April 17, 2024
The family of Quadir Diaz, the 18-year-old man who went missing with his friend Ausar Scott-Thomas in March, says the body pulled from the Schuylkill River on Tuesday is Diaz.
Police found the body near the 5000 block of Ridge Avenue in Manayunk at 7 a.m. Tuesday. The Medical Examiner's Office had not publicly identified the body as of Wednesday morning. But Quadir's mother, Taniesha Diaz, told the Inquirer that she identified the body as her son after being shown a picture.
There were no visible signs of trauma to the body, which appeared to have been in the water for a while, CBS Philadelphia reported.
Diaz and Scott-Thomas, 21, were reported missing in early March. The body of Scott-Thomas was recovered from the Schuylkill River on March 31.
They reportedly had gone for a drive with another friend in Northwest Philly on March 7. According to the father of Scott-Thomas, that friend said the trio was chased by someone in another car. They crashed their car and fled on foot near Gypsy Lane and Lincoln Drive, with Diaz and Scott-Thomas running a different way than their friend.
"I believe in my heart my son was set up," Taniesha Diaz told FOX29. "I believe in my heart that if he is in the water he didn’t just jump, he was pushed or someone was chasing him … closure for my family is bringing him back to be able to have our goodbyes with him."