Kindra79 there is a very simple explaination for the confusion your struggling with. The mothers met on New Years 97/98. Their paths did not cross again until thier daughters (14yo)  met in school this year. This is how the boys were introduced.

kindra~ I have only my own experience to tell you of,when my first son died I'd talk to people and not know who I was talking to,like my sister. Lack of sleep and shock make for bad writing an worse continuity. Then when my second son died nine months later,it got only more muddled. Granted this woman has not lost a child,but you can imagine she is living through a very similar horror,and trying to get her child through this,plus be there for the other family .

 I just read the article regarding the detailed letter the other boy's mother wrote ... I'm a bit confused though, above kma12207 says that she is the mother of the child who lied, but states that she had met Zanes mother when she was pregnant with Zane, and she was also pregnant with her own child ... in the news article it says that Zane and the boy had just met a few months ago, but hit it off quickly.  Not that any of this is pertinent to the situation, but I was curious as to why there are two versions.

Again my heart goes out to both families, and I hope that counseling will help close some of the emotional wounds the other boy will have for life.  Not that there is any positive to this situation at the moment ... but thankfully the autopsy came back reporting that Zane passed quickly - otherwise that would have been one more horrible thing for the other child, and the families, to have to deal with.

 I AM A REAL CLOSE FRIEND TO THE " FRIEND " OF ZANE THAT WAS WITH HIM . LET ME TELL YOU THIS IS VERY TOUGH AND OUR BOY IS STEAL IN SHOCK HE SPACES OUT AND STARTS REPLAYNG WHAT HAPPENED. ZANES FAMILY HAS TALKED TO " FRIEND " AND HE IS VERY SORRY FOR IT AND HE SAID HE WAS SCARED AND THE LIES CAME OUT. HE DIDN'T MEAN TO LIE AND I HOPE THOUS ADULTS WHO LOVE TO JUDGE LEAVE HIM BE HE HAS ENOUGH TO DEAL WITH AND THERE IS NO BLAME IT WAS AN ACCIDENT

 Tragic all the way around.  Let this be a warning to parents everywhere - KNOW WHAT YOUR CHILDREN ARE DOING AT ALL TIMES!!!

 My heart goes out to the family and friends of this young man..  There is nothing any one can do or say that will help you thru this time.. All we can do is off our support to you as well as our prayers...

I know  first hand, the pain and grief they are feeling right now .As I lost my boy 5 yrs ago this week in a tragic and senseless accident..

My family is praying for all those who are affected by this tragic incident, my son has known Zane for a few years and it broke my heart to tell him that his friend is now in heaven.  Everyone will miss him greatly. I am so sorry.

I am saddended by this horrific accident.  I had Zane as a second grade student.  He greeted me every morning this year because I had the early morning yard duty.  Planz school will miss him.  Dolores Aparicio 

kma12207~ Thanks for posting that,I am holding you all in my heart and thoughts. I echo Steve's words,counseling will help all of you,especially your son and the Mother. There is a grief group locally,Compassionate Friends~ all parents who have lost a child.When she is ready I hope she seeks them out. I lost two sons..but three,that took my breath away.Bless you all and best wishes~ sage

