Believing it was a hoax, children didn’t report body

Associated Press

SHORELINE — For two days, pupils at Kellogg Middle School took macabre walks to a nearby public library, where they peered at the body of a 16-year-old boy lying in the rain-soaked bushes.

Scared or believing it a hoax, they told no adults what they saw.

Authorities say they don’t know how many children went to the landscaped lot next to the library to see the body of Dustin Alan Rakestraw of Seattle. But some returned and brought their friends.

"My son thought they were playing a joke on him," said Pamela Rapinan. "They all thought it was fake."

Rakestraw died of a gunshot wound to the head, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office reported. A 13-year-old boy has been arrested for investigation of manslaughter.

Rakestraw’s parents last heard from him Tuesday at about 8 p.m., when he called for a ride home from the library. Lisa Rakestraw and her husband, Wes, went to pick him up but couldn’t find him.

They returned home and went to bed. Wes Rakestraw said his wife worried.

"She barely slept," he said. "She was up and down all night."

Lisa Rakestraw said the next morning she "got up and went to work just praying he would be home when I got home."

Dustin wasn’t home when she got home, however, so the couple interviewed his 13-year-old friend, the suspect in the case. They declined to say what the boy told them, but they immediately filed a missing person report.

Meanwhile, the 13-year-old was telling friends about the body, said Amanda Rapinan, 15, who was a friend of Rakestraw. Among those he told were Rapinan’s brothers, ages 11 and 13.

The boys didn’t think it was real, and the head remained covered with a sweat shirt so they couldn’t tell who it was, Amanda said. She went to investigate Thursday evening.

"This had been going around school all day Thursday and certainly a number of kids saw the body," said King County sheriff’s spokesman John Urquhart. "For whatever reason, they didn’t call police or tell an adult."

Alene Moroni, a librarian, said she was as doubtful as the children until she looked for herself Thursday shortly just before 6 p.m.

"Some kids came in and said, ‘There’s a dead body in the bushes,’ " Moroni said. "I thought, ‘Yeah, right.’ "

She and a co-worker saw what appeared to be a boy lying motionless in rumpled clothes. She called Shoreline police.

Urquhart said the shooting appeared to be accidental. The suspect was arrested at his home at about 3:30 a.m. Friday after police had interviewed at least six youths ages 11 to 19.

Rakestraw attended Nathan Hale High School in Seattle. He had been convicted as a juvenile in 1999 for assault, possessing a weapon on school grounds and attempted theft. He was ordered to perform community service, attend counseling and undergo drug and alcohol evaluation after he was caught breaking into cars last fall.

The suspect had been living with his father a few blocks from Kellogg Middle School, where he was enrolled. Earlier this year, he served time in juvenile detention and was placed on probation for breaking a school window in June 2000. He also has been charged with theft in Snohomish County.