Found Deceased MO - Titus Tackett, 3, Killarney Shores, 10 Feb 2016

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Ontario Mom said:
I have to agree. It was 14 here last night and our dogs & cats wouldn't even go outside. I do agree with the comment about the condition of his feet as well. If he walked that distance, his bare feet will have evidence of it. It really does sound far-fetched that a kid that size, dressed in just a diaper, could pull off a trek like that, open a vehicle and get in, in the dark, in those temps.
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I agree with you, it seems far fetched. Assuming the parents called 911 at 1am, the coroner should be able to determine if he died after that time which would exonerate the parents as they'd have been with LE. If the coroner says he died at say 9pm the parents are in deep doodoo.

As an aside, today I've been with a friend who has 3 boys and we discussed this case. Her youngest was with us, he is only a month older than Titus and can easily walk a mile, no probs whatsoever, he regularly does it on the school run. He showed me he can open their car door and close it behind him. However this is a "normal" car with lower handles than the one Titus was found in, and his mum pointed out he goes to supreme effort to do things like his big brothers can.

I dunno.... I was hinked up from the start but currently swaying towards tragedy rather than foul play, now I'm hanging fire until the autopsy results are out.
 
I can speak from experience that more than once I couldn't open my van door because my fingers were too cold. I had to go back to the ice pond and get someone else to.

I drive a car now and even in the coldest of winters I find that it is easier to get a car door open than a van door. The side doors of vans are even heavier and take strength to slide open unless they are newer vans. Perhaps it is that a van door is heavier and makes it more difficult to pull a heavy door open. And then - perhaps it is just me!
 
ClaireNC said:
I'm just catching up here and feel the need to say IMO there is no way this baby left on his own and walked away in below freezing temperatures. It was 20 degrees here this morning and I stepped outside in bare feet to retrieve a dog bowl. About 10 steps on the frozen ground and my feet hurt. If he had ventured out a few steps in that cold, he definitely would have turned around and retreated back into the house.

Somebody took this baby and put him in the van. I hope there will be a quick arrest and justice will be found for this little angel.

RIP Titus, fly high little one.
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This is where I'm sitting too, Claire.
 
CoverMeCagney said:
I agree with you, it seems far fetched. Assuming the parents called 911 at 1am, the coroner should be able to determine if he died after that time which would exonerate the parents as they'd have been with LE. If the coroner says he died at say 9pm the parents are in deep doodoo.

As an aside, today I've been with a friend who has 3 boys and we discussed this case. Her youngest was with us, he is only a month older than Titus and can easily walk a mile, no probs whatsoever, he regularly does it on the school run. He showed me he can open their car door and close it behind him. However this is a "normal" car with lower handles than the one Titus was found in, and his mum pointed out he goes to supreme effort to do things like his big brothers can.

I dunno.... I was hinked up from the start but currently swaying towards tragedy rather than foul play, now I'm hanging fire until the autopsy results are out.
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At that age, a child probably knows how to open his or her parents' car door, but would not know how to open every car door. Unless the family had the same kind of van, it's really unlikely that he knew how to get into the van. IMO
 
Any porch lights on? I think even at three a toddler has the thought process to go to a door if he is cold. As long as he could see one. Toddlers are all different, some learn to open car doors quicker than others. But if he could see the van, why not the front door of that house.

This is just horrible, I feel really sad for all involved. An adventurous child missing, is never good.
 
I'm not Twitter link savvy, but @chrisregniertv (ktvi fox 2 news) has tweeted that there were no obvious sings of trauma when Titus was found, and that his autopsy is scheduled for 9 am and could take 4 hrs, possible results by this aft. Tried to post a screen shot, but it's not letting me right now.
 
Oh my goodness, Poor little Titus. I have a three year old boy who doesn't quite get yet (thankfully) how to open or close car doors. His 4 year old brother on the other hand.....god help me.

Anyway, I feel that this case bears some resemblance to the Brendan Creato case that happened late last year in NJ. He was just a bit older, supposedly got out of his father's apartment, walked over a mile by himself and just "laid down and died" at a park. It took the coroner quite awhile to come out with a COD. But now his father has finally been arrested and I from my recollection, they are alleging that he killed Brendan because his teenager girlfriend did not like children. The similarities I am wondering about are how these little boys supposedly got out of the house on their own in the middle of the night, walked quite a while in pretty cold weather, and were found deceased soon after they were reported missing.

