
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 29, 1990                   TAG: 9007290163
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Short

BOY FOUND DEAD IN TRUNK OF CAR AFTER PLAYING GAME

A game of hide-and-seek may have led to the death of a 4-year-old boy whose body was found by his mother in the trunk of a car, neighbors said.

Virginia Beach police had no official explanation for how Chad Groves, son of Charles W. Groves and Ola Ann Groves, died Friday. The cause of death will not be known until an autopsy is performed, but police said heat would have built up quickly in the trunk of the compact Hyundai Excel.

Ola Groves told police she last saw the boy about 9:30 a.m. Friday, Lori Foster of the Virginia Beach police said Saturday.

The child's mother started asking friends to help search shortly after noon, neighbors said. She called police at 2:14 p.m., and watery areas in the neighborhood were searched by foot and from a helicopter until 4:43 p.m., when Ola. Groves found the boy's body.

A neighbor, Melva Allard, said the boy had been playing hide-and-seek with a friend. She said she told the friend he should talk to police.

Police talked with the boy and then took him back to his home.

Neighbors said that soon after police talked with a child in the neighborhood, the mother opened the trunk of the car and found her son's body. The trunk of the car can be opened without a key if it is unlocked by using a tab, or half-handle, on the back, a Hyundai dealer said.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB