Milwaukee city employees found the body of 17-year-old James Stokes on the floor of the back seat of a heavily damaged and stolen Kia SUV at the city’s tow lot Monday.
The car had been in the lot since being towed after crashing into a tree around 6 p.m. Thursday.
According to authorities, 16-year-old Dwayne Hudson was the driver. He was treated at the hospital for non-critical injuries and arrested.
Having uncovered the body, both the Milwaukee Police Department and the Milwaukee Department of Public Works are investigating the exact circumstances of Stokes’ death, and how he could be left untouched in the back seat for four days.
After learning from others that Stokes was involved in the crash, his mother went to the scene to look for him, having not heard from him since the collision.
“The day they told me is the day that I went on 91st and Fond Du Lac, and I start searching myself,” mother Kina King told WISN-TV.
She reported Stokes missing Friday, but she claimed the police blew her off, saying he had not been missing long enough.
Now, Stokes’ family wants answers.
“I need answers, and it’s not too many people out here that can give me the right answers,” Stokes’ sister Jamie Stokes told WISN-TV.
The Stokes family also does not believe that all of those involved with the crash have been found, backing up claims by Mr. Hudson that he was not the driver and someone else was behind the wheel.
“I let them know that it wasn’t just two of us, it was three of us. I was not the driver. I’m going to keep saying that. I was not the driver,” Mr. Hudson told WDJT-TV.
The late discovery is not the first time this has happened; the incident marks the third time since 2018 that a person, dead or alive, has been left behind in a towed car in Milwaukee.
In 2022, a burned-out car doused by the Milwaukee Fire Department was towed to the city lot, only for the remains of a 21-year-old woman to be found inside by a lot attendant hours later.
Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski would go on to publicly apologize for the error.
In 2018, a 4-year-old girl was abandoned in a car in the lot for hours in 18-degree weather overnight, having been towed inside after her mother was arrested for intoxication. A lot attendant found her the next morning after hearing her crying, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
The attorney that represented the family of that little girl, William Sulton, says that regulations regarding the towing and search of cars have not been followed.
“This is supposed to be a multi-level approach so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen … They can’t process or release the vehicle until they can confirm a search was conducted. This shows me that not only do we not care, but we still don’t care,” Mr. Sulton told WDJT-TV.
A pair of police officers were suspended for a combined total of 45 days for the 2018 incident, and the city paid the family $50,000 in a settlement in December 2022.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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