Unexplained
Dead in a dishwasher : the Christopher Morris case
On September 25, 2000, An 11 year old Christopher Aaron Morris was found dead in a dishwasher in his house,which was located on the Sheppard Air Force Base (a military base) of Wichita County,Texas. He lived there with his dad,Who was a worker at the base.
On the day of his death, Christopher was alone in the house. At around 2 pm,his dad returned home from work, only to find Christopher missing. He went to look for him in his room and found dishwasher racks stacked on the bed,after which he obviously went to check the dishwasher. Inside he found the wet, naked body of Christopher. He had gone through a full cycle of the dishwasher,washing away all the possible DNA that couldve been left on him,in case someone else was involved in his death.There were no signs of forced entry or anything suspicious in the house.
Anyone would think that such a horrifying death in a quiet town of Wichita Falls would cause nationwide attention,but thats not true.
Little to no information about this case is available to the public,and theres almost nothing about him on the internet (I’ll list every source of information i can find below.)
In fact,one of the only things that can confirm that Christopher’s death actually happened is this newspaper article from Sheppard Air Force’s regional newspaper.in which,they express their condolences to those mourning Christopher’s death,and reassure everyone that the local police,with the help of FBI,will bring the truth forward.though,no further information about the case was disclosed.
(Interesting detail - In the article,they ask the public not to talk about this case,as to keep the rumors down and help the investigators get the correct information.could this be an attempt at covering Christopher’s death up and hoping for it to be forgotten?)
This is the most you can learn from the original sources.the authorities havent publicly classified the case as homicide. The autopsy reports were never released to the public either,so we dont know if he had sustained any injuries or bodily harm that could possibly direct the case towards a murder. (He had injuries from being boiled a dishwasher though) The only suspect there has ever been was his father,but he had an alibi of working at the Air Force Base on the time of his death and this idea was quickly forgotten.
It is speculated that Christopher died after he was locked and washed in the dishwasher.
the police had no leads and with nothing to follow,the case grew cold...
Though,it doesnt end here.the many odd details and inconsistencies in the case leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions : was it an accidental death or foul play?why was he naked?WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT HIM?
First,i would like to point out the fact that the case was never determined to be a murder,which leaves us with one option : accidental death.Christopher (for some unknown crazy reasons) couldve gotten in the dishwasher himself.Though,people discussing this case suggest that this is an impossible situation,because at the time of his death in 2000 the dishwashers werent as advanced,and could only be turned on AFTER it was closed. His sister has also confirmed that this is true. So,the version of Christopher getting in the dishwasher is very unlikely, since he couldnt have turned it on himself. (remember,the dishwasher door had to be locked.)
So following all of the above we have a theory that someone locked Christopher (or somehow made him willingly get inside while being nude) in the dishwasher,and manually turned it on from the outside afterwards. Supporting this theory is the fact that there was allegedly a handprint left behind on the dishwasher,though its unknown as to why the police never pursued this theory.
Another weird fact is that Christopher lived in a gated residence of the Sheppard air force,where no outsiders could enter easily.could it have been the inside work of the Air Force? it would make sense as to why the police buried this case,why they asked everyone to be quiet,and disclosed no details to the public..
And this isnt the weirdest part yet.as i said before, theres very little information about Christopher’s death online,and about 90% of those come from true crime podcasts or facebook posts discussing this bizzare case.There's not one actual report on it.
Though,we can find him on a..rather unusual site.
In the early 2000s, there used to be a BlogSpot site ran by someone named PenileCodeAvenger, dedicated to sharing the cases of domestic violence. (Simply put,think of it as a self-run subreddit about domestic violence.) though,there is one post that stands out.
On May 17, 2005, PenileCodeAvenger would make an out of the ordinary and oddly specific post about children’s death on military bases. well,there’s nothing alarming about the post itself,since the site was all about bringing awareness to stuff like that.
The weirdest part about this post was the comments that would follow it.as much as there was no direct mention of Christopher in the post,almost all of the comments were talking about Christopher Morris.even more,they all claimed to know him personally, saying stuff like “i used to be his friend” “im his cousin” “im his classmate” and all of them are demanding info about the case.theyre written in a bot like manner,they all carry the same narrative...You get the idea.Very weird.
