Identified! CO - Denver, Teen's body in suitcase, Apr'11 - Joshua Churchwell

[dreamweaver]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_1...-local-crime+(Denver+Post:+News:+Local:+Crime)
According to a news release about the contest issued by Adams County, the Churchwells' "forever" family includes three biological children and eight foster children. The family has provided emergency foster care for Adams and Kit Carson counties.
Joshua Churchwell had attended Ridge View Academy in Watkins, a Denver public school that specializes in young people who have fallen behind in more traditional schools.


Read more: Ruby Hill body identified - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_1...enver+Post:+News:+Local:+Crime)#ixzz1IhlCl8Dd
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

 

[wfgodot]

Dead Teen In Suitcase Had Fled Correctional School

DENVER -- The 17-year-old boy whose body was found in a suitcase in a Denver field last week had run away during a wrestling competition at East High School in January, authorities said Wednesday.

Joshua Churchwell of Burlington, was attending Ridge View Academy
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Because Ridge View students are legally in custody at the correctional program, the Sheriff's Office obtained an arrested warrant charging him with escape, Robinson said.
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much more at denverchannel.com link above

 

[angelmom]

I wonder if the school even notified the parents that he had run away.

Poor boy. RIP.

 

[Claudette]

So it sounds like the family is probably not suspect, as he was not living there, am I reading that right?

 

[Shin Masamura]

I hope this case stays in the spotlight, this is so tragic..

Joshua Churchwell

 

[dsntslp]

Were the foster parents still collecting their foster pay for this young man while he was in "corrections"? If so, what a racket.

 

[zinc]

Let's please not make a sad situation uglier than it already is.

For what it's worth, Josh was permanently adopted by the Churchwell family years ago.

The Denver Post: Boy found dead near Ruby Hill was likable, friendly son of upstanding family, friends say
April 5, 2011
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_17775315

"Josh was one of the cutest little boys and had a great personality, a very friendly little fellow," said Willie Sharp, whose great-grandson was a friend of the 17-year-old boy.

Joshua was the son of Burlington city administrator Bob Churchwell and his wife, Jan Churchwell.

 

[maggieo]

He really was a beautiful, happy-looking young man, though it sounds like his life had some real challenges. I hope his family finds out what happened. So tragic!

 

[dsntslp]

It was a legitimate question based on what I know of how the foster care system works.
Not an attempt to make a bad situation worse and no implication toward the family but to the system itself and how it can be "worked".

So, I will ask again another way...
Do foster care payments stop when a foster child goes to detention or corrections?
Yes, I understand now that this young man was adopted but the question still remains in regards to other cases.

I'll find a more appropriate thread or post it in the Jury room, nm.

 

[burbqueen]

good question! I want to know too. Something about this situation is odd to me. Any updates? I cant find any.

 

[OkieGranny]

From November 2012:

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_21961362/death-raises-concern-that-denver-boy-suitcase-mystery

The parents of a 17-year-old boy whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase nearly two years ago fear that the death of another troubled teen could end their hope of finding out what happened to their son.

Anthony Ricardo Ford, 18, was brought into the Adams County Jail on Oct. 13 on drug, weapons and other charges... He died sometime after his arrest. His death is under investigation...

Ford, who also attended Ridge View, was with Churchwell when he walked out of East and got into a car with another teen. Denver police have told Churchwell's parents that their son and Ford stayed with a third teen at an apartment near Denver's Ruby Hill Park. A group of boys found Josh's body in a trash-strewn lot near the park 12 weeks later.

 

[U2forever]

OkieGranny, thanks for the update.

He was gone from the corrections school for 12 weeks and he wasn't reported missing?
Did I read this correct, the family said on the second page Joshua had not been reported missing?

I'm going back for a second look...

ETA:

A 17-year-old boy whose body was found in a suitcase in a Denver field Friday is the son of the Burlington city administrator.

On Monday, the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner identified the dead boy as Joshua Oaks Churchwell of Burlington.

The teen is the son of Bob Churchwell, the city administrator for Burlington, a town on the Eastern Plains.

Denver and Burlington police said the teen had not been reported missing.

 

[U2forever]

Snipped from the article OkieGranny posted above...http://www.denverpost.com/ci_21961362/death-raises-concern-that-denver-boy-suitcase-mystery
BBM:

Churchwell said he can't forget an incident that occurred when Josh was at Ridge View.

His three roommates fashioned crude knives and practiced thrusting them into the undersides of their mattresses.

Josh told them to get rid of the blades within a week or he would turn them in, Bob Churchwell said.

When they refused, he made good on his word.

Bob Churchwell and his wife, Jan, visited Josh once a month at the school in Watkins and heard the story from a counselor. They worried he had become a target, especially after another boy stabbed him in the side with a pencil. Administrators told them not to worry, Bob Churchwell said.

Today, he wonders if Josh's break from Ridge View was engineered by others in order to get him to a place where someone could take revenge.

What is wrong with that school? I smell a rat, a great big smelly, gnarly, nasty RAT.

I'm sitting here wondering...did Joshua really run away from that school, and why wasn't he reported as missing or at least reported he had run away, he was a minor for crying out loud and the parents were not notified. That school needs to be investigated. :banghead:

 

[Gardener1850]

Officially, 17-year-old Joshua Oakes Churchwell’s death isn’t being investigated as a homicide — it’s classified as a death investigation.

That’s the case even though two boys found Josh’s body curled in a fetal position inside a 20-by-29 inch suitcase that was only 11 inches deep in a trash-strewn vacant lot on April 1, 2011.

Josh’s death wasn’t ruled a homicide because Dr. Joseph White, who performed the autopsy, formally categorized the cause and manner of death as “undetermined.”

That decision in turn determined how the case was handled. For example, the Denver police department does not include Joshua’s case on its cold-case homicide list.

Even so, Doug Schepman said detectives have continued to investigate leads in the case when they come up.

Despite not ruling Joshua’s death a homicide, the coroner saw evidence it was not likely a case where someone died in an accident, of a drug overdose or by natural causes.

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/09/25/colorado-cold-cases-teen-buried-suitcase/