afternoon, a neighbor tells Dorothy

about the Halloween party in Newburgh Heights on Friday night. She even gives her the address, so Dorothy's sons go with her to the duplex on Harvard Ave. But when Missy answers the door, she says that she doesn't know anything about a party.

So Dorothy asks for Debbie, the one who threw it, but Missy tells her Debbie is not home. Dorothy tells Missy to have Debbie call her when she gets back, and Debbie does call Dorothy. later that day, but she also denies having a party. It's strange for sure, but there's not much Dorothy can do about it at the moment. But she is determined to do everything she can, especially

since the police don't seem to be putting much effort into finding Kurt, even though he's been missing for two days at this point. So Dorothy continues to spearhead her own investigation. She gets connected to a pizza delivery man who says the people at the duplex are definitely lying. He delivered pizzas to a party there Friday night. That's when Dorothy confronts Debbie again. This time she gets half of the truth. Debbie admits, okay, yes, they did have a party. But she says Kurt wasn't there until Debbie presses harder.

Finally, she admits Kurt was there, along with a dozen other people. Debbie tells Dorothy that Kurt had been drinking a lot, which surprises Debbie because Kurt isn't usually much of a drinker. After this conversation, Dorothy connects with Sam, the friend Kurt went to the party with. He confirms that Kurt was drinking and tells Dorothy how Kurt got sick. Sam took Kurt outside to get some fresh air, but left him alone for a few minutes to grab their coats. And when he came back, Kurt had disappeared.

This is when Dorothy becomes hysterical. She's sure something happened to Kurt at the party or on his way home from it. But she has no idea just how bad things are about to get. After finding out about the party, the sobas visit the duplex several more times, to the point where it could be considered harassment. Dorothy even admits it herself. Eventually, though, the people who threw the party call the cops to complain.

Newburgh Heights Police Chief James F. Lucas, who still isn't looking for Kurt, mind you, orders the sovas to stay away from the duplex. Elisa family gets Kurt's jean jacket back from the duplex, though there aren't any clues inside of it. But on Wednesday, October 28, 1981, five days after Kurt's disappearance, Debbie reaches out to Dorothy, unprovoked.

It's really early when she calls the Soba House around 3.30 a.m. That's when Debbie tells Dorothy, someone is sleeping in her basement, and it might be Kurt. Now Dorothy is confused. Why is Debbie calling to offer up this information after lying to her so many times before? Dorothy doesn't know whether or not to believe her. But Kurt's dad can and his three sons all get out of bed and go down to the New Berkheid's duplex. They literally kick in the door, go down to the basement, and they find a cot. It looks like somebody was just sleeping in it, but now it's empty, and so is the rest of the basement.

I don't blame Dorothy. Do you blame Dorothy? I don't blame her for a second. I don't blame her at all, and I feel like it's a little bit ridiculous that the cops were called on her, and they told her to stay away from the duplex. I feel like that has to be infuriating. I mean, like you're just trying to find your son, and it seems like the police are not. taking it seriously and literally time is ticking. Like, it's Halloween, it's cold. You need to find him and he's underage. Like I don't understand why the police weren't taking it seriously, but no, I don't blame her. In fact, I would do exactly what she did, probably worse if I'm being honest. Right? Like then come arrest me. Come arrest me. I'll catch a charge for that any day. I mean, what else is she supposed to do? The police aren't doing anything. She's scared for her

kid. She's going to go to the last place that, you know, anybody saw him. It seems so reasonable to me. And like, sorry if you feel annoyed, but maybe don't lie to me. Maybe stop lying and just tell me what happened. Like, if it was just a party with a bunch of teenagers, just say it. But it seems like obviously there's something that they're hiding there. I mean, allegedly, in theory. Yeah, I feel like on one hand, maybe they're just scared that they were all drinking so much and, like, maybe minors were involved.

And, like, I get it. But when somebody is legit missing, like, it's time to put away those fears. There's definitely bigger problems to assess rather than you drinking or throwing a party where there's alcohol where there shouldn't be. And I think it's time to put those differences aside and just agree that the main focus should be finding Kurt. And I love reading about how anytime there was like some sort of a lead, the dad and all of his sons go together. Like it's not an ideal situation, but like for some reason that really makes me happy. Like they all stuck together because they're just trying to find their little brother. That makes me emotional, honestly, thinking about that, like them rallying together.

