KY - Ray Etheridge, 12, stabbed to death in Louisville park, 30 Sept 2014

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Coroner releases ID of child who died after being found at Cherokee Park (WHAS-11, Louisville, KY)

The coroner later released the child's name - Ray Etheridge - but did not release the cause of death.
Passersby discovered Etheridge near the Scenic Loop around 4 p.m. and called 911.

"We do know that he sustained some type of injuries, but specifically what those injuries were from and how they occurred is still under investigation at this point. So because of that our homicide unit is treating this as a death investigation,” LMPD public information officer Alicia Smiley said.


UPDATE: Murdered boy's name released; family is homeless (WAVE-3, Louisville, KY)

Ray Allen Etheridge, 12, was pronounced dead at Kosair Children's Hospital at 5:34 p.m. on Tuesday. His mother confirmed to the coroner that the family is homeless.

"This case is being investigated as a murder," said Lt. Todd Kessinger of Louisville Metro Police during a Wednesday morning news briefing. "We have made a positive identification on the juvenile. We have made contact with his family."

Kessinger said investigators believe Etheridge was fatally injured in the area Cherokee Park where he was found between 4 and 5 p.m. on Tuesday -- a wooded area near Hogan's Fountain Pavilion.

"From the evidence that we can see, we think that the injuries happened at that location."

Kessinger refused to release a cause of death, but police indicated on Tuesday that Etheridge suffered some type of chest wound.
 
Etheridge was injured/assaulted in a place I went through every day when I lived in Louisville. Brother and his GF still live right near there.



Louisville must have something funny in their water supply this week. So much crazy "stuff" has happened just over the past few days...

A lady was reported missing and found a few days later trying to get out of her own car trunk in a different part of the city.

A man driving crazy (not intoxicated) mows down a smaller car with his Suburban, killing 3.

A shooting at Fern Creek High School.

I don't know how to change the name of this thread. I didn't change "has" to "is" and it looks dumb.
 
Homeless boy slain at Cherokee Park identified (WLKY-32, Louisville, KY)

Etheridge was described as white, 5 feet 4 inches tall and 115 pounds with tan skin, blondish-brown hair and a small scar under his left eye.

He was wearing red and black Nike Jordan shoes and a gray fleece pullover.

Police ask that anyone who saw him in the Mid-City Mall or Cherokee Park area call 574-LMPD.
 
http://www.courier-journal.com/stor...park-identified-case-ruled-homicide/16540051/

Police believe the boy was in the woods for only a few hours before he was found, and likely suffered his injuries in Cherokee Park. “We’re not going to rule anything out,” Kessinger said. “From the evidence that we can see, we think the injuries happened at that location.”

Police believe the family often visited the area, though Kessinger declined to specify the nature of the visits. “He and his family frequent that area,” Kessinger said. “They may be regulars in that area, so we’re looking for anyone who may have seen him out in the area yesterday afternoon.”
 
This is awful. This past month has been crazy in louisville with carjackings, kidnappings, a couple hostage situations and police stand offs a long with the school shooting yesterday. However, this is the sickest because there's not going to be a happy ending. I read in the courier journal article that they believe his body was most likely in the area for a few hours so I wonder where they went after checking him out of school. If checked out about 1, and being found a little after 430, that would put him at the park fairly shortly after leaving school (if he was indeed deceased a few hours before being found.) The investigators are saying they believe it's an isolated incident and that says a lot without saying much. The whole thing is awful.
 
http://www.newsandtribune.com/news/article_312d549e-4989-11e4-afca-53063de4d2d0.html

Melin said Etheridge was in class this week, including Tuesday. His mother signed him out around 1 p.m. Melin said transportation to and from school is an issue Etheridge’s family has faced.

At 4:38 p.m., LMPD got a call to Cherokee Park. Etheridge’s mother reported him missing at 10:30 p.m...

Dwight Mitchell, public information officer with LMPD, said he couldn’t confirm whether family members were suspects in the case or not, as it was still under investigation. He said at this stage in the investigation, police didn’t want to reveal specifics about the chest wound or what caused it.
 

