OT/MISC Ohio: Missing teen found dead in vacant house across the street.

mzkitty

I give up.
Oh dear God, WTF? What was he thinking?


[B]Kelly Kennedy[/B]‏ @[B]KellyEKennedyTV[/B] 7m7 minutes ago

#BREAKING: Some heartbreaking news to report: Port Clinton Police confirm they found the body of 14-year-old Harley Dilly. His death is being called accidental. They think Harley somehow got into the chimney of a vacant home across the street.

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Tuesday, January 14th 2020

PORT CLINTON, Ohio (WSYX/WTTE) - The State of Ohio said the Endangered Missing Child Advisory has been canceled for 14-year-old Harley Dilly. Police later confirmed Dilly died at a vacant house near his home.


Port Clinton Police said Dilly had been missing since Dec. 20, 2019. Officers shared Tuesday that Dilly was dead.

Officers were seen at the vacant home near Dilly's residence late Monday.

A post on Ashlyn Dilly's Facebook page said early Tuesday, "R.I.H. Harley Dilly and fly high, confirmed by the PD both out there and here in my town."

“We are heartbroken over the outcome but know every effort was made to find Harley. Chief Hickman shouldered the weight of this investigation which has resulted in a tragic loss for the community of Port Clinton. No case is tougher than when a kid goes missing,” said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

ABC 6/FOX 28 will continue to update this story.

 

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
What the hell was that kid doing in a chimney? Did he think he was Santa Claus or an elf? Was he trying to sneak into the house via the chimney? What a horrible way to die!! I get claustrophobic just thinking about it.
 

bw

Fringe Ranger
Did he think he was Santa Claus or an elf? Was he trying to sneak into the house via the chimney? What a horrible way to die!! I get claustrophobic just thinking about it.

Short on info, but that's not a bad guess. Bad way to go, and too much time to think about it.
 

night driver

ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
They had the full Who'sWho of missing and endangered kids investigations in on this from VERY close to Day 2.

I watched the list of agencies involved from day to day ad it became damn clear they were handling this as a trafficked kid.

And then they found him across the street in an abandoned house.

Prayers for the parents and other family folks.
 

Dozdoats

On TB every waking moment
Teens are adventurous, curious and think they are invulnerable. Some of then do not live through the learning process. No less sad for the kid, family and friends, but his wasn't the first death by misadventure and he will be far from the last.
 

Groucho

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Sometimes kids do dumb stuff. I know I used to. Once in awhile, they get tagged. Poor kid. He was just being a kid. What a terrible way to go. When I saw the report today at noon, I almost cried. We've been watching for 3-weeks. They ran it daily that they were looking for the kid.
 

Macgyver

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Had a 19yo kid hang himself around the corner from me a few weeks ago.
He was working for a local contractor, worked that day everything seemed fine. No show for dinner. Wasn't answering the phone. Found few hours latter hanging in the basement.

I have not heard anything about it. Everyone says kid was normal, no drugs etc.
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
I've been wondering if maybe he wasn't playing with a drone that got down into the chiminey and he couldn't get it back out so went after it manually?
 

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
I shudder to remember the stupd, dangerous stuff I did at that age.
There, but for the Grace of God go I.

It indeed WAS, in our minds, just an adventure,
My boyfriend, whose dad was a Mason, and he himself enrolled as a “DeMolay”( teen sons of Masons) had heard a lot of wild stories about what Masons did in secret. So we decided to go explore the huge very OLD Masonic Temple in downtown Detroit.

It was dusk, just getting dark. Neither of us had thought to bring a flashlight. The front door wasn’t locked, the lights were on on the first floor, but dark on the upper floors. We sneaked upstairs, and explored floor after floor of darkened rooms. They might have found me dead, eventually, at the bottom of an ancient model elevator shaft, having fallen 7 floors with only whatever window light, then after I just opened an ordinary looking, seventh floor, wooden, unmarked, unlocked, room door, IF I had just taken ONE step inside what appeared, in the darkness to be, and I thought, was just another room.

But something warned me “WAIT! It’s TOO dark in there, get your Zippo out and check first!”
I froze, and pulled my Zippo out, lit it, and saw only blackness where a floor should be, and a greasy, huge vertical cable about 3 feet from the door. Seeing THAT, realizing I was at the top of an elevator shaft, and how I had come literally ONE STEP from death, quashed all “sense of adventure” in me for quite a while and seriously diminished my youthful sense of invulnerability. It was a REALITY BITE. I was in shock, and just wanted to go home immediately.
 