I know. And it's so unfair. Like, I get if a teenager's like, no, we didn't have a party. There was no drinking on these premises as ma'am. You know what I mean? Like, that makes sense to me. But the going back and forth and then Kurt wasn't here and then, oh, there might be somebody sleeping in my basement.

That crosses a different line, I think, other than somebody trying to just like hide drinking. That's true. Like, it's just a weird, it's a weird thing to lie about, especially. at 3.30 in the morning. Like, if you think it might be Kurt, why didn't you go to the police maybe? Like, you know, he is reported missing at this point. So, like, that's weird to me. Yeah. Call the police. Don't call the lady that you called the police on for harassing you. Exactly. Because, like, how is she supposed to believe you? Like, when you've lied so many times in the past. But, I mean, this family did all the right things. All the right things. You can definitely tell by their actions how

close they are and how much they love Kurt and just want to find him. Yeah. Oh, it's so heartbreaking. All right, Sarah, well, let's skip ahead a few hours. To about 5.30 p.m. that day, October 28th. While three young boys are out playing, they cut behind the J.L. Goodman Warehouse on Harvard Avenue in Newburgh Heights, the same place where Sam checked the parking lot right after Kurt disappeared. The boys head through some neighboring steel yards and pass through a ravine near a waste and recycling center.

And there, they stumble upon something they will never forget. a dead body partially submerged in a puddle of water. It's a young man dressed in a yellow t-shirt and jeans with no shoes. He's laid out like he's been crucified, face up with arms outstretched, head tilted to one side, one knee slightly bent, with one foot placed on top of the other. The boys ran to tell a workman who notifies the police. So the cops searched the area, which is just four blocks away from where the party was.

They find a left tennis shoe wedged in a pile of rocks, 12 feet away from the body, but they never find the matching right shoe. At first, the Newburgh Heights Police suspect foul play. A lot of people pass through that area, like workers and playing kids, so lead investigator Lieutenant Robert Carus thinks whoever left the body knew that. They wanted the victim to be found. The body is taken to the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office. After several hours, Dorothy and Ken are called in to identify their son,

and they confirm it. This is Kurt. He has a bruise on one cheek and several more on his shins. He has a few nicks and scratches on his body, but there are no other signs of injury. And here's where things get more complicated. According to the autopsy, Kurt's body was found no more than a day and a half after his death.

But by this point, Kurt's been missing for five days, which means he was alive for at least three days after he disappeared from the party. What the autopsy can't tell us is where Kurt was during that time, or how he ended up in the ravine. With no obvious cause of death, the coroner uses the process of elimination. Kurt hadn't been beaten or injured. His blood alcohol level was point 11, which is not nearly high enough to be fatal, but it does mean he drank between the party and his death. He didn't have any hard drugs in his system, and he didn't have any

illnesses. With nothing left to point to, the coroner labels the cause of death as instantaneous physiologic death and rules it probably accidental. They essentially told Dorothy that Kurt died of something like SIDS, but SIDS is sudden infant death syndrome. It's when a child under one year dies suddenly and unexpectedly. There's no known cause, but people suspect brain development, genetics and environment may be factors. It really doesn't happen to 17-year-olds. This case, it's really easy to go down the rabbit hole because where was he from the minute he disappeared

to when he died? Because there's a gap between when he disappeared where he was still alive. My thought process is he was really close with his family. He was the baby of the family. He was super responsible in the sense that he would always tell his mom where he was. He wouldn't just kind of like stay out.

That doesn't seem very normal. So it just makes me wonder what happened to him in that period of time and was something physically making him not, I guess, be able to go home. Yeah, nothing about this makes me believe that he left voluntarily and stayed away for a few days before whatever happened to him happened and he passed away. It seems unfortunately very likely that somebody had him, if you will. It just can't be easy. Like for the family, you finally have some sort of answer.

It's not the answer anybody wants because he was saying. found deceased. It's almost worse in the sense because there was time that he was missing but alive. And I feel like that certain aspect is like it's just really hard. It's like a really hard pill to swallow because like what happened? It does not seem like this was an accident. He was hanging out with people that were unfamiliar to him and his family. He literally vanished like in a split second before his friend came out. It just doesn't look good. Like it does not look like this was an accident. And I feel like the explanation that he died of something like SIDS. I just feel like that doesn't sound right. Like I know I'm not a professional, but that does not sound right to me.

