The whereabouts of Declan Crouch *

* (Halloween countdown post #6/restored)

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Missing teenager, Machans Beach, Cairns
12/03/2011

QLD Police are seeking assistance from members of the public in the search for a missing 13-year-old boy from Machans Beach. Initial investigations indicate the youth left school on Wednesday afternoon on a bus bound for home. Declan Crouch caught the bus from Hoare Street, Manunda around 3pm. Declan’s school bag and uniform were later located at home. Police and the boy’s family have conducted numerous checks with friends and are seeking information from the public. Police hold serious concerns for the 13-year-old as it is out of character for him not to contact his family. He is described as around 170cm tall with a slim build and collar length brown hair usually worn over his eyes. He may be wearing black or maroon basketball shorts and a black t-shirt.

Search continues for missing boy, 13
March 14, 2011 8:57AM

POLICE and SES volunteers are continuing their desperate search for a missing 13-year-old boy from Cairns who hasn’t been seen since Wednesday night. About 17 SES volunteers searched through thick bushland and paddocks near the boy’s home yesterday but failed to find any clues to his whereabouts. A ground search and door knocks will continue today and possibly an aerial search by helicopter. Declan was last seen catching the bus home from school on Hoare St, Manunda on Wednesday about 3pm. His school bag and uniform were found at home. It’s understood he may have been upset after an argument with a family member.

Police hold fears for missing Machans Beach teen, 13
March 14, 2011 12:46PM

THE desperate search for a missing 13-year-old schoolboy continues, after a sweep through dense bushland yesterday failed to find any clues to his whereabouts. Now missing for five days, Cairns Police Child Protection Det Sgt Mick Gooiker said police held serious concerns for the young boy. “We’re very concerned about his disappearance,” Sgt Gooiker said. “He has been upset with things at home and left, but none of his friends have heard from him since. If he is staying with friends, that’s fine, we just need them to contact police to let everyone know that he is all right. He hasn’t popped his head up on any of the social network sites and according to his friends he hasn’t been in touch with them either, which is out of character for any 13-year-old.” Insp Ellis said Declan’s mother mentioned he “goes for a run” when he gets angry and was checking the area to make sure he hadn’t come into harm. Police also confirmed Declan may have dyed his hair with a purple tinge about two weeks ago.

Mother hopeful missing son will be found
Mar 14, 2011 6:50pm

The mother of a 13-year-old north Cairns boy who went missing five days ago says she remains positive he will be found safe. “By this stage I’m wondering how the hell he’s managing because he’s only 13,” she said. “He’s very inexperienced. He’s very young. He’s not street-wise. I just want him to come home and just to know that everything is fine… or if he can just ring us and let us know.” Cairns Police Child Protection officer-in-charge Glenn Horan said it appeared Declan went home, changed out of his school uniform and left the house without any personal possessions. “He certainly doesn’t have access to many funds and he had no phone with him and it does appear that he hasn’t accessed any of his computer accounts,” Sen Sgt Horan said.

Search for missing Cairns teenager continues
March 16 2011

Police are hoping that a mannequin dressed in clothing similar to that of missing boy Declan Crouch placed at his last known location will prompt any witnesses to come forward. The mannequin will be placed in the vicinity of Machan’s Beach and police and detectives hope to speak with pedestrians and locals in the area to garner any further information about the missing 13-year-old boy.

Missing Cairns teen Declan Crouch may be in Victoria, police say
March 17, 2011 8:49AM

Friends of 13-year-old only Declan Crouch said he had been talking about heading to Victoria before disappearing suddenly more than a week ago. The Trinity Bay High School teen – popular with the girls and into music, books, and computers – got off the bus from school, got changed at home, and vanished, taking nothing with him. “He was well-liked, had a tight-knit circle of friends, loves reading adventure and fantasy books, listens to music on his iPod touch and burns off energy by jogging in nearby bushland, his bewildered mother said. “We are in the dark as to what made him leave.”

Police hope video helps find missing boy
Mar 22, 2011 10:13am

Police in far north Queensland have released home video of missing 13-year-old boy Declan Crouch to help people identify him. Police have used a mannequin dressed in similar clothing at the place he was last seen to try to draw more information from the public. The teenager has also not used his bank account, his social networking sites or contacted friends since his disappearance. Senior Constable Russell Parker says a search of local bushland, creeks and rivers is continuing.

