ANOTHER MISSING AMERICAN IN ARUBA

Michigan Teen Missing in Aruba--Another Cold Case

For two months 7 Action News has been investigating the disappearance of boy from Brighton. Now the FBI is getting involved to find out what happened to a young teen on the island of Aruba.

Police in Aruba say Max Devrees’ disappearance was just an accident. But Action News has learned the FBI is now stepping in to investigate this case because it might be much more than just an innocent mystery in Aruba. The inviting ocean and sandy beaches of Aruba have proven dangerous for an American more than once recently.

Yvonne Devries took 14-year-old Max and his younger sister to Aruba in may of 2004. She wanted them to spend some healing family time together following the death of her husband. "I want to find out if this was truly an accident. Was my son set up to be taken in Aruba? Was I followed and stalked and my son purposely targeted? We went there as basically a memorial service, privately for the family, in honor of their dad," said Yvonne.

At their hotel the Devrees family ended up hanging out with another hotel guest. He was a fellow American, 56-year-old David Stacey Sr. Stacey offered to pay for Max to rent a wave runner so they could go out on the water together. "Max was jumping up and down, really excited, let me go, let me go. And I did," said Yvonne.

That was the last time she would see her son. "They didn’t come back in 45 minutes. They didn’t come back in an hour. Pretty much immediately, I had that sinking feeling something was wrong," explained Yvonne. The police launched a massive ocean search.

After several hours they rescued Stacey about four miles off the coast, but Max was never found. According to Aruba police reports obtained by Action News, Stacey told police Max’s wave runner stopped working. He said he tried to tow Max’s watercraft, but that stranded both machines.

Back on land Stacey told police Max somehow slipped away. But Stacey’s story seems to change, depending on who he spoke to. In one police interview, Stacey said "Max started swimming towards shore." But Yvonne said he told her something entirely different, "He said, 'I heard a thump and Max was floating away.' I said, 'was he hurt?' 'Well, I don't know, that was our said agreement between the two of us, to save our energy.' 'What do you mean an agreement?' If it was your son, floating away, you would yell out to him, are you okay?"

In his first interview with police, Stacey told detectives he didn’t have an agreement with Max. Stacey also told police, "I do not remember if I called [out to] Max. I don’t think I did." But in another statement 2 days later, Stacey said, "I called out to [Max], but he did not answer."

Corey Williams is a Michigan detective who is helping Yvonne learn the truth about what happened to Max. He said the statements to the police don’t add up, "The minute I started reading, I started seeing what I would describe as glaring inconsistencies."

Williams is also concerned about how quickly the Aruban police closed out the case without digging further into Stacey’s background. "It appears to me that there could possibly be foul play involved. It definitely appears to me that there needs to be more investigation done," said Williams.

In the Aruban police reports, David Stacey Sr. told detectives that he did not kill or do anything to hurt Max. As for the Aruba police, they have not returned our phone calls to tell us why they closed their case so quickly. Yvonne wants someone to find out how and why her son vanished, "Whatever you hold dear to you, just make sure you really realize what you do have, make sure you treasure it everyday, because when you wake up, you don’t know if that’s going to be your last day with them."