No, it doesn't. And that would drive me insane to be told that, to be honest. It's almost in a certain way worse than having no answers and them just saying it's like inconclusive. They're like, no, he actually had this mysterious disease that looks very similar to SIDS, which is also very mysterious. And we don't exactly know how that happens either. But that's what we think happened. It feels like it would have been more accurate. And again, like you, I'm not a professional, right? But perhaps more accurate and kind to just leave it as like inconclusive. Because I feel like that's pretty much what it says anyway. Yeah, it's kind of like another slap on the face to the family. Like, they already did not take the case seriously and missed critical time. Like, like we always say,

in any missing person's case, like the first few hours are so critical. But especially in this case because we know that he was alive for a period of time after he went missing. I just, I have to always wonder if authorities have just taken the case a little bit more seriously right off the bat and not just left it to the family if this outcome would have been different. Yeah. I mean, this is why I think both of us will always scream. Like, stop saying that missing kids are just out partying and they'll be back, right? And you can argue all day that this is the time before cell phones, but we have to remember that pay phones also existed. And something like bumming a,

I don't know what it was in the 70s, a quarter or dime or whatever to make a phone call, like that was very easy to do. So yeah, he didn't have a cell phone in his hand, but there was a pay phone on every corner. Like, let's be so real. And it was also, it was, you know, a little bit surprising to me to find out

that his blood alcohol level is 0.11 where it's not like, I mean, it's a lot, but it's like not enough to be fatal, like to contribute to its death. that was surprising to me with the way everyone at the party was kind of painting him as like this overly intoxicated kid like he was super sick like drinking so much which I don't know the facts it doesn't really look like that I don't feel like that would have contributed to his death and then you have like the facts of his shoes not being on the crucification position of his body like that really

sticks out to me as like okay something's not right and I feel like it's weird the police didn't bring more attention to that yeah and especially in the 70s right this is a time where they're kind of have this heightened awareness of these types of things. And there was a lot of panic around possible, you know, religious crucifixions or whatever you want to call it, right? Kind of satanic panic in a certain way. So, yeah, for them to look at this and be like, yeah, we don't know, but it seems like, you know, it's possibly something just natural and, you know, move on with your life. And I know they didn't say that, but that's what it feels like, the fact that they don't think it's strange, or at least they're not conveying that as far as we know.

The fact that the coroner can't come up with a concrete explanation for Kurt's death only frustrates the family more. But Dorothy and Ken do know one thing for sure. 24 hours before Kurt's body was found, it wasn't in that ravine. They're sure of that because Ken searched there carefully the day before. He would have recognized his son's bright yellow t-shirt against the landscape, so he suspects that someone dumped his body on Tuesday evening. Dorothy has her own theory.

She thinks Kurt was in the cot in the beach. basement of the duplex, but he was already dead. And before the Sova men got there, the people responsible panicked and then dumped his body in the ravine. She wonders if any of those people were with him when he died, or if they found his body after the fact. Either way, she believes they moved his body because they didn't want to get caught with it, and the people who threw the party were somehow involved. But a theory is not an answer, and Dorothy has to know the truth. The problem is, the police still aren't really investigating, even though they have a body. So Dorothy keeps asking people questions around town. She gets in touch with Kurt's

friend David Trisnick, who'd been out of town for a bit and didn't really know Kurt's family was looking for him. But David tells Dorothy, he actually saw Kurt three days after he went missing, but only from a distance. On Monday, October 26, 1981, David was in his car driving down the road to a job interview. Less than a mile away from the Sova House, he spotted Kurt walking with another boy along a busy street. David pulled over to offer Kurt a ride, but at the same time, a van pulled up. Kurt yelled out, Franco. Then both boys ran over to the van and hopped in. So David went about his business without ever talking to Kurt. Now David's kicking himself. If he knew Kurt was missing at the time, he would have done something like followed the van. But he had no idea, and two days later,

Kurt was found dead. Okay, Courtney, this is a huge clue if it's true. true. But it's not the only shocking thing that happened that day. Turns out, a strange man had been hanging around a local record store in the Slavic Village neighborhood for the last couple of weeks. For no apparent reason, he bragged to people that he had access to dead bodies flown into Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. He even said they'd taken off their shoes, which if you remember, Kurt wasn't wearing any when he was found. On Monday, October 26th, the same day David spotted Kurt, The man went inside the record shop. He pointed at the missing person poster of Kurt taped to the window

and told the manager, Judy Oros, that she might as well take it down. The person on it would be found dead in two days, and they weren't going to know what happened to him. At the time, Judy was skeptical, but the prediction turned out to be true. The day after Kurt's body was found, on Thursday, October 29th, the situation escalated. When Judy came to open the shop, she learned that the same man had left a bouquet of flowers and a note for her with a neighboring shop owner. We mentioned it before. Roses are red. The sky is blue. They found him dead. And they'll find you too.

