For nearly 12 years, Kitty Kurtz has visited her son at the cemetery.

Kurtz said, "A parent is never supposed to bury their child."

Michael Kurtz appeared to be the all-American boy. He was friendly, outwardly happy and handsome. But he battled a darker side.

Less than a year before he died, Michael, who was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and mild Tourette's, told his psychiatrist that he was suicidal.

In Michael’s medical files, one doctor noted, "The thought popped in to his head to drive over a cliff."

Michael was treated for depression.

Seven months later, on July 20, 1997, police paid his mother a visit.

"I said, 'Please just tell me that he's hurt,'" Kurtz said. "They said, 'No, Michael’s dead.'"

Michael's Ford Ranger careened over a hill, hit a tree and burst into flames.

Did he simply follow through on those suicidal thoughts? Or, did something else happen?

The captain with Valley View police, who investigated the crash, said the answer is simple.

Capt. Mark Sierleja said, "I don't think it was coincidence. I think Michael drove that vehicle off of that hill ... probably on purpose."

But Kurtz refused to believe that. Why would Michael kill himself now, just when he had recovered from his depression?

Kurtz went on a quest to find answers. The evidence she dug up led her to a disturbing conclusion.

Chief investigator Duane Pohlman asked, "What happened to your son?"

Kurtz answered, "He was murdered."

Valley View police dismiss that.

Sierleja said, "Never was ... could not be a homicide."

But some of what Kurtz uncovered seemed to point to foul play.

"The unanswered questions are pretty substantial. I agree," Cuyahoga County sheriff's detective Sgt. Dave Schilling said.

Schilling was assigned by the coroner to figure out what really happened. He continues to be haunted by this case. Schilling said, "If that was my son, your son, I think if there are questions that need to be answered, they should be answered."

The crash that killed Michael was horrific.

Jason Rosenlieb ran into the woods to help and heard Michael yelling as fire filled the truck.

Rosenlieb said, "'Awww, it hurts. I'm burning.' That type of stuff."

But it’s where the fire started that triggered real questions.

Valley View said it was an engine fire.

Experts disagree, including accident reconstructionist Sgt. Glenn McHenry, who noted, "The burn pattern is not consistent with an engine fire."

Schilling said, "It's an open question."

And another open question, how did Michael's body end up on the floor behind the seats?

Kurtz said, "If you're the driver of vehicle and you come to a sudden stop, you don't go backward."

The police explanation?

"Michael hits the back of the seat and breaks it," Sierleja said.

When the coroner asked about that, the police handed over accident video of a New York taxicab driver bouncing into the back seat.

The video convinced the coroner. But experts, including the Valley View police captain, now agree it was not a fair comparison.

That New York cab rolled over. Michael's truck did not.

Pohlman asked, "Was it a rollover accident?"

Sierleja said, "No. It wasn't."

Finally, the witness, Jason Rosenlieb, said he heard other voices arguing and cursing in the woods at the time of the crash.

Experts said that could mean others were there the night Michael died and might know what really happened.

Schilling said, "I wish I knew. If there was someone else in that field (I wish) that they'd come forward. Not only would it bring the family some closure, it would bring me some closure, also."

Kurtz said, "I promised him that I would find justice for him, because this is about him."