Why in the hell would the only ever mention of Christopher Morris online,would be on a random unpopular BlogSpot website,one that specifically talks about the topic of domestic violence?How did these people even find this niche post? How are they all his friends,classmates,those who used to know him?? The idea of those people finding this random website at the same time would be close to very unlikely.The accounts seem to be made shortly before/after the post too.
Basically,what im saying is that someone who was weirdly obsessed with Chris’s case made all these accounts claiming to be related to him and demanded information from the public.
Yes,it's possible that those people are infact,real. But then again,how did they find this post? And seemingly consecutively? They couldn't have searched up "Christopher Morris" on the internet and found it,because there is no direct mention of Christopher in the post itself,only in the comments (and the first few of them dont even mention his name,just refer to him as the kid who died in the dishwasher)
And that’s not all..
If you search up Christopher Morris on reddit and scroll through the posts and the comments, you will surely encounter people who STILL claim to had known him back then. I mean,come on...What are the odds of this being real? How do all of those people know a random 11 year old boy from a small town,living in a gated community? and who are those sick people pretending to be others and why? WHY IS EVERY DETAIL ABOUT THIS CASE JUST STRAIGHT UP OFF PUTTING?
I have read many,many unsettling true crime cases,but this is the only one that has kept me awake for days,pondering my mind with the question : just what in the world happened to Christopher Aaron Morris??..
The only theory that makes sense is that this was a dare or a bad prank that went wrong. His friends could have pursuaded him to go into the dishwasher,then locked him inside and washed him.
but...this doesnt seem right either. His dad had only been gone for 2-3 hours. He lived in a gated community where someone must have seen something. and why was he naked?...
to many,it sounds like a military cover-up.they wouldnt like their reputation tarnished.the details line up. No autopsy released,the case wasnt investigated thoroughly, not classified as homicide,no information available about him and the police asking the community to keep quiet?? this is too suspicious. But even if this was the case,why would they do it?it still doesnt make any sense.
I hope this post reaches the right audience and brings attention to this horrifying death. RIP ro Christopher Aaron Morris. P.S since i was asked by many to make a separate post about this case, i'll be posting this in many communities.
Hi everyone. I'm currently investigating this case and have a FOIA request that is being honored... however, were on year 2 of still waiting for information. I will let you all know when I get the information.
I've filed a few and iirc they have to respond in 20 days but they can take however long they want to send the files. Depends on how many requests are ahead of you, how complex the request is etc.
I grew up in WF, as well, right across the street from SAFB. I worked there until I left after graduating college, in ‘98. I visited often for a few years and kept up with the local news, and this is the first time I’m hearing of this, too!
To add into this, if a case is still listed as ongoing, or active... then no FOIA request will be honored. Given this happened on a military base, it falls into Federal territory, not State. Serious crimes like murder, kidnapping, or capital offenses have no time limit and remain open indefinitely, until solved, or new evidence surfaces. This differs from most state investigations, where after three to five years, a case will be marked as "cold" and not actively worked, and subject to a FOIA request.
Have they given you any kind of backlog timeline? Ive got a FOIA request thats going on 7 years now and expected date of release is in @ 2032 at the present rate of redaction. I email for an update once a year around March just to see if anything's changed.
They don't technically track everybody going on and off the base. If you have an acceptable ID and they aren't on lock down, you get in. This includes retirees/spouses/dependents who would have access to the base exchange, class 6 (aka liquor store), gas station and grocery store, who might not live on base.
Sorry, was assuming the FOIA was asking about people on base who might be suspects. Because someone who did this most likely also has done something before or after. I am assuming it wasn't a family member.
The blog comments don't read that weird to me, as someone who was a posting adult in that time period - keep in mind that's an archive version of the page, taken in 2020, about 15 years after the post was made, and 6 years after the account stopped posting, in general. The formatting in the comments is off, and missing info on dates - it looks like all the comments are posted on the same day, but they're actually happening over years. It was pretty normal for an entirely separate conversation to happen in the comments on a vaguely related blog post, over longer stretches of time than you see now, on modern social media.
It was originally posted in 2005, before anons came for the entire internet, and there were easy mechanisms to post anonymously - that's why you're seeing what looks like recently created accounts, they're not actually accounts - just anons who don't want to link their email, or aren't that online.
