13-year-old dies in tunnel collapse

Someday soon the concrete basement and foundation at 1800 E. Vanetta will support a vinyl-sided home guaranteed to fetch a handsome price.

But on Easter Sunday, the unsecured construction lot in north Spokane presented an irresistible series of sandy mounds, which had become a playground for the children who lived nearby, neighbors said.

Those same neighbors watched in horror Sunday afternoon as David McNerney ran home with his 13-year-old son, Jesse, after an earthen tunnel caved in on the boy as he played alone.

Efforts to resuscitate Jesse were unsuccessful.

“It’s horrifying,” said Daria Medina, whose 10-year-old son, Christian, was one of the boy’s playmates. “It’s very upsetting. I just saw him yesterday.”

Spokane Police spokesman Cpl. Tom Lee said Jesse’s parents told detectives that the boy had left about 1 p.m. to go play. When he hadn’t returned home, David McNerney went to look for him.

“The dad found him, pulled him out of the sand and started hollering for help … as he was carrying the kid home in his arms,” Lee said. “It was a neighbor who called 911 after hearing the father call for help.”

Jesse, who lived only a block away, had been digging a hole in the side of a large mound of sandy soil inside of an 8-foot trench, Lee said.

“We had the detectives there to look at it, and they were convinced this was an accident. It looked to our guys like (Jesse) was digging a cave,” Lee said.

“It collapsed and covered him from his head down to his waist.”

Approached by a reporter Sunday, the family declined to comment.

Medina, the neighbor, said her son was with his father Sunday and did not yet know that one of his best friends was dead.

“I honestly don’t know how he is going to handle it,” she said. “Hearing (Jesse) was alone, I can guarantee he came over to see if my son would go with him. They had a little fort they were building.”

Janet Walker lives across the street from the McNerneys and had been scheduled to celebrate Easter with them, she said.

“This started last summer with all this construction,” Walker said as she looked toward the approaching subdivision.

“I’ve seen them go down and play there innumerable times.”

Walker questioned why the construction site had no warning signs.

“I just can’t believe it took this long,” she said.

“This will be fairly traumatic for the parents and the sister. But their grandma will help them hold up.”