4 Boys Who Fell Through Thin Ice Are Mourned

Parents and teachers wept alongside agonized family members Thursday as a city grieved for four boys who died after falling through thin ice and becoming trapped.

The boys, ages 7 to 11, were recalled as heroes during a funeral service that drew hundreds of mourners. Three of the children drowned Saturday trying to save a fourth from the icy Merrimack River.

“All of these boys shared a sense of responsibility to each other and to their friendship,” schools Supt. Wilfredo Laboy said in a eulogy. The accident happened as a group of boys was walking home from the nearby Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lawrence.

William Rodriguez, 11, was the first to fall through, said three children who survived. As the others tried to save him, 7-year-old Christopher Casado, 9-year-old Victor Baez and 8-year-old Mackendy Constant became trapped under the ice.

“They are heroes in our eyes,” Father Jorge Reyes told mourners at the funeral Mass at St. Mary’s Church.

Hundreds packed the church, including parents who brought their children and teachers who wore green-and-white ribbon wreaths in memory of the boys. U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry and Rep. Martin T. Meehan, whose district includes the town, also attended.

Later Thursday at a cemetery, mourners’ cries filled the frigid air, and friends and emergency personnel carried several women away, including one mother who strained her arms back toward the gravesite, calling for her “baby.”

“Everybody feels the pain,” said Canes Monta, 35, Mackendy’s uncle. “They need somebody who’s strong. I feel weak, but I need to be strong for them.”

Christopher’s parents, who are Protestant, held a separate service for him at a funeral home.

Christopher Restel, 8, and his brother, Christian, 7, came with their mother, Annabel Rivera, 31.

“They were my best friends,” Christopher said of the four boys.