Mum still believes Declan Crouch is in hiding
March 31, 2011 11:57AM

Thirteen-year-old Declan Crouch has been missing since leaving his family’s home at Machans Beach, near Cairns, after school on March 9. His mother, Ruth, today said she believed her son was in hiding somewhere but realised he may have met with harm. “In my heart, I really think he’s hiding, but in my head I appreciate that there are certain other options police need to consider,” she told ABC Radio today. “But at this point I’m not even going there.” Ms Crouch said the only reason she could think of for he son’s disappearance was that Declan, who she described as “extremely intelligent”, was not very engaged with his schooling. She also said Declan had expressed a desire to go to Canada as she drove him to school on the morning he disappeared. “He wanted to go now, of course. But I said you can’t go now but maybe down the track you can do an exchange program or when you are older you can do a gap year.” However, she said, he’d left his passport at home and wouldn’t have been able to book a flight. She otherwise painted a picture of a typical teenage boy who loved heavy music, dark clothes, soft drink and computer games. Ms Crouch said her son had a “vivid imagination” and would think he could get by on his own. “That’s my real concern – that he thinks he can manage but may get himself into situations he thinks he can handle.”

Suicide suspicions in case of missing Cairns teenager Declan Crouch
June 03, 20117:21AM

After nearly three months of intense searching and a nationwide appeal, police believe they may have discovered the 13-year-old’s body just 300m from his family home. Police divers found skeletal remains in a hard-to-reach pocket of tidal wetlands behind his Machans Beach home, in the northern beaches of Cairns. When asked directly about the possibility of suicide, Detective Senior Sergeant Glen Horan said there were “signs” found with the remains that indicated the death was not suspicious, but would not elaborate. DNA samples, clothing and other, undisclosed, items found at the scene have been sent to the John Tonge centre in Brisbane. However, it was likely to take days for confirmation of the identity of the remains. Declan Crouch was known by his school friends as an “Emo”, an emotional goth, a sometime loner who dyed his hair, played computer games and preferred to listen to music rather than play team sport. Mrs Crouch told The Courier-Mail in an earlier interview he was bored with school and they had argued over his internet use.

Missing Cairns teen took his own life
June 11, 2011

Family and friends of Cairns teenager Declan Crouch are struggling to cope with news the 13-year-old took his own life. Police divers found Declan’s body in a mangrove swamp area near his Machans Beach home on June 1 but his grieving family have had to wait over a week for DNA confirmation that it was the 13-year-old. Cairns Police Detective Senior Sergeant Glenn Horan said the death was not suspicious and it appeared the teenager had taken his own life. “There is some evidence that Declan has taken his own life,” he said, adding that the boy’s family had asked him not to disclose further details.

Mourners say farewell to Declan Crouch
Jun 22 2011 17:45

He was a sensitive, kind-hearted 13-year-old boy who bore a resemblance to North American pop idols Justin Bieber and Nick Jonas. Since the discovery of his body in a mangrove swamp just 300 metres from his family’s Machans Beach home earlier this month, family and friends have been at a loss to understand why Declan would have taken his own life. A picture emerged of a decent young man with a sensitivity not often found among boys his age. He was a vegetarian who would rescue bugs from inside his family’s home before his sister had a chance to squish them and a supportive ear for his many friends as they endured the joys and tribulations of growing up. “He was like a philosopher at age 13,” his uncle Brian Crouch told mourners. Yet in many ways he was a typical teenager: one obsessed with emo music and who, as a friend told the service, once headbanged so hard his mother Ruth had to take him to see a chiropractor. Performance arts teacher Chris Mckenna, who hosted a holiday program Declan took part in, urged his friends to remember him as a fun, cheeky young man. “He was a bunch of fun, a cheeky little rat and I loved that about him,” he said.

Ruth Crouch confronting the suicide taboo
July 14th, 2012

It’s been more than a year since Declan Crouch’s body was found in dense scrub behind the family’s Machans Beach home. “I knew, I knew that there was a chance that he had suicided, but none of it made sense – he’s got a loving family, he’s got heaps of friends, he’s not being bullied, so why would he?” Declan’s mother Ruth asks herself. Looking back, there were telltale signs of Declan’s deep despair, but Ruth didn’t pick up on them. The tragic irony for the 56-year-old social worker is that her daily work involves assessing the suicide risk in her distressed clients. “I’ve been angry with myself for having knowledge in that area and still not being able to pick it or prevent it in my own family.” Only in retrospect is Ruth able to see what seems so obvious to her now. Her son Declan, who was enthusiastic and social during his pre‑teens, had become withdrawn and disinterested in the friendships he used to treasure. “I was actively encouraging him by asking ‘Who are you going to see this weekend’, or whose house do you want me to drop you at or do you want to invite somebody over?’ but he would just say ‘no’,” Ruth remembers. She could have had no idea about the private Facebook conversations Declan had with his mates about suicide or the sketches scrunched up in the back of his drawer depicting suicide. Ruth doesn’t hear much from the other school mums nowadays. But she doesn’t blame anyone for keeping their distance, especially the mothers of other young boys around Declan’s age. “If it was you, wouldn’t you be thinking ‘Oh my God, I wonder if it’s contagious? I miss those relationships, I really miss them, but it’s not their fault. They’re just responding to the stigma as well.”