 To the family of Zane.  I am so sorry to hear about the tragic way your son's life was taken.  At 9 years of age he was just getting a zest for life and experiencing new things.  I wish his friend would have done the right thing and told an adult about Zane falling in the sump instead of making up the lie.  Many people are trying to cover up for him by saying he was afraid, but at his age he should have known that when someone is in danger, call for help.   Allowing his friend to remain in the sump for about 6 hours was not right and not right thinking.  He carried that image of his friend being in danger all that time instead of feeling safe to go to his parents and telling the truth.  What if the police never had gone back to the sump, what if they would have continued to look for the car with one white door, what if they had found that person driving that car, he would have been under investigation for something that never took place and all the while little Zane Newton's body would have still been in the sump and his friend would have had to carry the pain and grief of knowing that not far from his house his friend was buried.  It makes me question whether he pushed his friend into the sump and then from the impact of his fall was what caused the sump to collapse.  No one knows what happened at that sump but the other little boy, Zane and God.  It's so unfortunate that little Zane Newton had to die in such a tragic way.  I pray that the other little boy is telling the truth about what happened to his friend.  And that his parent are teaching him moral and values.  I also pray for your family and hope that God will help you find peace.  And to the family of the little boy that lied, please find counseling for him and for yourself.  I read that you said the two families have formed a bond, but you still have your son and maybe, just maybe the family of Zane would still have thier son if not for what may have happened at the sump that day.  No one should hold a grudge against the little boy for lying, kids will be kids and they will only do what is taught to them.  There is no justisfied reason why this child should have been so afraid to go to his parents and tell the truth, maybe it's the parents of this child that should be investigated by child protective services to find out why he was so afraid to tell the truth that he would allow his friend to lie there buried under a pile of dirt.  Somethings just not right about that picture.

I could go on and on about what should have happen and/or what could have happened knowing that will not ease the pain of your loss.  I know what that pain feels like, I too have lost a son.  It is one of the most devasting experience to endure.  I read that you have lost two other little boys, I am so sorry and my heart and prayers go out to you and your family.

Sincerely, The Brooks Family

 kma12207,

   Thank you for your comments. The bottom line is that even if your son had immediately told the truth, it wouldn't have saved Zane's life, given how quickly "breathing dirt" would have killed him.

   That being said, I would encourage you in the strongest possible terms to go through with your plan to get counseling for your son. We don't need two victims here.

   I am glad you are talking to Zane's family. This is a very sad tragedy that stems from adventuresome boys being adventuresome boys. Lord knows, I've done lots of things in my youth that could have wound up tragically, but somehow didn't.

  I hope your family finds peace and understanding.

 kma12207 My family is praying for all of you. I pray god will grant your son peace of mind and heart.  My heart aches for him but its sounds like he has a wonderful support system and I am grateful the Newton family has reached out that arms to you and your family. Peace to you all.

 I am the mother of the little boy that lied.  He has told the truth, finally, and with it many questions were answered.  He is getting counceling and therapy ASAP and Zane's mother and father have helped him to cope with this tragic loss and horrible event.  I met Zane's mother when she was pregnant with him and I just happend to be pregnant with this son as well.  Zane's family is grieving and so is mine...deeply....and TOGETHER.  The autopsy report showed that Zane died nearly instantly and felt no pain.  That was a relief to all of us.  We were all speculating, as you all are, that maybe he could have been saved and wasn't, due to the lie.  I am sure I will always have that pain etched into my heart.   We will get through this because both of our families are joined forever,  with this tragic event sealing it forever.  I thank God every day that I have them and I can also be there for the bad days to come...and the good ones too, of course....it seems right now that the bad are here to stay but I know with our family bond we will all be okay and get through this the best that we can. 

I also would like to say thank you to all of   you that have supported us through this....especially Jennifer, Desiree, Rodney and my beloved nephew, Sean....I love you all and will forever.  A life changing event like this always shows you who your true friends are.  I may not have many but I do have the best!!!  Like I said, without Zane's family we would not survive this.

 I am a yard duty teacher at Planz Elementary School and have known Zane since he started attending Planz. All the kids call me Miss Betty. I am sorry for what happened to Zane. He was a very good kid and he was very friendly and very respectful to me. I will miss him very much. John 14:27 says: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. I hope the family can find this peace. Love and prayers, Betty Abney.

 We have no control over the tides......we are responsible for the ripples.

Allow Zane's family their need to grieve. Supporting them whenever, and with all, they need is all we can do for them.  Quick intervention that seeks understanding, reasoning and emotional well being will determin whatever the consequenses will be. Who is responsible for a childs, fear caused, mistake?

