New Jersey Boys Missing

[Peg]

3 Boys Disappear From New Jersey Neighborhood

POSTED: 3:56 pm EDT June 23, 2005
UPDATED: 6:39 pm EDT June 23, 2005

CAMDEN, N.J. -- Police are scouring a New Jersey neighborhood and a nearby river for three young boys missing since Wednesday.



Anibal Cruz, 11; Daniel Agosto, 6; and Jesstin Pagan, 5 (left to right)


The boys, who are not related to each other, are: Jesstin Pagan, 5; Daniel Agosto, 6; and Anibal Cruz, 11.

Fire officials used boats Thursday to search the Delaware River in Camden. The river is just a few blocks from where the boys were last seen playing.

Police used bloodhounds in their search, and more than 100 searchers were looking for the three boys. Police went block by block in the neighborhood, and volunteers handed out fliers displaying photos of the boys to passing cars.

At one point, police told relatives they had found clothes during their search, but relatives of the missing boys went to the clothes' location and told police the clothing didn't belong to the boys.

A mother of one of the missing children fainted after police told her they found that clothing.

Police told reporters at an early Thursday afternoon news conference that they were treating the boys' disappearance as a missing person's case, and that they don't suspect foul play or abduction.

The children were last seen by friends and relatives playing in a yard around 5:30 p.m Wednesday. Officials said the boys were too young to have wandered very far since last being seen Wednesday evening.

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.

Philadelphia TV station WCAU spoke with some of the boys' relatives Thursday morning, who were sick with worry.

"If right now they're sleeping in your house, please let somebody know," said one parent.

Relatives said Anibal was wearing a green shirt with sweatpants, Daniel was wearing blue sweatpants, and Justin is missing a tooth and was wearing a light blue shirt with a basketball on it.

"We love our kids very much," said another relative. "If you know where they are at, please come forward. We miss them and we love them."

Relatives told WCAU the boys are very responsible. They are three friends who often play together but never have disappeared like this before.

There have been numerous reported sightings of the boys, but none have panned out.

Camden has been called the nation's most dangerous city, but the home from which the boys disappeared is a few doors from a school, and in a neighborhood that is safer than most in that city.

hope they find them..

[lady cop]

the three boys have been found dead in the trunk of a car...no details yet.

[Jika]

i just saw this confirmed on the fox news channel (australia)
they said there will be a police announcement soon.

this is overwhelmingly sad. my heart aches for the parents.

[lady cop]

......Missing boys found dead



Jesstin Pagan, Daniel Agosto and Anibal Cruz
Three young boys were found dead in a car trunk by one of their fathers, who jumped away screaming and sobbing after his grim discovery Friday night. Police Chief Edwin J. Figueroa and Camden County Prosecutor Vincent Sarubbi confirmed to CNN that the bodies were found about 7 p.m. in the Cramer Hill neighborhood. The cause of death was not immediately known.

FULL STORY

[Peg]

How sad is this? The car was an abandoned car on the property of one of the boys. My 15 year old daughter was outraged when she heard this. She wondered why noone thought to check the car sooner. I wonder that myself.

[lady cop]

i just saw tape of a woman police officer, during the search, looking UNDER the car, but never opening it--she has to be very upset with herself. . .............Prosecutor: New Jersey boys' deaths accidental



Autopsy results show three New Jersey boys found dead in a car trunk suffocated, and their deaths have been ruled accidental, Camden County Prosecutor Vincent Sarubbi said today. 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. The boys -- missing since Wednesday -- were found dead Friday night.

FULL STORY

[JAB]

I feel for the father that found the boys. It will be an image he will never be able to erase from his mind.

[CARLA]

Just tragic

I still want to know how the three boys got in the trunk to begin with Also if they were searching for the boys why wouldn't they have looked in the trunk, ol refrigrators and the like places kid want to play in all the time.

What awful grief for these parents

[lady cop]

to wrap this story up...... boys who suffocated in a car trunk last month were trapped alive for at least 13 hours, slowly succumbing while police searched their neighborhood, prosecutors said Tuesday.The boys, ages 5, 6 and 11, died between 13 and 33 hours after they climbed into the trunk on June 22, said the Camden County prosecutor's office, citing part of an autopsy report. The deaths were ruled accidental.
Relatives searched for the boys for three hours and then called authorities. A two-day search that included dogs, helicopters and boats on the nearby Delaware River ended on the night of June 24 when the father of one of the boys found them dead in the trunk, just a few feet from where they had been playing.
Several experts told The Associated Press last month that it was likely the boys would have passed out within an hour or two of becoming trapped.
The question of when Anibal Cruz, Jesstin Pagan and Daniel Agosto died is crucial, in part because of the possibility of lawsuits against officials.
If the boys were dead by the time police were called to the neighborhood in this impoverished city, it may decrease the families' chances of success in a lawsuit against officials.
So far, no legal complaints have been filed, and the mother of one of the boys said Tuesday the report's finding does not mean she will sue.
"I don't think me and my husband want to go through that. Suing anybody or getting a lawyer isn't going to help us bring him back," Iraida Agosto said.
However, a lawyer for Anibal Cruz's family said responsibility for the deaths is now "squarely on the shoulders of the police."
"I think the numbers speak for themselves," Peter M. Villari told The New York Times. "They were certainly alive when the police arrived and certainly well after the search started."
Villari did not immediately return a call seeking additional comment Tuesday.
Villari said last month that he was hired by Anibal's mother, Elba Cruz, in part to see if police or anyone else may have been responsible for the deaths. He said at the time that it was not clear whether she might sue.
A report from prosecutors on issues including why searchers never looked in the car trunk is due next week.
"It would be inappropriate to comment on other aspects of the case until we have established a clear and complete picture of the events and discussed our findings with the families," Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi said in a statement