2005
Media Releases:
CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
VINCENT P. SARUBBI, CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR
MEDIA INFORMATION
July 22, 2005
Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi and Camden Police Chief
Edwin J. Figueroa announced today that completion of an after-action
review of a search for three boys who died in a car trunk in Camden,
N.J., will be delayed by one week from the target date, July 25,
2005.
While a panel conducting the review has received most of the relevant
police reports from officers who participated in the search, a small
but significant number are outstanding. Panel members expect to
have those reports some time next week, and their written findings
and recommendations to be completed by Monday, Aug. 1, 2005. The
report will then be made available to and discussed with the boys'
families before being released to the public as soon after Monday
as possible, Sarubbi and Figueroa said.
Led by Camden Police, the missing persons and search operation also
included numerous other public safety agencies as well as citizen
volunteers. More than 100 law enforcement officers participated.
The operation began on the night of June 22, 2005, when family members
reported that they could not find the three boys - Anibal Cruz,
11, Daniel Agosto, 6, and Jesstin Pagan, 5. The operation ended
at approximately 6:45 p.m. on Friday, June 24, when a relative of
Anibal Cruz's found the boys dead in the trunk of a Toyota Camry
parked in the yard of the Cruz home in the 900 block of Bergen Avenue
in Camden. The county medical examiner has ruled that the deaths
resulted from accidental suffocation.
Sarubbi and Figueroa stressed that the time frame for receiving
the last of the police reports is not the result of any agency's
unwillingness to cooperate, but rather of internal policies for
the writing, commander review and release of reports.
"We understand that the families, the public and the media are anxious
for more information and answers to their many questions, but we
have a duty to be thorough and complete in our review," Sarubbi
said. "I believe a short, one-week extension of my self-imposed
deadline is justified in order to accomplish that."
The review panel consists of First Assistant Camden County Prosecutor
James P. Lynch, Deputy Chief of Camden County Investigators Michael
Kantner and Camden Police Deputy Chief Edward Hargis. The group
has obtained and reviewed hundreds of pages of reports written by
officers from multiple law enforcement agencies and made follow-up
inquiries where necessary.
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