Ahmad Sultani, 27, a worker at the All Wireless store, 4641 South Grand Boulevard, said Clinton would regularly hang out there to use the store's Wi-Fi. Sultani described Clinton as a "very, very nice kid" who often played the "Clash of Clans" game on his cellphone while at the store.

Scott Coleman, 42, of Washington County, described himself as an uncle to Clinton because he has worked in the auto salvage industry with Clinton's father for years. Coleman said his 14-year-old son and Clinton were close friends and just spent last weekend together go-karting, skating at a roller rink and shooting BB guns in the woods.

Coleman said Clinton frequently helped his father out at a salvage yard in Hillsdale where his father worked.

"He's a great kid," Coleman said.

Coleman said he rallied friends and family on Wednesday to look for the car, and alerted police to possible leads.

"Everybody I know has been looking for this car," he said. "It's family, you know what I mean? And I would expect someone to do the same for me. An innocent child's life was taken because of someone's neglect. He was a very loving kid, you know? He loved life and this is a tragedy that he had to go out the way he did."

Kim Bell of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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Joel Currier Joel Currier is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter here: @joelcurrier. Follow Joel Currier Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today