Arrest!

That man is 21-year-old Joseph Cambron. He is charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence.

http://www.wdrb.com/story/26686099/...-murder-of-12-year-old-found-in-cherokee-park

ETA: the link has been updated to include video and more details.

Police say Cambron got into an argument with Etheridge, and stabbed him multiple times. Etheridge died from the stab wounds, and Cambron disposed of the knife.
 
I lived down the street and this is insane! Walked my dog there by the fountain. I moved when a kid was shot in the face just steps from my house over a bad drug deal by the statue. Time to vacate the area. Too many drugs there now.

Todd Kessinger (as reported by Wave 3) said Etheridge suffered a chest wound but would not elaborate.

The mother checked Ray out of school on Tuesdat at 1pm, she later went to the library (which is where my sister used to go to use the free internet and surd the web when she was jobless) but no report if she was at the library with Ray. His body was discovered at 4pm and he was out of school at 1pm so that's a narrow window that the crime occurred. And the sad part is that this mother didnt notice her 12 yr old boy was missing until 6 hrs after someone had already found his lifeless body.

Hogans Fountain is a haven for drugs. Almost everyone in this town knows that. It's fairly common knowledge. Drugs and "hooking up" aka- undocumented prostituion for the gay community. All of this is fairly well known for 20+ yrs. When I was in school, if someone said they were going to Hogan's Fountain, we either assumed it was for a drug deal or they were cruising for men to pick up. It's a truly lovely park and there are some very nice areas and some areas I would call safe. But ZERO area there is safe for an unattended child or teen. I've had a few scary run-ins there and even with a big dog I realized I should buddy up on my walks. Hogans Fountain is one of the "shadier" areas. A nice place for group outings at the pavilion, but I would never go there alone.

Several articles cited that the family went there often. Sad to say, but I've seen such families there in the summer making use of the large shallow fountain (which used to be a kids pool when I was a kid) as a makeshift bathing facility. I just am sad this boy was not missed for so long.

They have named his killer as 21 yr old Joseph Cambron as a result of an altercation. Cambron confessed to the murder. So very sad. This town used to rarely ever have news of homicides. It just didn't happen here. Prayers to the family.
 
I was going to post that an arrest had been made, but y'all beat me to it (with more detailed stories than I was going to use).



But earlier in the thread I mentioned how Louisville was kind of going to Hell in a handbasket...

Yesterday, the news (all "breaking news" so few details then) mentioned a woman who was holed up in a house with a gun and a toddler.
Today, it turns out that the woman was shot by police (pointed a gun at them) and has died.

Woman shot by police at conclusion of standoff dies; identity released



It's so strange that so much crazy/noteworthy stuff has been happening in Louisville. You could expect things like this to happen in the same year, but all of the crazy junk has happened within a week. It seems that on each day for the past week or so, a NEW f-ed up thing has happened.

When they used the slogan "Keep Louisville Weird," I don't think this is what they had in mind.

(BTW Stolat... When I was in college, Hogan's Fountain was where the guys would hang out. I was just never adept at "hooking up." But we'd get our dope by the tennis courts on the side of the park going to Trinity)
 
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/arrest-made-in-death-of-homeless-boy-12-found-in-kentucky-park/

Kessinger said video evidence pointed authorities in the direction of Cambron and that Cambron called police Wednesday night and said he wanted to talk. After police picked him up, the 21-year-old admitted to his involvement in Etheridge's death, the report says.

WLKY reports police say Cambron has a sexual abuse criminal history, but there is nothing to indicate Etheridge was sexually abused.
 
Wave 3 police briefing:

Cambron had a campsite in the area where the murder took place. Cambron worked briefly at Dittos restaurant nearby. He called police to talk (I interpret that as turning himself in). There was surveillance video linking the two together in that area but they would not say where. I'm guessing the cameras are part of the wave of public cameras recently installed by the mayor (?)

Murder weapon was a knife and there were multiple stab wounds. Cambron was involved in a hearing in August for sexual abuse of a 6 yr old but jury released him and he was not on sexual offender list.

