hehe. Sorry... I'm with you on this one. Perhaps there is technically some sort of suction form exhaust valves staying open a degree or two after the piston has reached the top of the cylinder, but such suction would be SO insignificant that you would definitely not be able to detect it with your hand.

If that was my car, the next thing I'd do (assuming I'd been provided with no other information than I have) is take off the air cleaner and put my hand over the intake manifold. If there's suction at the exhaust, I wouldn't be surprised if there was suction and compression at the intake manifold. If there is, you could have either a very serious timing issue, a broken cam shaft or timing chain, or something else completely unpredictable, like a mouse in the engine. Somehow I doubt this is a dropped valve. If only one valve dropped, in theory, the engine should start, and then run like crap with LOTS of knocking and pinging from that valve.