11. Baldwin, LA: Quawan Charles

[00:00:00] Warning! The following episode contains discussions about violent crimes, disturbing events, and explicit details that may be unsettling for some listeners. Please be advised that this podcast is not suitable for young children, and listener discretion is strongly advised.

[00:00:16] Hey y'all, welcome back to Southern Shadows, a Mother-Son True Crime Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Janet, aka Mama. And I'm DK. Each week, I'll be sharing true crime stories with my

[00:00:27] teenage son in hopes of making him more responsible and vigilant. So what are some of the things that you and your friends like to do when you hang out? We like to go sit down and eat sometimes and just

[00:00:37] talk or I guess go to the movies or go to other high school games that's happening around the area. You know, that's what we do. Have you ever thought about sneaking out? Nah. Okay, good.

[00:00:53] Cause I think we give you a lot of freedom. I don't think we've really ever tell you no unless there's like a family, you know, event that you have to attend. So I'm telling you now, don't ever leave this house without letting us know. Okay? All right.

[00:01:10] The story that I have for you today is about a teenage boy who sudden disappearance and subsequent death sent shockwaves through rural Louisiana. This is the mysterious case of Kwan Charles.

[00:01:56] Baldwin, Louisiana is a city located in St. Mary Parish with a population of about 1,668 people. It was named after John Baldwin, an Ohio educator who later founded Baldwin Wallace University. It is about 47 miles from Baton Rouge and 88 miles from New Orleans. For our listeners who

[00:02:16] aren't familiar in Louisiana, a parish is kind of like what they call a county in other states. It's a way of organizing local government and services. It's just a word difference, but it's unique to the Louisiana's history and culture because of its French and Spanish

[00:02:33] influences. Each parish takes care of things like schools, police and other community services. It's here that on October 30th, 2020, 15 year old Kwan Charles goes missing. What follows is a string of events and accusations of failure by local law enforcement to act quickly, potentially saving

[00:02:55] his life. Kwan Bobby Charles was born on January 24th, 2005 in Lafayette, Louisiana to parents Roxanne and Kenneth. He had recently moved from nearby Youngsville where he lived with his mom to go

[00:03:11] and live with his dad in Baldwin. He was described as a quiet boy who mostly kept to himself. He stood only about 5'7 and weighed about 112 pounds. His father recalled that he was recently

[00:03:25] saving his allowance to get a computer, and he loved spending time with his dog. He named My Baby. On October 30th, 2020, Roxanne, Kwan's mother, was trying to reach him because she was supposed to be picking him up for a haircut that day. Despite persistent attempts to get in

[00:03:44] touch with Kwan, Roxanne's calls went unanswered. Concerned, she called Kenneth who started to knock on Kwan's bedroom door. It was locked from the inside but when he finally got it open, he realized that it was empty. Kwan was nowhere to be found so, fearing the worst,

[00:04:03] his parents contacted the Baldwin Police Department to report him missing. On her podcast Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, she had the attorney for the Trial's family, Ron Haley Jr., on the show and he broke down what happened when the parents reported that

[00:04:20] Kwan was missing. This is actually the first issue that could have been handled better in my opinion. You see, at first, the police didn't think that it was important and suggested that he might be at a football game, even though his parents said he didn't like sports.

[00:04:37] Surprisingly, there was no Amber Alert issued. Kwan's name was simply added to a database of missing people but the police response seemed to be lacking in other ways. You remember what an

[00:04:49] Amber Alert is right? Yeah, like when this is a notification to your phone or pops up on the TV about a child that's missing. Yeah and did you know that it's named after a real child

[00:05:00] that went missing named Amber Hagerman? No. Well maybe we'll cover it on another episode but that broadcast includes specific details about the missing child like their name, their age, their physical description. You know, it's just a way for the whole community to be on the lookout

[00:05:16] and hopefully find them more quickly. So why didn't they do it? Well, it's kind of tricky but the police basically say and this is a direct quote from the news clip that Nancy Grace played,

[00:05:28] quote, there was no evidence of foul play. There were no eyewitnesses on an abduction or even a kidnapping. Since it didn't meet the criteria we didn't feel that it was a reason to issue an

[00:05:40] Amber Alert. In that same clip the officer making that statement even says, but we did put him in NCIS as a missing slash runaway because I was told that he was known to hide from the

