State closes case in hanging of 10-year-old Pittsfield boy> Medical examiner can’t answer question of accident or suicide

AUGUSTA — The investigation into the February death of a 10-year-old Pittsfield boy has ended without a finding on whether it was an accident or suicide, according to Sgt. Timothy Doyle of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Maine State Police.

Eduardo “Vito” Carranza died after an incident at his Powers Road home on Feb. 24 when he looped a dog leash over an outdoor basketball hoop and placed it around his neck, officials said.

Initial statements by doctors at Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield, where the boy was taken, incorrectly indicated he had died of a broken neck.

An investigation and autopsy by the State Medical Examiner’s Office revealed that the boy hanged and died of asphyxiation. His neck was not broken.

“I have no idea why (hospital doctors) said that,” said Dr. Kristen Sweeney, deputy state medical examiner, on Monday.

Sweeney said that her office is responsible for determining both cause of death and manner of death.

“The cause of death in this case is hanging and the manner of death is undetermined,” she said Monday.

This means she could not determine, either through witness statements or autopsy findings, whether Carranza died of accidental hanging or intentional hanging.

Doyle said that on the evening of his death, Carranza angrily had made several statements to family members, allegedly threatening to hang himself.

Doyle said he then went outside.

An older sister looked out a front window shortly afterward and saw the child on his knees, with one end of a braided plastic rope around his neck and the other end around a basketball hoop on a pole, said Doyle.

The rope was around his coat collar and his hands were between the rope and his coat, said Doyle.

Family members attempted to resuscitate the child after the rope was loosened. He was pronounced dead at SVH shortly after the incident.

“Nobody can truly know what Vito’s intent was,” said Doyle this week. “He made some statements that indicated suicide, but then his actions indicated a child fooling around, leaning more toward accidental death. Also, that driveway was very slippery. Intent is really the key. It is impossible for us to determine the intent.”

Sweeney said she recognized that a conclusive finding would be beneficial to the family and community, but that this case “didn’t seem to be definitely one or the other. The circumstances were unusual, in terms of the basketball hoop setting. We just don’t know.”

Doyle said the incident never was the focus of a homicide investigation but simply an investigation into a death. “We’re not going to be investigating this any further,” he said on Monday.

Family members, including the boy’s mother and sister, have maintained that the child’s threats to hang himself were just the angry words of a boy who had been arguing with his little brother. They said that he did not intend to do himself harm.

“I thought he was just playing, just playing outside,” Carmen Carranza said after her son’s death.

Mrs. Carranza was out of town Monday and could not be reached for comment.