When police knocked on Osie Taylor’s door on Wednesday, looking for a 9-year-old boy who had been reported as missing, he immediately offered to help search areas where he knew local kids would often hang out and play.
He didn’t have to go far. In a wooded area behind his public housing unit in New Kensington, on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, he confirmed everyone’s worst fear: The body of Azuree Charles, his neighbor, was there under a lawn chair. He was clothed but missing his socks and shoes.
“I searched the hills and when I came in behind the shed and saw the chair flipped over and I got closer, I saw the feet hanging over the—feet hanging out from underneath the chair” Taylor told local news outlet KDKA.
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He described Azuree to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as a “gentle, nice kid” whose mother is “one of the few that took care of their kids.”
“He laughed all the time and played with his sisters all the time. He was a very, very nice kid, always well mannered. He got along well with everybody,” he said.
Neighbors had wondered if Azuree died of natural causes, as he’d battled health issues during his short life, including overcoming pediatric cancer.
But Pennsylvania prosecutors revealed later Wednesday that his death was being treated as a homicide, and that a “person of interest” had been identified. “He did die at the hands of another person,” Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli said.
In another twist, Azuree’s father, Jean Charles, was arrested Thursday on an unrelated warrant for simple assault and child endangerment in November 2021.
He was accused of punching his son in the eye, causing bruising last November, WPXI reported. It’s unclear if the son was Azuree.
Friends and family gathered Thursday night to pay tribute in a candlelight vigil in the child’s neighborhood, CBS Pittsburgh reported.
“Hearing this news was the saddest news I’ve ever received,” said Brian Heidenreich, one of the boy’s teachers. “Azuree was the sweetest, most innocent, kind, caring child that I’ve ever met.”
“It just breaks my heart. It feels like it happened to me,” Taylor said. “The kid was like one of my kids or one of my grandkids.”
