Max DeVries | Bizarre Jet Ski Tale Follows Teenager's Disappearance in Aruba

[00:00:00] This is True Crime Psychology and Personality, where we discuss the pathology behind some of

[00:00:12] the most horrific crimes and those who committed them from a scientifically informed perspective.

[00:00:19] I'm Dr. Todd Grande.

[00:00:21] I have a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision and I'm a licensed professional

[00:00:26] counselor of mental health.

[00:00:27] Dr. Todd Grande, that's my YouTube channel.

[00:00:31] Today's question is, can I analyze the case of Max DeVries?

[00:00:36] First I'll look at the background of this case, move to the timeline of the incident,

[00:00:40] then offer my analysis.

[00:00:42] Max DeVries was born on April 18, 1990 and was raised in Brighton, Michigan.

[00:00:48] He lived with his mother, Ivan, his father George, and his sister Dominique.

[00:00:53] George had a good job.

[00:00:54] He was a strategic assets manager for Dunkin Donuts.

[00:00:59] The family was well off financially.

[00:01:01] They even had a sailboat.

[00:01:03] On November 10, 2002, George suddenly died from cardiac arrest, which sent his family

[00:01:10] into a tailspin.

[00:01:12] In May of 2004, as the family was still recovering from their tremendous loss, they

[00:01:18] went on a vacation to Aruba.

[00:01:21] George's sister-in-law accompanied the family to help take care of 14-year-old Max and his

[00:01:27] 12-year-old sister Dominique.

[00:01:29] The family stayed at the La Cabana Resort, where they met a man named David while playing

[00:01:35] pool.

[00:01:36] He was about 37 years old and in Aruba with his adoptive father, who was about 55

[00:01:41] years old.

[00:01:42] The father was also named David.

[00:01:45] I will refer to these two men as David Sr. and David Jr.

[00:01:50] The men said that they were celebrating the anniversary of the adoption.

[00:01:54] They asked Yvonne about plans that the family had for the next day.

[00:01:58] When she indicated how they wanted to go parasailing, the men expressed an interest in

[00:02:03] joining them.

[00:02:05] The next day, they met at the boat and went parasailing.

[00:02:08] Later, David Jr. wanted to go jet skiing, so the group did that as well.

[00:02:13] After they returned, they all went to dinner.

[00:02:16] On May 12, 2004, David Sr. arrived at the pool alone where the family was and asked if

[00:02:22] Max wanted to go jet skiing.

[00:02:24] Yvonne explained to him how Max had been jet skiing the day before, so she wasn't going

[00:02:29] to let him go.

[00:02:30] David Sr. explained how he was going to pay the rental fee.

[00:02:35] Max said that he wanted to go, so his mother gave in and granted him permission.

[00:02:40] David Sr. and Max departed from the jet ski rental location at 1.45 pm.

[00:02:46] They were each riding a Yamaha waverunner.

[00:02:50] The activity should have taken about 45 minutes.

[00:02:53] Over an hour later, they still had not returned.

[00:02:56] Yvonne went down to the beach where the jet ski rental location was and saw a man

[00:03:00] looking at the water with binoculars.

[00:03:03] He was searching for David Sr. and Max.

[00:03:07] Not long after this, a boat arrived carrying David Sr.

[00:03:11] Max was not in the boat with him.

[00:03:13] Yvonne spoke to David Sr. about what happened.

[00:03:16] According to her, he said that they went to a sandbar a few miles away.

[00:03:21] After they arrived, they turned off the jet skis and dismounted.

[00:03:25] After climbing back on the jet skis, they were unable to start them.

[00:03:30] David Sr. heard a thump and saw Max floating away in the water.

[00:03:35] He did not attempt to swim to Max.

[00:03:38] Yvonne noticed that David Sr. had scratches on his neck and on the backs of his hands.

[00:03:43] The authorities in Aruba launched a massive search effort, but they did not have any success.

[00:03:49] David Sr. gave a statement to the authorities, which differed a little bit from what he told Yvonne.

[00:03:55] Here is what he indicated during a statement on May 12th.

[00:03:58] Ian Max rented two waverunner jet skis.

[00:04:01] About 10 minutes into the trip, Max stopped his jet ski and jumped into the water.

[00:04:07] When he climbed back on, he started the jet ski, but then it stalled.

[00:04:11] The machine would not respond after this. Max could not get it started.

[00:04:16] They tied the jet skis together so that the functional jet ski could pull the one that was disabled,

[00:04:22] but they were unable to make good progress.

[00:04:24] They remained seated on the jet skis for about an hour.

[00:04:27] This was difficult to do because the waves were pounding into them.

[00:04:31] Eventually, they decided to float on the water while holding a rope tied to the jet skis.

[00:04:37] Max started swimming toward the shore even though they had not agreed on any type of plan.

[00:04:42] David Sr. remained with the jet skis.

[00:04:45] He could see that Max was drifting in the direction of the big hotels.

[00:04:50] Max was not swimming but floating in his life jacket.

[00:04:54] David Sr. tried to swim to Max but was unsuccessful.