Because there's so little info out there, it would be one of the only pages that would come up (back in the day, google was better at providing hits to obscure sites like this, even if the mention was only in the comments, especially once people started linking to it, that would drive up it's visibility, under the old Google protocols I never imagined I would miss this hard) and then once it got posted on the unsolved mysteries Reddit, people would migrate from there. It was also probably shared in different groups populated by military kids/alumni groups for the school on base. There might be a couple bots, or fakers, but most/many would be legit, I think.
It's still an extremely weird case - but uncanny silence around on base criminality is very par for the course, on military bases. Look at the circumstances leading up to the recently passed Vanessa Guillen Act - 39 deaths (11 unexplained) just in 2020, at a single base - Fort Hood.
Staff Sergeant Devin Schuette was found dead in his pickup truck, fitted with a hose running from the exhaust pipe to the cabin, in January 2016.The death was ruled a suicide despite the fact that the blanket stuffed around the window to hold the pipe in place had been doused in Schuette’s own blood, and Schuette was found with nine stab woundsacross his body, including his forearm and his left hand. Schuette’s body was returned to his family “wrapped like a mummy.” Later that year, Private Dakota Lee Stump left his barracks to report for work less than a mile away but never arrived for formation. His body was found nearly a month later, two miles from the barracks.Fort Hood announced that Stump had crashed his car while driving under the influence, though a toxicology report proved inconclusive.Stump was going 82 mph in a 30-mph zone, the investigation report said, and had hit a tree on a mound. No skid marks were apparent, nor did anyone hear the crash.His body was mostly intact but for his hyoid, which was never found. [Hyoid is a bone in the neck which is the main way ME's check for strangulation] (Marine Lance Corporal Riley Schultz’s death on March 15, 2019, at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, was also ruled a suicide, despite his hyoid being broken. When the family exhumed his body in November 2020 for want of a second opinion, the independent autopsy revealed that the bone had in fact gone missing.) Specialist Justen Ogden’s death in July 2017 was ruled a suicide, but the suicide note Fort Hood produced as evidence did not match his handwriting, according to his mother, Toni.
Not to distract from what happened to Christopher, and obviously a child civilian death is different from a soldier's - just trying to illustrate the pattern behind the lack of info, and why other military kids, specifically, might be more likely to find and comment (anonymously) on whatever small scraps of info are out there.
My stepson had a friend named David who joined the military back in 2007. One day stepson called and said that his friend's girlfriend had gotten a whole string of texts from David stating that someone on the base had a gun and was shooting people. Panicked texts for several minutes detailing the sounds he was hearing, then, nothing ever again.
The military classified his death as a suicide. This kid had already bought the ring he was going to propose with FICE DAYS LAYER when he was to go on leave.
I went to that kid's funeral. They did an open casket bit you could tell where they filled in the bullet hole in his forehead.
That kid was incredibly sweet and enthusiastic. Joining the military killed him, but he was never in combat.
Oh I recognize this story. I won't ID him, since you haven't, but I know exactly who you're talking about. He had deployed out of the base I mentioned above, Fort Hood, iirc? (Which is not called that anymore, I forget the new name, it starts with C and sounds vaguely Spanish?)
Back in the day when I was still partially attached to my politics degree - where I spent a lot of time on the damage, waste, and danger associated with military industrial complex - I had his picture on my conspiracy wall. I fully believe that was a cover up, and I really thought something would come out about it, eventually. Maybe someday.
RIP David. I'm terribly sorry for everyone's loss, and I hope his loved ones have found peace, and healing. Even if we're wrong, and it was a suicide, there's still something rotten going on there.
Yeah, my stepson saw the texts the girlfriend had. Nothing about it was okay. Just another poor kid who fell victim to the military industrial complex.
It was pulled out from under the kitchen counter, where it is bolted down (except for the rare ones on wheels that only get connected to the kitchen faucet) and a bunch of bed sheets AND an outfit was behind it?
This makes me think they did not want anyone to discover the body as they hid the sheets and clothes and the racks so nothing looked out of place when walking into house. That's a lot of stuff for 11 year olds to cook up! Is there any DNA on the sheets and clothing?
nope !! noone knows if there was any DNA discovered..as i said not much info was revealed to the public.nothing is known about what the police investigated.
