Evidence gathered along the East River — body parts, clothing and a pair of sneakers — almost certainly brought to a tragic end the desperate three-month search for autistic teen Avonte Oquendo.
All that remained to confirm the parents’ worst fears was a comparison of DNA taken from the remains with the sample that Avonte’s mother, Vanessa Fontaine, rushed to investigators.
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“Unfortunately, there is good reason to think it’s him,” the family’s lawyer, David Perecman, warned. “It’s more than just speculation.”
Still, Avonte’s parents were clinging to dwindling hope that their 14-year-old son was still alive.
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“They’re distraught, but they’re hopeful it’s not him,” Perecman said. “They remain optimistic that he’s still out there.”
Avonte walked past a security guard and out of the Riverview School in Long Island City, Queens, on Oct. 4. Avonte was obsessed with the subway system and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials made announcements on trains for weeks asking for help finding him. The MTA sent subway workers into the tunnels in Brooklyn and Queens to check out tips that the teen had been spotted wandering the tracks.
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The NYPD went so far as to enlist the help of psychics in the search for the boy, sources told the Daily News. Police, relatives and volunteers posted flyers and combed waterways. The search generated dozens of false tips and a reward grew to nearly $90,000.
The case gripped the city with curiosity, hope and, finally, the beginnings of despair when a photographer spotted remains along the rocky shoreline in College Point on Thursday afternoon.
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Police believe Avonte walked from the school and into a nearby hilly area along the mouth of the Newtown Creek that was covered with shrubbery. He may have lost his way among the brush and tumbled down a steep drop into the water.
“It drops down all of a sudden, so if you’re running and you’re not careful, you can fall about 30 feet into the East River,” a police source told the Daily News.
Just after 7 p.m. Thursday, police found a left arm that police sources said appeared to have separated via decomposition — rather than a violent act. Police divers returned to the cold and murky water on Friday, feeling around the underwater rocks while wearing heavy gloves. Other cops searched the shoreline using cadaver dogs. They shut down the search by nightfall and were expected to resume at 7 a.m. Saturday.
In all, they found legs in boys’ size 16 Old Navy jeans, a size 51/2 Air Jordan sneaker and a striped shirt — all consistent with the outfit Avonte was wearing when he went missing.
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Cops found the legs about 15 to 20 feet from the arm on a set of rocks. On Friday, cops found what appeared to be a human jawbone, a source told The News. They have also located possible rib bones and a partial pelvis.
Fruit of the Loom underwear — size large — were found on the body, offering a glimmer of hope for the family. Fontaine said she dressed her son in Hanes underwear.
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Mayor de Blasio called the latest chapter in the search for Avonte “a horrible, sad story.”
“I can only imagine what his parents have gone through,” the mayor said. “What we know today is that the remains have arrived at the medical examiner’s office. They will be analyzed. We don’t know exactly when we’re going to have an answer but my heart goes out to this family.”
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The first of the remains were spotted by a 19-year-old photography student who lives in College Point, police sources said. Natasha Shapiro, who takes photography classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology, was too rattled to talk with reporters.
“I just want to be left alone. I want nothing to do with any of this,” she said before retreating into her house. “I called the police; that’s it.”
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In their official account of the disappearance, Riverview School staffers said Avonte disappeared from a group of students that was walking from a cafeteria to a computer lab, Perecman has said.
As it became increasingly more likely that the story of Avonte’s disappearance would not have a happy ending, schools spokesman Devon Puglia said crisis teams were “standing by for whatever the school needs.”
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Perecman filed a $25 million notice of claim against the city on behalf of Avonte’s family five days after the boy vanished.
His disappearance prompted Sen. Chuck Schumer to float a proposal to place tracking devices on autistic kids who could be overwhelmed by “the sights and sounds of New York City and other busy places.”
Danny Gonzalez, 39, volunteered on weekends early in the search. He put up fliers in Long Island City.
“I just hope this will be some sort of closure,” Gonzalez said. “I’m sure the family has been struggling every night wondering if he’s going to come home.”
Neighbor Stephanie Weitzman, 65, was holding out hope until she heard that remains were recovered.
“I was hoping like the mother, but I had a bad feeling,” she said. “I just wish it were a happier ending.”
With Joseph Stepansky, Mark Morales, Thomas Tracy, Nancy Dillon, Rachel Monahan, Jennifer Fermino and Ginger Adams Otis
rparascandola@nydailynews.com
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