Nearly two weeks after police told the family of 15-year-old Quawan Charles that his body was found in a sugarcane field in Loreauville, La., the Iberia Parish Sheriffโs Office is now saying that it is investigating the death as a homicide, but The Root has learned that new developments in the case are raising even more question for the teenโs grieving family.
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Despite the lack of urgency or transparency in the policeโs investigation, which the family and their lawyers spoke to The Root about in an interview just last week, the sheriffโs office issued a statement on Saturday saying it has been looking at the case as a homicide from the very beginning.
From NBC News:
โJust as we do in any case involving someone found deceased in this manner, we immediately began treating this as a homicide investigation at the very moment we found Quawan โBobbyโ Charles,โ the sheriffโs office said in a statement Saturday.
The sheriffโs office also said that it had not been alerted to Charlesโ disappearance until Nov. 3, when one of his parents contacted the office.
Charlesโ mother had initially reported him missing to her local police department in the town of Baldwin, and the department then notified the local sheriffโs office in St. Mary Parish, the statement said.
Itโs clear that problematic communication by police, as well as the almost-complete absence of communication with the family of Quawan, is a feature of this tragic and suspicious case. Though the family reported their son missing on October 30 to their local authorities, this information was not relayed to investigators until days laterโwhen they ended up finding his body and told the family he appeared to have drowned.
It appears the family may not even have been aware that the case was being investigated as a homicide. Chase Trichell, an attorney for the family, told NBC News he was heartened to hear the news and that Iberia Parish Sheriff Thomas Romero has told them nothing about their findings in the investigation so far.
โAny time a 15-year-old minor goes missing and turns up in a sugar cane field 30 miles from where he was last seen, it should have been investigated as a homicide from day one,โ Trichell told The Root on Monday. โWe are constantly disappointed in the slow reaction from the law enforcement agencies involved in Quawanโs disappearance and death.โ
Numerous reports indicate that Quawan was last seen with a 17-year-old acquaintance and his mother. Trichell and attorney Ronald Haley, who are both representing the Charles family, told The Root that the Baldwin Police Department recently turned over video footage that confirms Quawan was with the woman and her son on the day of the incident.
According to interviews with the neighbors conducted by private investigators hired by the familyโs attorneys, along with photographs the family lawyers shared with The Root, the woman and her son were last seen loading their belongings into a U-Haul trailer and leaving Loreauville.
Quawanโs family has no idea if the sheriffโs office is aware of these developments or if the woman is even a suspect. On Friday, the family demanded a meeting with the team investigating the teenagerโs death but has reportedly received no response from the Iberia Parish Sheriffโs Office to their request.
โItโs obvious the sheriff is not taking the familyโs grief seriously,โ Trichell said. โThey cannot get closure if there are no answers.โ
In its own statement, the sheriffโs office said that it is reviewing toxicology results and that a review of video evidence from an area near where Quawanโs body was found showed that no one else was with him before his death, NBC reports.
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