The family of a teenage boy who suffocated to death in Cincinnati this week is criticizing the response to the boy’s calls for help.

He was trapped inside a vehicle in a school parking lot. 

Details aren’t entirely clear, but police say something was pressed against his chest with such force that it slowly suffocated him. 

He called 911 for help more than once, but his family says the system failed him. 

Dispatch: “We need police and fire to start toward Seven Hills School at 5400 Red Bank.”

Time and time again, it sounds like police are headed to the right place. 

911 Audio: “Seven Hills School, 5400 Red Bank Road. Yeah.”

They’re told someone is in need of emergency help and running out of time. 

911 Audio: “We do have a call in. A male screaming calling 911.”

But from the first 911 call around 3 p.m. to the time he’s found about seven hours later, no one could locate Kyle Plush, apparently trapped inside this Honda Odyssey on Seven Hills Campus.

We’re choosing not to air his calls for help out of respect for the family.

911 Audio: “I just looked in a van over there. I didn’t see anybody in it.”

It’s not clear if police found the van but overlooked Plush or were looking into the right vehicle.

The teenager can be heard gasping for help and saying “tell my mom I love her.”

911 Audio: “You guys couldn’t find any van with anybody stuck in it.”

After police find no sign of Plush, a separate incident leads one Deputy this might be a hoax.

911 Audio: “I had some woman pull in here and at first she was trying to direct kids across the street while I was directing traffic.”

911 Audio: “I wonder if she thought she was pulling some kind of prank because that’s right at that time.”

But a family member reported finding Plush at about 10 p.m.

He was pronounced dead on scene.

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Officials investigate emergency response to dying teen  

CINCINNATI (AP) — A teenage boy trapped inside a minivan in a parking lot near the southwest Ohio school he attended told a 911 dispatcher he “probably didn’t have much time left” and asked to “tell my mom I love her if I die.”

Cincinnati authorities are investigating the death Tuesday of 16-year-old Kyle Plush near Seven Hills School. The Hamilton County coroner says Plush died of asphyxia due to “chest compression” and that it appears to be an accident.


Plush, a sophomore at the school, first called 911 at 3:16 p.m. to say he was in the parking lot and in “desperate need of help.” Police say officers and a deputy sheriff searched but didn’t find the minivan.

The teen was found by a family member around six hours later.