Dad Finds Son's Body Days After Police Overlooked It

[Sugarfoot]

Dad Finds Son's Body Days After Police Overlooked It

POSTED: 1:10 pm CST December 29, 2005

TRENTON, N.J. -- A grieving Irvington family is wondering how Newark police managed to find their son's van crashed on the side of highway - but not their son lying less than 200 feet away.

The father of Arinze Ojinnaka said he filed a missing person report with Irvington police on Dec. 21, several hours after his 19-year-old son failed to return home from his overnight shift as a United Parcel Service package handler at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Police in Newark had recovered the family's Chevrolet Lumina minivan crashed against a concrete barrier on the Interstate 78 entrance ramp at Routes 1 & 9 at about 5:30 that morning, but concluded that the driver had fled. But Newark police did not immediately notify the Ojinnakas that the vehicle had been found.

When Clement Ojinnaka finally learned about the Newark accident report five days later, he drove to the site with relatives. He said they found his son's body right away - lying about 175 feet away from the crash side, down an embankment on the other side of the barrier.

"There was Arinze there, facing up," Clement Ojinnaka, told The Star-Ledger of Newark. "It was me who discovered it. That's the most painful part of it."

Newark Police Director Anthony Ambrose issued a statement Wednesday saying his department's internal affairs office was investigating whether his officers at scene handled the accident properly.

Newark police officials previously told the newspaper that their office had notified Irvington police on Dec. 22 that the van had been found a day earlier, but that Irvington did not respond.

Irvington police referred questions to Mayor Wayne Smith, who said the suggestion that police in his town dropped the ball was "absolutely wrong."

"The body was found by untrained people," Smith said. "The parents went to the scene and the man was evidently either ejected from the vehicle or walked away and fell over the embankment. But the body was there and the Newark police did not see the body."

A spokeswoman for the state Division of Criminal Justice said an autopsy Tuesday showed Ojinnaka died of blunt force trauma, but did not release the time of his death.

"I believe in my heart that if they (police) had shown a little more effort ... Arinze might be alive today," said Chinyere Amuzie, a cousin who helped find the body.

Arinze Ojinnaka, the oldest of six children, emigrated from Lagos, Nigeria four years ago and graduated last year from Irvington High School, his father said. He had enrolled in Essex County College and hoped to become a pharmacist.

[Dalmatian190]

For a couple years now, Connecticut State Police protocols require all unoccupied motor vehicle accidents at night to be cleared either by canine or by thermal imager. We get called a couple times a year for an assist the SP with one of our cameras if there are no canines in the area and the Trooper 1 helicopter is around either.

That was implemented in the wake of a similiar situation. Friends found the body several days later a very short distance (50'?) having been ejected.

Often we'll use the camera to scan the woods around an accident just as a precaution, especially if there is a lot of teenagers and/or alcohol involved...

[hwoods]

For a couple years now, Connecticut State Police protocols require all unoccupied motor vehicle accidents at night to be cleared either by canine or by thermal imager. We get called a couple times a year for an assist the SP with one of our cameras if there are no canines in the area and the Trooper 1 helicopter is around either.

That was implemented in the wake of a similiar situation. Friends found the body several days later a very short distance (50'?) having been ejected.

Often we'll use the camera to scan the woods around an accident just as a precaution, especially if there is a lot of teenagers and/or alcohol involved...

We do pretty much the same thing here. It only takes once to get put in a bad light.

[Jay911]

I don't know that we've ever had this kind of problem here, but with the availability of FLIR on the police helicopter (which is almost always flying), it's dumb not to "clear" the area. We've found patients at least twice that I know of using this method.

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

Another article from the Newark Star Ledger. Note: EMS was there also. Also, it is a small defense that Newark has one of the worst stolen car problems in the world and responds to several incidents a night of a collision with no driver. The car is then found to be stolen.

A father's tragic find spurs police probe
Newark examines how body was overlooked
Thursday, December 29, 2005
BY RUSSELL BEN-ALI
Star-Ledger Staff
Newark police will review procedures used to investigate a one-vehicle crash last week, in which the body of a 19-year-old Irvington motorist was missed by police searchers but found at the scene by his father five days later, a police official said yesterday.

"The Newark Police Department's Office of Internal Affairs will conduct a thorough review of the incident in an effort to determine whether police personnel at the scene acted properly," Police Director Anthony Ambrose said in a statement.

"Once again, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of 19-year-old Arinze Ojinnaka, who must face the tragic and untimely loss of their loved one during this holiday season," Ambrose added.

The Nigerian-born Essex County College student was last seen at 5:02 a.m. on Dec. 21 as he left his job as a United Parcel Service package handler at Newark Liberty International Airport following a 10-hour shift.

As Ojinnaka was driving home in the family's van, he crashed into a concrete guardrail on the entrance ramp to Route 78 West near the airport, police said. The vehicle came to a stop about 300 feet from the initial impact.

