A father was charged in the death of his 9-year-old son, found dead in a burned car in New Jersey. (Screenshots from WCBS/YouTube)
A 43-year-old New Jersey man faces murder and other charges after his 9-year-old son’s body was found in a burning car doused with gasoline on Thursday night near a high school, police said.
Manuel Rivera, 43, has been charged with aggravated arson, murder, endangering the welfare of a child, and desecration of human remains, police said in a news release.
The case came to light on Thursday when police received a 911 call at about 10:45 p.m. reporting a fire near Sayreville High School, authorities said.
As police responded to the call about the fire, an additional call came in about a related domestic dispute at a home in the Borough of Sayreville, officials said. There, police learned that Rivera had left with his 9-year-old son.
At the scene of the fire, police found Rivera alive but with burns to his body and a self-inflicted wound next to a burning vehicle that had been doused with gasoline.
Rivera was hospitalized in critical condition, and authorities found the body of a child in the burned vehicle.
Witnesses described the scene.
“Flames, and it was black smoke, and it was pretty big,” Emily DePascale told New York’s WCBS. “Like it was pretty big, and we thought it was the high school. We thought it was the building.”
In a statement, Sayreville Mayor Kennedy O’Brien said the community stands in solidarity with the child and his loved ones.
“On this Good Friday, Sayreville is waking up to learn of a horrific incident that occurred overnight that shakes our community to its core: the loss of a nine-year-old child, allegedly at the hands of a parent,” the statement said. “Any time such senseless violence involves one of our children, it gravely affects all of Sayreville.”
Counselors will be at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, where the student was in the third grade, on Monday for support.
“If you are a person of faith, please take the time to pray for our student and his family, including his extended family at the Wilson School,” Richard Labbe, the superintendent of Sayreville Public Schools, said in a statement. “If you are not, please take a moment to send your positive thoughts to him and his family.”
Rivera was a part-time cafeteria worker and driver at the school district, school board records show.
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