2 years ago
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The incident happened in rural Greenbrier at Lovely Lane and Hwy. 287. According to a police report, the sister of one of the victims "looked outside the window and saw her brother floating in the pool and he was foaming from the mouth. She also stated she saw the other victim in the pool with a garbage bag over his head but he was above the water. She ran outside screaming at them and got no response, pulled them from the pool and called 911."
Doctors pronounced her brother, Jesse Burks, 15, dead at the hospital.
"He's a fine young man. This would be the last thing to expect," says Mark Lovell, cousin of Burks.
Police say the boy who survived was found with a bag over his head to sniff the Freon. Thursday, there was no sight of the pool the kids were playing in. Lovell says it's been drained and will probably be destroyed.
"Nobody imagined it would happen to Jesse. He was outgoing; he was a good swimmer; he was good in sports."
From internet research, we learned when kids huff Freon from a bag, the Freon can force the oxygen out of the bag, leading to long-term kidney or brain damage, and in some cases, death.
"It's a new thing-huffing. It's any basic household chemical," says Lt. Matt Rice, Faulkner County Sheriff's Dept.
"These inhalants, these kids are doing, it only takes once. I think that may be what happened here. I don't want to say that for sure," says Lovell.
A neighbor came and started CPR on the boy who survived and was rushed to the hospital. Burks was pronounced dead at Conway Regional Medical Center.
Police believe Burks got disoriented from the chemicals and drowned. Investigators are still waiting for autopsy results.
One out of five adolescents (12-17 years old) used an illicit drug and inhalants are their number one choice, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
