Police investigate teenage boy's death

Police investigate teenage boy's death


Save Story

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

Gene Kennedy and Sandra Yi reporting A Salt Lake City family is overwhelmed with grief after they found their teenage son dead inside their home.

Originally the death sounded like a possible murder, but now police say they're not treating it as a homicide. They consider it a suspicious death.

Investigators were at the home near 1100 South and 900 West all Monday evening. Police believe the victim is 14 years old. They are not releasing his name, but his relatives called him "Cito." The teen's parents came home around 5:00 and found their son dead.

Police investigate teenage boy's death

The victim's relatives stretched half a block, looking in disbelief at the home where the teen was found dead.

Lou Lou Izarezza said, "He was such a good kid." She is the victim's cousin. Jeff Castillo is his uncle.

"He was probably the best kid you could have," Castillo said.

We saw a glimpse of the teen nicknamed "Cito" on a cell phone. Friends and family say his death is just unthinkable.

Karen Castillo explained, "It is because it's unexpected." The Castillos don't know how he died. "He was laying on the floor. That's all we know," Karen said.

Police have their theory on what happened but won't say. The most telling fact is that investigators are not looking for any suspects. When asked, "Did the teen do something that caused his death?" police answered, "We can neither confirm nor deny that."

While relative after relative waits for answers, they remember a young man who lost his life just as it was beginning.

"He was really mellow, always playing games. He would go to Ogden with us sometimes just to hang out for a while," Izarezza said.

Family members told us there were physical signs of trauma, but police wouldn't talk about the victim's condition or the crime scene. They think they'll know the cause of death Tuesday after an autopsy is done.

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Notice.
Newsletter Signup

KSL Weather Forecast

KSL Weather Forecast
Play button