Found Deceased OH - Harley Dilly, 14, walking to Port Clinton High School, 20 Dec 2019 #4

[AgeofAquaruis]

Was it because they needed to seek a warrant to search it?
Did they request yet denied one?

They didn't even try. Just looked around the outside of the house,decided because it didn't like anyone had broken in, to not check it out any further.

 

[Seattle1]

Was it because they needed to seek a warrant to search it?
Did they request yet denied one?

Just the opposite --seems to me that the homeowner here immediately gave consent when asked and provided access via the lockbox on the back door. It's also been reported that the house is under renovation and the homeowner was last at his property in November.

Personally, I think of this property as unoccupied and not some random abandoned, vacant house that law enforcement somehow ignored. There was no forced entry-- and how many really thought Harley would ever climb inside a chimney of all places! Especially on this high pitched roof. I think police response specific to this property was reasonable and justified.

 

[TropicalTapioca]

Just the opposite --seems to me that the homeowner here immediately gave consent when asked and provided access via the lockbox on the back door. It's also been reported that the house is under renovation and the homeowner was last at his property in November.

Personally, I think of this property as unoccupied and not some random abandoned, vacant house that law enforcement somehow ignored. There was no forced entry-- and how many really thought Harley would ever climb inside a chimney of all places! I think police response specific to this property was reasonable and justified.

Exactly. The house isn’t abandoned, the house has been in the same family since it was built. I’d imagine they looked into windows on the first floor, doors and windows were locked and they moved on to other areas.

 

[x_files]

They didn't even try. Just looked around the outside of the house,decided because it didn't like anyone had broken in, to not check it out any further.

yikes.

 

[x_files]

Just the opposite --seems to me that the homeowner here immediately gave consent when asked and provided access via the lockbox on the back door. It's also been reported that the house is under renovation and the homeowner was last at his property in November.

Personally, I think of this property as unoccupied and not some random abandoned, vacant house that law enforcement somehow ignored. There was no forced entry-- and how many really thought Harley would ever climb inside a chimney of all places! Especially on this high pitched roof. I think police response specific to this property was reasonable and justified.

true. it would NOT cross my mind HD would access via the chimney.

 

[Meloni88]

Did they even need to consider the chimney before checking? If they'd just gone inside the house they would have found his coat and glasses and realised where he was. (Werent they found on the floor in plain sight?)

 

[princessmonokuma]

I am just very perplexed by this case and have expressed this throughout the thread, but I just can not see this as being an accident at all MOO

 

[Glaber]

Even if they had searched the house before, would he not have been dead within minutes of getting stuck in the chimney?

 

[Night Watcher]

The roof is very steep.

Yes it is. It appears to have an 8 : 12 slope, if not more and asphalt shingles. I would also expect the roof to be covered with snow December 20. Recall the temperatures in the teens and the snow on the ground as shown in that supposed video image of Harley crossing the street.

 

[Kiva]

I am curious about one thing. Is it possible that he have done that before, when he was smaller and younger? I wonder if he ever successfully climbed down this chimney. Then, he grew up a bit and got stuck during that last attempt.

 

[Seattle1]

Did they even need to consider the chimney before checking? If they'd just gone inside the house they would have found his coat and glasses and realised where he was. (Werent they found on the floor in plain sight?)

Did they even need to consider the chimney before checking?

What exactly do you think warranted police to enter an unoccupied private home where all the windows and doors were double-locked secure and there was absolutely no signs of forced entry to the home? The owner stated nobody except the family had keys to the house. What reasonable expectation was there for the police to believe Harley had keys and entered the house, and Harley himself or his property could be inside?

There's been no confirmation exactly where the coat and glasses were found. I think they very well could have been located behind a wall register or hanging from a cap opening. Knowing that the chimney flue was not designed for an original fireplace, I've not convinced the items dropped directly to the floor.

 

[Moonracer]

For those who think getting stuck in chimneys is rare, here's a news article, and this is just one city. Think of our big cities. Don't even count small cities and towns under 100,000!

(United States has 14 cities with more than a million people and 225+ with 100,000 and up. 2010 Census data.)

PORTLAND, Ore. (2018) — Portland Fire and Rescue had to deconstruct a chimney Friday morning to help free a teenager who was stuck inside.

Crews were called to the area of North Mississippi Avenue around 1 a.m.

Neighbor Derrick Mayfield says he was getting off work when he heard muffled moans from across the street and then saw his neighbor talking to his chimney.

{snip for 10% rule}

"It was kind of a tight fit," Mayfield said on the teen being stuck in the chimney. "We're both panicking."