[00:05:53] family every now and again throughout the backyard to which the family's attorney, Hailey, says no that's just an excuse and absolutely ridiculous. From there Hailey talked about how law enforcement in Louisiana can actually send out something called a level two alert basically this is to let

[00:06:12] all the news outlets in the area know that there's something going on and the news outlets can choose whether they want to report it. For that reason officials could still tell local news

[00:06:24] outlets about the missing teen in the area even if they didn't think the situation was quite right for an Amber Alert. In fact when news teams showed up to cover the memorial that was held on November

[00:06:36] 5th, they didn't even know that it was for a teen who was missing. So what what are they showing up for? From what I gather you know this is a very small town and there's not a lot to report on so

[00:06:49] when media outlets got word of you know some sort of gathering or memorial service they showed up just to give it coverage but they didn't realize that it was specifically for a missing child. The second issue that could have been easily handled was that the police

[00:07:06] could have pinged his cell phone at the time that he was reported missing remember this is 2020 so the technology does exist to be able to locate anyone through their cell phone or at least where

[00:07:20] his last known location was. On top of that you don't need a warrant to ping a cell phone. The final issue is surveillance tape that shows Kawan sitting on the curb outside of his

[00:07:33] dad's house. You can see the video here on our YouTube channel and it's also linked in our show notes for this episode but it just looks like it's a camera from across the street. So this is

[00:07:47] the video everyone's referring to in the news I am sitting alone okay there he goes. He actually runs behind the car. That's it got it so then there was the female, the son and then Bobby going in. The Bobby went first then the female then the son

[00:08:14] called the female. It's gonna be Bobby first and then the passenger or the passenger then Bobby back seat see he jumps in here comes mom last that she opened and like Houdini they gone.

[00:08:44] And so from the video it concludes that he went on his own free will he wasn't abducted. He wasn't abducted. Yeah. Wasn't kidnapped he just he had nothing here at the house with these

[00:08:55] people looking around and of course then this is dad's truck right here so there was no abduction according to the film. This is why we know that around 3 p.m. he goes missing but

[00:09:13] the police didn't obtain this video until after he was already dead but we'll get to that. The video shows a silver car driving by and Kwan gets up and starts to run after it.

[00:09:27] Moments later that same silver car pulls into his driveway and three people get out of the car and they walk to his backyard. Nancy Grace gave a theory that they probably went to the backyard

[00:09:40] to see his new dog my baby then you see all three of them get back into the car and drive away. This will be the last time that Kwan is seen alive. Because the family felt as though Baldwin police were not moving with

[00:10:10] a sense of urgency that they were feeling they contacted the Iberia parish sheriff's office on November 3rd who had no idea that there was a missing teen remember Baldwin is part of Iberia

[00:10:24] parish and they actually have more manpower than that small city of Baldwin and on November 3rd 2020 Kwan's body was found in a sugarcane field about 30 minutes from his home. Do you want to know how they found him? Oh they pinged his cell phone.

[00:10:44] This would lead them to that sugarcane field where he was found lying face down in shallow water. The local news station ABC 7 reported that the coroner claims he died of accidental drowning. The thing is the water was only about ankle deep so the family argues that there's no

[00:11:04] way that he drowned. He was also found naked and his face had several cuts and was severely disfigured leading them to believe that there was obviously foul play. The coroner refuted that claim saying that aquatic animals were likely to have caused the injuries to his face that

[00:11:25] occurred after he was already dead. I just want to warn all of our listeners that if you go looking for any of these images they are really graphic so please proceed with caution. What kind

[00:11:37] of aquatic animal can tear someone's face up? Well remember this is Louisiana so the aquatic animals they're referring to are crawfish. Regardless it doesn't seem likely that a 15-year-old boy would walk into the middle of a sugarcane field naked and deliberately drown himself in

[00:11:55] ankle deep water. The family believe that his death may have been racially motivated and alleged that law enforcement failed to act. Hold on thinking back did they ever figure out whose car was on

[00:12:08] surveillance? Yeah actually the car was reportedly owned by Janet Irvin who had a son named Gavin Irvin and happened to be Kwan's friend he was 17 years old they went to the same high school.