Extremely creepy, we know. Which is why Judy called the Cleveland police before the man could make it back to the store that day. When he arrived, two detectives took him outside and put him in their car. Judy watched them give him a once over, but then they let him go. They told Judy he was, quote, just some wacko from Detroit, end quote. After that, Judy never saw him again. But this isn't the only place the police dropped the ball. The Newburgh Heights P.F. didn't question anyone, really. Nobody took photos of Kurt's body at the crime scene.

Nobody searched the duplex on Harvard Avenue where Kurt was last seen alive. Nobody took witness statements from anyone who was with Kurt the night he disappeared. It was a complete disaster. I mean, to say the least, Especially because three months after Kurt died, on February 1, 1982, the police discover another body. 13-year-old Eugene Cavett, a boy who lived one block north of the Sovas and actually knew Kurt, his bodies discovered in a different ravine along the same street, two and a half miles from where Kurtz was found. Both boys were missing for several days before they died, and Eugene's right shoe was also never found.

According to his autopsy, he died from falling into the ravine. But Eugene's case is never connected to Kurt's in any official way. This is so frustrating because to you and I, Sarah, the connection between Kurt and Eugene feels so obvious. And yet, there's no real effort to put the pieces together. It actually takes another year before a meaningful tip comes in and it's a by-chance encounter with Ken Sova. One day, Kurt's dad runs into a woman named Angeline Reddix.

She lives between the party duplex and the location where Kurt's body was found. She tells Ken, around the time that Kurt went missing, she looked out her window and saw two young men dragging what seemed to be an unconscious teenage boy down the alley. They were headed toward the ravine where Kurt's body was later found. To make matters weirder, the boy they were carrying only had one shoe on, and she's pretty sure it was his left. At the time, she figured they'd all drink too much and were trying to sober up. That is until a few days later when Kurt's body was discovered in the ravine. Only she didn't report it because her husband told her they had to mind their own business, and she listened.

Up until the time, she meets Ken Sova on the street. She tells them what she saw, and Dorothy passes the information onto the Newburgh Heights Police, but they never reach out to Angelene. And Dorothy is not surprised. The Newberg Heights Police haven't interviewed half the people who've come to her with tips. Lieutenant Carus treats her like a mother who won't accept her son's death. What she really won't accept are all the unanswered questions. Where was Kurt in the time between the party and discovering his body? How did he die? And who put his body in the ravine?

Dorothy works tirelessly to answer these questions herself, seeing as the Newburgh Heights Police haven't put a dent in her son's case. But over time, Dorothy convinces four law enforcement agencies to take a closer look, the Cleveland Police, the county sheriff and prosecutor's offices, and the FBI. And then, they finally get their first person of interest. someone considered one of their own. Hi, Crime House community. It's Vanessa. Are you interested in the mysterious parts of history,

like when in 1518, an entire European city couldn't stop dancing? Or in 1908, when something flattened over 800 square miles of Siberian forest in an instant. I'm excited to tell you about a new show, Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bott. Dr. Bott has spent her entire career demanding evidence. and asking why. Now every Monday on Hidden History, she goes where history touches the unknown, vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena, and events that science still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files, not myths, not superstition, just incomplete explanations, waiting for a closer look. At the end of every episode,

she'll tell you exactly what she thinks happen and ask, what if it happened today. Hidden History drops every Monday. Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, so you never miss a mystery. It's the spring of 1983, a year and a half after Kurt Sova's death. Dorothy is fed up with the Newburgh Heights Police and their lack of action on her son's case. So she convinces Detective Al Figgler at the Cleveland Police Department to look into it. He gets the file from Lieutenant Carris, the officer in charge at Newburgh Heights, PD. and what he receives looks like a joke to him.

It doesn't even qualify as basic detective work, just a manila folder with three or four pieces of paper and four Polaroids. Al spends the next eight years working on the case, but he can't undo the mess that was made of the investigation. This is unacceptable, completely unacceptable. What do you mean? What do you mean that the folder only had these few items in there?