Portland Fire says their crews took apart the top of the chimney, then dismantled it from the second floor of the home, and were finally able to pull the teen free.

{snip for 10% rule]

Portland Fire says on average they respond to one to two calls per year for people trapped in a chimney.

BBM
Link:
Firefighters tear apart chimney to rescue teen stuck inside

There's more. Here's a link to a news story about a "slender" woman in Houston who wanted to get out of the cold and got stuck in a chimney:
Woman trapped in chimney calls 9-1-1

This one is good because it shows how crazy small the lining of a chimney is:

(and NBC link to above:
Ho Ho No: Burglar gets stuck in chimney

Here's one who tried to get into his OWN house, got stuck:
Man gets stuck in own chimney

There are many more, and that's just the ones that make it into the news.

Why is it so hard to believe Harley, at only 14, made a deadly mistake himself? It's no less sad because he did something incredibly unwise. It's terrible, IMO, for the result of immaturity or simple ignorance to be death. It's a terrible price to pay. My Opinion. I personally didn't know chimneys weren't just big Santa-sized chutes until I was 50!

Edit: Typo

 

[Seattle1]

I am curious about one thing. Is it possible that he have done that before, when he was smaller and younger? I wonder if he ever successfully climbed down this chimney. Then, he grew up a bit and got stuck during that last attempt.

I don't know how many young children have access to rooftops to practice climbing inside chimneys for prior experience. Perhaps if it's their own chimney it would be easier to grab a ladder from their garage and go for it.

To my knowledge, Harley's parents never alerted investigators that Harley was known to climb roofs and attempt access to his or other homes via the chimney. As for climbing the antenna on the neighbor's property, I don't think we know when it was erected or how long it's been there. MOO

 

[osu]

YouTube post gives insight into Harley Dilly's life

9 minutes ago
Author: Andrew Horansky
Updated:6:21 PM EST January 15, 2020

PORT CLINTON, Ohio — The seven-minute clip on YouTube has been seen nearly a half-million times.

It shows Harley Dilly in 2018 after what he says was an argument with his family.

“The future could hold bad things for me” he says. “I don’t want to find out what that could mean.”

Video at link:
YouTube post gives insight into Harley Dilly's life

 

[lindylou]

RIP Harley! I was rooting for you to have climbed on a bus and were having an adventure. So sad for this outcome.

 

[Gunslinging Granny]

For those who think getting stuck in chimneys is rare, here's a news article, and this is just one city. Think of our big cities. Don't even count small cities and towns under 100,000!

(United States has 14 cities with more than a million people and 225+ with 100,000 and up. 2010 Census data.)

PORTLAND, Ore. (2018) — Portland Fire and Rescue had to deconstruct a chimney Friday morning to help free a teenager who was stuck inside.

Crews were called to the area of North Mississippi Avenue around 1 a.m.

Neighbor Derrick Mayfield says he was getting off work when he heard muffled moans from across the street and then saw his neighbor talking to his chimney.

{snip for 10% rule}

"It was kind of a tight fit," Mayfield said on the teen being stuck in the chimney. "We're both panicking."

Portland Fire says their crews took apart the top of the chimney, then dismantled it from the second floor of the home, and were finally able to pull the teen free.

{snip for 10% rule]

Portland Fire says on average they respond to one to two calls per year for people trapped in a chimney.

BBM
Link:
Firefighters tear apart chimney to rescue teen stuck inside

There's more. Here's a link to a news story about a "slender" woman in Houston who wanted to get out of the cold and got stuck in a chimney:
Woman trapped in chimney calls 9-1-1

This one is good because it shows how crazy small the lining of a chimney is:
View attachment 226199
(and NBC link to above:
Ho Ho No: Burglar gets stuck in chimney

Here's one who tried to get into his OWN house, got stuck:
Man gets stuck in own chimney

There are many more, and that's just the ones that make it into the news.

Why is it so hard to believe Harley, at only 14, made a deadly mistake himself? It's no less sad because he did something incredibly unwise. It's terrible, IMO, for the result of immaturity or simple ignorance to be death. It's a terrible price to pay. My Opinion. I personally didn't know chimneys weren't just big Santa-sized chutes until I was 50!

Edit: Typo

WOW! This is crazy! Crazy!
Portland Fire says on average they respond to one to two calls per year for people trapped in a chimney.

 

[Gunslinging Granny]

I am curious about one thing. Is it possible that he have done that before, when he was smaller and younger? I wonder if he ever successfully climbed down this chimney. Then, he grew up a bit and got stuck during that last attempt.

