Three boys missing in NJ

[Sher]

From left: Jesstin Pagan, 5; Daniel Agosto, 6; and Anibal Cruz, 11.



CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) -- Police searched block by block Thursday in a neighborhood where three boys have not been seen since playing outside the night before, and fire officials planned to use boats to search the nearby Delaware River.

Officials said they think the boys, ages 5 to 11, are too young to have wandered very far since last being seen Wednesday evening. The river is about three blocks from the home where they were playing.

Police have used helicopters and search dogs to scour the neighborhood, and volunteers handed out fliers to passing cars displaying photos of Jesstin Pagan, 5; Daniel Agosto, 6; and Anibal Cruz, 11.

"We've done everything we can. The only thing we can do now is hope and pray we'll turn around and they'll be walking down the sidewalk and saying, 'We're here,"' said Jennifer Calo, an aunt of Cruz.

Police Capt. Harry Leon said Cruz has the mental capacity of a younger child, part of the reason officials think the trio stayed in the area. The boys were playing in the side yard of Cruz's home at about 5 p.m. when they were last seen by relatives. Agosto lives across the street.

"I turned my back for two seconds and they were gone," said Jessica Pagan, Jesstin's mother, who brought her son from their home in nearby Mount Ephraim to the city to visit friends.

Local merchants told relatives the boys were seen at a water-ice stand, a pizza parlor and a store Wednesday evening

The area is about three blocks from the Delaware River. Leon said the fire department planned to search there.

Late Thursday morning, as residents turned out to help, a police search dog was followed through the streets by officers, reporters and onlookers, including children on bikes and mothers with strollers.

Police Chief Edwin Figueroa said authorities had received several reported sightings of the children in different parts of the city.

The home from which they disappeared is a few doors from a school and in a neighborhood that is safer than most in Camden, which last fall was ranked most dangerous city in the United States in a reference book that compares crime statistics.

[Sher]

CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) -- As police resumed a search for three boys missing for more than a day and a half, weary relatives clung to hope Friday that the youngsters would be found alive.

"We're trying to be as positive as possible," said Maria Luna, 19, a cousin of one boy. "We're trying not to think of anything negative. We will find them and when we find them, they will be safe."

Police began another intense hunt Friday morning after scaling back their overnight search for Jesstin Pagan, 5; Daniel Agosto, 6; and Anibal Cruz, 11. The boys disappeared Wednesday afternoon from the yard next to Cruz's home.

Elba Cruz, Anibal's mother, said she was watching the boys play in the yard when she went inside for a few minutes. When she returned, the boys were gone.

By Friday, many of the relatives had been sleepless for 48 hours.

"Anything could happen. They could be in a house somewhere. Somebody might be detaining them in the area," said Mario Rivera, an uncle of Cruz.

Lt. Mike Lynch said Friday that the search remained focused on a 3-square-mile area where the boys were last seen. "One would think that a 5-year-old, a 6-year-old and an 11-year-old -- how far could they go on foot?" Lynch said.

Officers searched the New Jersey and Pennsylvania banks of the Delaware River, which is a half-dozen blocks from the Cruz home, as well as an island in the middle. Divers were awaiting word on whether they would be asked to search the river itself.

A police dog tracked a scent taken from clothing belonging to one of the boys to an overgrown wooded area along the Delaware, Lynch had said earlier.

The dog led police along a meandering path that eventually led to the river, but there was no sign of the children. Lynch said the dog may have been tricked by similar odors, or could have followed a path one of the boys had taken days earlier.

Lynch said late Thursday that officials considered the boys missing, but had not ruled out the possibility they had been abducted. During a news conference, he asked for residents to "be good eyes and ears."

"When you're talking about tender age children like that, it strikes a chord with anybody," he said.

Last fall, Camden was ranked the most dangerous city in the United States in a reference book that compares crime statistics.

[Sher]

CAMDEN, N.J. — In a place like Camden, it can be easy to disappear.
Since Wednesday night, law enforcement officials and volunteers have been looking for three boys who vanished from one of their yards, where they had been squirting one another with a garden hose.

