Answers still elusive in Haddon Twp. boy's death
Since 3-year-old Brendan Link Creato was reported missing and then found dead in woods a half-mile from his home nearly a month ago, an autopsy has failed to tell how the Haddon Township boy died, toxicology tests have come back negative, and investigators who have interviewed his father and other family members and scoured the neighborhood have not offered an answer.
Since 3-year-old Brendan Link Creato was reported missing and then found dead in woods a half-mile from his home nearly a month ago, an autopsy has failed to tell how the Haddon Township boy died, toxicology tests have come back negative, and investigators who have interviewed his father and other family members and scoured the neighborhood have not offered an answer.
With no breakthrough, the boy's death has become engulfed in rumor and speculation. Someone claimed to see a mystery man pushing a baby carriage that morning; a vacant house in the area has drawn curiosity; a plaintive and enigmatic post on the website Tumblr by father D.J. Creato's girlfriend, who is not Brendan's mother, has stoked suspicions.
As some in the community and lawyers for the Creato family express frustration with the progress of the investigation, authorities are set to turn this week to another member of Brendan's family. On Monday, they plan to meet with his aunt, Sarah Creato, according to a family attorney.
"I've been assured by the prosecutor [handling the case] that she's absolutely not a target," said William J. Brennan, who represents the boy's grandparents, David and Lisa Creato, and spoke for their daughter Sarah. "I assume they're just speaking to anyone that had any contact with Brendan to gather as much information as they possibly can," Brennan said Friday.
Brennan said he believed it was the first time Sarah Creato was meeting with investigators. The Camden County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment.
An eerie and seemingly clairvoyant video - a school project - that Sarah Creato posted to YouTube in December 2013 has added to the intrigue. It portrays a reenactment of the plot of the teen novel Catalyst, about a family searching for a young boy who vanishes and is later found dead.
Brendan portrays the boy in the trailer. Sarah Creato, who had graduated from Haddon Township High School that year, wrote that it was for a school project and titled it "Catalyst movie trailer (school project)." It was not clear if the video was a high school project or one she undertook afterward while attending Camden County College.
Last week, Brennan declined to comment on the video. D.J. Creato's attorney, Richard J. Fuschino Jr., has called it an "eerie coincidence" and said it has no link to the case.
The growing heap of coincidences and conjectures is overwhelming some in the community.
"Everybody's got something to say," said Martha Smentek, 72, who has lived in the Westmont neighborhood most of her life. "Frankly, I think, probably, we should all shut up."
The night before Brendan was reported missing, his grandmother Lisa Creato dropped him off at his father's apartment around 8:30, Fuschino said.
D.J. and his son then read three children's books and ate potato chips, and Brendan went to bed sometime before 10, Fuschino said.
Fuschino said Julia Spensky, D.J.'s girlfriend, who is 17 and a New York resident, was at his apartment that weekend and occasionally spent the night there. But only D.J. and Brendan were in the apartment after the boy was dropped off the evening of Oct. 12, Fuschino said.
D.J. reported his son missing about 6 a.m. the next day. The boy, lively and happy in family images and video clips posted online, was found lifeless three hours later by a K-9 unit in woods by the Cooper River.
Brendan's mother, Samantha Denoto, who does not live with D.J., has not spoken publicly since she and her family released a statement the day Brendan died. The family, requesting privacy, said it was "heartbroken" but did not have answers about what had occurred.
Frustrations have boiled over at times.
On Thursday, Brennan said authorities were not sharing information: "I fail to see the need for secrecy here."
Brennan said his clients, the grandparents, had not heard from investigators since they spoke at the Prosecutor's Office the week of Brendan's death.
A spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office said it had reached out to Brennan recently, "to no avail."
By Friday evening, Brennan said he had expressed his concerns to the Prosecutor's Office and was optimistic going forward.
"We have faith in the investigators," he said.
Authorities have said there is no indication Brendan was sexually assaulted, and no signs of a break-in at his father's apartment, where D.J. Creato, 22, said in a 911 call he woke up and found his son gone.
Fuschino said last week that a toxicology test, which generally looks for drugs and other chemicals, was negative. The Prosecutor's Office declined to comment.
What is keeping authorities from releasing further information is unclear. Generally, in cases in which the circumstances and cause of death are not immediately known, a medical examiner may wait for further findings from investigators to make a final ruling.
"These things can go on and on until it all comes together," said Lawrence Kobilinsky, a forensic scientist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, who is not involved in the case. "It's basically a process of ruling things out."
Camden County Medical Examiner Gerald Feigin, who performed the initial autopsy on Brendan, has sought assistance from the state medical examiner in trying to find a cause of death. Though Brendan's body has been cremated, a pathologist can still test samples pulled during the autopsy.
On Strawbridge Avenue, four blocks from D.J. Creato's apartment, detectives knocked on doors Oct. 29 and asked if people had seen anything unusual at a vacant home there.
While rumors have swirled about a baby carriage being found at the property, with the website PhillyVoice citing such reports from neighbors, Smentek and two others who spoke to The Inquirer said detectives who spoke to them never mentioned a carriage.
The Prosecutor's Office declined to comment other than saying, "We are continuing to conduct an exhaustive investigation into the death of 3-year-old Brendan Creato."
Some of the chatter among residents has been fueled by screen shots some saved of a Tumblr post by Spensky.
In the post, which has been taken down, Spensky wrote: "I am possibly a suspect in a homicide investigation. I was advised by my attorney not to speak to anyone about my case."
In her blog, titled "One Funny blog," Spensky described herself as a former employee at the Creato family business, Creato Windows, and said, "I got the job because I'm DJ Creato's girlfriend."
The Prosecutor's Office has said it is aware of the Tumblr post but declined to elaborate. Spensky's attorney, Joseph Sorrentino, declined to comment Friday.
Authorities have asked anyone with information about the case to contact Michael Rhoads, Prosecutor's Office detective, at 856-225-8561, or Don Quinn, a Haddon Township detective, at 856-833-6208.
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