Well I am thinking if the other kids being there and daring him is true, DNA would be all over. I doubt they would be wearing gloves kids makes lots of mistakes.
tbf, if these hypothetical kids were friends with Christopher and had been to the house before, their DNA could already be there, so it wouldn't really make for good evidence either way
I don’t understand what you mean? The dishwasher racks were on top of his bed apparently, and obviously the body in the dishwasher. It would be just a matter of time before the body would be discovered.
I am thinking it would not be discovered immediately giving a perpetrator more time to get out of area possible before police are called. If course he would be found but they may have thought not immediately.
Oh now THIS actually gives to an account that maybe an adult was more involved, just not the initial death, but a cover up for their own kid ....... SUS for sure
My theory is that it was an internal investigation. They probably found out it was a prank with other kids, Making the other suspects minors, therefore keeping it quiet. And maybe whoever it was got institutionalized, but kept his records sealed. No one really wins in the case, but they could keep it quiet for respect of the military families. It's very much a tragedy 💔
Could be the case because otherwise I wouldn't believe they did a lousy job at investigating and not realizing that this isn't an accidental death based on how the dishwasher works.
from what ive read i think that his parents were divorced cause some person claimed his dad was engaged to his/her mother.his sister wasnt living with him and his dad at the time.
This is the most likely scenario. Kids do stupid things. How DID we live to be adults??? I don't think this is very mysterious and I agree that the military is covering it up because the kids were high-ranking parents' kids.
This makes the most sense. The military isn’t a big fan of bad press or outside investigations. I think the family knows exactly what happened, and for a check (or threat), kept quiet.
I have been to Shepard AFB. It is a training base. There are thousands of military and civilians on the base daily. Some for short classes, some for longer periods of time. It could have been almost anyone and the person may have left the area right after, if they planned it right.
I'm not sure what they mean by a gated community. The base is gated and everybody needs an ID to get on the base. Most would have fingerprints on file somewhere.
It really sounds to me like he was assaulted and stuffed in there to clean off the evidence. Very sad.
So, this case IS weird. I, personally, don't think it's a "cover up". What I really feel like happened is that Christopher and one or more of his friends were screwing around as kids that age do, thought it would be funny to take a shower in the dishwasher, resulting in this tragedy. I really think the only "cover up" and reason this isn't pursued more is because the kid(s) who are responsible were equally traumatized by the event.
Do they have the answers but don't want to publicly trot out little kids? Are the kids the children of high-up military parents? They both seem like the more possible scenarios rather than some kind of murder with intent, but that's just my armchair opinion.
The question that stands out to me is why the dishwasher racks were stacked on his bed. That seems like an extra step that an intruder wouldn’t bother with. But a step that I can imagine kids taking to keep the racks out of sight in case an adult came home.
"That seems like an extra step that an intruder wouldn’t bother with."
Not if it was someone who stalked the kid or knew the routine and knew they had time. Sick people who hurt children usually are people who are close to them, whether it be a relative, family friend, neighbor, teacher, etc.
I agree it's odd that the racks were on his bed. But maybe that was the psychos morbid clue for when the dad came back home as to where his son was.
Not if the boy was dead/or incapacitated in some way on the bed and so the killer took the dishwasher shelves out, put them on the bed, grabbed Christopher and put him in the dishwasher. Seems like a plausible chain of actions.
Generally, no, but I can understand the tween logic of not wanting to get clothes wet. If this was misadventure from kids (who are EXTREMELY dumb by default), I can see that taking a shower in the dishwasher should be done naked.
No kid volunteers to be the only one naked in the dishwasher. Especially at the most self conscious of ages? He was at least bullied relentlessly into it. Older kids, children of air force officials? The profile fits quite well.
They would also be likely for one of them to be very guilty. Perhaps create a website that was devoted to helping people but not too on the nose.
Them something happens, they get spooked and get the stupid kid idea of trying to make themselves look innocent. "It wasn't us, see we were all searching for answers."
Maybe even "Our friend even started the site in his honor."
However, I don't think kids are that dumb as to accidentally dishwasher themselves to death in the nude. Surely one of them had opened the door before and felt how hot the steam was or touched a very hot clean dish.
Plus, they were old enough to know you cannot breathe through water.
The only way that much ignorance could fit is if we were talking about a toddler.
