DELVONTE TISDALE - 16 yo - Milton (S of Boston) MA

A tipster who recognized a hall pass found on a dead man’s body spurred Milton detectives to fly to North Carolina yesterday in search of DNA evidence.Milton Deputy Chief Charles Paris reported last night that police are hunting for dental records, hairs in a comb — anything to help identify the mangled body of a young man dumped on a Milton street Monday night.“We can theorize a million different ways what happened, but we need scientific evidence,” Paris said.Charlotte, N.C., police spokesman Robert Fey said investigators are working with Milton police to verify whether the victim is Delvonte Tisdale.The 16-year-old North Mecklenburg High School student was last seen in Charlotte on Sunday. A missing person report was filed Monday.Paris said police came upon the body of a young man with severe “head trauma,” broken arms and broken legs dumped on Brierbrook Street in Milton near the Blue Hills reservation.The autopsy did not reveal a cause of death and toxicology tests are not due back for weeks, he added.“It’s a tremendous mystery,” Paris said. “It’s a frustrating case.’’The North Carolina tip came in when someone noticed a note — believed to be a high school hall pass — that was found in the victim’s pocket. The note includes a name beginning with the letter “D,” followed by “Tisdale.”If the victim is Delvonte Tisdale, Paris said police must then uncover more details about his final days.

Delvonte Tisdale's classmates didn't see him in class or on the bus last week, but they thought he was home sick.Even though detectives did not reveal new information Saturday, those classmates said they're afraid they'll never see Delvonte again.On Saturday, detectives from both Milton, Mass., and Charlotte visited Tisdale's North Charlotte home. Detectives also interviewed next door neighbors.On Friday night, Charlotte crime scene technicians assisted the investigation by collecting hair, fingerprints and DNA from the house.Milton police on Monday night discovered a body, along with a note. The note appeared to be a hall pass with the name Delvonte Tisdale written on it.Tisdale hasn't been seen since late Sunday night. He is a sophomore at North Mecklenburg High School.Brandon Lockhart is a senior at the school, and he rode the bus home every day with Tisdale. He said while Tisdale was reserved, he was also friendly, and was always seen chatting with other students on the bus."He was cool, he was laid back. He kept to himself, he didn't bother nobody," Lockhart said.When asked if the bus ride home will be extra difficult on Monday afternoon, Lockhart said, "Yes, cause some of his friends, they might not know, they still might not know what happened."Neighbors said the Tisdales moved in about four months ago and that Delvonte was sweet, but quiet."I would even say that he was shy," said neighbor Carol Brinson. "But in the short time that I've known him, he's always been incredibly polite."Brinson said she's praying for the Tisdale family and is shock over the investigation."It happens in other places. It doesn't happen in your neighborhood, or to somebody's child that lives across the street from you," she said.Other classmates remarked that Tisdale was devoted to the school's ROTC program, and he was easily recognizable because he'd often wear his uniform.

The step-sister of a missing North Charlotte teen, who is presumed dead, said Saturday that her brother ran away from home. Delvonte Tisdale’s father, Anthony, told police he last saw his son Sunday night. Monday night – just hours after Anthony Tisdale reported his son missing -- the shirtless, shoeless body of a young man was found in an upscale neighborhood in the Boston suburb of Milton, Massachusetts. Milton police said the body was mangled beyond recognition, but a lunch pass in the pocket of the man’s jeans had Delvonte Tisdale’s name on it. Neither Charlotte-Mecklenburg nor Milton police can confirm the body is Tisdale’s, but a CMPD investigator told NewsChannel 36 Saturday that they are almost certain it is.

The teen had just moved to Charlotte with his family this past summer, and Tisdale was enrolled in North Mecklenburg High School. He was a member of the school’s Air Force Jr. ROTC program.

Tisdale’s step-sister, who asked not to be named, said Tisdale didn’t want to be in the military and didn’t like living in North Carolina. She said Tisdale and his father fought often. “He and his real father used to get into fights, fist fights,” she said. She said Tisdale and his father fought before he left. She also said he was headed back to Baltimore to live with her or one of his many brothers and sister or other extended family members in the area. She said he had gotten a ride with two friends, but she didn’t know them or where they were going, or how her brother ended up near Boston.

