Andrea DiGiacomo talks about her son Reno during an interview in his bedroom, which she has not changed since his death four years ago. The laundry is still stacked in a basket and his stereo is still turned on. Reno’s ashes rest in a sculpture on the dresser, at right. - Andrea and Richard “Jocko” DiGiacomo talk about their son Reno on the anniversary of his death. Reno’s image can be seen in a tattoo on his father’s right forearm. - Andrea DiGiacomo walks past a wall of photos of her son Reno on the fourth anniversary of his death. - Andrea DiGiacomo looks at a Scranton Preparatory School dedication to her son, Reno, from members of his class. “This is a 15-year-old who had everything to live for,” she said. - - Andrea DiGiacomo sits on her porch, in front of the patio her husband and son built. This quiet spot is a few short steps downhill from the barn where Reno DiGiacomo’s body was discovered on July 2, 2011. - - Reno DiGiacomo - -

HOW TO HELP• Family members encourage anyone with information about Reno DiGiacomo’s death to call or text a tip line at 570-472-2648.• The Pennsylvania State Police Wyoming Barracks may be reached at 570-697-2000.

By Roger DuPuis [email protected]

Andrea DiGiacomo talks about her son Reno during an interview in his bedroom, which she has not changed since his death four years ago. The laundry is still stacked in a basket and his stereo is still turned on. Reno’s ashes rest in a sculpture on the dresser, at right. https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_TTL070315Reno2.jpg Andrea DiGiacomo talks about her son Reno during an interview in his bedroom, which she has not changed since his death four years ago. The laundry is still stacked in a basket and his stereo is still turned on. Reno’s ashes rest in a sculpture on the dresser, at right. Andrea and Richard “Jocko” DiGiacomo talk about their son Reno on the anniversary of his death. Reno’s image can be seen in a tattoo on his father’s right forearm. https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_TTL070315Reno1.jpg Andrea and Richard “Jocko” DiGiacomo talk about their son Reno on the anniversary of his death. Reno’s image can be seen in a tattoo on his father’s right forearm. Andrea DiGiacomo walks past a wall of photos of her son Reno on the fourth anniversary of his death. https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_TTL070315Reno3.jpg Andrea DiGiacomo walks past a wall of photos of her son Reno on the fourth anniversary of his death. Andrea DiGiacomo looks at a Scranton Preparatory School dedication to her son, Reno, from members of his class. “This is a 15-year-old who had everything to live for,” she said. https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_TTL070315Reno4.jpg Andrea DiGiacomo looks at a Scranton Preparatory School dedication to her son, Reno, from members of his class. “This is a 15-year-old who had everything to live for,” she said. Andrea DiGiacomo sits on her porch, in front of the patio her husband and son built. This quiet spot is a few short steps downhill from the barn where Reno DiGiacomo’s body was discovered on July 2, 2011. https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_TTL070315Reno6.jpg Andrea DiGiacomo sits on her porch, in front of the patio her husband and son built. This quiet spot is a few short steps downhill from the barn where Reno DiGiacomo’s body was discovered on July 2, 2011. Reno DiGiacomo https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_School-Pic-2011.jpg Reno DiGiacomo

HUNLOCK TOWNSHIP — He should have turned 20 tomorrow.

Instead, on July 2, 2011, Reno DiGiacomo’s parents found their son lying lifeless in the backyard with an inch-thick rope knotted around his neck.

Reno’s death certificate said suicide. Four years later, the grieving couple still doesn’t accept the official explanation.

Richard “Jocko” DiGiacomo and his wife, Andrea, say they had no evidence to suggest their only child, just three days away from his 16th birthday and his first car, was depressed or suicidal, nor any evidence that he was experimenting with drugs.

The DiGiacomos believe there is adequate evidence to suggest that their son was not home alone when he died, and they hold out hope that those who may have been with him will come forward.

“We’re not looking for a murderer,” Mr. DiGiacomo said Thursday, as he talked with a reporter over the spot where he discovered his son’s body, on the driveway in front of a small barn behind the family’s Golf Course Road home.

“We’re just looking for answers.”

Mrs. DiGiacomo is hesitant to speculate on what may have gone on in the family’s backyard the day Reno died, but she does acknowledge the possibility of a youthful dare gone wrong.

Some kids call it “the choking game.” Other names include “blackout,” “the fainting game” or “the knockout challenge.”

While not new, officials across the nation in recent years have seen a resurgence of the dangerous thrill game in which participants intentionally cut off oxygen to the brain in pursuit of brief, intense euphoria.

“Maybe he was talked into doing it? We don’t know,” Mrs. DiGiacomo said.

“He wasn’t always very street-smart,” Mr. DiGiacomo added.

‘Everything to live for’

July 1, 2011, was a Friday.

For Reno DiGiacomo, it was the summer before what would have been his junior year at Scranton Preparatory School, and four days before he was eligible to apply for his learner’s permit. Reno’s doctor agreed to fit him in for a physical that day so that he could apply for the permit on his birthday the following Tuesday, his parents said.

Driving wasn’t the only thing on Reno’s mind as he chatted with his physician.

“He wanted to be a plastic surgeon,” Mrs. DiGiacomo said, describing how the conversation turned to schools and internship opportunities.

“This is a 15-year-old who had everything to live for,” she said.

That life remains on display in Reno’s second-floor bedroom, which his parents have maintained unchanged since his death: football memorabilia, family photos, video games, bits and pieces of sporting equipment, a child-sized guitar. And then there are the neat glass cases containing inspect specimens Reno had captured and carefully mounted over the years.

