NJ teens accused of killing 12-year-old showed 2 sides

Associated Press

CLAYTON, N.J.

Something struck Toni Fiorella whenever she would see a mother from her hometown drop two teenage sons off at the Laundromat to do the family’s wash. She didn’t know them by name, but they were always respectful. Their mother must be on to something, Fiorella thought.

“It’s good,” she said. “She’s making them responsible.”

Now, authorities say, those same boys are accused of killing a 12-year-old neighborhood girl and stuffing her body into a recycling bin near their home.

Authorities say she was lured with the promise of new parts for the beloved bicycle she was riding before she disappeared.

Some of the 8,000 residents of Clayton saw the boys as Fiorella did, many others as troublesome teens with reputations for stealing bikes.

But even some of those who saw a lawless side of the 15- and 17-year-old brothers have a hard time imagining them committing such a violent crime.

Sixteen-year-old Na’eem Williams, who described himself as a close friend of the 15-year-old’s, said that he knew the brothers to take bicycles but that it was a leap to think them capable of a horrendous crime.

“I know they didn’t do nothing like that,” he said. “I know they couldn’t, especially not with a young girl.”

Authorities have not discussed a motive and have not released the names of the brothers because they are charged as juveniles. The Associated Press is withholding them for the same reason.

Deputy Public Defender Jeffrey Wintner said his office was representing both defendants, though a private attorney had been assigned to handle one of the cases. He said the office would have no comment.

The boys were charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the death of Autumn Pasquale, a well-known and well-liked seventh-grader who disappeared Saturday afternoon in the town 25 miles south of Philadelphia.

Her body was found Monday night in the recycling bin behind a vacant house next to the boys’ home.

Autumn’s mother, Jennifer Cornwell, told reporters Tuesday that she felt as though her daughter had been treated “like a piece of trash” because of where her body was recovered.

The girl’s father, Anthony Pasquale, a postal worker in Clayton, said he is familiar with the family of the suspects.

Funeral services for Autumn are set for 2 p.m. Saturday at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Glassboro, after a public viewing at 8 a.m.