Missing New Jersey Boys Found Dead in Trunk of Car

My dad told me he remembers this unfold on the television live, and saw the father collapse when seeing the bodies, so sad..

[June 25, 2005] CAMDEN, N.J. -- The father of a missing 6-year-old boy found his son's body and those of his two young friends in the trunk of a car Friday, two days after the children disappeared from a nearby yard where they were playing.

A neighbor, Carmen Cilla, said she saw David Agosto open the trunk of the car and collapse to his knees screaming. It was not immediately clear how the three boys got into the vehicle or whether foul play was involved.

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

The boys -- Jesstin "Manny" Pagan, 5; Daniel Agosto, 6; and Anibal "Juni" Cruz, 11 -- had vanished from the yard next to Anibal'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 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 also passed out fliers to motorists with the boys' photos and descriptions.

At dusk, hundreds of people milled about in the neighborhood, many in tears, as news helicopters hovered overhead.

"If it was one of my kids, I'd be devastated, like into a million pieces," said neighbor Maria Rolon, 28.

Anibal and Daniel both lived in Camden's largely Puerto Rican Cramer Hill neighborhood. Jesstin lived several miles away in Mount Ephraim. He and his mother had been visiting Anibal's home at the time of their disappearance.

Relatives said Anibal often played with younger children -- in part because they were more like him than kids his age. He suffered from neurological problems and had just finished the fifth grade at a school for special-needs students.

"He may be 11 years old, but his mind is more like a 4- or 3- year-old," said his grandmother, Carmen Cruz.

Daniel disappeared a day before his last day of kindergarten. He had never gone off the block alone before, said his mother, Iraida Roman. She described him as a regular kid who liked to "ride bikes, play in the dirt -- simple kid stuff."

Jesstin also attended a special-needs school, said a family friend, Cornell Worlds Jr. The boy idolized the Los Angeles Lakers and star player Kobe Bryant, Worlds said.

He was "a good-spirited type of kid," Worlds said.

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Heavy showers 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.

Also, a prosecutor says the hydraulic plunger that keeps the trunk from closing wasn't working, so the lid was able to close and lock as soon as the boys stopped propping it up.

Authorities said the boys -- Jesstin Pagan, 5; Daniel Agosto, 6; and Anibal Cruz, 11 -- died from accidental suffocation.

Foul play is not suspected.

Neighbors said the Toyota had been parked behind the Cruz home for at least three months. City Police Chief Edwin Figueroa said the vehicle had been searched before, but it's not clear whether the trunk had been checked.

The families of the three children appeared on camera and made a tearful plea to the public Friday afternoon for help finding their missing boys. There was a $9,000 reward and the public was invited to contribute.