Thursday night, she posted on her Facebook page, “Today is the worst day of my life. I just found out my brother Delvonte Tisdale was found dead.” Tisdale’s step-sister says her mother and Tisdale’s mother are both “heartbroken .. and can’t stop crying.” Even though Tisdale has a large extended family of step-siblings and half-siblings, the woman says they are a close-knit family of more than a dozen children who consider themselves brothers and sisters.

Investigators returned to Anthony Tisdale’s north Charlotte home Saturday, and Delvonte Tisdale’s mother, Jonette Washington, also drove down from Maryland to talk to them. The detectives said little about the case, other than they talked to “lots” of people on Saturday, and that there were several detectives on the case. Investigators from Milton are also in Charlotte to try to piece together a timeline and confirm if the body found Monday is Delvonte Tisdale’s.

Two North Meck students who ride the bus with Tisdale shook their heads when they talked about Tisdale’s disappearance and apparent death.

“It’s kind of shocking to me,” said Brandon Lockhart, a senior at North Meck. “He was a cool kid, never bothered anybody. He just kept to himself -- just a normal teenager.” His brother Melvin, a junior, agreed. “I just hope they find out what happened, because it’s just kind of scary right here.”

Neighbor Carol Brinson said she spoke to Delvonte Tisdale and his father often, and they seemed like a nice family. She said the teen was quiet and polite, and always talked with respect.

“It’s bizarre -- just so bizarre what happened to this young man,” said Brinson. “..how he could be in Charlotte one minute and then in the Boston area the next when they found him.”

She went on: “That’s why this is so shocking -- not that things don't happen to good kids but that it happened to a human being, and he was just a s sweet guy,” she said.

The Norfolk DA just confirmed the identity of the young man found horribly mutilated on a Milton street almost a week ago … he was 16-year-old Delvonte Tisdale of Charlotte, N.C.Using a finger print analysis by State Police Crime Scene Services Section, authorities have been able to identify the young man found dead on Monday night in Milton as Delvonte Tisdale, born November 8, 1994, of Charlotte, North Carolina, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating announced tonight.
Massachusetts State Police detectives attached to Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating’s Office and Milton Police traveled to North Carolina this week to continue the investigation into the identity of the man and the circumstances of his death.
Massachusetts detectives and detectives from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Police Department collected a finger print from a known personal item of Delvonte Tisdale while in North Carolina. That finger print is a match to the finger print taken from the remains of the man in Massachusetts. The investigation into this death remains active and ongoing.

MILTON —
The young man found dead last week on a quiet Milton street has been identified as a missing 16-year-old from North Carolina, according to the Norfolk County district attorney’s office. Authorities released Delvonte Tisdale’s identification Sunday evening after a fingerprint taken from his belongings matched the body found here. Milton and State Police had traveled to Charlotte, N.C., Friday to investigate the case’s possible connection to Tisdale. Police had spent nearly a week searching for clues about the identity of the man, found mangled, partially clothed and without any identification on Brierbrook Street in a quiet, affluent neighborhood of Milton near the Blue Hills. Investigators are still looking into why Tisdale was found here – and why he never made it to his apparent destination in Baltimore. “We have no idea how he got here,” Milton Deputy Police Chief Charles Paris said Sunday. Milton detectives returned from Charlotte Saturday night. Tisdale was a sophomore at North Mecklenburg High School near Charlotte. His family had moved to Charlotte from Baltimore this summer. His mother still lives in the Baltimore area. He was reportedly last seen at home around 11:30 p.m. Nov. 14. The body was reported at 9:30 p.m. Nov. 15 – a little less than 22 hours after he was last seen at home. Milton is a 15-hour drive from Charlotte. Charlotte police issued a missing person report for him Nov. 16. A school hall-pass note found on the Milton victim led investigators to Tisdale. Since then, a stepsister and half-brother have told Charlotte media that the polite, quiet teen had fought with his father, Anthony Tisdale – including the night he disappeared – and had left home before. His half-brother Craig Tisdale said he thought Delvonte wanted to return to Baltimore and live with family members there. His brother said he may have planned to hitch a ride with others who were driving on to Boston. Paris said police still don’t know who drove the car that brought Delvonte here. He said a white Audi spotted on Brierbrook Street last Monday night turned out not to be involved. The Audi was found in the parking lot of the Baker Chocolate Factory apartments in the Lower Mills neighborhood near the Milton line. It had Illinois license plates and a Curry College parking sticker. Paris said the car’s owners were interviewed Saturday and they aren’t suspects. They just happened to be on Brierbrook Street about the time the body was reported.http://www.patriotledger.com/features/x291610468/Milton-victims-identity-confirmed-as-missing-N-C-teen

They use the word suspect in this article which indicates this is definitely a crime. I was wondering if he'd been attacked by a bear or something. Mangled and partially clothed. It could be a hit and run and some of his clothing may have been dragged off. We'll have to wait and see I guess.

