Police want to talk to boy who was with 10-year-old girl fatally thrown from amusement park ride
“Detectives believe that the juvenile may have information that may assist them in the death investigation,” police said in a statement.
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New Jersey state police said Thursday that they would like to speak with a juvenile boy who was in the same car of an amusement park ride as 10-year-old Hailey McMullen when she was thrown from her seat and killed at a fair in South Jersey.
In a short news release, state police said detectives were seeking the public’s help in identifying the juvenile’s parents so that they could speak to them and their child.
“Detectives believe that the juvenile may have information that may assist them in the death investigation,” police said in the release, without elaborating.
It was not immediately clear why officials did not speak to the juvenile immediately after the Oct. 12 incident. The state police public information office did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Anyone with information was asked to contact the state police Bridgeton Station at 856-451-0101.
McMullen, of Deerfield Township, was thrown from a ride called Xtreme, which is known in the amusement ride world by its manufacturing name, Super Sizzler, at the Cumberland County township’s Harvest Festival.
After her death, the state ordered the shutdown of the one Super Sizzler and seven Sizzlers in New Jersey while the investigation is under way.
The girl was not wearing a seat belt, which was not required by New Jersey as it is in other states, at the time. The Super Sizzler has a lap bar that locks in place. According to the manufacturer’s website, the lap bar can be closed by riders but only the operator can open it.