Quawan Charles' Attorney Says It's 'Disturbing' Family Doesn't Have Answers — Watch
On October 30, 15-year-old Quawan Charles was seen on surveillance video leaving his home with two unidentified people — he was found murdered four days later. Now, The Dr. Oz Show investigates the horrific and suspicious death of the Louisiana boy on the Thursday, November 19, episode.
On the video footage, a silver car is shown passing in front of the Charles family home, and the teen appears to run after the vehicle. Several minutes later, that same car returns and pulls into the boy's driveway. According to police, three people — including Charles — then exit the vehicle and head into his backyard before returning to the car and driving away.
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Charles' family had previously stated that he left with a woman named Janet Irvin and her 17-year-old son. The teen's parents say they didn't know either of them. His family also stated he left without their knowledge, which led them to call the police. Authorities found Charles' body in a sugar cane field in Iberia Parish, La., on November 3.
His parents suspect foul play, but an independent autopsy reiterated the coroner's initial findings that his death was consistent with drowning. The Iberia Parish sheriff's office is investigating Charles' disappearance as a possible homicide.
Charles’ lawyer, Chase Trichell, believes that the local authorities aren’t doing all they can to find the teens' killers. He stated to Dr. Oz that there is “no open dialogue between the investigators and the family.”
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“It seems that police developed this new habit that when a development is made, they run to the media and then we find out through the news rather than from the detectives themselves,” Trichell said.
“I’ll also add that if they were doing everything they could, we think an arrest would have been made by now. No arrests have been made, no suspects have been identified publicly, and at this point, there is no open dialogue between the investigators and the family,” he added. “And we find that reprehensible, disturbing and disappointing.”
Family friend and activist Jamal Taylor believes that “racial undertones” have impeded the authorities actions on finding the young man's murderers. “It is par for the course in this state,” he said on the Dr. Oz Show.
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"This is not the first instance of behavior that sheds a light on the racial issues that are cancerous in this case. I think if we look at the litany of press releases from the sheriff, what he has done is continue to retraumatize a mother and what really disappoints me is that he has set aside the grief of a Black mother who has to bury her 15-year-old child in the attempt to save his police department for what is clear and recognizable outrage from the public because of their inaction.”
Police chief Samuel Wise told KLFY-TV earlier this week that his team “did not drop the ball” in this case and “they did everything by protocol. They did everything by the book.”
“My officer stayed in touch with the family the whole weekend,” Wise told the news outlet. “The father told me himself that my officer stayed in touch with him the entire weekend trying to locate his kid because we do care.”