He could not have climbed down this chimney and entered the house because this 1850 home didn't have a fireplace opening. This old house didn't have fireplaces. It had a coal stove on the second floor which hooked up to a flue vent hole in the side of the chimney. In the basement, there was a huge coal burning furnace where hot air floated upward through pipes to grates on the floor.

See the flue vent hole on the side of the chimney in the first photo? A coal burning stove would have sat near this hole. The coal stove would have a pipe that connected to that hole to vent the stove.

 

[JDough]

Very close and attached to the house. Here is a close up image. نتيجة بحث Google عن الصور حول https://s3.amazonaws.com/ogden_images/www.advertiser-tribune.com/images/2020/01/14204144/Harley-Dilly-01142020-a.jpg From this article: Missing teen found dead in chimney | News, Sports, Jobs - The Advertiser-Tribune

Thank you so much for finding and posting this image @kaen. I am a very visual person, and this helped me tremendously in understanding the layout of the roof, antenna, and chimney.

When I viewed the full-size image at the link, a couple of things stood out to me. The first being that I noticed the attic window with what appears to be a broken/loose screen. It also doesn't look to be terribly far from the antenna. (I know that it probably is). But to the untrained eye, it looks to be closer than it really is. Looking from the ground up the distance may trick the eye, especially in the dark. I have wondered if Harley thought he may be able to reach it from the antenna and gain access to the home in this manner? When he realized that wasn't gonna work, he chose to try the chimney instead?

The second thing that caught my attention was the roof pitch. Again; with the untrained eye (specifically mine), the roof doesn't look terribly steep. I, myself, (who is terrified of heights) would never attempt to shimmy across it, but a young boy on a mission might? Maybe he wanted to have some bragging rights and tell all of his friends (and followers), that he had the courage to climb to the top of a three (maybe 4, if basement and attic are included in the equation) house and walk across the roof in the dark without any ropes or safety harnesses?

We will never have the opportunity to know what was going through Harley's head that morning, or just exactly how he ended up in a chimney. But we do know that this little boy touched the hearts of many. Rest in peace, Harley. I hope you have a "gazillion" followers in heaven!

 

[Diddian]

Does anyone know: In every previous press conference about this case and in every one of the related daily updates posted to the Port Clinton Police Department Facebook page, Chief Hickman mentioned that "the family was fully cooperating and LE did not believe they were involved;" however, in the press conference following the recovery of the body believed to be Harley from the house across the street and in the written release relating to determination of cause of death from the autopsy, he omitted that statement.

Is that common?

 

[bellyup]

For those who think getting stuck in chimneys is rare, here's a news article, and this is just one city. Think of our big cities. Don't even count small cities and towns under 100,000!

(United States has 14 cities with more than a million people and 225+ with 100,000 and up. 2010 Census data.)

PORTLAND, Ore. (2018) — Portland Fire and Rescue had to deconstruct a chimney Friday morning to help free a teenager who was stuck inside.

Crews were called to the area of North Mississippi Avenue around 1 a.m.

Neighbor Derrick Mayfield says he was getting off work when he heard muffled moans from across the street and then saw his neighbor talking to his chimney.

{snip for 10% rule}

"It was kind of a tight fit," Mayfield said on the teen being stuck in the chimney. "We're both panicking."

Portland Fire says their crews took apart the top of the chimney, then dismantled it from the second floor of the home, and were finally able to pull the teen free.

{snip for 10% rule]

Portland Fire says on average they respond to one to two calls per year for people trapped in a chimney.

BBM
Link:
Firefighters tear apart chimney to rescue teen stuck inside

There's more. Here's a link to a news story about a "slender" woman in Houston who wanted to get out of the cold and got stuck in a chimney:
Woman trapped in chimney calls 9-1-1

This one is good because it shows how crazy small the lining of a chimney is:
View attachment 226199
(and NBC link to above:
Ho Ho No: Burglar gets stuck in chimney

Here's one who tried to get into his OWN house, got stuck:
Man gets stuck in own chimney

There are many more, and that's just the ones that make it into the news.

Why is it so hard to believe Harley, at only 14, made a deadly mistake himself? It's no less sad because he did something incredibly unwise. It's terrible, IMO, for the result of immaturity or simple ignorance to be death. It's a terrible price to pay. My Opinion. I personally didn't know chimneys weren't just big Santa-sized chutes until I was 50!

Edit: Typo

I don't think it's rare that people get stuck in chimney's (it actually seems rather common) but I've found few cases in many years that were deadly (mostly adults that were attempting robbery are ones that died) and ONLY ONE CHILD that died since 1998 or young adult in a chimney in which is wasn't deemed foul play.