The searchers, who have been on land, on water and in the air, have had to contend with obstacles ranging from wooded areas to abandoned buildings to a swiftly moving river.

"It's not like we're in the Midwest and we're searching open fields," police Lt. Mike Lynch said Friday.

Both Thursday and Friday, up to 150 public safety officials, including police, emergency medical technicians, firefighters and state police helicopter pilots, scoured a city neighborhood hoping to find Jesstin Pagan, 5; Daniel Agosto, 6; and Anibal Cruz, 11. Friends and relatives of the boy have also searched on their own.

But the varied nature of the area has officials at a loss and, on Friday, the parents of the children pleaded for help during a televised news conference.

"All you guys, we love you. We want you back. We're not mad at you. Please come back. Please bring my baby back," said Jesstin's mother, Jessica Pagan. "If you have him, please let him go, please."

Authorities say there's no evidence that the boys were abducted, but that the possibility has not been ruled out.

Meanwhile, bloodhounds trying to sniff the boys' path have taken police in opposite directions.

On Friday, one dog lost the scent in an abandoned house about two miles northeast in Pennsauken. A day earlier, a dog took her handler west to a pier on the Delaware River.

Lynch said the dogs may have been thrown off by other smells. Or they could have been following a path taken by one of the boys days earlier.

If the boys did end up in the river, they would have had to contend with a strong current and a strong tide, because the water there is affected by the Delaware Bay. With a full moon Thursday night, the tide was strong.

"My son is 7-years old, swims on a swim team and couldn't swim in the Delaware River," Lynch said.

Fire officials on Friday used three boats to search the banks of the river on both the Camden and Philadelphia sides, as well as an island in the middle.

While most residential sections of Camden are mainly made up of row homes, the boys' neighborhood has many single-family homes and duplexes. There also are alleys and yards, storage sheds and chest-high brush. Lynch said the search includes "every trash can, every nook and cranny a 5-year-old could possibly be."

Though less predominant than in other parts of this impoverished city, abandoned homes also dot the mostly Puerto Rican neighborhood.

The land between the river and the neighborhood where two of the boys live includes overgrown woods where trails marked with "No Trespassing" signs give way to wetlands. Trash — from bottles to sofas — makes the land anything but pristine. An old landfill sits along the river in one stretch just outside the main, 3-square-mile search area.

In those rugged sections, horses and all-terrain vehicles have helped police get around.

The area also includes a train switching yard replete with dangers and places to hide or get lost.

Police have also tried to figure out whether the boys may have crossed paths with any registered sex offenders. That, too, is a big job. The city of 80,000 has about 500 registered sex offenders.

Both Wednesday and Thursday nights, Cruz's uncle, Mario Rivera, a bail bondsman by trade, stayed up all night searching.

He said that despite the complications, the close social ties of the city can help find missing people there. "Camden is small," he said. "Law enforcement can find people in Camden."

The trick, he said, is interviewing people, not just searching places.

Besides the neighborhood search, police have visited the homes of several friends and relatives of the boys' immediate families, including some in Philadelphia, which is across the river.

Police also have talked to thousands of people and fielded hundreds of tips, Lynch said. A $9,000 reward was offered Friday for information leading to the boys' discovery.

[Sher]

CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) -- Three boys who had gone missing earlier in the week were found dead Friday in the trunk of a car parked near the yard where they were last seen, authorities said.

The bodies were discovered shortly before 7 p.m. by the father of one of the boys. It was not immediately clear how the boys got into the vehicle or whether foul play was involved.

A neighbor, Carmen Cilla, said she saw David Agosto open the trunk of the maroon Toyota and collapse to his knees screaming. Police rushed to the scene and immediately cordoned off the property with yellow crime scene tape, draping white sheets over the tape to shield the car from view.

Yolanda DeNeely Aguilard, an aide to Mayor Gwendolyn Faison, confirmed that the bodies had been found. She had no immediate information on how the boys died.

The boys -- Jesstin Pagan, 5; Daniel Agosto, 6; and Anibal Cruz, 11 -- had vanished from the yard next to Cruz's home on Wednesday evening. The car where they were found was parked in a driveway next to the yard. It was not immediately clear if the car had been searched previously.