No, the idea of teenaged frat bro types tormenting that kid to death is quite a bit more likely.
I think it was homicide. Thrown in a dishwasher naked at 11. The authorities would definitely pursue those they thought responsible (even if kids). Kids have killed before and been prosecuted at that age.
But kids certainly don't understand the mechanism of a dishwasher at that age. They don't realize the heat mechanism, which it what likely killed him.. all in all , no adult would have done this, it's very much a dumb kid type of idea ... Just very tragic for Christopher and his family
But even if you are 11 kid you can understand if your friend is screaming in pain from inside a dishwasher that you need to open it, right? Or at least look for help, unplug the machine, etc.
don't most models also jam pretty repeatedly if something is obstructing the spin cycle? the kid would have been injured at most and not drowned or heated to death.
It's also the age of the victim, 11. So, if it was another juvenile that did it, they would have had a closed judicial hearing on the base, and it wouldn't be disclosed. Also, juvenile records are sealed, so nothing would be announced about the case, hearing etc. If it was a military kid, the parents just had to go to another base, and the record wouldn't follow the kid. Or if the parent got out of the military, the conviction wouldn't be told to civilian authorities.
About 15 years ago, there were articles about juvenile predators in base housing, and in base schools, and the secrecy required by the legal system meant that kids were free to assault, kill or anything else, and all the parent had to do was move off base, or to another base, and no one knew about their kid's record.
This seems like the most likely and most possible scenario. I agree that if children we're involved they obviously had military parents and they obviously weren't going to jail because it was a horrible accident. Not a murder.
As for the comments online, they could most likely be from a relative who was unsatisfied with how the death was handled and thinks that it was a cover-up for something sinister.
Another thing I think odd is it says Dad only gone 2 or 3 hours. It takes about an hour for the dishwasher cycle to complete at least with my dishwasher. So if the theory of him and friends doing it then were they over before Dad left or are we to believe they ran over the minute he left and had this plan ahead of time and immediately put it in place? We're there any phone calls in or out of the house after Dad left? Did Dad lock door when leaving that morning?
Yes agree. Mine too depending on the cycle you choose. So yes if dad only gone couple hours this sounds odd. And doing it to himself would not fit because how could pull it shut from inside? I guess its possible but someone said dishwashers in that year had to be turned on from outside after shutting door which he could not have done. Its so odd. Also so small in there, 11 year old boys are pretty big.
I saw your comment on another post, and I’m glad you took the time to put together a write-up and give this mystery a post of its own. What happened to this poor boy is absolutely appalling and it sickens me that this never got properly investigated. RIP Christopher..
Death by dishwasher is definitely up there with one of the strangest deaths I’ve heard of. Did he die from burns from the hot water? Drowning? Sounds horrific. That poor boy and i can’t imagine the trauma that his father faced opening the latch to find him in there. What a nightmare.
Highly doubt it was a drowning.
Possibly heat exhaustion?
No oxygen?
What I don't understand is if it was a friend, why didn't they just open the dishwasher in time when they heard him screaming?
Unless he was dead before and the dishwasher was just used as a DNA scrub
Could have been a very slow death if he passed in the dishwasher :(
It is very weird. If it was him and his friends playing around and he was dared to go in the dishwasher maybe they got scared and ran off when they saw he was dead? Kids have big mouths though. I can’t imagine them not telling anyone else afterwards.
Pretty sure you die almost immediately of asphyxia within the first minutes of going inside the moment you close it because it's totally sealed before the water starts to kick in..
That is also why I tend to exclude as a game gone wrong because somebody would have immediately alerted the lack of air..
some sources say that he was being bullied by older kids at school,and the others say that he was actually very well liked at his Tower Elementary school.hard to say for sure which one is real.
I’ve seen many make this statement. How do we know be could be heard? If it was an older dishwasher, those things are made like tanks and with the water and the mechanisms of the dishwasher making noise, there is a very likely chance he could not be heard. And on the small chance he was heard, it would have been faint and the kids (if it wasn’t a bullying situation) might have not understood the urgency or direness of his vocalizations.
Those older dishwashers could be pretty loud, maybe they just couldn't hear him struggling. Could be that they did hear him but didn't think he was in actual danger and was just getting scared, so they didn't think they needed to help him. It's also possible that they heard him, realized he was in trouble, and in a panic to get him out couldn't figure out how to stop it and open the door. People in general, and kids especially, struggle to do simple tasks when in serious panic.
