Police reconstructing hours before 2 deaths

By Denise Dick

One boy’s mother reported her son missing several hours before the bodies were discovered.

BOARDMAN — Police are reconstructing the 24 hours leading up to the deaths of two township teens found in a Market Street cemetery.

The bodies of Jamie Serich, 17, of Walker Mill Road, and Colin Hart, 18, of Wildwood Drive, were found early Sunday by a township police officer in Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Both boys were seniors at Cardinal Mooney High School.

“We’re trying to piece together the 24 hours before their deaths,” said Lt. Don Hawkins, leading the investigation.

Serich’s mother, Cynthia, reported her son missing about 11:30 p.m. Saturday. The report said the woman had last seen her son about 8 p.m. that day.

The mother told police she was notified by several of her son’s friends that they had received text messages from Jamie saying he was going to kill himself that night, and that he was depressed and couldn’t take it anymore, the police report said.

Cynthia Serich told police that she tried to call her son several times on his cellular phone but that he wouldn’t answer. She said he was driving in her 2007 Pontiac G6 with his friend, Colin. Jamie’s friends told her that Colin carried a gun.

Police said that Colin’s parents neither knew he had a gun nor how he got it.

On routine patrol about 7 a.m. Sunday, a patrolman drove into the cemetery and spotted a Pontiac G6. As he drove closer, he saw the bodies of both boys, both with head wounds.

Investigators from the Mahoning County Coroner’s office were called to the scene.

Hawkins said the boys’ cell phones and a computer have been sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. Police also are awaiting laboratory results on toxicology and gunshot residue tests.

Police are trying to determine if the incident was a murder-suicide or a double suicide.

“We aren’t ruling out any possibility at this point,” said Detective Glenn Patton.

Jamie had been shot in the left side of his head, a police report said.

Colin was shot in the right side of his head and the gun remained in his right hand, his arm resting across his chest, Hawkins said.

Both boys were seated among the flat grave markers when they were shot, he said.

Calling hours for Colin are set for 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Higgins-Reardon Funeral Home, Starr Centre Drive, Canfield. A Mass of Christian Burial is planned at 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Charles Church, Boardman.

Arrangements for Jamie are pending by Cunningham-Becker Funeral Home.

Family members for both teens declined to comment.

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