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helen

Panic Sex Lady
I shudder to remember the stupd, dangerous stuff I did at that age.
There, but for the Grace of God go I.

It indeed WAS, in our minds, just an adventure,
My boyfriend, whose dad was Mason, and he himself enrolled as a “DeMolay”( teen sons of Masons) had heard a lot of wild stories about what Masons did in secret. So we decided to go explore the huge very OLD Masonic Temple in downtown Detroit.

It was dusk, just getting dark. Neither of us had thought to bring a flashlight. The front door wasn’t locked, the lights were on on the first floor, but dark on the upper floors. We sneaked upstairs, and explored floor after floor of darkened rooms. They might have found me dead, eventually, at the bottom of an ancient model elevator shaft, having fallen 7 floors with only whatever window light, then after I just opened an ordinary looking, seventh floor, wooden, unmarked, unlocked, room door, IF I had just taken ONE step inside what appeared, in the darkness to be, and I thought, was just another room.

But something warned me “WAIT! It’s TOO dark in there, get your Zippo out and check first!”
I froze, and pulled my Zippo out, lit it, and saw only blackness where a floor should be, and a greasy, huge verticle cable about 3 feet from the door. Seeing THAT, and how I had literally come ONE STEP from death, quashed all “sense of adventure” in me for quite a while and seriously diminished my youthful sense of invulnerability. It was a REALITY BITE. I was in shock, and just wanted to go home immediately.

We had a teenage relative fall six stories down an elevator shaft in an abandoned hotel - and live. He was walking and talking the next day with a broken collarbone and major bruises.
 

AlfaMan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
What the hell was that kid doing in a chimney? Did he think he was Santa Claus or an elf? Was he trying to sneak into the house via the chimney? What a horrible way to die!! I get claustrophobic just thinking about it.
Do you remember all the silly stuff you did when you were 14? I do-do anything on a dare and you were absolutely bulletproof. At that age I once rappelled down a 75 foot sheer cliff with no safety rope and with a lit, burning Coleman lantern in the one hand. Because we had a bottle, hotdogs and a fire on the shore. Or riding down a mountain on the hood of a car, nothing to grab onto and the driver is trying to sling you off. Youth, testosterone and a dare can be a dangerous, or potentially lethal situation

For a teen boy, doing what seems utterly stupid to an older person, is just a part of the process of that thing called growing up. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I'd rather see teen boys taking a chance and being boys rather than sitting at home glued to cellphones and video games and TV. I'm sad this young man lost.
 

Krayola

Veteran Member
I can't understand why they did not find him earlier, though. If a kid was missing, I would think one of the first things to do would be to search the area around his house. If there was an abandoned building next door, that would have been one of the first places to search early on. I can't believe no one thought to check it before now.
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
I can't understand why they did not find him earlier, though. If a kid was missing, I would think one of the first things to do would be to search the area around his house. If there was an abandoned building next door, that would have been one of the first places to search early on. I can't believe no one thought to check it before now.
They probably did... But never thought to look up the chimney at the time...

Summerthyme
 

Mixin

Veteran Member
According to what I've read, LE did not search the vacant house because it was locked up and all doors/windows were intact. They said they didn't see the need to go inside. They also cautioned people to not search on their own. It was only after LE had exhausted their leads that they went back and decided to enter the house.

The boy was having some problems at home and it has been speculated that he was hanging out in the vacant home. That may not be true.
 

Freeholder

This too shall pass.
It’s been cool enough that there probably wasn’t a lot of smell yet, too. If it had happened in summer, someone would have smelled it.

I am still amazed that my brothers both lived to grow up. Some of their friends didn’t, and one of my nephews almost didn’t. There is a reason that more boy babies are born than girls, sad as it is.

Kathleen
 

Squib

Veteran Member
I’d imagine if they’d have used dogs, they’d have found him sooner, maybe? Maybe not.
 

Krayola

Veteran Member
Re: searching the house, I was thinking that he probably survived in the chimney a few days and if they had searched it that first week, he could have heard them and yelled for some help. I can see how it happened, though, after Mixin's reply, since the home appeared undisturbed. It's so sad how he suffered. :(
 

Kathy in FL

Administrator
_______________
Sorry. Fourteen is not all that young. In some cultures they are already marked as a man and expected to behave as such. So it is cool there were some fools that lived to tell the tale. That doesn't make it normal and it doesn't mean that is the way it should be. This country has done a lot do dumb down the various age groups and keep them children for too long. Look where that has gotten us.
 

mzkitty

I give up.
Advanced search wasn't working for me this morning, so I had to go back page by page to find this.

