Teen's body is found burned

Barnstable High sophomore called smart and upbeat

BARNSTABLE - The grandmother of a Barnstable High School sophomore whose burned body was found in a deep hole in the woods in Hyannis said yesterday that she is determined to learn why the 16-year-old died.

"We will get to the bottom of this," Tyianne Mendes said in a brief interview at her home on Falmouth Road yesterday.

Mendes identified her grandson as Jordan M. Mendes, who celebrated his 16th birthday in March, as the person whose charred body was found Tuesday night off Jennifer Lane.

Michael O'Keefe, the Cape and Islands district attorney, said yesterday that he will wait for the state chief medical examiner's office to formally identify the remains before confirming the identify.

"It's obviously a very disturbing event," O'Keefe said at a press conference.

The body was discovered about 7:40 p.m. Tuesday in a hole roughly 10 feet deep in an area frequently used as a shortcut and makeshift paint ball course, O'Keefe and residents said.

Jennifer Lane resident Louis Beco, who was one of the people who called 911, said a man he did not know came to his door Tuesday night and said there was a body in a hole on fire. Beco said in an interview yesterday he was skeptical until a woman he also did not recognize ran from the woods, shouting a similar message.

"She was very upset," Beco said. He said the woman also shouted that her child was missing and she was not sure whether the body was her child's. The woman left with police to file a missing person's report, Beco said.

Seven Hyannis firefighters who arrived in an engine and with an ambulance quickly backed away after they concluded the teenager was dead, clearing the way for the police investigation, said Fire Chief Harold S. Brunelle.

Mendes's body remained in the hole overnight because of bad weather and was removed yesterday and taken to Boston for an autopsy, O'Keefe said.

After police completed their investigation of the crime scene, a steady stream of Mendes's friends and other teenagers made they way to Jennifer Lane, a dead-end street with about a half-dozen expanded Cape-style houses on it.

They walked about 50 yards into the woods along a well-worn path and then stood in silence or prayed as they looked into the hole.

Classmates and a friend described Mendes as a sharp-witted teen who had friends among the various cliques at the school.

"Everybody was shocked; everybody was surprised [about] the way it happened and that it happened to him," said Kuron Adams, 18, a senior who spoke after visiting the crime scene.

Friends said that despite the fact that Mendes's father, Manuel, is serving a 35-year federal sentence for dealing cocaine, they saw no evidence that Mendes was following in his father's footsteps.

Katie McCarthy, 16 and a junior, said Mendes "wasn't the kid to go to."

"He had a good head," she said. "He was not stupid."

As McCarthy and a friend paid respects, they were joined by Maryann Barboza, 52, a self-described community activist who knows Mendes's grandmother and extended family. McCarthy and Barboza hugged each other.

"How could a human being do that to another human being?" she asked.

In a separate interview, Jason Green, 26, said he met Mendes about two years ago when he was working at a Department of Youth Services facility in Brewster, and Mendes was a client.

"He was always mad about his father being locked up, but he was also always smiling," said Green.

Green did not know why Mendes had been put into DYS custody, but he said they formed a strong bond that survived after Mendes ended his DYS ties and Green left for a new job.

Once, Green said, he borrowed a white T-shirt from Mendes, so yesterday he stuck a brand new, white T-shirt on a tree in the woods while a woman he was with tossed flowers into the hole.

"It's crazy," he said of the killing. "It blows my mind. . . .

"He had a lot of goals; he wanted to own his own business," Green added, without elaborating.

O'Keefe and area residents said the hole had been dug some time before the killing. The prosecutor estimated that the hole was 10 feet deep by 8 feet wide, and authorities used a ladder to enter and leave the hole, which has a small cave at one end.

Daniel Henning, 20, who lives near Jennifer Lane, said he and friends dug the hole with shovels when they built a paint ball park. He said the hole had been widened and deepened recently, but he did not know by whom.

The tragedy is the second, shocking loss that Tyianne Mendes and her family have endured. Six years ago, her son, Danny, was shot and killed by a relative.

"If it is him, he rests in peace with his Uncle Dan," she said.

Martin Finucane of the Globe staff contributed to this report.