How teen fell from Ambler bell tower remains a mystery

Classmates could always count on Nick Carr for his easy smile and "daredevil" sense of fearlessness.

But as the investigation into the 16-year-old's death continued Tuesday, authorities came no closer to understanding how he plummeted from the top of a 174-foot bell tower two days earlier.

Police found the Hatboro-Horsham High School junior dead Sunday at the base of the structure, within an Ambler cemetery.

But whether he jumped intentionally, fell accidentally, or had help scaling the eight-story building remains a mystery.

"There's no evidence of foul play," Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said. "But that doesn't even begin to explain what exactly happened."

Police have not publicly identified the dead teen as Carr. But friends and family flooded a memorial Facebook page in the hours after his death.

Posting photos and stories, students described a teen who enjoyed baseball and liked to press his limits.

Several mentioned Carr's penchant for practicing backflips off trees and gym walls. In one photo, he sits perched atop the backboard of a basketball hoop.

"You were such a happy and funny kid," friend Mike Harnett wrote. Harnett declined an interview Tuesday, as did many students, citing respect for Carr and his family.

Investigators believe Carr used a ladder to enter the tower and then climbed the stairs to the upper level.

While no evidence specifically suggests others may have been with him during his climb, detectives have not ruled out that possibility.

Small groups of students huddled around the tower's base Tuesday, while others stopped and stared at an impromptu memorial set up on the high school grounds.

"If you could only see the impact you have had on the Hatboro-Horsham community," one student wrote on the memorial website. "You truly are a special young man who has moved us all so deeply."