Deaths of Mooney teens ruled suicides

Staff report

BOARDMAN

Photo

Jamie Serich

Photo

Colin Hart

The deaths of two Cardinal Mooney students found in a township cemetery in December have been ruled suicides.

Police found the bodies of Jamie Serich, 17, of Walker Mill Road, and Colin Hart, 18, of Wildwood Drive, early Dec. 6 in Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

Both had gunshot wounds to the head.

The families have declined to comment.

The death certificates for both teens, released Monday, say the injuries to both were self-inflicted and lists suicide as the manner of death.

Dr. Joseph Ohr, forensic pathologist and deputy Mahoning County coroner, signed the certificates, which also say that the approximate interval between onset of the injuries and death was seconds.

Police at first believed that the deaths were the result of either double- suicide or homicide- suicide.

The gun remained clutched in Hart’s hand. Gunshot-residue tests showed that both boys had fired the gun.

Both boys were seniors at Mooney. The school’s commencement was June 5.

Serich’s mother had reported her son missing about 11:30 p.m. Dec. 5. A police report said the woman had last seen her son about 8 p.m. that day.

The mother told police she was notified by several of her son’s friends that they had received text messages from Jamie Serich saying he was going to kill himself that night and that he was depressed and couldn’t take it anymore, the police report said.

The mother tried to call her son several times on his cellular phone, but he didn’t answer. She said he was driving in her 2007 Pontiac G6 with his friend, Hart. Serich’s friends told her that Hart carried a gun.