Two-year-old's body not found at site
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/5/07

Authorities on Wednesday were debating what to do next with a 17-year-old suspected homicide, after digging for a young boy's body turned up nothing in Jersey City.

Federal, state and local investigators spent Monday and Tuesday concentrating on a hilly, brush-filled area under an elevated portion of the New Jersey Turnpike. That's where authorities say Curtis Williams admitted to burying his son's clothed body under three feet of dirt.

But the search produced no remains of 2-year-old Curtis McCoy.

The Associated Press

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Digging for Curtis is halted

Thursday, April 05, 2007
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Investigators have stopped digging for the remains of a 2-year-old boy believed to have been killed 17 years ago, saying it's possible there's no remains to be found even if they were looking in the right place.

"I think it's a battle against nature," Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Debra Simon said of the search for Curtis McCoy, who was reported missing by his father in 1989. "He's been in the ground 171/2 years, and he's just a little boy."

The boy's father, Curtis Williams, was arrested two years ago after investigators said they found information leading them to believe he'd killed the boy. Prosecutors worked out a deal with Williams where he'd lead them to the body in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Using heavy machinery, shovels and dirt sifters, authorities on Monday dug through a brush-covered area under an elevated portion of the New Jersey Turnpike at Merseles and First streets in Downtown Jersey City, but came up empty. Reportedly, Williams said he'd buried the 2-year-old's clothed body there under 3 feet of dirt.

Simon believes Williams was being truthful when he led authorities to the site. She said animals or subsequent construction were possible reasons for the boy's remains not being found.

Prosecutors said they agreed to the deal with Curtis Williams because the boy's mother, La Shawn McCoy, wanted desperately to give him a proper burial.

Simon said investigators would consider if there's anything else that can be done.

"We'll have to get everyone back in a room and figure out if there are other things we can pursue," Simon said, "We'll review everything and see what happens."

Williams is to be sentenced May 11 at 9 a.m. in the Superior Court Judge Peter Vazquez's courtroom in Jersey City.

Williams, who has been in jail since his arrest in September 2005, has pleaded guilty to the charge of hindering apprehension, which carries a sentence of three to five years; however, prosecutors will recommend a sentence of time served and probation

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Thank god the mom never gave up her quest, this is such a sad story and I'm glad the father finally was charged after 16 years.

Thanks for the info. I suspect we are going to hear something about this on tonight's news. There is a chopper hovering overhead as a type this. (I'm a block away). Sad about about that poor little kid....

This is in the Jersery Journal Now webpage:

Police dig for remains in 17-year-old murder case
Jersey City and New Jersey State Police investigators are using heavy machines, shovels and dirt sifters Downtown in a search for the body of a 2-year-old boy murdered 17 years ago by his father, officials say.

The dig, under the New Jersey Turnpike at Merseles and First streets, is aimed at finding the remains of Curtis McCoy, who was reported missing on Nov. 18, 1989, officials said.

The boy?s father, Curtis Williams, reported the boy missing and the case went unsolved until his indictment in January of 2006 on the charges of murdering the boy, officials said.

A worker at a fabric export business on Merseles Street said yesterday that police did some preliminary digging last week and then brought Williams to the site in handcuffs to further pinpoint the search area.

Yesterday two earth movers scooped dirt from a steep sloop running up to a PATH train facility and the dirt was then passed to officers who sifted it in large rectangular trays with screen bottoms.

The boy?s mother, La Shawn McCoy, called police in mid 2005, on the 15th anniversary of the boy having gone missing, and asked them to take another look at the case. Numerous law enforcement agencies were involved in cracking the case which was sustained by the persistence of police Major Case Unit Det. Keith Armstrong.

Sources say Williams has made a deal with prosecutors which includes disclosing where the body is buried. He is currently being held in Hudson County jail in Kearny on a $250,000 bail.

The end of Second street (right under the turnpike extention and along side the PATH tracks) looks like a scene out of "CSI: Jersey City." There are tractors doing some digging by the side of the tracks, a NJ State Police van on the site and detectives are sifting dirt like archeologists on a dig. This is the third time there has been a police presence at that site (once was at night). Can anyone shed some light on what is happening? Thanks.