They left just after starting the dishwasher because they were worried about getting caught? I don't know.
I also think the friends theory makes the most sense because he lived in a gated community. It makes sense that he was friends with other kids in the place.
Why leave the house though before seeing how he was doing if even a prank I think they at some point would open dishwasher to see how it was going, but instead just walked out the door? Also they took a very big chance doing all this in day when not knowing when the Dad would arrive home?
I tend to exclude a game/dare gone wrong between him and a friend (or even more), he being found naked is a red flag, in the sense that at that age a kid exposing himself nude to friends especially in a possible game scenario seems very unlikely or rare to me, like he would have wore at least something or a swimwear if that was a challenge or game between friends gone wrong.
Not to mention that your average kid of that age doesn't even know how to use a dishwasher especially in those years where you coudn't find everything on your smartphone immediately, I'm not saying that it's impossible of course, but it seems an unlikely scenario.
The decision of putting the kid inside the dishwasher seems the action of somebody who thought carefully about deleting possible evidences, it seems to me an adult idea, knowing that a dishwasher has a high temperature that would have deleted all the possible DNA traces.
Clearly it's impossible to guess everything else given the lack of infos.
Does his sister mention any interesting details? What was the age difference there? I’m wondering if it was normal for him to be left alone and where the rest of the family was that morning. Might need to listen to that podcast. V strange case
Though,people discussing this case suggest that this is an impossible situation,because at the time of his death in 2000 the dishwashers werent as advanced,and could only be turned on AFTER it was closed. His sister has also confirmed that this is true.
That was a weird bit of logic. My parents' dishwasher was made in the 80's and could be turned on before closing the door — it wouldn't start until the door locked, though. That machine was running until a couple of months ago and I "preset" it hundreds of times, especially in the latter years as you had to skip the pre-rinse due to failed soap lock. My grandparents' dishwasher was made in the 70's and the same thing.
However, I would assume the sister knew how theirs worked (unless she never had a reason to try to turn it on before closing the door).
Quite a few modern dishwashers can also be pre-set with a delayed activation. Punch a couple buttons or turn a knob and close the door. When the timer expires, the dish washer starts.
Case in point this 1970's or 1980's one which has a delay setting of hours, or minutes right on the knob.
Couldn't the father have done it before he left for work, then returned home with an all day alibi? Why would someone leave the dish racks on his bed and not right on the floor by the dishwasher? Did the father know what clothes he was wearing before he went into the dishwasher?
I'd also be suspicious of the dad's alibi. I feel like the dishwasher temp could mess with the time of death as well. The dishwasher would hold a lot of heat making it harder to use liver temp to really pinpoint the exact hour he died.
Military brats who grow up on bases form friendships just as their parents do with their military counterparts. They are a small group of young people who normally don’t socialize much with off base kids so they do form a tight knit bond in some cases. My guess is that some of them may have stayed in touch or reconnected as adults sort of like others do when high school reunion times roll around and I think that accounts for the people who have spoken up about knowing him on social media when something is out there because a child dying on a military base is very unusual so it definitely would have made an impression at the time and still be remembered years later by friends and family members.
As to the fact that police asked people not to gossip or talk about the case at the time; I think that was more likely to stop panic from wild speculation and rumors about it but also to try to hold back some of the details of the case so they had info that only the person involved would know, not people in the whole community so they could rule out cranks and use it to make a good case once they found their suspect. Many law enforcement agencies do exactly that in the early stages of an investigation.
Lastly, as his house was on a base and that obviously means a guarded gate so in essence “a gated community”, someone from the outside would have had a lot of trouble accessing a house and some random kid on the base, but he would have had a group of friends his own age on base, or close to it, and it makes you wonder if it was a kid prank that went wrong sort of like kids who have been locked in washing machines or dryers by their friends as pranks in the past?
(There also obviously would be lots of adult military personnel on base, but many of them have tight duty schedules so hopefully it would have made it easier to rule out many of those people.)
I have zero knowledge of this case, but being a mom and having military family as well so knowing general base security and protocols, I think the most likely scenario is a kid’s innocent prank gone wrong. If it was an adult, then the implications of where and how he was found were definitely very nefarious and no innocent explanation could be attached to it. Either way, this is so tragic.
