HAWKINS, Texas Police say two runaway teenagers that were killed
by a train as they lay on the tracks in East Texas committed
suicide.
Seventeen-year-old Chris Hill of Dallas and
15-year-old Harry Tyrone Rutledge of Bastrop were killed last
week by a train traveling about 30 miles per hour through
Hawkins.
Hawkins police originally investigated the deaths as homicides,
but investigator A-J Randell now says that the deaths have been
ruled suicides.
He says a pathologist reviewed autopsies of the teens' bodies
and determined they were alive when the train struck them.
Police won't see official autopsy results for at least a week
and toxicology results will take longer.
The boys were wards of the state who ran away from Azleway Boys'
Ranch near Tyler.
Monte Osburn, director of the facility, says he finds it hard
to believe the boys would take their own lives.