Boy Spending Halloween With Friend Is Found Dead

A 15-year-old boy who spent the night at a friend’s house after a Halloween party was found dead early Thursday outside a Tustin-area middle school.

Orange County sheriff’s officials said there were no signs of foul play in the death of Sean Lewis Wellins, a sophomore at nearby Foothill High School.

An autopsy was completed Thursday, but the cause of death has yet to be determined, officials said.

“Unfortunately, the parents’ worst nightmare came true,” sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

He said that the death didn’t appear to be a suicide and that the only mark on Wellins was a small scratch on his face.

A school cafeteria worker found Wellins face down at 6:30 a.m. near a fence at Hewes Middle School on Hewes Avenue, south of Fairhaven Avenue. A backpack containing identification was next to the body.

Counselors and a psychologist were being made available to students at the two schools, but classes were not disrupted, said Mark Eliot, a spokesman for the Tustin Unified School District. Eliot said Wellins was a good student who had no disciplinary problems.

“Sean’s a good boy, very smart, very wise, good with the computer,” said Sebastian Oda, whose son was a classmate of Wellins. “It’s just a real shock, knowing it’s Sean. It hurts.”

Amormino said it was unclear when Wellins left his friend’s house or whether he was on his way to school. But he said it appeared that Wellins died within hours of being found.