I just, I'll never understand. understand it. Like, why be a detective if this is the work you're going to do? I have no idea because you cannot tell me that three or four pieces of paper contains all of the information needed to make this like a successful investigation. Like literally nothing was done right from the very beginning. Like even when his parents came to the police saying, my son is missing. They literally just, it like went in one ear and out the other. It seems like. Yeah. I mean, three to four pieces of paper, that's not even like all the interviews for witnesses, right? You're talking about a party with, I mean, we don't know how many kids, but I'm assuming more than three to four if it's a true house party.

And that doesn't even include people who knew Kurt outside of the party as family members. And that's just witness statements. I mean, for all we know, those three to four pieces of paper could be like the autopsy. Especially when you don't interview any of the witnesses that were at the party that night, let alone search that house. That is just something you can never get back. At this point, so much time has passed. All of the evidence that could have been there had anything. bad happened inside that house is no longer there. Like I said, that's just stuff that you can't get back.

Like the investigation was botched so badly that, I don't know. It's just infuriating. I really feel for this family because, I mean, imagine eight years goes by and you get this folder. There's literally some pictures in it, three pieces of paper. That's just, like I said, another slap in the face. I mean, what this tells me, right? Again, not an expert, but it tells me that Karras looked at this case, did a little bit of work, made up his mind, and put it to the side. That's nothing. three to four pieces of paper and four polarites, that's not an investigation. Most true crime podcasts do, you know, more research than that. Like, an incredibly more, I can't even speak right now. I'm so frustrated for this family. But like, the level of the detective work is just

non-existent. And it's very clear that he made up his mind and never had the intention of collecting this material to possibly pass on to another detective someday. That's actually kind of scary to me because this case should have been taken a little bit more, I mean, obviously, more seriously from the very beginning. But then again, when you have another kid go, you know, missing and then is found dead in a ravine, everything is very similar to how Kurt was found. You would think that after that discovery, like Kurt's case would like be paid a little bit more attention to. And the fact that it wasn't, like, that is so concerning to me. And it just makes me, it just makes me question the investigations and other cases that took place around that time. Like, unfortunately,

That's where my mind goes. It's just, it's so infuriating because it's so easy to not do this. Like, just do your job. I don't think that's too much to ask. Take pictures of the crime scene. Is that so much to ask? Like, I know it's the 70s and maybe this detective was like, kids drink and things happen. That's the end of that.

But like, do your job. Surely that's not how you were taught. I know. And then, I mean, if you take it back to that really sketchy guy that was going into that shop and, like, leaving those poems, like, that's another big thing to me. It's like he said things that nobody knew at the time. And like, yes, maybe he did have some issues of his own. And maybe he was just throwing things out there because he wanted attention and could.

What he said was what happened, like what was found a couple days later. Yeah, just a wacko from Detroit. Is he a psychic? Is he Nostradamus? Like, who is this person that so accurately depicted this? And why is he being so weird and creepy about it? Well, in 1990, things make a bit more sense when everything comes to a head. for the Newburgh Heights Police Department.

Lieutenant Karras is exposed for abusing prescription painkillers. It's also revealed that he has a record of beating and stomping handcuffed prisoners. The FBI charges him with brutally assaulting five suspects between 1988 and 1989, including several youths. Yeah, so one of them was 25-year-old Eric Kintonski, who was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. When he refused to hand over his car keys, Karras bashed him in the head with a flashlight.

Karras then picked him up at the hospital later to bring him back to the police station. But he didn't go straight there. He took Eric behind the jail Goodman furniture store, the warehouse near where Kurt's body was found. And there, he tried to taunt him into a fight while Eric was still handcuffed. But Eric refused to get out of the car. In addition to charging Karras with assault, the FBI also opens up an investigation into Kurt's death.

At the same time, Chia Hoga County Assistant Prosecutor James A. Gattirez looks into the case. He asked Lieutenant Carras, who's still with the department, by the way, even while facing charges, if he himself had anything to do with Kurt's disappearance and death. But Carras denies playing a role. Assistant prosecutor Gatiras doesn't leave it there, though. He calls the initial investigation done by the Newburgh Heights PD a joke, as well as non-existent and unbelievable. He says if he had been made aware of it earlier, he would have indicted the officers involved for dereliction of duty, meaning they didn't even try to do their jobs.

