Tragedy in Camden--incredible aftermath

Parent Cafe
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<p>In the aftermath of the suffocation death of three young boys whose bodies were found near their homes in the trunk of a relative’s car, today’s newspapers, including the NYT and others are reporting that the police are coming under scrutiny for not finding the boys earlier.</p>

<p>link as an example…there are others to google up, I’m sure.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m062805e.htm[/url]”>http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m062805e.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>“Friends and neighbors of the grieving families said the focus properly belongs on the police”</p>

<p>I can hardly contain my CONTEMPT for the community leaders (including the city council leader and neighbors in singling out the police. Where were the parents and other relatives of these kids? This syndrome of blaming the government is just incredible. Authorities ought to arrest the parents of these kids. Instead, it looks like they’ll attempt to discipline the police officers and maybe they’ll end up kicking in a couple of million to the parents as a grief balm (article doesnt’ say anythingn about that—just my own speculation).</p>

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<p>I’m not going to argue with you about the parents - you’re probably right.</p>

<p>But when the police went over the car with a fine toothed comb, why didn’t they open the trunk? I didn’t understand that myself.</p>

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<p>The question is really whether or not earlier/better police intervention would have saved those boys - i.e. is the fact that the police did not open the trunk the “but for” cause of their death? If not, then they prolonged the family’s uncertainty, which, while not a great thing, really isn’t horrible.</p>

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<p>Don’t you need a warrant to open a car trunk unless you have the owner’s permission?</p>

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<p>Such a horrible tragedy. Thankfully, I have never experienced the loss of a child. I can’t begin to imagine what must be going through the minds of those parents. From my perspective, I think it must be easier for them to lay blame on the police than on themselves for allowing their children to play in a vehicle.</p>

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<p>Barrons – no, it was an abandoned car and the police apparently searched it early on in the process, but didn’t open the trunk. </p>

<p>I’m not one to sympathize much for “blame somebody else”, but I also believe that people have a right to expect our public servants to do their job in a competent manner (although I’m not sure the Supreme Court agrees with me . . . ) </p>

<p>Should the parents be arrested for not keeping a continuous eye on their kids – at least one of whom was, I think, 11 years old? I don’t think so – I don’t keep a continuous eye on my 6 year old. Should the police officers have their lives ruined if, in hindsight, they should have done a more thorough search of the car? I don’t think so, but I also don’t think that disciplinary action is completely unwarranted depending on what the review of the facts turns up.</p>

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<p>I would hope that police officers if not volunteer searchers are experienced enough to look in any enclosed area big enough to hold a child- when looking for missing children.
whether it is an abandoned refrigerator, under neath stairs or even in a chimney- I would like to think that their training has given the background to realize that no area is too unlikely.
I don’t expect frantic parents to be able to think of all the possiblities, but I do expect police officers to do so- as operating under stress is what we hire them for.</p>

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<p>If several hours had already passed and the parents KNEW the kids played in the car and did not look in it from the early point in time, its their own fault for keeping an attractive nuisance and not thinking to look in it from the start.</p>

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<p>I really wish I knew what really happened with that trunk…and as a Parent, I would have looked everywhere I could close to home again and again…</p>

<p>Once, I was at my Ds co-op pre-school. At snack time, my D could not be found. I mean, this place was great, and every room was monitored by parents and staff. Well, we called her name, three parents went out in the yard (with its ten foot fence), checked every nock and cranny, the two parents in the yard did not see her, they checked each car, three more were walking the neighborhood, the cops were called right away, all in about 2 minutes.</p>

<p>We searched all over that school, calling her name. After about 5 minutes (which seemed like an eternity, I pushed a sofa (which had about 3 inch clearance away from the wall, and there she was, sound asleep. Man, I started to cry. (Someone had looked under the sofa, but D was wedged in playing hide and go seek and actually fell asleep.)</p>

<p>My point is, during the search we looked where every one else had already been, we double checked everything, and assumed nothing, because when everyone is rushing around, all panicy, those assumptions can be fatal, as we have seen.</p>

<p>After we looked, and the police were they, we looked again, and thats when I found her.</p>

<p>If nothing else, always have a plan. And I am not placing blame anywhere, just hope that some lesson will come from this tragedy.</p>

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<p>Not to be too rational, but wouldn’t someone have noticed that there is something in the trunk? I mean, if a trunk has a lot of weight in it, the car will sag down on its rear tires. While most people would never pay attention to that, if you think that there are kids (or whatever that could be heavy) in a trunk, you could probably guess pretty quickly if there’s something in there.</p>