The mother was not in the vicinity of the park at the time of the murder but no explanation as to why the 12 yr old victim was left unattended alone in the park. Such a sad thing. I wish our community and society as a whole would get more serious about taking sexual offenders more seriously. There's something wrong with that wiring and how many times do these people have to keep lashing out before we finally accept that the offenses and the violence is almost guaranteed repeatable? So frustrating.

I hung out in the park all growing up, I was just more naive about what was happening there.

http://m.wave3.com/wave/db/336805/content/lPTePcyg
 
12! You're still a boy. Innocent. R I P lil' Ray Ray
 
http://www.wlky.com/news/man-accused-of-killing-boy-in-cherokee-park-pleads-not-guilty/28387316

The man accused of killing a 12-year-old boy at a Louisville park entered a plea Friday morning at his arraignment. A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of 21-year-old Joseph Cambron. During the arraignment, Cambron kept his eyes down the whole time at the arraignment, and never spoke...

Surveillance video from the library there showed Etheridge with Cambron just before his death.

http://www.courier-journal.com/stor...2/arrest-made-cherokee-park-killing/16582115/

The man accused of fatally stabbing a 12-year-old boy in Cherokee Park on Tuesday told police last year he needed help for anger issues.

"I mean there's just so many cases of me just blowing up," Joseph Cambron told police in a sexual-abuse case.
 
Let's discuss coldhearted asses with badges...

Dad of young murder victim arrested (WAVE-3, Louisville, KY)

He had a warrant for "Failure to Appear" from a while back. Why did they decide to do this now?

Wow. Just...wow. Unless the police think the dad is involved and want to get him off the street - and it sure doesn't look like it - then that's really cold. SMH.

But at least some in the community have come forward to help this family.

Etheridge's funeral expenses have been taken care of by rapper Master P, who reached out to the family after hearing about their loss. A memorial fund has been set up at any PNC Bank to cover costs for Etheridge's headstone.

http://www.wave3.com/story/26692687/victims-father-unsure-how-his-son-knew-his-accused-killer
 
These articles mention the father (Ronnie) at the funerals. I hope that means that they are giving him time to grieve before moving along with all of the "failure to appear" crap.

Loved ones gather for prayer service after laying 12-year-old to rest (WAVE-3, Louisville, KY)

Family and friends came together to support one another after saying their final farewells to a young boy who was murdered in a Louisville park.

Visitation and funeral services for Ray Etheridge's were held at Scott Funeral Home in Jeffersonville on Monday. Following the services several people attended a prayer service at the Trinity Church.


Family reflects in prayer after slain 12-year-old's funeral (WHAS-11, Louisville, KY)

Collins knows firsthand that saying is still very real. He and his wife take in children who need a place to stay. They told WHAS11 that sometimes they have children sleeping on their couch or even floor who just need a warm place to lay their heads. Sometimes, Ray was one of those children.

"My children were his friends, he called us mom and dad, just innocent, you know?” Collins said about Ray. “It's a tragedy he can't go to a park for whatever reason and come back out with sweat from playing basketball."

Ray’s father, Ronnie, said the outpouring of support has been tremendous. He's still trying to figure out where to go from here, but he wants other parents to know how precious your children are and there is always someone to help you make sure they are safe.


Child killed in Cherokee Park is remembered in prayer circle (WLKY, Louisville, KY)

A benefit ride is being organized to help the family, and to raise money in Ray's honor. The ride will start at The Monkey Wrench Bar in Louisville, and end at 19th and Green in Jeffersonville, In.

Registration will be at 11am at KSU. The cost is $20 per driver, $10 per passenger.

All proceeds will go towards the Ray Etheridge Fund at PNC Bank.

Please contact RJ Slaymaker for details, (502) 773-1030

*I am unsure what "KSU" they are talking about. There is a Kentucky State University in Frankfort, but that is neither near The Monkey Wrench (Louisville) nor Jeffersonville (IN), the begin/end of the benefit ride.
 

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