Tragic. ADHD and autistic.


--------------------------

Initial Harley Dilly police report released: Includes new details about teen’s life, time leading up to disappearance

Updated: Jan 21, 2020 / 09:39 AM EST


PORT CLINTON, Ohio (WJW) — Port Clinton police have released the police report made regarding when Harley Dilly went missing, and it includes new details about his life and what led to his disappearance.

The report was made on Dec. 21 at just before midnight by his father, Marcus Dilly, at the police department.

**For the full report, click here**

According to the report, Marcus Dilly said Harley was “mad because he had broken his phone and demanded that they get him a new one.” He said Harley was told he would have to earn it.

Marcus Dilly said there were other incidents where Harley wouldn’t come home from school on a Friday and didn’t return until a Saturday morning. He said he never filed reports in those instances. He said he wanted to file a report in this situation because Harley had been gone too long and normally returned in the mornings. He said nothing happened to make him think Harley was in danger, and that he didn’t have a history of being suicidal.

Marcus Dilly did say Harley had ADHD and autism and was high functioning and very smart. He said he was a “baby when it comes to being cold” and that he would know enough to get out of the elements.

Police then followed up with several of Harley’s friends and acquaintances to determine who had seen him and when.
A father of one of the friends said Harley and another boy was with his son Thursday after school when Harley was heading home. He said he and his son went to a Cavs game Friday night. The son told police he saw Harley after school Friday; that Harley knocked on the door wanting to know if he could go to the Cavs game as well. He told Harley there were no more tickets. Harley was wearing a red coat with gray sweatpants and black tennis shoes at the time, the report states.

Harley’s mother, Heather Dilly, said the last time she saw her son when Friday morning “when he was trying to get out of going to school and stated he didn’t feel good.” She said she told him to get his {expletive} to school “and as far as she knew he had left and went to school.”

After the interviews, police then issued a BOLO for Harley. His disappearance led to a nationwide search with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The 14-year-old was found dead inside the chimney of a home across the street from his family’s house the night of Monday, Dec. 23. Port Clinton Police called his death an accident. The Ottawa County Coroner’s Office said Dilly died of asphyxiation.

“It appears that Harley climbed an antenna tower to the roof and entered the chimney,” Police Chief Robert Hickman previously said. “Once in the chimney, Harley’s jacket and glasses were pushed from the chimney through a flue and into the second floor of the house. The chimney was blocked between the second and first floor which trapped Harley. The chimney is approximately 9 inches by 13 inches in size.”

The house was unoccupied and used as a vacation home.

Police do not believe foul play was involved.

Port Clinton police said they are waiting on other reports from multiple agencies involved in the search.

 

Walrus Whisperer

Hope in chains...
I shudder to remember the stupd, dangerous stuff I did at that age.
There, but for the Grace of God go I.

It indeed WAS, in our minds, just an adventure,
My boyfriend, whose dad was a Mason, and he himself enrolled as a “DeMolay”( teen sons of Masons) had heard a lot of wild stories about what Masons did in secret. So we decided to go explore the huge very OLD Masonic Temple in downtown Detroit.

It was dusk, just getting dark. Neither of us had thought to bring a flashlight. The front door wasn’t locked, the lights were on on the first floor, but dark on the upper floors. We sneaked upstairs, and explored floor after floor of darkened rooms. They might have found me dead, eventually, at the bottom of an ancient model elevator shaft, having fallen 7 floors with only whatever window light, then after I just opened an ordinary looking, seventh floor, wooden, unmarked, unlocked, room door, IF I had just taken ONE step inside what appeared, in the darkness to be, and I thought, was just another room.

But something warned me “WAIT! It’s TOO dark in there, get your Zippo out and check first!”
I froze, and pulled my Zippo out, lit it, and saw only blackness where a floor should be, and a greasy, huge vertical cable about 3 feet from the door. Seeing THAT, realizing I was at the top of an elevator shaft, and how I had come literally ONE STEP from death, quashed all “sense of adventure” in me for quite a while and seriously diminished my youthful sense of invulnerability. It was a REALITY BITE. I was in shock, and just wanted to go home immediately.
THAT was a GOD whisper moment!
 
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