Someone on a TV station blog wondered aloud if he could have fallen from an airplane.
I think auto accident is the most likely scenario. Then again, we haven't seen the vic...

Investigators are looking into whether a North Carolina teenager who was found dead in a Milton street may have fallen out of a plane. The body of 16-year-old Delvonte Tisdale was discovered mangled on a Milton road in an upscale neighborhood on Nov. 9.


Nearly 850 miles away, family members were baffled as to why the teenager would run from home and possibly risk his life hiding in the wheel well of a plane. Delvonte’s father, Anthony Tisdale, dispelled rumors that his son, a junior ROTC member, seemed unhappy in Charlotte and missed Baltimore, where he lived until he was 13-years-old, and that he ran away. “My son was ecstatic with Charlotte. He loved Charlotte. He loved the area. He loved his high school,” said Anthony Tisdale.Milton Police found Tisdale’s body on the same day he was reported missing. He was only wearing jeans that contained a note with his name on it. His body was so mutilated that the medical examiner could not give a cause of death. Officials are looking into the stowaway theory, saying it’s unlikely, but flight patterns do go over Milton. Friends of the family said Tisdale didn’t have a preoccupation with planes. “No fascination with planes of any sort, so we have no idea actually where that comes from,” said Pastor James Woodson, a family friend. Tisdale was a member of the Air Force ROTC program at his high school. They said that if the teen somehow snuck into the plane’s wheel well, subzero temperatures or the extreme altitude likely would have killed him before the fall. Tisdale’s family just wants answers. “It’s a hard loss for us. It’s a difficult thing for us to accept still now, because I still can’t believe that my son isn’t with us,” said Anthony Tisdale. The district attorney’s office would not specifically comment on the airplane theory, but they said they are investigating every possibility. Officials from an airport in Charlotte told 7NEWS that on the day Tisdale disappeared, they had no security breaches.

