ROCKFORD, Mich. (WOOD) — Rockford police say they didn’t pursue a Grand Rapids teenager when he and two friends fled from officers because they weren’t sure there was a third person involved.
A search dog on Friday led searchers to 16-year-old Cortez McConer Jr.’s body in a swampy area south of Rockford. The death was ruled an accidental drowning, with police suggesting he died not long after he was last seen on Oct. 26.
Rockford Department of Public Safety Sgt. Brandon Boelema told News 8 that his agency got involved after a car stolen out of Ottawa County turned up in the parking lot of the McDonald’s on E. Division Street near Wolverine Boulevard. No one was inside at the time, but Rockford officers and Kent County sheriff’s deputies soon stopped someone in the parking lot of the adjacent Family Fare. They called in a dog, who tracked down a second suspect.
Boelema said the two teens police caught were uncooperative, with the first suspect initially saying he was alone and then that only he and one other were involved.
The sergeant said there was conjecture that a third person may have taken off, but no one could confirm that. The two teens who were caught wouldn’t say so and there was no indication in the stolen car of how many people may have been in it.
Rebecca Craig, McConer’s cousin, said police should have continued searching for Cortez after the traffic stop.
“If a kid came to you and said it was another kid that was with us and they was running with us, why didn’t y’all go back out there?” she said.
The Grand Rapids Police Department previously said it was at least a couple of days before the teens reached out to McConer’s family and said he had been with them. GRPD first confirmed to News 8 on Oct. 29 that a missing persons report had been filed for him.
GRPD added Wednesday that it was days after that report was filed that it learned he had been in the stolen car.
“No one knew that Cortez was up in Rockford … until his friends made contact with the family and said ‘Hey, Cortez was with us.’ That was three or four days later that it was brought to my attention that these kids spoke up,” GRPD Chief Eric Winstrom said over the weekend.
His department sent out a release Nov. 18 detailing where McConer had last been seen and its search area.
Boelema said Rockford DPS didn’t find out McConer was missing until Nov. 2 when the family conducted a search in the area. At that point, an officer spoke to McConer’s mother, who confirmed he had been with the other two teens on Oct. 26.
GRPD was the lead agency on the case because McConer lived in the city and it took the missing persons report. Boelema said Michigan State Police, GRPD and Kent County deputies led search efforts because they have more resources than Rockford DPS, which is a much smaller agency, and because the search area near where the second suspect was found was in Plainfield Township, outside of Rockford’s jurisdiction. He said it was his understanding that there was some sort of search underway every day until McConer’s body was found.
McConer’s cousin Rebecca Craig said she has questions about Cortez’s death and where he was found. She is calling for more transparency from the police departments.
“Where is the video footage? We have yet to this day to be able to see the video footage,” Craig said. “If y’all were in a foot chase with him, my question to you guys would be where is the footage?”
Cortez’s story is a reminder of the pain Craig is going through searching for her older cousin, Donald Hunnicutt, who was reported missing from the Kentwood area in September 2022 and still has not been found. Determining the correct jurisdiction is involved in that case as well.
“They were saying it was on the border line. They didn’t know either. I had to push the issue to figure out is it Kentwood or Grand Rapids? Now here we go in a whole different scenario. Is it Grand Rapids or Rockford?” Craig said.
The Grand Rapids police chief previously said that because McConer is believed to have died shortly after he was last seen, “there was nothing that we could have done sooner that would have made a difference in the case.”
McConer was mourned Monday at a candlelight vigil at Godwin Heights High School in Wyoming, where he was a student. Principal Chad Conklin recalled him as “a beacon of light, bringing joy, kindness and connection with everyone around him,” remembering his laughter, compassion and care for others.