No foul play suspected in boys' deaths in car trunk

CAMDEN, N.J. -- As their parents frantically searched for them, three small boys were tucked quietly into the trunk of a beat-up car, where any noise they may have made was muffled by insulation or drowned out by the sound of driving rain, officials said Saturday.

The boys' bodies were discovered Friday evening after a two-day search of several square miles of land and water, during which a police spokesman said officials were looking in "every trash can, every nook and cranny a 5-year-old could possibly be."

Authorities said Saturday that the boys had suffocated after climbing into the trunk on their own. No foul play was involved, said Camden County prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi.

Death certificates did not give a time of death for Jesstin Pagan, 5, Anibal Cruz, 11, and Daniel Agosto, 6. Officials said a full autopsy report may include an estimate.

"It's a tragic loss. We're all hurting right now," said Maggy Ortiz, 37, a cousin of Daniel Agosto's mother. "We all had faith that we were going to find them alive, not the way we found them."

The deaths brought to 11 the number of children who have accidentally died in car trunks since 2000, according to Kids and Cars, a not-for-profit group in Leawood, Kan.

"They were probably playing hide and seek and thought, 'Nobody will find us here,"' said Janette Fennell, the group's founder and president. "Unfortunately, they didn't, and it became this tragedy."

For two tortured days after the boys disappeared, dozens of officials searched their Camden neighborhood -- checking in backyard sheds and abandoned houses and beneath manhole covers. A bloodhound tracked odors to the nearby Delaware River. Helicopters buzzed constantly overhead. Divers explored some small ponds and rescue boats patrolled the river's banks.

But it was finally chance that led to the grisly discovery Friday, just before thousands of Camden residents were to gather for a vigil for the missing children.

Sarubbi said an uncle of one of the boys wanted to look in the trunk because he was searching for a set of jumper cables. Daniel's father, David Agosto, accompanied him, the prosecutor said.

In a scene captured by television news crews, David Agosto lifted the trunk of the inoperable Toyota Camry and broke down in tears, throwing himself against a car. He was later taken away on a stretcher by paramedics, crying and flailing his arms and legs.

The prosecutor said 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.

Figueroa said if any law enforcement officials broke rules in the search they would be disciplined.

Trenae Williams, 16, left a stuffed dog and remembered Anibal Cruz, who is known in the neighborhood as "Juni." Like many neighborhood residents, she was having a hard time accepting the explanation that the boys' deaths were accidental.

"I've known Juni since he was little," Williams said. "Juni always had a smile on his face."