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<p>barrons - maybe there is some criticism earned here, but people need to find out the facts before they start assessing the blame. For instance, the police did search the car - they just didn’t open the trunk. So obviously they had the legal right to do so, but did not exercise that right. </p>

<p>And the fact of the matter is that it was in fact one of the fathers who DID find the kids in the trunk. So they did think to look there before the police did.</p>

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<p>Hayden, the man who found the kids was opening the trunk 2 days later to look for jumper cables - not for the kids. </p>

<p>And I really don’t know why no one thought to look in the trunk, given the fact that the families apparently knew that the kids liked to play in the car – and the owner of the car must have been aware of the problem with the trunk lid. It’s just one of those senseless tragedies of a lot of the things going wrong – the car shouldn’t have been left unlocked, the parent should have thought to look in the trunk, the cops should have thought to look in the trunk, the police scent dog should have been kept on the property, etc. Lots of “shoulds”.</p>

<p>My guess is that the river seemed like the more likely explanation - so everyone’s attention was focused there. </p>

<p>But it seems to me that it would be good police practice to develop some sort of checklist of common things to look for when kids can’t be found – I’m sure that for every call that turns out to be a genuine abduction or injury, the police must get dozens that turn out to be miscommunication or a kid who has hidden somewhere or is playing games. I’ll bet we all have a “missing” kid story somewhat similar to Citygirlsmom, whether or not cops were called. So a checklist of common places to look would be the kind of thing that could be handed to parents while the cops were off looking.</p>

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<p>Police are always allowed to look in plain sight but not in trunks. Now what if the parents had actually killed them and put them in the trunk—been known to happen more times than I care to recount–any evidence obtained without a clear reason would put the entire case in doubt. Someone else pointed out that they probably did not have a key and did not know the thing had another release. Half the time I forget my Honda has an inside release.</p>

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<p>When my D was missing for those few minutes, my friends banged on the trunks and shouted into them…</p>

<p>And if the car was there in a neighbors yard or whatever, wouldn’t they have asked the neighbor, and if the car was abandoned, I would assume it would have been fair game. </p>

<p>And we look in fridges, in garbage cans, in whatever</p>

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<p>The parents and neighbors spent 3.5 hours looking for the boys on their own, before calling in the police.</p>

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<p>To Barrons:

  1. All the cops had to do was <em>ask</em>. “Have you checked the trunk of that car?” “Is that your car? Can we open the trunk?”
  2. If the cops enter an area under “exigent circumstances” the search will stand scrutiny – so if cops are called to hunt for missing children and they look into places that ordinarily would not be subject to search (inside closets, behind doors, trunk, etc.) – they are going to generally be o.k.
  3. All cars – or almost all cars – have trunk release latches inside. I can’t remember the last time I was ever in a car that didn’t have one. You might forget what your car has, but its a cops business to know that sort of thing. </p>

<p>I’m not blaming the cops here – I think the cops fell short but that the parents fell even shorter in terms of exercising responsibility. I’ll bet that it was a little more than a “few minutes” that the mom wasn’t watching, too – easy for a parent to get distracted. But obviously it is still a tragedy – no one intended for this to happen.</p>

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<p>I agree with most of you here - the parents could have been more watchful, and should have looked better. But they should not, as one poster suggested, go to jail for it. The police could have searched better, but they were not criminally negligent either. It was a horrible accident. I am not an attorney, but I think that if a family calls the police and asks them to look for their children, that constitutes consent to look for their children.</p>

<p>I don’t want to make more of this accident than it is. But what would you all say if there were a murderer loose, and the police looked everywhere but in the trunk of a nearby car where the murderer was hiding? What would you say of the quality of the police work?</p>

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<p>It’s very very sad. Long time ago children were playing hide and seek and hid in a refridgerator out on the curb for the garbage. THe children died and the response was to institute a law that when a refridgerator is by the curb for disposal, it’s door must be unhinged. Just doing that has saved lives.
It’s all very very sad and an accident. Accidents happen all the time and some have tragic outcomes. The boys were playing in their own yard. A real shame.</p>

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<p>Oh just to add, I heard that the boys died with 3 hours of entering the trunk. That was before the police investigation, so the police are off the hook.</p>

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<p>Hayden - I opened a thread with you name , something to tell you, please check.</p>