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Brookfield and Sharon investigators search for answers in death of boy, 2
Results from autopsy not yet available
By Ed Runyan
MASURY
Police on both sides of the Ohio-Pennsylvania line are investigating the disappearance of two little boys Sunday night and the tragic discovery more than three hours later that the 2-year-old was unresponsive in a backyard pool.
Anakin Gammon was taken from the pool to Sharon Regional Health System, where he was pronounced dead Sunday.
The boy apparently left his home on Lafayette Avenue in the West Hill neighborhood of Sharon, Pa., with his autistic brother, 5, Sunday afternoon. A 4:41 p.m. Mercer County 911 call reported them missing.
The older boy was found safe at 5:17 p.m., several blocks away over the Ohio line. Anakin was found at 8:21 p.m. in the above-ground pool of a home in the 600 block of Syme Street in Masury, two streets west of his home and across the Ohio line.
Hundreds of police officers, firefighters and ordinary citizens searched for several hours before Anakin was found.
An autopsy was being done in Pennsylvania on Monday, which police hope will help determine what happened. An official at the Mercer County Coroner’s Office said results were not yet available.
Aaron Kasiewicz, a Brookfield Township police detective, said the Brookfield part of the investigation will focus on the cause of the boy’s death and determining whether any illegal activity occurred.
Sharon police will investigate the disappearance of the boys, said Sharon Police Chief Gerry Smith, who added they will try to retrace the boys’ steps.
The boys’ mother, Nickie Gammon, who posted a picture of Anakin on her Facebook page Sunday evening and a request for the public’s help in finding him, indicated in an interview she was tired of being blamed for what happened but wanted to thank the searchers.
“I am very grateful for the community coming together and finding my son,” she said.
On Monday, the photo she had posted on Facebook had text over it saying, “i miss you so much, mommy loves you so.”
Anita Holloway of Syme Street said she saw Nickie Gammon searching for the boys Sunday afternoon on Erie Street next to her house, so Holloway called 911 to report it.
She said word of the missing boys spread fast, and within a short time, the neighborhood was full of people searching, she said.
Anakin was found in the same area where authorities were searching. Holloway said she is perplexed as to how searchers looked throughout that neighborhood for more than three hours without finding him.
A Vienna Township firefighter eventually found Anakin in the pool, Kasiewicz said.
The boys’ home is on Lafayette Avenue in Sharon, which is one street east of the Ohio-Pennysylvania line at South Stateline Road.
Nickie Gammon’s Facebook post said Anakin was last seen in his yard at the corner of Lafayette Avenue and Erie Street. He was wearing a Paw Patrol hooded jacket and shorts with no shoes, the post said.
The boys were spotted at the corner of Stateline Road and Erie Street a little after 5 p.m., Kasiewicz said. Brookfield police learned of the boys’ disappearance about 5 p.m. The Pennsylvania State Police deployed a helicopter and dogs also were part of the search.
The 5-year-old was spotted playing in a rain barrel by himself at 5:17 p.m. on Edmond Street just west of Jane Street in Masury. The property owner called 911 and an officer recovered the boy a short time later. He was about three blocks from home. The older boy is autistic and not verbal, but the younger boy was not autistic, Smith said.
Kasiewicz said police were unable to obtain any information from the older boy.
Anakin was found at 8:21 p.m. behind a home in the 600 block of Syme Street, which is one block west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania line.
Another of the citizens who looked for Anakin was Brian Kikel of Syme Street.
“From 5 o’clock on, there was a ton of people looking for him,” Kikel said. “I was out three to four hours looking for him.”
Kikel said he was “right there when they brought him out” from the Syme Street home. He heard ambulance workers indicate that the boy was unresponsive.
“It was horrible,” Kikel said. “I was hoping it would have been a better outcome.”
The home on Syme has fences of varying heights around the perimeter of the backyard. Kasiewicz said he found a way that the boy might have gotten into the backyard through the garage, however.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is handling the physical evidence taken from the home on Syme Street, Kasiewicz said. “It’s really sad,” Smith said of the boy’s death.
“It’s a tragic thing for anyone to lose a child.” Kasiewicz said. “I can’t even fathom. It’s got to be hard on them,” he said of the family.
Dan Faustino, Brookfield police chief, said his department carries special radios that enables officers to communicate effectively with the Sharon Police Department and several others across the state line.