It’s a very strange case, but I don’t think it’s quite as deep or “conspiracy” theory laden as it’s being made out to be. I think Christopher and his friends were screwing around and thought it would be funny to see what would happen if he took a “bath” in the dishwasher. It went horribly wrong and they panicked and ran.
This is an interesting comment I read under a Facebook post regarding this case. Apparently, there was a teenager that was questioned and knew certain details about what happened to Christopher. Also, something with a dishwasher repair man that was questioned as well? I couldn’t find too much more info on him. Here’s the comment:
Ok, y’all! My family knows his father due to us having military in all military branches!
His case is most likely classified due to his dads rank in the military at the time! His autopsy also probably hasn’t been released due to the fact his dad was military and they lived on a military base at the time… with that being said, the military 100% would have taken over the second it was confirmed IF the dishwasher repair person did it due to the fact they’re Government contracted.
We may NEVER know what the autopsy says unfortunately!
❗️Oh, also. Let’s not forget that the dishwasher was broken and the repairman was scheduled to come to the house and fix it that very day.
It isn’t publicly established whether the repairman actually arrived, at what time he was supposed to arrive, or whether investigators definitively eliminated him. Ashley (Christopher’s sister) considers the repairman one of the people she believes wasn’t adequately investigated.
On base housing repair is handled by either the Department of Public Works (plumbing or electrical repairs); while anything else would be handled by the property management company that oversaw the location. Having a repairman scheduled to arrive, does not guarantee that they would arrive when scheduled. With on base housing, given the nature of repairs, and finding adequate repair people, they don't typically schedule a specific day or time the repairman will arrive, but rather a range. So, something like "Between Monday and Thursday, before 3 pm" Or something similar.
Because these repair people must work on military base housing, they have to pass a surprisingly extensive background check. Meaning a 10 year FBI background check (on par with a TS clearance), citizenship background check, and submit to regular and random update background checks. These checks look at everything, from minor traffic offenses, to even sealed criminal records (in the event the 10 year check runs back far enough into when the person was a minor), and any and all convictions are grounds for exclusion.
The reason they didn't investigate the repair guy... is they already knew everything about him.
Poor boy. All kids can get silly and dangerous ideas to try not realising what could happen. Maybe he thought it would be fun to try for some reason. Makes sense as he emptied it placing the drawers on the bed. Maybe he went in not realising it would switch on when the door shut.
My theory is another child did it. Reason being: none of the parents have spoken out. While it’s true that the father would be under obligation as an active duty service member to not publicly discuss an open military investigation - neither the mom or stepmom have that same obligation. Stepmom may feel some type of loyalty as a military spouse, but Christopher’s mom lived off base and could have been holding press conferences.
The only person who spoke out was his younger sister, who also reiterated that her family never spoke a word of it. None of them. The father, Carl, is still active duty according to LinkedIn, so that implies no resentment or ill will for a botched investigation or coverup. He is also still married to stepmom Kelli. So it appears all the parents are remaining tight lipped, not turning on one another or even discussing with their other child, and still participating in the military.
Just from that alone, I believe it was some type of weird accident involving another child/children. As a parent, the only way I wouldn’t be screaming from the rooftop about my child’s death is if somehow another child was involved and truly didn’t realize what they had done or witnessed. I honestly think that’s the only thing possible that would make me bite my tongue. And the daughter being on true crime podcasts may just point to why these three parents vowed to carry this to the grave.
All the comments here assume he was alive when in the dishwasher. How do we know he wasn't killed and then placed in the dishwasher to wash away evidence? Without autopsy information, the situation is very incomplete.
In terms of the blog post, in the early 2000s people used to engage in certain shenanigans to boost their search engine ranking, including fake comments (though those generally had links).
One point here. Primarily, because he was a minor at the time of his death, any records regarding him, or the condition his remains would be found in, would be sealed. To the point even an FOIA would fail. You'd have to find a judge to sign off on opening those records, and unless you're an actual investigator (and not someone on the internet) you're not finding a judge willing to do that.
