Scourge of War Boards

Sparks, NV - April 20, 1984

It's been 25 years.................A quarter of a century. Yet, as people are oft to say, it seems like yesterday.

Michael J. Crump had been missing for eight days. Some of us hadn't known.
Mike and I were not really tight friends but we talked and we had known each other since Junior High.
We were part of the "Stoner" crowd. The misfits of society.

Little is known exactly as to exactly what happened, but eight days previous Mike had been out with friends partying
(who didn't party in those days) and the group had ended up at Paradise Park.
At some point, Mike said he had needed to use the restroom. Nobody would walk with him.
The last anyone saw of him, he was heading alone, very intoxicated, down to the restrooms as the group
(which included Mike's younger sister) headed towards
the otherside of the park and the exit on El Rancho Drive.

I guess they figured he would catch up with them.

When he was reported missing, the search teams scoured the entire park and both the cities of Reno and Sparks.
For seven days they searched and found nothing.
Then on the morning of the eigth day, April 20, they found him.
Submerged in only 5 feet of water in the parks Duck Sanctuary pond.

He had been there the whole time.
It's still unclear how he ended up in the Sanctuary.....be it by accident or foul play.
All I know is a young man, a friend, was gone.

At his funeral, half the school turned out for it.
Mike was a big fan of Led Zeppelin, so they played "Stairway to Heaven";
and he was laid to rest in his favorite pair of bell-bottom's and Zeppelin t-shirt.
Strange. It was only the second time in my life that I ever wore a suit and tie.
My best friend Richard Ware and I attended the burial together dressed this way
with our long hair in pony-tails and wearing sunglasses.
Everybody said later that we looked like a couple of Feds! Bet Mike would have gotten a kick out of that.

Why am I telling all of you this? Because I just need to get it out.
Because after all these years, he is the one person I knew from my youth who's death affected me.
The one who's death, after all these years, still does.

Mike never got to experience what I and so many other's that knew him did.
Real love, marriage, or becoming a father.
He would never know the joy of experiencing what I had on January 9th 2009.......

Becoming a grandfather.

To this day, 25 years later, if you take a trip to Our Mother of Sorrow's Cemetary in Reno, NV
to visit his resting place, you have to ask for a map of the section where he is laid
to rest.

There is no headstone. Not even a marker.
The only way to locate him, is to look at the names on the markers on either side of him.

I miss you Mike and I just want you to know that I will never forget you. In another 25 years I'll still remember.

When he died, Michael J. Crump was 16.

Stuff like this always makes me imagine what I would do if I lost one of my own children at a young age. You always try so hard to prepare your children for everything, the right mix of parental discipline combined with lots of love in the hopes that your lessons will be remembered. It is so easy to lose a life, and although it rarely happens statistically, if you are that stat, then it is too many. Removing foul play, you have a kid, too young to drink, but doing it in a seemingly safe environment among friends, just like we all did. He might of just passed out, fell down, and drowned. What can you do as a parent to help your children avoid this stuff? Don't drink, good luck. I believe, and who knows if it will work, that teaching responsible drinking might help. Call home if you or friends are totally gone, stay with friends that are trashed, stop drinking when the room is spinning

I'm sure his parents have a ton of regrets and will always question themselves if they could have done something better. I just hope that I am never in that situation and my heart goes out to all that miss him.

That age is especially a difficult time to lose someone close to you. I can relate because I too lost a close friend when I was that age. A good friend of mine was driving to school one morning. Some think she might have been blinded by the sun, but she veered into the other lane and hit another car head on. The person she hit was in the hospital for several weeks, and Brook Keller was killed. She was only 17. I too think about the things she's missing out on..

One thing it did was bring our group of friends closer together and to appreciate life more. At that age teenagers feel invincible and when Brook died, it made me realize how "real" life is and how fragile it can be.

Thanks for sharing with us JC. I'm giving you a big E-hug my friend.

He doesn't even have a gravestone? That makes me want to cry for Michael. And I didn't even know him.

Your a good man for writing this JC, and a damn good friend to Michael for remembering him.

The worst thing in the world, is when parents have to bury a child.

I applaud your writing. I believe that you brought all of us to that fateful day when Mr. Crump died.

Good luck to you, sir.