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p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Oh, gosh, so many of them excite me. Cats and Bats was one of my very favorites from last year, and I’d love to see what they’re doing this year. The 17th Door is always kind of a masterpiece. But every single one of them has huge gravitational pull. I saw the preview of ‘Dracula’, and that’s exactly what it suggested. Such a timely, thoughtful love, sigh, thank you/him. Love firing the shitty graphic designer that RT’s French distributor hired to design its poster, G. ** Carsten, Very good question, dude. Sure, McKamey Manor. It was in San Diego in its early days. I never had the slightest interest in it. It was just some sadist using the haunt premise as catnip. Totally on your cheap horror <-> avant-garde suggestions. There’s a heck of an essay there that almost makes me wish I didn’t swear off journalism. ‘OBAA’: I liked it. I thought that on the level of filmmaking and editing, it was very lively. I appreciated the kind of lower brow Kubrickian stuff. De Caprio is such a mannered, self-conscious actor but PTA managed to twist his schtick into interesting shapes. I think the fact that critics are going apeshit for the film is just a sign of how crappy Hollywood films are these days. It’s just a crime movie with a timely thematic (revolution vs. the racist right). Nothing innovative or deep or transcendent at all. But it’s sufficiently big fun. Them’s my two cents. ** Misanthrope, I hope you can sort out the familial logistics obviously, but don’t put yourself through hell. I miss Rigby and Joe. So sad. Fucking death. I’m happy you’re not getting laid off via the revenge moves from Mr. T. Hope that sticks. Who fucking knows what’s going on these days. ** Stil, Hey there. So cool that the posts aced you. It would be very interesting to talk with the editors of those shows. It seems like what they’re doing is very complicated and meta, but I suppose it’s just a formula. It really works though. Weird. How’s stuff? ** Nicholas., Not to be boring, but California is the best. Or parts of it. There’s a store here that specializes in colognes/perfumes that smell like bodily secretions. They have a Tom of Finland cologne. Not sure what would smell like. Like steroids? Do steroids smell? ‘Blade’, yes, I think I saw 2 of them. Wesley Snipes is kind of a god or something. Boringly I would miss my eyesight the most, you know, being a writer and all of that. ** _Black_Acrylic, Shame Yuck ‘n’ Yum isn’t still active because you guys could’ve made that haunt happen and bankrolled a glorious future, I reckon. Good taste … what’s that? I’ve heard of it. ** Steeqhen, The UK does have haunts but few and far between. Which is extremely illogical. It sounds worth it to me. It is Halloween, after all. When Krispy Kreme first opened here in Paris there was a 3+ hour wait just to buy a donut. And now whenever I walk by it’s empty and looks like it’ll be closing any day. ‘Nightmare on Elm Street 2’ is roundly considered the most gay horror film ever. ** Steve, A real Hell House? No. Faux-Hell Houses, yes. If I were in LA, I would definitely hit up that purportedly real one in Whittier, but I strongly suspect it’s not real. My weekend was just the usual film stuff other than my Zoom book/film club and watching ‘OBAA’ on assignment. ** HaRpEr //, Tell me about it, *waahhh*. I’m a bad judge of what’s scary in haunts because I am basically immune to being scared in them. I just look for imaginative ideas and how well they use the space and formal stuff like that. From my observations of those around me, I think the big expensive ones like at Universal Horror Nights are the scariest. They can afford to buy the costumes and special effects to make bonafide scares happen. I hope you did investigate that site and let me know. Thanks for the Screaming Lord Sutch link. I’ll watch it. His schtick is really confusing to me, which of course is a compliment. I gave Carsten my ‘OBAA’ review up above. Sounds compatible with yours. And, yes, Sean Penn was very funny. ** Uday, See my mini-review in my message to Carsten. Wow, that’s intense: the thing with your friend. I’m forgetting what your living situation is. It sounds like it’s very drama-adjacent. Anyway, jeez, I hope you’re fully repaired and not warier of the future. ** Right. I brought back a strange, sad, somewhat spooky story for you for Halloween. That’s it. See you tomorrow.