DA: No foul play in Hub child’s drowning
The investigation into the drowning death of a 7-year-old boy in Southie last summer found no evidence of foul play, the Suffolk district attorney said.
Shortly after meeting with the family of Kyzr Willis, who was found in the waters behind the Curley Community Center last July, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office issued a statement announcing he informed them “he found no evidence of foul play in the boy’s drowning death.”
Although the investigation was nearly closed late last year, authorities extended the probe after Willis’ family told prosecutors about a tipster who claimed to have seen the 7-year-old with an unknown adult male in the water across the harbor, Conley said. Investigators do not believe the child she saw was Kyzr.
“The investigation, which included analysis of interviews conducted by Boston Police homicide detectives and follow-up interviews by District C-6 detectives and Suffolk prosecutors, did not yield evidence that any person deliberately or recklessly caused the child’s death,” the statement read.
Willis was enrolled in the Boston Center for Youth and Families’ Summer Youth Activities Program and was among 56 children who were being supervised by about 30 staff members July 26 when he was reported missing sometime between 2:15 and 2:40 p.m.
Harbor Patrol officers using a remotely operated, camera-mounted vehicle later found Willis’ body in about 9 feet of water between the K and L Street beaches.
Conley said investigators believe Kyzr went back into the water unbeknownst to staffers, was unable to stay afloat, and drowned.