[00:04:58] Based on this account, it sounds like Max decided to swim toward the shore

[00:05:02] and must have drowned before he made it.

[00:05:05] On May 15, 2004, the search for Max was abandoned.

[00:05:09] The authorities declared that he was lost at sea.

[00:05:12] That same day, David Sr. provided another statement to the authorities in Aruba.

[00:05:17] Here is what he said this time.

[00:05:19] When they were stuck out in the water, Max was sitting on his jet ski which had capsized.

[00:05:25] At some point, David Sr. noticed that Max was no longer sitting there.

[00:05:29] He could not find him.

[00:05:30] He called out to Max but there was no answer.

[00:05:34] After this, he saw Max in the water.

[00:05:37] Max was doing nothing but floating.

[00:05:40] David Sr. tried to swim to him but was not successful.

[00:05:43] Max was simply floating calmly in the water.

[00:05:46] He was drifting away, not trying to swim.

[00:05:49] David Sr. lost sight of Max after 20 minutes.

[00:05:53] After being out there for about an hour, David Sr. was rescued.

[00:05:57] The scrapes that he had were obtained while trying to climb onto the jet ski.

[00:06:02] The second statement creates an inconsistency.

[00:06:05] In the first statement, David Sr. said that he could see Max swimming away

[00:06:09] but in the second statement, Max drifted away.

[00:06:13] Despite this discrepancy, the authorities in Aruba were satisfied

[00:06:17] that the death of Max was accidental.

[00:06:20] On May 18, 2004, Yvonne and her remaining family members flew home.

[00:06:25] After arriving in Michigan, Yvonne contacted various people looking for help.

[00:06:30] She wanted her son's death to be properly investigated.

[00:06:34] In August of 2005, she contacted a detective at the LaVonia Police Department

[00:06:40] named Corey Williams.

[00:06:41] Corey discovered that David Sr. had been arrested in 1981

[00:06:45] for an alleged crime against 14-year-old David Jr.

[00:06:50] The crime involved some type of touching, which was inappropriate.

[00:06:55] Corey was unable to find a disposition for the case.

[00:06:58] He contacted the FBI, who started an investigation into the disappearance of Max.

[00:07:05] They interviewed David Jr., but he denied any wrongdoing.

[00:07:08] They asked him if he would agree to a so-called lie detector test.

[00:07:12] David Jr. agreed to participate but then failed to show up at the scheduled time.

[00:07:17] The FBI gave up on its investigation after the agent working on the case was reassigned.

[00:07:24] In April of 2016, a woman who claimed that she had dated David Jr. for a year contacted Yvonne.

[00:07:30] The woman said that David Sr. spoke to her about a person named Max.

[00:07:35] When she asked David Jr. who Max was, he told her to never mention the name again.

[00:07:41] The woman also said that David Sr. had a desire to get close to her son.

[00:07:45] She felt as though he wanted to get too close.

[00:07:49] At some point, a second woman came forward who also claimed that she had dated David Jr.

[00:07:55] This woman said that he told her that David Sr. helped get him out of trouble in Aruba.

[00:08:02] On one occasion when David Jr. was sleeping, he was yelling the name Max.

[00:08:06] When the woman asked who Max was, David Jr. allegedly attacked her.

[00:08:12] He was arrested for a variety of serious charges but ultimately the case against him disintegrated.

[00:08:17] According to Yvonne, David Jr. received two years of probation.

[00:08:22] At the time making this video, David Sr. and David Jr. have not been charged with

[00:08:27] any crime related to the disappearance of Max De Vries

[00:08:31] and there does not appear to be any active investigation.

[00:08:35] Now moving to my analysis.

[00:08:37] Yvonne and the police detective, Corey, believe that David Sr. and David Jr.

[00:08:42] may have been involved in the disappearance of Max De Vries.

[00:08:46] Corey has stated that he thinks the federal government should indict the men.

[00:08:51] This brings me to the question, were David Sr. and David Jr. responsible for any type of wrongdoing

[00:08:57] related to this case?

[00:08:59] Let's take a look at the evidence both fore and against the idea

[00:09:02] that the men were involved in wrongdoing starting with the inculpatory factors.

[00:09:07] David Sr. was arrested in 1981 for allegedly committing an offense against 14-year-old David Jr.

[00:09:14] Max was 14 when he disappeared.

[00:09:17] The story that David Sr. and David Jr. offered about being in a rubah

[00:09:21] to celebrate an adoption anniversary seems peculiar.

[00:09:25] That event is usually not celebrated like a wedding anniversary or a birthday would be.

[00:09:31] The two men met the De Vries family under suspicious circumstances.

[00:09:35] Why did they make contact with the family in the first place?

[00:09:38] Why would a 55-year-old and a 37-year-old want to spend time with a 14-year-old?

[00:09:44] After parasailing and jet skiing with the family,

[00:09:46] why did David Sr. come back the next day and specifically request

[00:09:50] to go jet skiing with Max?

[00:09:53] It was almost like he wanted to spend time with Max alone.

