Two charged over Irish teen left to die
TWO young men have been charged in connection with the death of a 19-yearold Irishman in America.
Liam McGlinchey, from Buncrana, Co. Donegal, was found dead after a night out with friends while celebrating the passing of his exams in August 2017.
Liam died as a result of alcohol poisoning after he was left lying outside his grandmother’s house in New York.
Two friends he was out drinking with that night have now been charged with criminally negligent homicide.
Samuel Heroux, 21, of Cohoes and Isaiah DePiazza, 19, of Foxwoods Drive, Clifton Park, were both teenagers at the time of the incident.
Both were arraigned in Saratoga County Court on Friday and sent to the Saratoga County Jail, pending a bail application hearing.
Liam’s mother Helen Savastio appealed to young people to take care of each other.
Ms Savastio said her family, including husband Thomas McGlinchey and their chil- dren Leo and Charlotte, were ‘emotionally drained’ after they were told of the arrests.
She said: ‘It was like Liam had died all over again as we didn’t have any of this when it first happened.
‘It was all kept a secret, we’re still not sure why, but we were told at the time it was to protect the integrity of the case. So for 18 months, we heard nothing.’
Police said they were called on August 25 to a report of an unresponsive male in the driveway of a house on Rolling Brook Drive and the officers who responded found the teenager was dead. An investigation revealed that Liam had been out the previous night with friends, including Heroux and DePiazza, drinking alcohol.
After Liam became highly intoxicated, he had difficulty walking. Police allege the two accused brought Liam to his home and left him on a grassy area outside the house, where he subsequently died.
Ms Savastio said she could not understand why her son was just left outside her mother’s house.
She said: ‘We really don’t know what the kids were thinking. I know Liam’s friends here and they would have done something and not thrown him under a tree like trash for my mother, who was 91 at the time, to find him.
‘Even if they had rang the doorbell and ran. All these things go through my mind. Instead, they just left him on the grass and he was unconscious.’
She said: ‘I think about him all the time. He was such a lovely guy. Some days we are fine and other days are just so hard.’
Liam, a former student at Scoil Mhuire in Buncrana, was born in the US but his family moved back to Donegal shortly afterwards. They moved back permanently to the US in 2013.
The trial is expected to begin on July 29.