I really feel for Zane's family and all their losses. I can't stop thinking about how insane this all is and my prayers are many.

My concern and prayers for the other family, too. Especially the boy, because buried feelings....well, they never die.

Ok everybody here it is, Fundraising Car Wash for the Zane Anthony Newton family. Saturday, March 22, 2008 @ the Brookside Market & Deli located at the corner Coffee & Hageman start time is 10:00a.m. I know it is Easter weekend but this family needs your help! Volunteers, supplies and donations will be greatly appreciated as they are all needed! We live in a community that always comes through in times of need! This is one of those times!

This is a sad tale of a child too afraid to tell the truth for whatever reason - a child who cried wolf.  Parents need to communicate with their children that regardless they will always love them.  I have told my daughter since she was as tall as my knee that even though I may be angry, and I may raise my voice I still love her no matter what - and that lies will bring more trouble than just fessing up from the beginning.  My mantra to her is "Lies hurt people" - and that is all too true in this situation.  My daughter just turned 10 yesterday and I know that at 9 years old she would have had more sense than to spin a wild tale waisting valuable man power and resources. 

My heart goes out to Zane's family and even the child who cried wolf ... but I hope this child learns a valuable lesson and is taken to counseling immediately.  His tale caused a lot of trouble and wasted valuable time.  Imagine Zane's mother worrying all day if her son was okay, if he was suffering from a gunshot wound, if he was being molested in a kidnappers car - thinking of all the worst possible scenarios for hours and hours - holding onto hope that he might be found.  My heart cries for her!  It would have been better to just "rip the band aid off" in the beginning.  Who knows if Zane would have lived - only an autopsy will tell, but regardless the healing could have begun much sooner if the other child had just told the truth. 

 So sad . . . . my heart and prayers go out to the families involved. 

 Nice coverage, guys. (What a heartbreaker, though.) I appreciated your detailed coverage online as, I'm sure, did other Bakersfield parents. Miss you all - Colleen Jiron

 I know this family.

I am not Paul Harvey, and I can not give you all the details as to what happened yesterday. I can however give you some history of what this poor family has gone through in the last 6 or 7 years. Zane is the third son they have lost during the last 7 years or so! About a year ago Zane’s father was involved in a terrible head on accident! He was hit head on while ridding his motorcycle in Arizona. His arm and leg were severed and part of his face torn off! The surgeons were able to repair most of his face and reattach his arm but they were not able to save his leg. The family is still paying for the medical bills for the son they lost a few years ago. All your prayers are both needed and appreciated. But we all so need to help them lay their son to rest. I can not even begin to understand how they must feel right now!

 I find far too many questions unanswered.  While I feel for the parents of both young boys, I wonder where they were and what they were doing all day.  Why wasn't the sump searched sooner? I know most all of the places my children go and play, even now that they are adults.  Alll day and no one thought of that location?  We moved into an unfinished tract across the street from a vacant lot filled with leftover building debris, tumbleweeds and hills and holes.  My son was 8, he did play there, digging tunnels and playing in trenches.  It could have been him.  Such a sad situation.

Well said bnfl. We need to show compassion for all who find themselves in this nightmare. What lies ahead for these families will be hard enough without  adding any more "what ifs"~~ I know from experience that way madness lies. I hope they all receive grief counseling and sooner rather than later.

Such a sad story, it makes me wonder why the other child lied.  Maybe Zane wouldn't have lived because he was buried but maybe he could have if the child would've gotten help sooner.  Also, makes me wonder if he was pushed in the sump and the boy realized what he did then made up this story.  It just don't seem right even now.  I think this other child needs intervention NOW!!

When the developer across the street from us was preparing the lots for utilities to be installed  a group of neighborhood kids played around the construction sites and in the DEEP trench that ran along the lot lines.  It worried me to death.  

My husband yelled at them to get out of the trenches and away from the construction sites.  They ran away but were back the next day and the day after that and every day until we gave up.  I would check  on them from the front window dreading an accident but ready to call 911 if necessary.  