When asked to explain, former Newburgh Heights Police Chief James Lucas, who was active during the original investigation, says they didn't call forensic specialists to the scene because they were a small police department. They didn't have any, but they also could have gotten specialists to come out from Cleveland. In fact, Dorothy says the Cleveland Police Department offered to help help. with the case immediately after Kurt's body was found. But Newburgh Heights declined. When asked why his officers didn't obtain a search warrant for the party house

where Kurt was lasting alive, Lucas said they had no reason to search it. The whole investigation was a nightmare. But at least karma comes for Karras in 1990. He's convicted on 76 counts of aggravated drug trafficking and illegal processing of drug documents. In August 1990, police chiefs, Lucas is permanently banned from law enforcement for helping get bogus police credentials for a dispatcher.

And this isn't his first offense. In 1984, he pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty for allowing gambling at a party. He was working it as a security guard while off duty for some extra cash. And on Wednesday, January 2nd, 1991, Carris is sentenced to six to 15 years in prison. He's on unpaid leave, but he still doesn't get fired from the Newburgh Heights Police. department until six weeks after his prison sentence begins. I'm just going to be fully honest. It's very rare to see this level of nothingness done in a police department, at least like in the cases that I've covered over the past five, six years, I feel like this is up there

with washing your hands and like turning, you know, turning a cheek, like to not paying attention. I feel like this is just insane to me. Yeah. Well, I mean, it seems like corruption was coming from the top, right? and it seemed like the type of department where these detectives, these officers could do whatever they wanted. Especially Karras. And like that is so suspicious to me that he literally beat up another suspect behind the same area, like the same warehouse near where Kurt's body was found. That is really suspicious to me. And it honestly just makes me question. Like does that have anything to do with Kurt going missing?

Like what did he see? What did he do? What is he hiding? Yeah, it's a fair question. I mean, maybe Kurt left the party. He was. drunk and then he got picked up by the cops. It's not the craziest theory. You know what I mean? Like people throw out crazy theories and true crime all the time and that seems pretty likely, allegedly. That definitely could have been a scenario. Like he was outside alone waiting for his friend to come back out with his jacket. You know, leaning up against the fence, sick, drinking a little bit. Yeah, like he's underage. Like he shouldn't have been drinking. Maybe the officer, Officer Carras comes by, sees him, picks him up. Something escalates. Maybe Kurt says something that makes him mad.

like we all know we cannot trust Karas. It's very clear he has a temper. He's beaten up so many other people before. Like, this is definitely a logical thing that could have happened. But it is weird to me that his body wasn't found sooner. Like, the family searched in that specific spot. And he wasn't there just the night before he was found. So that's confusing to me.

Yeah. And then you have the sighting of him. There's a lot of different factors here that just seem really weird. And I don't know how to put all those pieces together. But I will say we kind of like admired them at the beginning as well. But I feel like if Dorothy did not step in and push as hard as she has for her son, her baby, you know, I don't think Kurt's case would have gotten taken to the next step. I'm very thankful that Karma came for Officer Carras and he did get exposed and sentenced and

eventually fired. I feel like he should have been fired way sooner than what he was. So I'm thankful for that happening. But I really don't think if it wasn't for Dorothy, I don't think Kurt's case would have eventually gone on to get the attention that it deserved. Yeah, I mean, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and I always say it, like, you are always going to be your loved one's best advocate, and Dorothy is the perfect example of that. Unfortunately, that justice against the Newburgh Heights PD doesn't mean a happy ending for the Sova family. By September 2017,

36 years since Kurt died, 58-year-old Kevin is the only family member still alive. Without resources for counseling and support groups, all the brothers struggled with vices and addictions after what happened to Kurt, meaning Kurt wasn't the only victim of this crime. His whole family suffered. His father Ken died in 2001 at the age of 68. Their second youngest brother Keith died in June 2014 at the age of 52. Six months later, in December 2014, their mother Dorothy died of an aneurysm at 76. Three years after that, on Monday, September 4th, 2017, 50, 27-year-old Kenny died of an overdose. He was still living in the home in Slavic Village at the time. The same place they lived when Kurt disappeared. Kenny's body was in the house for 10 days before

he was discovered. The last surviving brother Kevin takes several boxes of documents, news clippings, and notes Dorothy kept on Kurt's case from the house. About two years later, in 2019, Kevin gets a call from John Majoy, who took over as Newburgh Heights Chief of Police in 2013. He's asking about Kurt. Kevin goes to see him and brings some of Dorothy's boxes, which is extremely helpful because Majoy wants to discuss reopening Kurt's case. In November 2019, the Newburgh Heights Police Department makes it official. They announced the reopening of Kurt's case and that they are partnering with Tiffin, an Ohio University about 90 miles west of Cleveland. They put in thousands of hours of work traveling across three states to interview witnesses and give polygraphs. In February