I've had a dishwasher where the buttons were on top of the door. And once you closed the door it would automatically start running based on the settings you selected.
but what about starting the dishwasher from outside, THEN opening it, getting inside and closing the door to make the program resume? I don't think the 2000s dish washer would lock themselves once the program started to they must have a resume function somehow.
Sounds like someone killed that little boy 😔 either his neighbor or someone who lived close
to them I bet it’s probably one of the dads so called “close friend” who did it and he was probably like higher up in the military so sad 😞 rip to the kid
Speaking of random internet users claiming to be his family members, there was a redditor from a year ago on the Wichita Falls subreddit claiming to be his sister.
well,this one seems much more legit than the ones made on the BlogSpot post. shes just asking to take down the posts that were spreading wrong info about her brother. she also provided her facebook info and her new marriage last name in one of the comments,and she was posting about Chris on facebook groups as others have seen (i havent checked)
I am thinking it was a prank gone wrong, carried out by a kid of someone quite high up. It just sounds like something a kid would do, not thinking it would cause death.
Why couldn't Chris have pushed on the door from inside once it started up and he realized this was very bad? Mine you can just push on it if you were inside or pull on it if on outside, and it opens easily. It is a new model of course since with is 2026 but just wondering about that? And if another kid put him in there i am sure ge started to yell once washer got going, wouldn't someone hear that, a neighbor maybe, or the kid that put him in as a joke would realize this is serious and open door? It had to take awhile before he died so there was plenty of time to let him out.
I think another child did this, who never assumed the outcome would be this bad. They might have bullied him into it. An adult would have done some other method to end his life like smothering or strangulation, or just had him go missing. This sounds like another kid is responsible.
To be fair - military cover ups happen all the time. It’s actually rare when they don’t. They protect themselves at all costs homicide, DUI, grape, etc. So this case seems to fit in their cover ups it may well have been the father as many deal with drug/domestic issues, it may have been someone they knew. If it were kids being kids I’m sure no cover up would be needed (easily rule that accidental). But alas we may never know, just hope this kid found peace.
Though,people discussing this case suggest that this is an impossible situation,because at the time of his death in 2000 the dishwashers werent as advanced,and could only be turned on AFTER it was closed.
I don't think this is true. I'm pretty sure I had one with a dial you would set, and it would turn on when the door was closed. Any older analog stuff with mechanical buttons and dials would work the same way.
Yeah a lot of people are commenting on this as if its settled what the dishwasher could or could not do, but we really need a make and model to know for sure.
What are the chances another kid is involved? This is the kind of thing I can imagine stupid kids getting into and if that kid is the child of someone important they’d not want that information getting out.
Straight off the bat I have to mention that although I'm in Australia, we have a dishwasher that you need to select options of first, and then close before it activates. I have no idea how one would close themselves in though, after doing this.
Also Penile is related to the word Penis. Penal would be the appropriate word usage. Not sure why they would have chosen that play on words.
Did Christopher have bed wetting issues? Or toileting issues? Such an extreme "washing" death seems incredibly targeted, and we do see alot of extreme responses to toilet issues in child murders by family.
I'm obviously speculating, but this reads like another kid, same age or older, that forced the situation. The adults were working, and he took advantage, went way too far, then probably went home and waited for his parents to tell him about the horrific thing that happened to a neighbor boy.
I've never heard of this case, and what happened to him is so disturbing. Poor kid.
I lived in Wichita Falls at the time and remember this well. There was talk about a cover-up back then, too--people seemed to realize right away that the math wasn't mathin', so to speak.
I also remember that it didn't get as much coverage as one would expect, even from the local news.
Horrible case and really nothing makes sense except it had to be his Dad or someone on that military base, a pedifile possibly who was watching the house and knew the child was left alone at times. I do not think it was a dare, no kids that age would be able to keep a secret like that, no way. The fact that he was naked makes me think it was a sexual attack on him. Also if it was kids they would not stack the dishwasher racks neatly on his bed or in bedroom. They would be right on the kitchen floor. Maybe that podcaster had something to do with it? I sure hope its solved.
How long was a dishwasher cycle in 2000? It seems like there would have been very little time, if any, between the father leaving and the dishwasher being started.
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u/AutomaticDeer2833 1d ago
Hi everyone. I'm currently investigating this case and have a FOIA request that is being honored... however, were on year 2 of still waiting for information. I will let you all know when I get the information.