I wondered if it was legal for a developer to leave a dangerous construction site unfenced.  Especially since it was across the street from an established 20 year old neighborhood teeming with kids.  I wondered why the parents of those kids would let them play from early morning until dark without ONCE checking on them.

I know that kids will be kids.   They'll dig dirt tunnels and deep holes to play in.  My brothers did it in Shafter 40 years ago, until my mother told my dad to collapse the tunnels and  haul away the boards they were using as supports.  Kids do dangerous things because they don't know any better.   I guess the lesson to be learned here is to let kids know that construction sites and tunnels are dangerous places to play.  And  parents should TRY to  know where their kids are and what they're doing at all times. 

 I was out in the neighborhood most of yesterday morning and early afternoon when it was still reported as a kidnapping. The story had key holes — no blood, no adult heard a gunshot — but the details of a black Honda car with a white door seemed believable.

I once told a great story in first grade about my grandfather getting hit by a train and dying. None of it was true, but I sure had lots of details. (in preparation for me becoming a journalist)

One of the parents I talked to said kids play outside in the neighborhood all the time, usually under the eye of a parent or older teen. He mentioned that kids play in the sump though they are told not to. When I was a kid, I played in lots of places that probably weren't too safe, including houses under construction and gravel pits.

This is just a horrible tragedy. My heart and prayers go out to the parents.

 Throughout this true tragedy, OB turned out to be right. He felt something  "fishy" from the start.

Again, his  "gut" told him something just was not kosher.

There is no substitute for experience. NONE!

When tempered with some analytical skills, a good copper is made.

Are they born? I'm beginning to think so.

(but still keep up the quarterly quals though)

 this horrible accident is indeed a tragidy for both families. I can only begin to imagine the emotions running rampid. Just the not knowing if zane could have been saved.....the question of why did the friend feel the need to lie. The parents suffering thier loss, while the other family's sorrowfull guilt.....so many stirred feelings with too many unanswered questions. 

nobody wants.... or deserves, to loose a child . Whether it be by death...or by dejection, wounds of the heart and soul need support in order to heal. This touched our community with great saddness and concern for both families. It is not right to speculate on something there may never be answers for. In the grand scheme of things, only God has the right to decide when we go and lets us decide what to do with the why's.

This begs for the collective thoughts and prayers within a community from which one family greives the loss of a child....while another now shields the life of a child. maybe with enough support, it may not be so important, one day, to understand why.  

 I think we need to be careful with comments suggesting if the boy who initially lied about the accident had told someone sooner, Zane would've lived. The truth is, we don't know that. I can imagine it wouldn't take long for suffocation to occur under so much dirt. That's a morbid thought, I know, but I really think it's important to realize that even if the boy reported things as they were instead of lying, his friend may have still died. What a heavy and horrible thing to have this little boy deal with.  It's an exceedingly sad situation any way you look at it.

Mercy must be given to this young kid who feared getting in trouble. Quite honestly, he may not have been afraid of a slapping or whatever, but it may have been the case that the boys weren't supposed to be in the sump area in the first place. I can't imagine such a tragedy happening when I was young. We really don't know what went through his mind. I'm guessing panic..Who knows? When we're kids, we don't think like grown-ups. Sadly, many will blame this child for what was very likely an accident.

May God be the family's strength and I pray for the family of Zane. i could ONLY imagine what the family is going through and there are no words to describe it.... also pray for his friend. what bothers me is that it sounds like Zane was playing in a sump with a friend, and the way boys play is pretty wild. they were out side playing not inside calm playing video games.