2020, members of the Newburgh Police Department, Tiffin University, and Kevin Sova all go to a crime-con event called CrowdSolve. There, they share information on Kurt's case with 300 participants who try to help them make breakthroughs. If they've uncovered new information, they haven't shared it with the public. I think it's important to remember that part of the reason why I think both of us, right, are so outraged at Karras, is that because these things become generational. Like, as amazing as it is, like, Kevin picked everything up and he ran with it and he's, you know, helping solve his brother's case.

He should never have to do that in the first place. Something I always say is, like, the crime does not just end with the victim. It doesn't just affect the victim. As we've seen, especially in this case, it literally affects everyone surrounding the victim. In this case, his entire family. They all had to live without Kurt. And it all took a toll on them in some way. another. If I'm trying to look at the bright side, I'm really, really happy that, you know,

they're attending like a crime con event, like a whole university is coming together just to help, hopefully solve Kurt's case. And I feel like that is heartwarming because I feel it's probably just reassurance to him that nobody has forgotten about his brother, like even after all these years. Yeah. Well, and I do think that these crowd solve events can be really beneficial. Like, I think part of the beauty of, you know, true crime in general and so many people looking at these cases is that everybody has a different lens. Everybody has different experience. They have different education. And when these cases, you know, are this old, what harm can it do? Let's open it up. Let's let everybody take a look and see what they think. I think it's a really beautiful thing.

And I've certainly seen some things come of crowd solve events like this. So shout out to Kevin. And I also think it's really interesting that this university is kind of like taking on Kurt's case. These students kind of have like a rare opportunity to like go back in time and basically just conduct the investigation themselves because there clearly was never an actual investigation. Kurt's case is definitely like a unique one for these students because they really can take it all the way back. I don't know and hopefully find some sort of answer. Like nothing was done for Kurt. And now all of these people are coming together from all over the world to try and help solve this. And I think that is just a beautiful thing to see.

Yeah. I mean, there's so much comfort and knowing that people. outside of your immediate circle, care about your loved one, and that they want to see their case solved. There's so much peace in that, too. And I know for me personally, right, like, the true crime community makes me feel so supported. And I hope that Kevin feels the same way. Kurt's case is still open, but it's once again cold. Many people have tried, but so far, nobody's been able to recover from the initial, terribly mishandled investigation. That's what's so hard about this case. We can't have to have.

out but wonder if it would have been solved with the police more involved. Or what would have happened if they looked for Kurt when he was still a missing child? We know that Kurt went to a party with a new friend. Most of the crowd was older and he didn't know many of them. Kurt drank a little too much and got sick. So he went outside to get some fresh air. It was cold, so his friend went back inside to grab him a jacket. And by the time he came back, Kurt was gone. Nobody heard him leave. Nobody knows where he went. But his mother, Dorothy, spent the rest of her life. trying to find out and his oldest brother Kevin is still looking for answers. So if you have any information about Kurt Sova, please contact Crime Stoppers at 216-252-7463

or the Newburgh Heights Police Department at 216-386-0024 or Sova Tips at Newburgh-O-H.org.org. Thank you for listening to the final hours. Any other details about Kurt Sova's case, please share it with us on social media. We want to hear from you. Your thoughts, condolences, and feedback are what make this community so special. At Crimehouse, we value your support. Share your thoughts on social media and remember to rate, review, and follow the final hours to help others discover the show. And to enhance your listening experience, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus on Apple Podcasts.

You'll get every episode of the final hours ad-free, along with early access and exciting bonus content. The Final Hours is hosted by Sarah Turney and me, Courtney Nicole, and is a crimehouse original powered by Pave Studios. This episode is brought to life by the Final Hours team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Lori Marinelli, Natalie Pritzowski, Alyssa Fox, Dana Brazil Solovee, Andrew Rosenblum, and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening. I'm Katie Ring, host of America's most infamous crimes. Each week, I take on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes available now wherever you get your podcasts.

Looking for your next listen, check out Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bot. Every Monday, Dr. Bot goes where history gets mysterious, vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, and events that science still can't fully explain. Follow Hidden History now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.