What is the matter with these people?

[Empire]

This is in todays Sacramento Bee:

Friends allegedly dumped dead boy
Hurt in the crash of a stolen car, he was found in a ditch.
By Ralph Montaño -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Thursday, January 30, 2003
After the stolen car crashed and 15-year-old Andrew Maggenti ended up buckled into the back seat with a broken neck last week, his three friends pulled him to safety and stretched him out on the dark ground in rural Sutter County.
Then, in what authorities said was a horrifying lapse of judgment, one of the three young males called his father instead of 911, and before the night was over the father and a friend allegedly helped drive Maggenti's lifeless body 40 miles to dump it into a drainage ditch in Rio Linda.

This is the sequence of events Sacramento County sheriff's detectives described Wednesday as they pursued charges against the three young males, the father and his friend in connection with the Jan. 20 death of the Rio Linda High School sophomore.

Authorities expect at least three of the five suspects to turn themselves in today. Authorities would not release their names.

Authorities said charges could range from vehicular manslaughter to being accessories to car theft after the fact, and they questioned whether Maggenti could have been saved if the boys had acted differently.

"We can't say for certain, but potentially, Andrew might have lived," sheriff's homicide Sgt. Craig Hill said. "Perhaps a helicopter could have gotten him to a hospital in time. We don't know for sure."

But Maggenti's family expressed outrage Wednesday -- which would have been the boy's 16th birthday -- over what they described as selfish actions by young people more afraid of being caught joyriding than helping a friend.

"They threw a dead kid in a ditch like he was a piece of trash," said Phil Powell, Maggenti's brother-in-law. "What kind of people do that?"

Tim Maggenti, Andrew's father, said a couple of the boys attended his son's funeral.

"The way they disposed of Andy, it wasn't right," Maggenti said. "They knew him. It's amazing: He wasn't even worth a 911 call."

Authorities say the incident began nearly two weeks ago when Maggenti was staying at the North Highlands trailer park where his mother lived.

Three males, ages 18, 16 and 15, showed up riding in a 1993 Honda Accord that had been stolen New Year's Eve from a North Highlands home.

Officials say they don't know who stole the car, but the three invited Maggenti to go along for a ride last week.

The group drove to Sutter County, where they took turns driving the car along levee roads. Andrew never took his turn, instead remaining buckled up in the back seat.

"Andrew was more of a follower than a leader," Hill said. "He just went along for the ride."

It was while the 15-year-old was driving that he lost control of the car while going more than 100 mph, Hill said.

The car rolled over several times and came to rest upright in a few feet of water. Three of them were able to escape without serious injury, but Maggenti was left sitting in the back seat with a broken neck.

His three friends began trying to pull him to safety.

At several points during that process, cars drove by on the levee road, but rather than summon help they turned off the dome light to avoid detection, authorities said.

His friends managed to get him up to the levee and placed him on the ground, and at some point Maggenti was able to have a conversation with his friends.

But instead of calling authorities for help, one of the boys called his father back in Rio Linda. The father, who was with a friend who had a pickup truck, told the teenagers they would come and help them, Hill said.

But the men took nearly three hours to find the group, and by the time they arrived, authorities believe Maggenti was dead.

It was at that point that someone decided to mask the nature of the accident, abandoning the stolen car and placing Maggenti's body in the pickup bed while the rest rode in the extended cab.

The group -- the father, the friend and the three survivors of the crash -- then headed back toward Sacramento, finally leaving Maggenti's body face up in two feet of water in a drainage ditch in Rio Linda, authorities said.

The abandoned car was found the same day as Andrew's body, but several days passed before authorities connected the two. Authorities were told his friends hadn't been seen in the trailer park where they lived since Andrew's body was found.

Investigators also said the autopsy showed injuries that were consistent with an automobile accident. Hill said all the people involved were questioned over the course of a week, but the details of their statements were not released.

Investigators had enough information to lead them to the scene of the crash, which had already been discovered by the California Highway Patrol.

Authorities said that after questioning by sheriff's Detectives Will Bayles and Grant Stomsvik, several of the individuals involved cooperated, saying they felt relief at being able to discuss what had happened.

But that was little comfort to Maggenti's family, which spent part of Wednesday visiting his grave site on his birthday.

"That any parent could help his son do this is beyond me," Powell said.

"We're devastated as a family."

[Straydog]

How sad.

A very timely example of why it does not work for me when we here people say "it is the parents responsibility to make it right for their kids" or something of that nature.

Fact is, there are a whole lot of parents out there that are simply not responsible.