A source says investigators now strongly believe a Charlotte teenager snuck into the wheel well of a plane in Charlotte and then fell to his death as the plane approached Boston.16-year old North Meck High student Delvonte Tisdale was found dead in Milton, Massachusetts, in mid-November.Two weeks ago, it was revealed police were investigating the possibility Tisdale, 16, may have snuck onto a plane through a wheel well and fell to his death Nov. 15 during a flight to Boston's Logan Airport.A source tells WBTV that investigators from Massachusetts were in town late last week and went to Charlotte Douglas Airport. They wanted to see if aviation grease from a plane that flew to Boston the day Tisdale died matches grease found on Tisdale's jeans in Massachusetts.Delvonte Tisdale's body was found about 24 hours after he went missing from the Charlotte area -- all the way up in Milton, which is a suburb southwest of Boston that is over 800 miles from Charlotte.Sources say investigators think Tisdale could have climbed a fence that surrounds Charlotte Douglas Airport and somehow got to a plane without being caught.Officials with Charlotte Douglas Airport haven't commented on the possible security breach.Airport director Jerry Orr said the same number of flights leave Charlotte to Boston or Baltimore, where Tisdale has ties, everyday. WBTV found 13 flight heading to Boston daily; 3 by Jet Blue and 10 on U.S. Airways. There are 11 daily flights to Baltimore; 9 on U.S. Airways and 2 on Airtran.WBTV sister station WBZ in Boston reported that planes headed to Logan fly over Milton if they are headed to runway 4R at Logan.WBZ reports that four planes from North Carolina used that runway to land on Monday, November 15th, the day Delvonte's remains were found. Several folks close to the investigation found the airplane theory hard to believe. One longtime pilot says planes don't usually drop their landing gear until they are 3 miles from an airport runway, but where Tisdale's remains were found is 7 miles away.Anthony Tisdale, Delvonte's father, said at a November 23rd press conference that he had no idea how his son got to Massachusetts nor did he know of his son having any friends in that state.A family friend added that the family does not have any relatives in Massachusetts.Anthony Tisdale says his son was born in Baltimore and lived there for about 13 years, but that he loved the Charlotte area and had made many friends in a short period of time.The senior Tisdale said Delvonte loved the Air Force ROTC program at North Mecklenburg High School."That's why we came to Charlotte," he said.Several times during a news conference on Nov. 23, Anthony Tisdale wiped tears while speaking of his late son. "This will be the first Thanksgiving that we have to contemplate what to do. It's very difficult for us," he said."I loved him very much," Tisdale's grandmother told reporters.Police in Boston, along with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, are asking for information that can help solve the case.Anthony Tisdale reported on Nov. 15 that Delvonte went missing late on the night of Nov. 14. Less than 24 hours after he disappeared, his remains were discovered. The time between when someone last reported seeing Tisdale alive and the discovery is very short, considering the cities are about 840 miles apart.The airplane theory could potentially explain how Tisdale wound up in Massachusetts so quickly, and could also potentially explain why his remains were so badly mutilated.According to a CMPD report, Tisdale was last seen in Charlotte at 11:30 p.m. on November 14th. His remains were found in Boston around 9:30 p.m. the next night -- just 22 hours later.If Tisdale got there by car, Milton is a roughly 16-hour drive from Charlotte.Police found a note on the body which appears to be a school "hall pass" with the "Delvonte Tisdale A Lunch" written on it, along with a signature and the date 10/19/2010.Massachusetts detectives and detectives from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department matched Tisdale's fingerprints to a personal item of his to make a positive identification of the teen's body.Tisdale, who celebrated his 16th birth day on November 8, joined the Air Force ROTC at North Meck High when he began attending the school in August.Maj. Mark Miller leads the ROTC at North Mecklenburg High School and said Tisdale was very dedicated to the program, at times spending up to 20 hours a week doing things for it."He aimed to please, and it didn't matter who was standing there," said Miller. "He was just a good kid."Neighbor Carol Brinson lives across the street from the Tisdale home and said Delvonte would volunteer to help her take her garbage out."He would always stop by and talk, he wouldn't just wave," Brinson said. "But he was soft-spoken and sweet and well-mannered; always out in the yard, helping his dad."An autopsy was not able to reveal how the teen was killed. Because his body suffered "massive trauma" the autopsy was inconclusive -- meaning Tisdale could have been murdered but also could have died for other reasons.People living in the Massachusetts community where Tisdale's body was found said the remains were scattered over several properties."I have no idea what to make of that," said Anthony Tisdale when asked at the press conference about the possibility of his son falling from a plane.Tisdale's father Anthony spoke publicly for the first time Nov. 23. He was joined by Delvonte's grandmother and Pastor James Woodson of St. James Home of Fresh Start Church in Greensboro, which is where the family lived before moving to Charlotte this past summer.

Police find items near where NC teen's body found

December 10, 2010
MILTON, Mass.—Norfolk District Attorney William Keating and Milton police have scheduled a news conference to discuss their investigation of the death of a North Carolina teen-ager whose mutilated body was found last month in a Boston suburb.
Police searching the area on Friday found clothing and at least two other items. They did not immediately say if the items are connected to 16-year-old Delvonte Tisdale's death.Milton Deputy Police Chief Charles Paris said earlier Friday the items will be analyzed at the state police crime lab.
Tisdale's body was found in Milton on Nov. 15, less than 24 hours after he was last seen in Charlotte, N.C.
Authorities have been investigating a theory that Tisdale fell from an airplane after stowing away in a plane's landing gear well.http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/12/10/police_find_items_near_where_nc_teens_body_found/

BOSTON -- The mother of a North Carolina teenager authorities think may have stowed away in the wheel well of a jetliner before falling to the ground in suburban Boston says her son was afraid of heights.

Jonette Washington tells The Boston Globe that 16-year-old Delvonte Tisdale had never flown in his life even though he was a member of the Air Force ROTC in high school. He didn't even like being in tall buildings.

Tisdale's severely damaged body was found in Milton on Nov. 15. Investigators say he may have stowed away in the wheel well of a plane at Charlotte, N.C. and fallen out when the plane lowered its landing gear on approach to Boston.

Washington, who lives in Baltimore, says something must have been building up inside him to prompt him to do something so drastic and out of character.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/14/AR2010121401887.html