The boys had been the subject of a massive search since their disappearance. About 150 police, firefighters and other officials had searched Friday using boats, helicopters, all-terrain vehicles and tracking dogs.

Neighbors in this desperately poor, crime-ridden city of about 80,000 people across the Delaware River from Philadelphia had passed out fliers to passing motorists with the boys' photos and descriptions.

And earlier Friday, the parents of the children pleaded for help during a tearful televised news conference.

"All you guys, we love you. We want you back. We're not mad at you. Please come back. Please bring my baby back," said Jesstin's mother, Jessica Pagan. "If you have him, please let him go, please."

Anibal Cruz and Daniel Agosto both lived in Camden's largely Puerto Rican Cramer Hill neighborhood. Pagan lived several miles away in Mount Ephraim. Pagan and his mother had been visiting Cruz's home.


I will be posting more on this as infomation becomes available.

[Sher]

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CAMDEN, New Jersey (CNN) -- Three young boys missing for two days were found dead Friday night in the trunk of a car by one child's father, who jumped away screaming and sobbing after his grim discovery.

Later he fell to the ground yelling, "Let me go! Let me go!" as several men sought to hold and console him.

A large crowd quickly gathered, crying and shouting, not far from the home of one of the children, 11-year-old Anibal Cruz.

Cruz, 6-year-old Daniel Agosto and 5-year-old Jesstin Pagan had been missing since Wednesday.

"We are saddened by the events that have turned up this evening," Police Chief Edwin J. Figueroa told reporters late Friday. "As you know ... the three children have been found, and they were found in the trunk of a car."

The cause of their deaths is unknown, and police were not ruling out the possibility that it was an accident, Figueroa said. He said the car -- a maroon Toyota Camry -- was an older model, and had no device in the trunk that would allow someone inside to open it.

Figueroa said he didn't know when the autopsies would be completed.

"Preliminary indications show that the vehicle was located there" when the hunt for the boys got under way in that area Thursday morning with the help of a bloodhound, he said.

"We know the car was searched," Figueroa added. He said logs will be examined to find out which officers were at that site. Many police officers were extremely upset over the discovery of the bodies, he said.

"We have a very fresh and active investigation in this case," said Camden County Prosecutor Vincent Sarubbi at the same news conference. "There are many issues that we have to look into."

The families of the children, he said, were "extremely distraught and grieving." They were receiving counseling to help them cope with their losses.

Sarubbi initially said investigators were treating the area where the car was found as a crime scene, but then said it was an "open investigation. We haven't determined whether this was foul play or just a tragic accident."

The bodies were found about 7 p.m. in the Cramer Hill neighborhood.

After the discovery, police cordoned off the area with crime tape, then hung sheets over it to hide the car from view near a wooded area.

The children were last seen around 5 p.m. Wednesday playing in the side yard of Cruz's home. Daniel Agosto lived nearby, while Jesstin Pagan lived farther away.

Elba Cruz, Anibal's mother, said she left the three children playing in the yard for five to 10 minutes while she cooked dinner. When she returned, they were gone.

There was a massive search for the boys by police, firefighters and other officials, using dogs, helicopters and boats.

Police had said they did an exhaustive search of the entire neighborhood, about three square miles. Earlier Friday, police announced a $9,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the boys.

[Sher]

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CAMDEN, New Jersey (CNN) -- Autopsy results show three boys found dead in a car trunk suffocated, and their deaths have been ruled accidental, Camden County Prosecutor Vincent Sarubbi said Saturday.

Sarubbi said there were no signs of foul play in the deaths of 11-year-old Anibal Cruz, 6-year-old Daniel Agosto and 5-year-old Jesstin Pagan, which he called a "horrible, tragic and unexplainable incident."

At least one of the children, he said, had a history of playing in the car, and investigators believe the three boys climbed into the trunk themselves. The trunk's lid closed automatically, Sarubbi said.

Authorities believe the children had been in the trunk since about 5 p.m. Wednesday night, when they were last seen playing in a side yard of the home where Cruz lived.

