FOIA fulfilled: Body cam video shows 2023 crash response when teen's body was not found in car until 4 days later
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- We have new video evidence in the case of a boy who was found dead in a car two years ago, several days after it was towed from a crash scene.
We've been investigating the case for more than two-and-a-half years.
Back in June of 2023, a driver crashed a stolen car into a tree at 91st and Fond du Lac. The driver ran and a passenger was arrested on site. The car was towed away to the city lot.
But four days later, the body of 17-year-old James Stokes was discovered in the back of the car.
For several years, we've been digging into why officers did not find Stokes after the crash.
His family searched for him for four days, thinking he was missing and not knowing he was dead.
The new video helps show why a thorough crash response was not thorough enough.
One of the first things a bystander told a responding police officer June 1, 2023, was, "Go look in that car. They said somebody's still in there."
But despite several officers investigating the scene for more than 20 minutes, the body of 17-year-old James Stokes was not discovered until four days later.
Stokes was dead, and it was unclear if he'd still be alive had he been discovered at the scene.
The crash happened just after 6 p.m. June 1, 2023.
Then 16-year-old Javion Rainey was driving a stolen KIA Sorrento an estimated 80 mph down Fond du Lac.
Then 16-year-old Dwayne Hudson was in the passenger seat. And then 17-year-old James Stokes was in the back.
Rainey lost control of the car near 91st St., hit a curb, then spun into a tree.
Rainey staggered away, bleeding. Hudson was thrown into the street.
But Stokes was still in the back of the car.
First responders arrived moments later.
Hudson was seriously injured and got medical attention across the street. But when he tried to get into another car and drive away, he was arrested.
Across the street at the crash, police were going over the car.
Officers got the plate number and the VIN number. They popped the front hood to check the engine. They cut the airbags away and checked the back seats.
And they checked door handles and even the trunk, which didn't open.
One officer said, "Looks like the car that hit the tree is going to be unoccupied."
For about 20 minutes, a half dozen officers and firefighters were just feet away from James Stokes, but they never saw him.
An EMT asked an officer, "Nothing over here now?" The officer responded, "Nobody's in here." "He's the only one?" asked the EMT. "Yeah."
Records we secured show one officer was suspended for three days for failing to thoroughly search a vehicle before a tow, another officer was given an official reprimand, and a third received a policy review.
The very day after the crash, a new MPD standard operating procedure went into effect, detailing how towed vehicles must be searched. Among the requirements: the trunk and all compartments must be searched, and all items must be inventoried.
During the investigation, police tracked down the owners of the stolen car.
On June 5, four days after the crash, the owners went to the tow lot to get some personal items from the totaled car.
The man told an officer, "First, I see the foot."
The officer asked, "By the window?" The man replied, "Yeah, yeah." The officer asked, "Yeah. And then the smell? Or the flies?" The man said, "Yeah." And the officer told him, "Sorry you had to see that."
And the car owners asked that responding officer about the crash.
"Nobody was stuck?" The officer said, "It doesn't say that anyone was stuck."
The medical examiner's office listed James Stokes' official cause of death as "undetermined."
The Milwaukee Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.