[00:12:21] Both Janet and Gavin are white which is where the allegations of a racially motivated crime are stemming from. Neither Kwan nor Janet let his dad know that he was going to go hang out with Gavin before he left. Since his parents weren't notified law enforcement had no clue

[00:12:41] where to even look at the time that he was reported missing and they didn't even have that surveillance footage at the time it was reported remember they got that after he had already

[00:12:52] passed. When questioned later Irvin says that she drove 25 to 30 miles back to her house and let the boys just hang out. The Charles family had to hire a private investigator who recorded Janet

[00:13:08] saying that while the boys were hanging out at her house they smoked weed and ate mushrooms but Charles went home on his own. It was insinuated that he was acting erratically trying to fight Gavin

[00:13:22] crawling around and saying that he wanted to kill himself. Based on that claim the forensic pathologist would later note quote the reported circumstances of becoming combative crawling in culverts and saying he was going to kill himself suggests that he may have had an

[00:13:39] episode of psychosis. The apparent undressing also suggests irregular possibly psychotic behavior. These alleged episodes occurred after waking up from being passed out following the smoking of a substance possibly THC. THC has been known to cause psychosis and or unmask any

[00:14:01] undiagnosed mental illnesses but it's rare. It is possible that the descendant was hallucinating due to psychosis which led to disorientation which led to an accidental drowning end quote. So basically their conclusion was he was tripping on weed and mushrooms. Basically and

[00:14:22] that's what caused him to have this psychotic breakdown and that's how he died allegedly. I'd also like to note that shortly after he disappeared the urban family quickly packed up their belongings and moved out claiming that they had been evicted because they refused to believe

[00:14:39] the psychosis theory. Kwan's family ordered an independent autopsy. The toxicology report conducted at the same time found no hallucinogens in his system suggesting that his death was not accidental according to the family's attorneys. The report indicated low levels of THC

[00:15:01] and ethanol suggesting marijuana and alcohol use. The findings contradict the theory that Charles was high on hallucinogenic mushrooms at the time of his death. The family's attorneys emphasized that the official cause of death drowning in a sugarcane field raises questions and they

[00:15:19] suspect foul play. The Iberia Paris Sheriff's Office was investigating quote suspicious circumstances focusing on Kwan's interaction with Gavin and Janet before his death. On February 9th 2021 Janet Irvin was arrested on charges of failure to report a missing child

[00:15:41] and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Irvin's arrest followed allegations that she admitted to not calling the police when Charles ran away. Although an arrest finally brought the family some semblance of peace, in November 2021 Kwan's mom Roxanne sued the

[00:16:01] Baldwin Police Department and the Iberia Paris Sheriff's Office for such a delayed response in adequate actions and failure to issue that amber alert. She also filed a civil suit against Janet Irvin for damages. The lawsuit accuses the Irvin family of failing to report Charles missing

[00:16:21] and failing to contact his family. It also alleges that law enforcement agencies including the St. Mary Paris Sheriff's Office and Baldwin Police Department failed to follow protocols for missing children including notifying the Louisiana State Police and pinging Charles

[00:16:39] cell phone. So although they have a little bit of peace knowing that the person responsible is in jail it's clear that the family still is seeking justice and that's the story of 15-year-old Kwan

[00:16:52] Charles. Any thoughts? I definitely think there's some foul play going on because even if he did go over there and get hired, get drunk that just doesn't cause you to run away and intentionally

[00:17:05] drive yourself. To be honest if Miss Irvin was promoting them or just watching them smoke weed or drink I honestly think she could have laced them with something and caused him to do something

[00:17:19] that was out of character but there's definitely something more than just him doing this on his own. Absolutely and I feel like regardless maybe she didn't know they were smoking weed

[00:17:32] I don't know who knows but you failed to call anyone that he left you went and picked him up drove 30 miles up the road and then a child just leaves your house you know you you got to do

[00:17:47] something you tell your son go get him he can't just walk him he's too far from home or something like when you went and picked him up you were responsible for him at that point. He's a child

[00:17:56] he's not an adult you can't just say oh he can he's grown he can go wherever he wants to that's not how that works. Well we'd love to hear your thoughts on today's episode leave us a comment

[00:18:05] below our YouTube or you can write us at SouthernShadowsPodcast at gmail.com and if there's a case that you want us to take a look at please also feel free to share it with us. Don't forget

[00:18:18] to like subscribe and share and check back next week for a new episode. See you in the shadows.