HIGH RIDGE, Mo. — The last time John and Jessica Parton saw their only son, he told them a friend of his had been murdered at a party they went to, even though some said the death was a suicide.
“He said he was there and that it was not a suicide, it was a murder,” John Parton Sr. recalled.
That was 2 ½ years ago.
The Partons say their lives have fallen apart as they continue to wait and hope for answers about their son, John Paul, who was 19 when they last saw him.
“I miss him with all my heart,” Jessica Parton said in an emotional interview with the I-Team.
The party in question happened in April 2021 at a home in Fredricktown, Missouri. Derontae Martin, 19, of Ferguson, died from a gunshot wound to his head.
The coroner ruled the death a suicide but held a coroner’s inquest two months later as Martin’s family continued to question the coroner’s findings.
The homeowner and a few other teens who attended the party testified that Martin’s death was a suicide, and that Martin was under the influence of methamphetamine when he took his own life.
Missouri Highway Patrol investigators also testified that they had found no evidence of foul play.
Still, the jury ruled Martin died by violence – not suicide or natural causes.
John Paul Parton was not among those who testified, even though he had been at that party.
His family had already filed a missing person’s report for him in High Ridge, Missouri, where he had been living with his grandmother.
The I-Team obtained the audio from the 911 call the homeowner made following the shooting. On it, someone can be heard yelling “John Paul!”
“He was there,” his mother said.
Also on the day they last saw their son, he told them he had burglarized a business with some of his friends, and they had a disagreement about the money.
The Partons also wonder whether that disagreement turned fatal for their son.
“We just want answers,” Jessica Parton said. “And some day it will all come out.”