Officers and EMS personnel searched the area using flashlights but could not locate the motorist, police said. The case was investigated by Newark detectives as a one-vehicle accident with a driver who left the scene.

Later that day, Ojinnaka's family reported him as missing to Irvington police. Clement Ojinnaka, the victim's father, learned the location of the crash on Monday and traveled with several family members to the scene, where he found his son's body.

Ambrose said Arinze's body was found on an embankment about 170 feet from where the vehicle came to a stop. He said he would reserve additional comment until the investigation is completed and full results of an autopsy are available.

Preliminary autopsy results indicate that Arinze died from blunt trauma consistent with a motor vehicle accident, said Rachel Sacharow, a spokeswoman for the Division of Criminal Justice.

Irvington man's highway death leaves family with bitter questions
Son's body lay near Rt. 78 ramp for 5 days until father found him
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
BY RUSSELL BEN-ALI
Star-Ledger Staff
It took five days for Clement Ojinnaka to learn from police where his family's minivan was found smashed on a Route 78 entrance ramp in Newark after his 19-year-old son, Arinze, disappeared last Wednesday.

It took the distraught father about a minute Monday to find his son's body lying in a clearing on the side of the highway near where police had searched days earlier.

"There was Arinze there, facing up," said Ojinnaka, 48, a Nigerian-born produce salesman, as he sat with relatives yesterday in the living room of the family's Irvington apartment. "It was me who discovered it. That's the most painful part of it."

Arinze Ojinnaka clocked out of work about 5:02 a.m. Dec. 21 and was headed home after a 10-hour shift as a United Parcel Service package handler at Newark Liberty International Airport.

As he drove the blue 1991 Chevrolet Lumina from Routes 1&9 onto Route 78 west, the van smashed into a concrete barrier on the right-hand shoulder of the entrance ramp about 5:30 a.m., police said.

The discovery of Ojinnaka's body 20 feet down an embankment provided answers to several questions that had puzzled detectives in Newark and Irvington. Newark police had been investigating a one-vehicle accident in which the driver was presumed to have left the scene, and Irvington detectives were investigating a missing-person report filed by the family last Wednesday.

Early Thursday, a Newark police teletype operator responded to a missing person's alert, notifying Irvington police that the Chevrolet Lumina driven by Arinze Ojinnaka had been found in Newark a day earlier and impounded.

Irvington police did not respond, Newark officials said yesterday.

"Irvington never contacted us or coordinated anything with us," Newark Police Director Anthony Ambrose said. "Maybe we wouldn't have treated it as a normal one-car accident knowing that a person was missing."

Irvington officials said they conducted a standard missing person's investigation, making inquiries of local hospitals and police agencies and interviewing family members and co-workers. A search of the accident scene was Newark's responsibility.

"If you go to the accident scene and see a car, you would look for the driver," Irvington Police Chief Michael Chase said. "I might be presumptuous, but I think that a law enforcement agency would make that effort."

Ambrose said officers and EMS workers arrived at the accident scene within minutes of receiving a call shortly after 5:30 a.m. Dec. 21 from a limo driver who spotted the van propped against a concrete guardrail. Police found no one inside the vehicle and conducted a search of the area but found nothing, the director added.

The minivan came to a stop about 300 feet from where it first struck the guardrail, Ambrose said. The body was found about 20 feet down an embankment, about 170 feet from where the vehicle came to a stop, he said.

"There was no blood or any indication that anyone was injured," said Ambrose. "It appeared to the officers that someone had left the vehicle."

But family members questioned the police department's description of the scene and the search, saying it took them less than a minute to find Arinze Ojinnaka's body, simply by walking along the shoulder of the road and the guardrail.

"Not quite a minute," said Jonathan Iherobiem, a cousin from Irvington who also went to the scene. "As soon as I jumped out the car, there I saw him."

Family members said the victim was lying on his back with his hands extended near his head, with the collar of his coat pulled up against the cold.

"I believe in my heart that if they (police) had shown a little more effort ... Arinze might be alive today," cousin Chinyere Amuzie, a New York City attorney, who also spotted the body.

Family members said they received conflicting messages from UPS, which initially said their son was still at work hours after the accident, and from Newark police, who said an EMS worker reported their son refused medical attention at the scene.

"At this point, we were confused," Clement Ojinnaka said.

An autopsy performed yesterday revealed that Arinze Ojinnaka died of blunt force trauma, consistent with a car crash, said a spokeswoman for the state Division of Criminal Justice. The time of death was not released.

The eldest of six children, Arinze Ojinnaka emigrated to the United States from Lagos, Nigeria, four years ago and graduated from Irvington High School last year, his father said. He enrolled in Essex County College after graduation and said he wanted to be a pharmacist.

"He loved helping people," Clement Ojinnaka said. "He was a good boy who lived a great life, as much as I know."