Questions were raised about why police officers and others conducting a massive search for the children checked the vehicle but apparently did not open the trunk. A panel will be appointed to investigate those questions and issue a report within 30 days, Sarubbi said at a news conference.

Also speaking at the Saturday news conference, Camden Police Chief Edwin Figueroa said if investigators had checked the trunk when they were first called in, the children might have survived.

"It's premature to determine what mistakes were made, if any mistakes were made," said Figueroa.

"Let me just tell you, I feel very bad, just like the community and other police officers, that three children were found in the trunk of a vehicle," he said. "I think that alone is a tragic situation. We certainly feel for the parents, who are right now grieving for those small children."

He added, "I can't guess what kind of speculation or what went on in the individual minds of police officers that were out there."

Elba Cruz, Anibal's mother, has said she left the three children playing in the yard while she went inside for five to 10 minutes to cook dinner. When she returned, they were gone.

The car was parked just in a shady area about 30 yards from the back of the Cruz home. Sarubbi said he could not explain how, if the children tried to call out for help, no one heard them.

Sarubbi said he did not know how long the children could have survived in the trunk, adding that the medical examiner listed the boys' time of death as unknown. "We may never know the answer," he said. The medical examiner may issue a more extensive report later addressing the issue, he said.

The car, which belonged to Elba Cruz's mother, Carmen Lopez, was not operational because of a brake problem, Sarubbi said. It had last been driven about three weeks ago.

The older-model maroon Toyota Camry did not have a mechanism that allowed the trunk lid to stay open independently when raised, Sarubbi said. "When the children got in the trunk, there was no automatic means to hold the trunk lid open ... In all likelihood, it locked." Investigators examining the car had to use two-by-fours to prop the lid open, he said.

A bag of cement was on one side of the trunk and had broken open, spilling the substance onto the children. Sarubbi would not say whether there were any signs that the boys had tried to escape. He said out of concern for the children's families he did not want to go into detail.

The car's rear seats did flip down to allow trunk access, but the seats were locked, he said, and there was no indication the boys had tried to get out that way.

The boys' bodies were found Friday night, when a relative opened the trunk looking for jumper cables to use on his own car battery, Sarubbi said. The father of one of the children, who was standing behind the car when the relative pulled the latch from inside the car, jumped away screaming and sobbing after the grim discovery.

Asked about a onetime person of interest in the case, Sarubbi would not disclose why police wanted to talk with the man but said that obviously, his involvement had been ruled out.

[Sher]

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Dad: 'Maybe they should have looked in the trunk'
Father of 1 of 3 boys found dead questions police methods

Monday, June 27, 2005 Posted: 1235 GMT (2035 HKT)

CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) -- As authorities began investigating why police failed to search a car trunk where three missing boys were found dead, the father of one of the children said Sunday he could not understand how they died so close to home.

Anibal Cruz, 38, said the family assumed that police looked in the trunk of the car that was parked just steps from where the boys were last seen playing.

"That was the first place to look," Cruz said. "You can look through the windows and check inside. That is simple. Maybe they should have looked in the trunk."

Officials said the boys suffocated after climbing into the trunk on their own. Their bodies were found by David Agosto, whose 6-year-old son Daniel had gone missing along with 5-year-old Jesstin Pagan and 11-year-old Anibal Cruz.

Authorities have said if any law enforcement officials broke department rules in the search they would be disciplined. Police and prosecutors were expected to issue a report within 30 days on the handling of the search.

In addition to the formal review, City Council President Angel Fuentes said the council will hold a hearing on the matter Thursday.

"I know my colleagues and I have questions," he said.

Dozens of officials had searched for two days for the boys, using helicopters, a bloodhound and divers who searched the nearby Delaware River. On Sunday, Police Lt. Mike Lynch said officials felt many of the same frustrations as Cruz, but said it was premature to speculate.

"Whatever the circumstances are, I can tell you that the efforts of those searchers and those police officers and everyone involved were 100 percent committed," he said.

One of the boys had played previously in the car, which was owned by Anibal's maternal grandmother. It had been sitting for about three weeks in a shaded, weedy corner of the Cruz family's yard.

