Slain Normalville teen's parents waited 20 years for answers
Curtis Eutsey was 18 when he stormed out of the Fayette County home of his adopted parents, Kenneth and Beatrice Eutsey, in Normalville after they argued in 1990.
That was the last time they saw their son. It would be two decades before they learned of the troubled teenager's fate.
"When he left the last time, we told him, 'Don't look over your shoulder; we won't be coming after you,'" said Kenneth Eutsey, 71.
State police notified the Eutseys more than a month ago that skeletal remains found March 31 in Mount Pleasant were those of their missing son.
"I just want to bring him home and bury him," said Beatrice Eutsey.
Eutsey had dropped out of Connellsville Area High School and was unemployed, his parents said. He was staying at the home of his girlfriend, her mother and two brothers at the time of his disappearance. According to the Center for Missing Adults, the victim had left the house with two men.
One of the girlfriend's brothers, Robert Daniels, has been charged in Eutsey's death.
"The two boys didn't want Curtis around," Beatrice said. "They said, 'Curtis, we're going to town. You want to go along?' He said, 'Yeah, sure.'"
No one saw him again. Beatrice Eutsey said her son's body was found about a mile from the girlfriend's home.
Kenneth Eutsey said he asked questions about his son's whereabouts but got no answers. One man offered to tell them what had happened to the teen if they paid him $500.
When Beatrice Eutsey went to the post office to find an address for her son, the postmaster told her his Social Security disability checks had been piling up in his mailbox.
The Eutseys had five sons, three of whom were adopted, including Curtis. The other two adopted boys are related to Daniels, the suspect, Beatrice Eutsey said.
Eutsey was born Curtis Douglas Rice in 1973, but his biological mother abandoned him when he was 3. As a child, he was shuttled back and forth several times between his mother and the Eutseys until his mother finally agreed to let the couple legally adopt him.
When his biological mother gave him up, she told the Eutseys, "I just want rid of him," Beatrice Eutsey said.
Eutsey once asked Daniels what had happened to her son. He told her that Curtis Eutsey had gone to Virginia to visit a brother in the Army. The Eutseys didn't believe Daniels and started to think their son was dead.
"Every time we come through Mt. Pleasant, I think of Curtis," his mother said. "I always think maybe I'd see him on the street."
