Quawan Charles Suspicious Death Leaves Family Asking if Racial Bias Slowed Police Response

The disappearance and inexplicable death of a 15-year-old Black boy in rural Louisiana has left his family searching for answers and expressing frustration at what they call local law enforcement’s negligence to act in the hours after the boy disappeared.

What We Know:

• Quawan “Bobby” Charles’ parents reported his disappearance from his father’s home in Baldwin, La., on Oct. 30, as stated by Ron Haley, the family attorney. Hayley mentioned the Baldwin Police Department took a report but gave no indication over the next few days that they searched for the teen or actively investigated his disappearance.
• Instead, they advised Quawan might have gone to a football game and asked if the boy had a troubled past, he said.
• Quawan’s family said they heard through a third party that a 17-year-old friend and his mother, Gavin and Janet Irvin, had picked up Quawan around 3 p.m. the day he went missing, as his father was at the store. Kenneth Jacko, Quawan’s father, stated neither he nor Quawan’s mother knew the Irvins, who are White, and had not permitted them to take Quawan.
• Jacko said Iberia Parish officers accompanied Quawan’s family to the Irvins’ home on Nov. 3, four days after Quawan disappeared but before his body was discovered. Gavin validated the story, Jacko said, explaining that the boys had wanted to spend time together that day but that Quawan later left alone.
• Quawan’s body was found Nov. 3 in a sugar cane field near this small village about 25 miles north of his home. The Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office has stated it is examining the “suspicious circumstances” of Quawan’s death but has delivered small details after the boy went missing two weeks ago.
• Quawan’s parents mentioned the sheriff’s office told them that their son had drowned and that water was found in his lungs. A preliminary autopsy statement by the Iberia Parish coroner classified the cause of death as “likely drowning” with muddy water found in his airways and hyperinflated lungs.
• The preliminary report showed he did not have injuries before his death. The form of his face was likely prompted by “aquatic animals” while he was in the water, it indicated.
• The family has not heard anything from the Irvins. Attempts to reach the Irvins by phone and at their home in a Loreauville trailer park have been made on Wednesday, but it was unsuccessful. A sibling of the trailer park’s owner said the Irvins recently had been removed, but he did not state why.

A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office said she could not discuss whether investigators communicated with the Irvins. No suspects have been named in the case, and it has not been designated a homicide.