Jan 24, 2008 11:45 pm US/Eastern
Teen's Body Exhumed Decades After His Death
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, Pa. (AP) ―
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The family of David Wellington Reed, who was 13 when he vanished after leaving his home for a bicycle ride, attended the exhumation in Schuylkill County.
CBS
The body of a boy found dead four months after his 1985 disappearance was exhumed Thursday by officials trying to determine how he died.
The family of David Wellington Reed, who was 13 when he vanished after leaving his home for a bicycle ride, attended the exhumation in Schuylkill County.
Authorities plan to use modern forensic tests to learn if the seventh-grader died of foul play.
"This case is as important to us, and to the family, as if it occurred yesterday," Schuylkill County Coroner Joseph Lipsett said.
David's body was found in woods across town four months after he disappeared. His family believes his death was a homicide.
"They just pushed it aside. That's a small town and if you're not rich, they don't care," his brother, Joseph Reed, told The Associated Press this month.
Trooper Robert S. Betnar, now the lead investigator, also believes forensic tests will point to a homicide. Police have otherwise kept mum, not wanting to jeopardize their investigation.
David's remains were found in December 1985 in a remote thicket, while his bike turned up along railroad tracks a half-mile away.
Police labeled the death suspicious but the investigation stalled after an inconclusive autopsy.
Experts studying the case over the years have offered differing opinions, with one anthropologist suggesting the death may have stemmed from an undiagnosed case of juvenile diabetes.
Another expert cast doubt on that theory.
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