Official: Teen brothers charged in NJ girl’s death
Photos released by Clayton, N.J. Police Department show Autumn Pasquale, 12, of Clayton, N.J. Authorities say her family reported her missing Saturday. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Clayton Police Department at (856) 881-2301. (AP Photo/Clayton, N.J. Police Department)
A teen who declined to be identified is overcome with grief after visiting the crime scene on Clayton Avenue in Clayton N.J. on Tuesday Oct. 23, 2012, after the discovery of a girl's body in a home's recycling bin. Gloucester County prosecutors say a body believed to be that of Autumn Pasquale was found around 10 p.m. Monday in the bin just blocks from her house and from Borough Hall, where thousands of people gathered earlier in the evening for a tearful candlelight vigil to pray for her safe return. (AP Photo/ Joseph Kaczmarek)
Vicky Armstrong cries as she watches police investigate the crime scene on Clayton Avenue in Clayton NJ on Tuesday Oct. 23, 2012, after the discovery of a girl's body in a home's recycling bin. Gloucester County prosecutors say a body believed to be that of Autumn Pasquale was found around 10 p.m. Monday in the bin just blocks from her house and from Borough Hall, where thousands of people gathered earlier in the evening for a tearful candlelight vigil to pray for her safe return. (AP Photo/ Joseph Kaczmarek)
Jennifer Cornwell, mother of the missing girl Autumn Pasquale, comforts her other daughter Natalie Pasquale, 11, during a candlelight vigil, Monday Oct. 22, 2012, in Clayton, N.J. About 200 law enforcement officials and hundreds more volunteers searched Monday for a southern New Jersey girl who disappeared over the weekend, raising anxiety in a rural town and pulling residents together. (AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek)
Expedition 33/34 crew members, NASA astronaut Kevin Ford, left, Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy, and flight engineer Evgeny Tarelkin of ROSCOSMOS, right, depart the Cosmonaut Hotel to head to another building across the Baikonur Cosmodrome where they will suit-up for their Soyuz launch, on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket will send Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin on a five-month mission aboard the International Space Station. (AP Photo/NASA, Bill Ingalls) MANDATORY CREDIT
In this undated photo released by the Clayton, N.J. Police Department missing Autumn Pasquale, 12, of Clayton, N.J. is shown Authorities say Autumn Pasquale was last seen on her white bicycle on West High Street in Clayton at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012. Her family reported her missing at 9:30 p.m. Police are still searching for her. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Clayton Police Department at (856) 881-2301. (AP Photo/Clayton, N.J. Police Department)
A woman standsin the rear yard of a home Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012, in Clayton, N.J., near the spot where a body preliminarily identified as a missing 12-year-old girl's was found in a home's recycling bin. The Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office announced early Tuesday that they believed the body of Autumn Pasquale was found around 10 p.m. Monday, in a recycling bin at a home just blocks away from her house and from Borough Hall, where thousands of people gathered earlier in the evening for a tearful candlelight vigil to pray for the girl's safe return. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
An investigators photographs evidence in the back yard of a house on Clayton Avenue in Clayton NJ on Tuesday Oct. 23, 2012, after the discovery of a girl's body in a home's recycling bin. Gloucester County prosecutors say a body believed to be that of Autumn Pasquale was found around 10 p.m. Monday in the bin just blocks from her house and from Borough Hall, where thousands of people gathered earlier in the evening for a tearful candlelight vigil to pray for her safe return. (AP Photo/ Joseph Kaczmarek)
Members of the community participate in a candlelight vigil for Autumn Pasquale, Monday Oct. 22, 2012, in Clayton, N.J. About 200 law enforcement officials and hundreds more volunteers searched Monday for Autumn, a southern New Jersey girl who disappeared over the weekend, raising anxiety in a rural town and pulling residents together. (AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek)
Investigators gather at a house on Clayton Avenue in Clayton NJ on Tuesday Oct. 23, 2012, after the discovery of a girl's body in a home's recycling bin. Gloucester County prosecutors say a body believed to be that of Autumn Pasquale was found around 10 p.m. Monday in the bin just blocks from her house and from Borough Hall, where thousands of people gathered earlier in the evening for a tearful candlelight vigil to pray for her safe return. (AP Photo/ Joseph Kaczmarek)
Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton greets Paul Spadafora and Mary Pasquale, the uncle and grandmother of Autumn Pasquale at a gathering outside town hall Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012, in Clayton, N.J., not far from where a body that Dalton identified as the missing 12-year-old girl's was found in a home's recycling bin. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Paul Spadafora and Mary Pasquale, the uncle and grandmother of Autumn Pasquale sit together at a gathering outside town hall Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012, in Clayton, N.J., not far from where a body preliminarily identified as the missing 12-year-old girl's was found in a home's recycling bin. The Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office announced early Tuesday that they believed the body of Autumn Pasquale was found around 10 p.m. Monday, in a recycling bin at a home just blocks away from her house and from Borough Hall, where thousands of people gathered earlier in the evening for a tearful candlelight vigil to pray for the girl's safe return. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
People weep and listen at a gathering outside town hall Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012, in Clayton, N.J., not far from where a body preliminarily identified as a missing 12-year-old girl's was found in a home's recycling bin. The Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office announced early Tuesday that they believed the body of Autumn Pasquale was found around 10 p.m. Monday, in a recycling bin at a home just blocks away from her house and from Borough Hall, where thousands of people gathered earlier in the evening for a tearful candlelight vigil to pray for the girl's safe return. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
CLAYTON, N.J. (AP) — Two teenage brothers were charged Tuesday with murdering a 12-year-old girl who had been missing since the weekend, prompting a frantic search by her small hometown until her body was found stuffed into a home recycling bin.
The boys’ mother played a part in cracking the case involving Autumn Pasquale, Gloucester County prosecutor Sean Dalton said at a news conference. She came forward with information about a posting on a son’s Facebook account, leading police to the boys, Dalton said.
The girl died in a manner consistent with strangulation, he said. She had been riding her bicycle before she disappeared and was lured to the boys’ house, where belongings including her bicycle were found, Dalton said. There were no signs of sexual assault.
Three teenage brothers live at the home, said Na’eem Williams and Jodie Robinson, both 16. One of the teens in the home traded BMX bike parts, according to a young man, Corey Hewes, 19, who said he was among those who traded with him.
The house was a place where teens frequently hung out and had parties, some neighbors said.
Autumn’s body was found around 10 p.m. Monday in the bin just blocks from her house and from Borough Hall, where thousands of people gathered earlier in the evening for a tearful candlelight vigil to pray for her safe return.
“The search for Autumn is over,” Dalton said Tuesday. He called Clayton a safe community but said parents should continue to keep close watch on their children.
The girl’s great-uncle, Paul Spadofora, thanked the community for its help in the search. The victim’s parents did not attend.
“There’s evil everywhere, even in the small town of Clayton,” Spadofora said.
Crime scene investigators arrived shortly before 9 a.m. in the neighborhood where the body was found.
But Tuesday was trash collection day, and many residents had dragged their trash cans and recycling bins to the curb the night before. The covered recycling bins are collected by an automated truck that picks them up and dumps the contents into the back.
Police barricaded the block, and friends and neighbors came by to see. Some mothers said they were keeping their kids out of school for the day. Even before the body was found, students reported that Spirit Week had been canceled because of the sorrow.
One young man rode a bike up, sat on a porch of a home and cried, then biked away.
Clayton Mayor Thomas Bianco walked to the scene, cried, hugged a police officer and gave a brief statement to the gathered reporters.
“You hear about it in other places but never think it would happen in our little town,” he said.
Howard Kowgill, 60, who lives in town and, like many, knows members of Autumn’s family, said the discovery of the body changes the nature of the town.
“Until they find out who did it, you don’t let your kids out,” he said.
Autumn was last seen around 12:30 p.m. Saturday pedaling her bike away from the home where she lives with her father, her two siblings, her father’s girlfriend and the girlfriend’s children, authorities said.
Relatives said they believed she was heading to see a friend, and they became worried only after she did not return by her 8 p.m. curfew.
Sunday morning, her disappearance became not only a crisis but a town-wide cause in Clayton, a town 25 miles south of Philadelphia. Volunteers by the hundred joined the search, scouring malls, nearby towns and passing out fliers.
By Monday evening, officials were thanking the volunteers for their help but asking them to call it a night.
Hundreds of people returned Monday for the vigil. Spadofora, the great-uncle, said he hoped the town could gather again a week later, with Autumn back, with candles to mark her birthday.
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