So we have a little boys runs and makes up a story that wasn't true about how Zane is hurt and someone else is at fault. The friend was the last one to see Zane alive. Zane is found and Zane wasn't shot. Why a story knowing Zane is already hurt and in danger. 

sounds like he may have been covering up for something accidental .

sounds like they may have been playing and some how the little boy caused the sump to fall on Zane....

the comment above about destroyed valuable evidence is very true. He may have tried to dig him out found he couldn't and more then likely the little boy assumed his friend was dead, and was afraid to be in trouble and made up a crazy story that seemed believeable at the time because I'm sure after that he was shaken up and scared.

sad part  i more than believe it was a accident and a accident is just that a accident, no bad intentions no intentions what so ever.....BUT..  the little boys biggest mistake is telling a lie in fear of being in trouble, and rather tell a lie when its someones life involved...

 and his friend more than likely could have been saved if he reported what really happened instead of telling a lie to insure he wouldn't be at fault. it's also sad he would think Zane's body could stay there forever  the fact that he knew his friend was laying there at all and he hold a secret like that scares me. Morals and the way we raise our kids and things we teach our kid affect theyre everyday way of thinking and how they handle situations like this... also they learn from watching us and how we handled certin things...

 Not only do I feel sad for Zane's family, but I feel sorry for the boy who felt he had to make up a "story" to avoid some kind of punishment he was certain he didn't want to be on the receiving end of....be it a yelling or slapping, whatever....it's just sad this kid has to live with this now for the rest of his life.   How can he go back to school....branded a killer....by ignorant children.  And the whole not knowing if Zane would've lived or died if only he had said something sooner.  Oh it's such a sad situation.

OB is right; it seems strange. The black car with the white door that may or may not have existed made me think of the case of Leticia Hernandez, a 7-year-old who disappeared while playing in front of her home in Oceanside in 1989.

Dozens of officers and hundreds of volunteers searched. The FBI checked hundreds of supposedly "confirmed" sightings of Leticia with a bearded man and a fat blonde woman in a purple 1970s Olds all the way to Florida. A local police officer recorded a song about her to raise money for a reward.

In March of 1991 a ranch caretaker found Leticia's skull in some tall grass two miles south of the Riverside County line. She had been dead about a year. So much for "comfirmed" sightings. Her killer was never found.

 The saddest part of all of this is that nobody knows how long Zane was under the dirt before he actually died. Had the other child told the truth, Zane may not have had to die. What will this other child do, when he gets older and realizes what he did today? Did these boys have no parental or any other kind of adult supervision? My heart goes out to Zane's family and to the other child's family. What a senseless and unnecessary thing to have happened.

 What a tragedy! Our hearts go out to Zane's family.

OldBlue~ I read your comments earlier and told my friend he knows something smells fishy. We should put our focus on this poor family and the children involved.My heart goes out to them. 

 Its tragic. These kids have probablly been told "never play near the sump..."  I can see it all . I rember beinga kid and making up some elaborate stories. At 9 years old it is very hard to realize the consequences of our actions.  I hurt for everyone involved. God watch over them.

 See, I thought so....

I'm listening to the news right now. Boy do those reporters ask some dumb ass questions. It's like they want to police to make up stuff so they can report "breaking news". Sgt. Terry sure is tactful with those idiots.

 It's being reported now that the children made up the kidnapping and shooting story. Perhaps this was an accident that happened while they were playing?? Regardless of how it happened, it's very sad indeed.

 we need Paul Harvey for the rest of the story. doesn't add up. hard to believe a guy kidnaps a kid with  a witness present, then goes 500 feet to dump the body in a locked fenced sump area. hmmm...

The story is very strange including the facts.. Did any adults witness this?

It almost sounds like a story that a kid would make up if in fact he wasnt kidnapped

Either way its very sad.. I feel very sorry for the family

I so sorry. 

 This seems strange. A man in a car shoots the kid in broad daylight and then tosses him into his car. And then the body is found just around the corner, in a sump, next to other houses. And to bad the neighbors and family swarmed all over the sump and probably destroyed valuable evidence. But as a parent, I can understand why they did that.

 This is so horribly sad and frightening.