RIP Titus. :(
 
[video=twitter;697766064382484480]https://twitter.com/chrisregniertv/status/697766064382484480[/video]
 
keeponsearching said:
Any porch lights on? I think even at three a toddler has the thought process to go to a door if he is cold. As long as he could see one. Toddlers are all different, some learn to open car doors quicker than others. But if he could see the van, why not the front door of that house.

This is just horrible, I feel really sad for all involved. An adventurous child missing, is never good.
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Good point. It seems like a child would seek warmth from a house or building of some kind. Not a car.
 
CoverMeCagney said:
I agree with you, it seems far fetched. Assuming the parents called 911 at 1am, the coroner should be able to determine if he died after that time which would exonerate the parents as they'd have been with LE. If the coroner says he died at say 9pm the parents are in deep doodoo.

As an aside, today I've been with a friend who has 3 boys and we discussed this case. Her youngest was with us, he is only a month older than Titus and can easily walk a mile, no probs whatsoever, he regularly does it on the school run. He showed me he can open their car door and close it behind him. However this is a "normal" car with lower handles than the one Titus was found in, and his mum pointed out he goes to supreme effort to do things like his big brothers can.
I dunno.... I was hinked up from the start but currently swaying towards tragedy rather than foul play, now I'm hanging fire until the autopsy results are out.
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Re BBM

Good point about the height of the handle. Im now wondering if the boy could even reach the handle on that Van. If we had exact dimensions of the height of the handle and height of the boy then with average arm length of a child that old we may be able to guess if the height of the handle would be reachable.

The news yesterday was coming in so quickly I am not sure if I caught whether they found him in the area behind the front seats or not. And we would have to know the make and model of the van which I don't know if we could even determine that from the pictures we saw of the Van in the distance.

I suppose its a mute point because there would always be the possibility that he jumped up to try to reach handle so its probably not worth trying to figure any of the dimensions of vans door handles.
 
I don't see how he got in the van, closed the door and covered himself in a blanket.
Waiting for autopsy reports, but leaning one way I don't want to lean:(
jmo
 
CanadianWells said:
I'm not Twitter link savvy, but @chrisregniertv (ktvi fox 2 news) has tweeted that there were no obvious sings of trauma when Titus was found, and that his autopsy is scheduled for 9 am and could take 4 hrs, possible results by this aft. Tried to post a screen shot, but it's not letting me right now.
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Chris Regnier (@chrisregniertv) tweeted at 4:51am - 11 Feb 16:

Iron County Sheriff Roger Medley: no obvious signs of trauma on Titus' body when found yesterday inside minivan.#stl pic.twitter.com/pQiN4sIkYn
https://twitter.com/chrisregniertv/status/697764771559567360?s=17


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
If sweet Titus did not die of hypothermia, my hinkey meter will be off the charts. Yet, even if hypothermia does prove to be the cause of death I question how he came to be in that van.
 
kimi_SFC said:
Chris Regnier (@chrisregniertv) tweeted at 4:56am - 11 Feb 16:

Sheriff Medley says he could have preliminary cause of death for 3 yr old Titus Tackett by this afternoon.#stl pic.twitter.com/0nxFxEHWW7
https://twitter.com/chrisregniertv/status/697766064382484480?s=17


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


I am glad the Sheriff seems to be implying he is willing to share news updates about the autopsy results. I really hope LE continues to keep the press and the public updated.
 
The last van I owned was a 2007 Honda. The doors were easy. You just pulled it and it opened on its own. You didn't have to slide it open.

That said my children never really had to open them my key had a remote and the driver side had controls to open them as well. So I can't really say if my kids had trouble opening them (2 and 6 back then when we got the van). But I do recall they weren't hard.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Good article:

http://dailyjournalonline.com/news/local/update-toddler-missing-search-in-progress/article_c5e57589-da86-54a0-9286-4f8aca369171.html


Sheriff Medley expresses his deep sadness. Says that the volunteers knew by the look on the Sheriff's face that the news he was about to relate was terribly sad.

The way this Sheriff spoke with such honesty and humanity concerning why he orchestrated a search so quickly really impressed me. From the article: Asked why such a large search team was assembled at the scene so soon after Tackett was reported missing, Medley said, “This is our protocol. This is the way we decided we would handle things after we had a child go missing during a hunting incident several years ago. This is part of our lessons learned. We call everybody in early and hopefully we find them quickly.”
 
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