DECEASED ARSON SUSPECT DESCRIBED AS ‘VERY TROUBLED’

PCPD says 20-year-old Curtis Durbin set 12 vehicle fires, likely succumbed to smoke after becoming trapped in burning truck

Lee Stubbs
Citizen Editor

Victoria Durbin admits her son, Curtis Durbin, had issues. Victoria Durbin never married and Curtis Durbin grew up without a father. Victoria Durbin also said her son dropped out of school after completing the ninth grade.

But, like any grieving mother, Victoria Durbin does not want her son — whose body was found inside the cab of a pickup truck authorities believe he set on fire last week on Wilkerson Drive in Platte City — to be vilified.

“I don’t want my son’s name trashed,” she said when contacted by The Citizen at her Platte City residence Monday afternoon. “My son was very troubled, but he was my only child and he was a great kid. No one will ever know why he did what they say he did. I really can’t believe it.” The Platte City Police Department believes Durbin, 20, of Platte City, broke into 14 vehicles in a Platte City neighborhood in the early morning hours of Feb. 3 and set fires in 12 of them. Authorities believe that Curtis Durbin may have been overcome by smoke while setting the fire in the passenger seat of the pickup his body was found in. Positive identification of the body was made by the Jackson County Corner’s office, who also indicated the cause of death was likely from smoke inhalation. Platte City Police Det. Al DeValkanaere said the department was confident Curtis Durbin set all the fires, but had “no clue” why.

“We know that he was last seen in the area around Platte County High School around 3:30 a.m. (Feb. 3),” DeValkanaere said. “We think he started setting fires somewhere around 5 a.m. or so.”

DeValkanaere also said that Curtis Durbin was likely the victim of an unfortunate circumstance. “We learned from the owner of the pickup truck that Durbin was found in that the locking mechanism on the truck door was broken — there was no handle inside,” DeValkanaere said. “The door was locked electronically —the window had to be rolled down from the inside and the door opened with the outside handle. The smoke inside the vehicle was probably pretty toxic and it probably did not take much to succumb him.”

The Platte County Sheriff’s Department, the Kansas City Bomb and Arson Squad, Kansas City Crime Scene Unit, ATF, State Fire Marshall, Jackson County Medical Examiner and Missouri Highway Patrol assisted the PCPD in the investigation.

Curtis Durbin had run afoul of the law before — the PCPD has records of a few minor transgressions in recent years. However, he was arrested Jan. 24 by the Platte County Sheriff’s Department and charged with second degree burglary for breaking into a house and stealing some electronics and a shotgun and had a Feb. 28 court date pending.

Victoria Durbin said when she left to go work the morning of Feb. 3, she noted that her son was not in his bed. She said that later at work, she saw an online report about the fires and a dead body in Platte City.

“I had a bad feeling — a mother’s premonition,” she said. Victoria Durbin said she left her job to go home, but was detained at the intersection of Gates Drive and Fourth Street by officers who had blocked access to the neighborhood. “They wouldn’t let me come back to my home,” she said. “Eventually, they took me down to the police station and told me Curtis was dead.”

Curtis Durbin’s grandmother, Shirley Durbin, was also at the family residence in Platte City Monday afternoon. She said she was not ashamed of her grandson.

“I wish we could let people know what a good kid he was,” she said.

Victoria Durbin said she and her son moved from Butler to Platte City in 2008. She said Curtis never attended school at Platte County R-3, but he was planning to take the General Education Development (GED) test.

“It’s always been just he and I and now he’s gone,” Victoria Durbin said. “I have lost the one thing in the world that meant everything to me. I’m sorry for the harm he may have done. I suppose I’m at peace with the fact that now my son is finally at peace.”