http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/532437
Brandon Crisp Nov 07, 2008 11:24 AM
Comments on this story (82)
Robyn Doolittle
Staff Reporter
The body was resting in reeds nearly as tall as the deer hunters who found it.
The hunter who stumbled upon the grim find picked up his walkie-talkie and radioed the others who were scattered around the bush.
"I found something," he said in a shaky voice. "It's a boy, 15, maybe 14. His shoes are on. There's a backpack."
They immediately knew who it was – Brandon Crisp.
Brandon's fully clothed body appeared so neat, his clothing so unsullied, the hunters thought that, although he'd clearly been there a while, he couldn't possibly have been out there for three weeks, the time he'd been missing since running away from his Barrie home Thanksgiving Monday.
He looked to be at peace – something that would be consistent with hypothermia, which some investigators are quietly speculating could well have been the cause of death.
A post-mortem is scheduled for today.
Brandon was last seen about three kilometres southwest of where the group, local men who had set out around 9:30 a.m, was hunting deer.
"We'd only been out there about 20 minutes," said one of the men.
They were hunting in a wooded area between Oro-Medonte line 4 and 5, about a kilometre north of the Oro trail. The woods are bordered by cornfields and tall, brown grass, the perfect hiding place for deer. And Brandon's body.
"You could have missed it even from five feet away," the hunter said. "It's heartbreaking. It shouldn't have ended this way," he said, his eyes filling with tears.
The hunters called OPP from one of the men's nearby homes. Police arrived around 10:30 a.m. and the homeowner drove the detectives to the site on his ATV.
Police have said they aren't ruling out anything, but based on preliminary evidence they aren't expecting this to be homicide. Sources familiar with the case said a leading theory is that the boy became disoriented and died of hypothermia, an abnormally low body temperature.
Brandon ran away after his parents took away his Xbox. Angelika and Steve Crisp later explained the Grade 10 student had become addicted to a popular online game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
Infuriated, the teen threatened to leave. Sure the boy was bluffing, Steve helped Brandon pack his bag.
"I really thought he would be home later that day with his tail between his legs," the distraught father told the Star two weeks ago.
The 15-year-old was last seen on a biking trail between Barrie and Orillia, between Oro-Medonte Line 2 and 3. Hundreds of local volunteers and police scoured the region, combing through acres of brush between Line 1 and Line 10. But, said Sgt. Dave Goodbrand, the focus was always on the area near the trail.
Civilian-led search teams had canvassed the area where the body was found, but the ground is marsh-like and the terrain uneven.
Marguerite Watson had been out searching too, but she and her husband, Roy, are elderly and could only watch the roads. It was at the very back of her property, past the cornfield, that Brandon was found. OPP set up a command post at the farm.
"All along. All this time," she said, her voice cracking. "A 15-year-old boy was found on our property. You have no idea how upsetting ..."
In town, students gathered for a morning mass at St. Joseph's High School. Principal Matt McCann said Wednesday was one of the toughest days of his career.
"I feel very numb," he said. "We knew when the police came to get the girls (Crisp's sisters who are students at the school) in the morning that that wasn't a good sign."
At about 12:30 p.m. officers contacted the school and confirmed McCann's worst fears. "We took about 20 minutes to figure out what we were going to say and then called everyone together," he said.
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A very sad story, tragic end to a young man's life. I feel bad for the parents, but I don't think I would have let him leave so easily and left it for so long. If my son didn't come home that night, I would be on the phone to the police. They waited until the next night to call. My heart does go out to them and thier loss.
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