Couple Offer Home to Solve Son’s Death

The house in the Ozarks is modest yet uncommonly beautiful, set amid acres of green rolling hills, forest and pristine lakes.

Arlyne and Darrell Barnes built it and moved in eight years ago, dreaming of living out their remaining years there. But the dream died on July 26, 1997, the day Arlyne Barnes’ 29-year-old son perished in a mysterious shotgun blast and fire at his home 145 miles away, across the state line in rural Brentwood, Ark.

To finance a renewed investigation into the tragedy, the Barneses are offering their home as the prize in a contest, the winner being whomever best explains in 500 words or less why he or she wants it. The entry fee is $100.

The fire that killed Mitchell Krupp burned so hot that it reduced everything, including his body, to little more than a pile of gray ash. Authorities said the fire was deliberately set using an accelerant, but classified the cause of death as “undetermined.” So the Barneses launched their own investigation.

They quickly spent more than $20,000, their life savings. Now they hope their dream house will raise $185,000, enough to pay off the mortgage, rent them somewhere else to live, and leave at least $50,000 to finance another investigation.

That, they say, is how much it will cost to track down and interview witnesses now scattered around the country, perform expensive forensic tests on the home and Krupp’s remains and--if the Barneses’ suspicions prove correct--bring a wrongful death lawsuit against a killer.

Arlyne Barnes, a 57-year-old retired secretary, is certain her son was murdered and his death made to look like a suicide. Her lawyer, Stanley V. Bond, has the same suspicion, “but I can’t discuss it,” he said in a telephone interview.

Capt. Chuck Rexford, who investigated Krupp’s death for the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, would only say that the case is still open.

“I’m not going to make any comment on it beyond that,” he said. “There’s already been too much comment made.”

The Northwest Arkansas Times, which has called on the sheriff’s department to step up its investigation, reported on the anniversary of Krupp’s death that Rexford acknowledged he had suspicions but lacked evidence to pursue them.

“Based on all we know, we don’t believe at this point this was a suicide,” the newspaper said in an editorial last July.

What authorities have said they know is that hours before the fire Krupp’s wife, Pam, left their home for the local veterans hospital. There she checked into the psychiatric ward.

The two had met while with the Air Force in Omaha, Neb., and married in 1991. Each had mental and physical problems up to the night of Krupp’s death. Witnesses told authorities that Arlyne Krupp said they had been fighting that night and that her husband was holding a shotgun and threatening to kill himself when she left.

At 4 a.m., she called Arlyne Barnes to ask if she had heard from Krupp.

“I said, ‘Pam, it’s 4 in the morning. Why would I have heard from him?’ And she said, ‘Well, the house has burned down, and I haven’t seen Mitch.’ ”

The next day, investigators found what was left of a shotgun near the remains of a body believed to be Krupp’s. He was determined to have died from a shotgun wound and burns.

The fire destroyed almost every bit of evidence, including so much of Krupp’s body that it has never been positively identified. Thus authorities will only say that the remains buried on a hill overlooking the Barneses’ home are believed to be his.

“This is where we expected to spend the rest of our lives,” Arlyne Barnes said as she proudly showed a visitor through it.

“Every blade of grass out there, we planted the seeds,” Arlyne Barnes said.

Mitchell Krupp was Arlyne Barnes’ son by a previous marriage. She married Darrell, an auto body shop manager and insurance adjuster, when her son was 17.

Mitchell and Darrell became best friends, and it was because of Darrell’s advice that Mitchell joined the Air Force.

At first, the Barneses say, they might have accepted the idea that Mitchell Krupp killed himself.

A painful stomach ailment had left him disabled. Once a cheerful youngster who loved to work, fish and play the drums, he later was beset by personal problems.

But as the Barneses looked at what evidence there was, they grew suspicious.

“One investigator said he’d seen suicide and he’d seen arson. But he’d never seen a suicide with an arson in his 25 years as an investigator, “ Darrell Barnes recalled.

Then neighbors started bringing their own suspicions to them.

They hope to hear more from those neighbors, and also Krupp’s wife, who has since remarried and moved out of state.

“We want a jury trial where they can hear all the information we’ve collected and listen to the witnesses,” Arlyne Barnes said.

They have set up an Internet site promoting the contest, as well as put a link to it on a site dedicated to Krupp’s memory. And they are hoping to paper much of southwest Missouri with fliers about it.

The contest will close June 15. If there are at least 1,850 entries, an independent panel of judges will announce the winner on July 4. The Barneses will pay the closing costs. If there are fewer entries, the contest will be canceled and everyone’s money refunded.

The idea was inspired by the 1996 movie “The Spitfire Grill,” in which an elderly woman makes her restaurant the prize in a similar contest. In mid-February, after attorney Bond checked with state officials that it was legal, the Barneses began accepting entries. They received eight the first week.

And if a winner emerges and the Barneses have to move? The couple say they will never give up searching for answers, nor will they leave their son behind. Glancing up at his hillside burial place, Arlyne Barnes wipes away a tear.

“We’re going to take him with us,” she says.

Contest details are obtainable at www.angelfire.com/mo/home contest