The hydraulic plunger that keeps the trunk from closing was not working, so the lid was able to swing close and lock as soon as the boys stopped propping it up, prosecutor Vincent Sarubbi said.

Federal law requires cars made beginning in 2002 to have release latches inside the trunk, but the Toyota in which the boys were found appears to have been an older model.

Sarubbi said some periods of hard rain on Wednesday evening may have muffled any noises from the well-insulated trunk, which was parked far enough from the house to make it difficult to hear any voices coming from it.

A joint funeral service for the boys was tentatively scheduled for Wednesday in Camden. A steady stream of visitors on Sunday placed stuffed animals, balloons, candles and notes in front of the yard where the boys were last seen playing together.

[Sher]

CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) -- Friends and neighbors clutched candles and umbrellas as they prayed and wept at a vigil Monday evening for three boys who authorities said accidentally suffocated in a car trunk.

Clergy and others offered prayers and scripture readings in both Spanish and English as they struggled to come to terms with the tragedy.

Daniel Agosto, 6, Anibal Cruz, 11, and Jesstin Pagan, 5, vanished Wednesday evening. Police records show the car where the boys ultimately were found had been inspected, but it appeared the trunk had not been checked.

The mourners gathered on a soccer field that days earlier had been the staging area for law enforcement searchers.

"Your kids are supposed to bury you, you're not supposed to bury your kids," said Adrian Figueroa, 59, a friend of Agosto's father. "It's the greatest pain any human could suffer."

The boys' relatives attended the vigil, as did Camden's police chief and some City Council members.

A prayer service was scheduled Tuesday evening and a viewing was planned Wednesday. Burials will be held Thursday for the two younger boys; Cruz's body will be flown to Puerto Rico for burial.

Authorities have promised a thorough review of how the case was handled. An official report is due July 25.

"The families of these boys and the community at large have questions that need to be answered fully and accurately," Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi said in a statement.

[Sher]

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CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) -- Police failed to follow proper procedures as they searched for three missing boys, neglecting a federal agency's recommendations to immediately look in enclosed spaces such as car trunks, a report released Tuesday said.

The report also faulted parents of the children for waiting three hours to call police, and for not disclosing during the massive search that one of the boys had previously played in the trunk of the car that was parked in the yard where they had been last seen.

Anibal Cruz, 11; Daniel Agosto, 6; and Jesstin Pagan, 5, were found dead in the car's trunk after two days of fruitless searching after they vanished June 22 from the yard of the Cruz home. An autopsy concluded they were alive for hours while the search continued.

"There's enough blame to go around -- the city, the police and the family," said Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi.

Parents of the boys and their attorneys were given the report Tuesday morning; it was then released publicly.

Camden police never adopted search procedures recommended in 1998 by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the report said. That advice states that, in cases of missing children, police should immediately search confined spaces such as refrigerators and car trunks.

By the day after the boys vanished, 150 law enforcement officials were using boats, helicopters and search dogs in a vain attempt to find them. But the report said officials should have brought the dogs in sooner.

The bodies were discovered when a relative looking for jumper cables opened the trunk of a disabled Toyota Camry next to the Cruz home. An autopsy ruled the boys suffocated, dying between 13 and 33 hours after climbing into the car.

Peter M. Villari, attorney for one of the boy's mothers, said the report did not give a good explanation of why the car trunk was not examined.

"The police should have searched the trunk within an hour of getting there, but the parents should have searched there, too," said Villari.

The report did not blame any officers for failing to search the car. However, the document stated that, based on law enforcement documents, police and parents said five different times during the search that the car had been searched, even though that was incorrect.

Two officers apparently came very close. At about 3 a.m. June 23, about 10 hours after the boys disappeared, they banged on the trunk of the car and loudly called the boys' names but heard no response, the report stated.

Sarubbi said the medical examiner believes the boys did not answer because they already had lapsed into unconsciousness after falling asleep. The report states the boys did not struggle while in the trunk.

The boys apparently climbed into the trunk through the car's passenger compartment, moving items such as a tire iron and car jack into the compartment and leaving their shoes there as well, according to the report.

The report was not designed to blame a particular person, Sarubbi said, and he hoped its findings would be a catalyst for change in future missing persons cases.