Missing boys drowned in lagoon

MILWAUKEE – The families of Purvis Virginia Parker and Quadrevion Henning finally know what happened to the boys, nearly a month after they disappeared. It was neither the nightmare of evil suffering they had feared, nor anything close to a fully answered prayer.

The bodies of Purvis, 11, and Quadrevion, 12, were found in a park lagoon on an unseasonably warm evening Friday. They weren’t far from the basketball court they had been headed for on the icy afternoon March 19 when they were last seen.

Police said Saturday the boys accidentally drowned. They speculate that Purvis, who could not swim, somehow fell in and that Quadrevion, a strong swimmer, jumped in to try to save his good friend.

Milwaukee County medical examiner Jeffrey Jentzen said the water was so cold at the time that the boys could have lost consciousness immediately and died within 15 minutes.

“It’s believed that the boys’ bodies have been in the water since the day they were reported missing,” Milwaukee Police Chief Nan Hegerty said in closing the investigation. “They were probably in the water before we were even notified that they were missing.”

Dennis Frazier, Quadrevion’s uncle, said the family was relieved that the long ordeal was over.

“Heads (are) lifted up in good spirits, smiles on their faces considering the circumstances,” he said.

Volunteers and police had combed the park numerous times and dive teams had searched the large lagoon where the boys were later found, but did not find them in the murky water. A few hours after a man and his son walking in the park spotted Purvis’ body floating in the lagoon, divers found the body of Quadrevion.

The community had rallied around the boys’ families, offering flowers and hugs, tying white ribbons around every tree in the neighborhood and helping to raise a $70,000 reward for information leading to the discovery of the boys. Authorities said that the entity that collected the money would have to decide where it went.

The boys, who lived about two blocks from each other, were good students who family members said would never go somewhere without permission. Word swirled throughout the community that perhaps the boys had been abducted, but experts had said that was highly unlikely and police had said repeatedly that there was no evidence a crime had been committed.