[00:09:57] He was even willing to pay for the jet skis.

[00:10:00] The story offered by David Sr. about how Max disappeared doesn't make a lot of sense.

[00:10:05] For example, why would Max climb off his jet ski in the open water?

[00:10:11] Why did the jet ski fail to start after Max climbed back on?

[00:10:15] David Sr. allegedly told Yvonne that both jet skis failed to start,

[00:10:19] but in his statements to the authorities, it's clear that his jet ski was still functional.

[00:10:25] Given that his jet ski was working,

[00:10:27] why didn't David Sr. simply return to the beach and request assistance for Max?

[00:10:33] They were out there in the open water for over an hour,

[00:10:36] yet it never occurred to David Sr. to simply go get help.

[00:10:39] In his first statement to the authorities,

[00:10:41] David Sr. said that he saw Max swimming away,

[00:10:44] but in the second statement, Max was drifting away.

[00:10:48] Why did David Sr. tell two different stories?

[00:10:51] If Max was wearing a life jacket, how come his body was never recovered?

[00:10:56] If the authorities found David Sr., why didn't they find Max?

[00:11:00] How far apart could they have been at the time of the rescue?

[00:11:03] It wasn't like they were out there for days drifting apart.

[00:11:07] Nowhere in the story offered by David Sr.

[00:11:10] Is there any explanation for why Max disappeared?

[00:11:14] After David Sr. was rescued, Yvonne noticed that he had scratches on his neck

[00:11:18] and on the backs of his hands.

[00:11:20] He explained the scratches to the authorities by saying they were obtained

[00:11:24] as he was trying to climb back on the jet skis.

[00:11:28] I guess he was using the uncommon neck and back of hands method

[00:11:32] of climbing on a jet ski.

[00:11:34] During the time when both David Sr. and Max were missing,

[00:11:37] the authorities knocked on the hotel room where David Jr. was staying.

[00:11:41] He never answered the door.

[00:11:43] When David Sr. was brought to the beach in the boat,

[00:11:45] David Jr. showed up and said that he didn't hear any knocking

[00:11:49] in his hotel room.

[00:11:51] It seems more likely that he wasn't actually in the hotel room.

[00:11:55] In his statement to the authorities, David Jr. said that his father had never been arrested.

[00:11:59] But of course that was not true.

[00:12:01] Several years after Max disappeared,

[00:12:04] David Jr. was arrested in connection with attacking a woman.

[00:12:07] This woman and another former lover offered stories that portrayed

[00:12:11] David Jr. as being highly sensitive about the disappearance of Max De Vries.

[00:12:17] Moving to the exculpatory factors,

[00:12:20] the authorities in a rubic investigated and concluded that Max was lost at sea.

[00:12:25] The FBI discontinued its investigation as well.

[00:12:29] If they thought there was a good case to be made,

[00:12:31] they would have continued investigating.

[00:12:33] Operating a jet ski can be dangerous.

[00:12:36] Maybe Max hit his head, he came disoriented and fell into the water.

[00:12:40] It's possible that David Sr. did not use the functional jet ski to get help

[00:12:45] because he didn't want to abandon Max.

[00:12:47] David Sr. and David Jr. did not have a lot of time to perpetrate any type of crime.

[00:12:53] In such a short time, how would they have disposed of Max

[00:12:56] in such a way that his body would never be discovered?

[00:13:00] As far as the stories about how David Jr. reacted strongly

[00:13:03] to any mention of the name Max,

[00:13:05] maybe he was simply upset by what happened.

[00:13:08] This doesn't mean that David Jr. was involved in any way.

[00:13:12] When considering all the evidence,

[00:13:13] do I think that David Sr. and David Jr. were involved in the disappearance of Max?

[00:13:19] In my opinion, it is reasonable to believe that they were,

[00:13:22] but there is definitely no way to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt.

[00:13:26] Max could have simply died by accident.

[00:13:29] Unfortunately, the authorities in Aruba did not conduct a proper investigation.

[00:13:34] For example, they did not test David Sr. for DNA.

[00:13:38] There is no mention of whether the jet skis were ever recovered.

[00:13:41] Was the one operated by Max actually defective, or did it start?

[00:13:45] Was there surveillance video from the hotel available?

[00:13:48] If David Jr. was with his adoptive father and Max, how did he get there?

[00:13:53] Were witnesses interviewed? Did anyone see anything suspicious?

[00:13:57] The authorities in Aruba missed their chance to solve this case.

[00:14:00] I think what happened here is they just wanted to get the disappearance of Max behind them.

[00:14:05] Aruba is dependent on tourism, especially from the United States.

[00:14:10] It doesn't look good if Americans die while on vacation.

[00:14:14] If Americans disappear, tourism disappears as well.

[00:14:18] There is no way to know what happened in the case of Max De Vries,

[00:14:21] and that's probably exactly how the authorities in Aruba wanted.

[00:14:26] Forever remaining a mystery is a better outcome for them than revealing the truth.

[00:14:31] This has been True Crime Psychology and Personality from Ars Longa Media.

[00:14:43] This content is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

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