For 'innocent little baby,' tears and a memorial of toys
The Turbo Wheels monster truck with a checkered racing flag on its side stood upright in the blue box, still unopened, on the short concrete wall behind D.J. Creato's Haddon Township apartment.
The Turbo Wheels monster truck with a checkered racing flag on its side stood upright in the blue box, still unopened, on the short concrete wall behind D.J. Creato's Haddon Township apartment.
His son, Brendan, loved monster trucks.
Below it, a stuffed-toy Hulk, the character 3-year-old Brendan wanted to be for Halloween, lay against a white teddy bear, surrounded by candles and a Halloween container with "Fun Size" M&M packs inside.
The memorial, growing behind the seven-unit building, marks the area where Brendan was last seen before he mysteriously disappeared from his father's apartment, from which Creato told a 911 dispatcher early Oct. 13 that he had woken up and found Brendan gone.
That was nearly two weeks ago.
Few answers have emerged since then about Brendan's final hours, or how the boy who loved superheroes and the Beatles traveled a half-mile from his father's apartment to the woods near South Park Drive and Cooper Street, where a K-9 unit found his body, still clad in red pajamas.
"This is an innocent little baby," said Pete Singer, 60, a Westmont resident who attended funeral services Friday at Holy Saviour Church, where friends, family, and residents gathered for a private ceremony. "I know I was bawling my eyes out," he said.
While autopsy results are pending, authorities have said there was no indication Brendan was sexually assaulted. They also said there was no sign of forced entry into his father's second-floor apartment.
Camden County Medical Examiner Gerald Feigin, who performed an autopsy, has sought assistance from the state medical examiner in trying to find a cause of death. Feigin has referred questions to the Prosecutor's Office, which has counseled patience.
David Fowler, the chief medical examiner for Maryland, who is not involved with the case, said an initial autopsy sometimes points to a potential cause of death but not the main cause. Finding that could require further opinions and tests, such as toxicology, X-rays, and microscopic studies.
"It's not a simple process," Fowler said, adding that even if a medical examiner's office has an answer, it may initially withhold the details from the public.
"They do not want to compromise an ongoing investigation," he said.
Richard J. Fuschino Jr., the Philadelphia attorney representing Creato, said Friday that the family is still seeking answers. Creato is not a suspect, Fuschino said authorities had told him. The Prosecutor's Office declined to comment.
"I think everyone wants answers, not just D.J.," Fuschino said. "So answers are certainly part of it. I think he wants closure. I think he wants to have some finality in knowing what happened to his son."
Some additional details have emerged about the evening before Brendan's death.
Firas Emachah, a Creato family friend, said Brendan had dinner at his grandmother's home and took a bath there the evening of Oct. 12. His grandmother, Lisa Creato, then dropped him off a block away at his father's apartment sometime before 10 p.m., Emachah said.
"That baby was everybody's life," said Emachah, 42, of Shamong, who recalled that Brendan used to playfully dump water on his computer keyboard and race his 5-year-old son around the Emachah family's pool.
Around 6 a.m., the day after Brendan was dropped off, D.J. Creato called his mother, and then 911, to report his son missing.
"I just woke up and he wasn't in my apartment," he told a dispatcher. "I don't know if he wandered out or what happened. I don't know where he is. The door was locked, I guess he unlocked it and left."
Residents received an automated police call about the disappearance, causing them to search their properties and yell Brendan's name in the streets, in hope he was hiding somewhere.
His body was found around 9 a.m., three hours after he was reported missing.
On Friday, cars with orange "Funeral" signs attached to the rearview mirrors were parked outside Holy Saviour as the services took place inside. Attached to the front hoods of some were the blue bows that many residents, including the Creatos, have hung on their homes to remember Brendan.
Outside his father's apartment, where the memorial of stuffed animals and candles sat, only a Minions balloon rapping against a wood fence in the breeze interrupted the silence.
On one candle, someone had written in black marker: "hush little baby, don't you cry."
Authorities asked anyone with information about the boy's death to contact Prosecutor's Office Detective Michael Rhoads at 856-225-8561 or Haddon Township Police Detective Don Quinn at 856-833-6208.
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