Our card this week is Craig Freer, the Queen of Hearts from New York.

In 2004, Craig seemed to have everything a teenage boy could want, loving family, lots

of friends and girlfriends, and skills on the soccer field.

But after he vanished in broad daylight from a small village in upstate New York, police

learned that yet been keeping secrets, and like Craig, this story is filled with contradictions.

I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck.

There's no better way to kick off summer than with a barbecue, and that's exactly what

was on the agenda for Bill and Veronica Freer on a warm Sunday afternoon in the summer

of 2004.

They had invited some of their extended family to join them.

It was June 27th, and they planned to celebrate their daughter's upcoming birthday.

But first, Veronica had to get some groceries.

So she swung by the local price chopper to shop.

It was a bonus that she'd get to say hi to her 17-year-old son Craig, who worked their

part-time in the dairy department.

She knew he'd be there because according to Jerry Gretzinger's reporting for WNYT,

when Craig got home from a sleepover that very morning, he had grabbed his work shirt

and told her he was going to his job.

But to her surprise, when she got to the dairy department, Craig wasn't there.

He wasn't anywhere in the price chopper.

Veronica was confused, and since Craig didn't have a cell phone, she did what parents used

to have to do when their kids went MIA.

...