“He loved dragonflies,” Mrs. DiGiacomo said.

In true teenage fashion, Reno also was living for the summer as July got underway four years ago.

He had just spent a day boating on Lake Winola with a close school friend, who still keeps in touch with the DiGiacomos.

“His friends up there said they had no sign of anything wrong, at all,” Mrs. DiGiacomo said.

Then, on Saturday, Reno apparently set to work on another summer pastime, starting to fix the filter on the family pool while his parents were away at a wedding for a few hours.

Mr. DiGiacomo said he found the filter still disassembled when he returned home that evening, and based on evidence left behind, thinks Reno may have headed to the barn in search of tools.

But tinkering with the pool filter wasn’t the only household improvement Reno undertook that day.

The DiGiacomos, who started to worry when their son didn’t pick up the phone or respond to text messages, arrived home in the evening to find a scented candle lit in the house, and their two dogs locked up in the laundry room.

Those were steps Reno took whenever company was coming over, Mrs. DiGiacomo explained. He didn’t want friends to smell the dogs, and the candle was Reno’s way of masking their odor for guests.

There was no sign of Reno, however.

Mr. DiGiacomo said he initially checked the pool. Then he headed toward the barn.

He found Reno on the blacktop. Tied around the teen’s neck was the thick rope used to haul hay up to the barn loft, and Reno’s head was raised off the ground. His shoes lay nearby.

In retrospect, the DiGiacomos understand their son was already dead. At the time, parental instinct prevailed.

“I came out, and I did CPR until the ambulance got here,” Mrs. DiGiacomo said.

No autopsy

State police and the Luzerne County Coroner’s Office responded to the scene, where Reno was pronounced dead at 11:45 p.m., July 2, 2011.

Reno’s cause of death, attested to on the death certificate by Luzerne County Deputy Coroner Daniel J. Hughes, was asphyxiation due to hanging.

His manner of death was ruled suicide.

“Based on what?” Mrs. DiGiacomo said, angrily gesturing to the certificate which also indicates that no autopsy was performed on Reno’s body.

Stunned by how quickly the determination was made, the DiGiacomos also say no one informed them at the time that they had the option to request a private autopsy.

Reno’s body was cremated five days after his death, eliminating that possibility.

Luzerne County Coroner William Lisman on Thursday told the Times Leader that the decision on whether to perform an autopsy rests with his office. But, Lisman added, he could not immediately remember a time over the past two decades when a post-mortem had been done on a hanging victim in the county.

Why not?

“We have a cause of death. We know what the cause of death was. It was asphyxiation due to hanging,” Lisman said of such cases.

Lisman said he is familiar with Reno’s case, but declined to discuss specifics out of respect for the family’s privacy. The coroner did say, however, that the case was not rushed in any way.

“There have been multiple meetings with the family, Pennsylvania State Police, the District Attorney’s Office. We have done everything we possibly could do,” Lisman said.

He also stressed that if any new information comes to light, the case — and Reno’s death certificate — could be revisited.

“It can always be amended. It can always be changed. But we would need a reason to do that,” Lisman said.

Investigation

The DiGiacomos have spent nearly four years trying to convince officials that such reasons exist.

The month after Reno’s death, his parents hired a Mountain Top private investigator, Jim Sheridan, of Shamrock Investigations and Consulting.

According to a letter he sent state police Lt. Richard Krawetz on Jan. 29, 2014, Sheridan had by that time interviewed more than 20 people in connection with the case, some on multiple occasions. Sheridan wrote that he believed inconsistencies in statements by four of those people merited further questioning by troopers — adding that he understood a state police detective had encountered similar issues with those individuals.

A message left for Krawetz last week was not immediately returned.

The Times Leader is not identifying any of the individuals named in Sheridan’s report, as it was not possible to confirm with state police whether there was an open investigation or whether any of those people had been questioned in connection with Reno’s death.

Asked if there was an open criminal investigation into Reno’s death, Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis replied: “It has been ruled a suicide by the coroner.”

Sheridan said he has not had contact with state police for at least a year, after being informed that no more information could be shared, owing to what was a criminal investigation.

“Early on, there was cooperation,” Sheridan said when asked about his interactions with state police.

The DiGiacomos said their contact with state police has been sporadic, but that they had been informed several items connected with the case were still in troopers’ possession and could soon be returned: Reno’s cell phone, a laptop and the rope.

“I don’t want the rope back,” Mr. DiGiacomo said, his voice rising.

The choking game?

“Basically, they tried to classify it as a suicide right off the bat,” Sheridan said of officials. “I’ve told the DiGiacomos this very well may have been an accident.”

“If you wanted to commit suicide, you couldn’t have asked for a less practical way,” he added.

Why a young man apparently in the process of fixing a pool filter would have knotted a rope around his neck on a summer afternoon, if not for suicide, has led his parents to consider the choking game as a more likely scenario.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, youths practice the risky game either by choking each other, or using a noose to choke themselves. It doesn’t take long before the victim passes out, the CDC says, with the risk of serious injury or death.

Research cited by the CDC found that at least 82 children and adolescents across the country died from playing the game between 1995 and 2007. Of them, most were between the ages of 11 and 16, and 87 percent were male.

The CDC also reported that nearly all of the game’s victims were alone when they died.

Whatever Reno was doing that afternoon, his parents are steadfast in their belief that he was not alone.

Reno’s last known communication, a text message to a friend, was sent at 3:55 p.m., Sheridan found. And two independent witnesses said they saw a vehicle pull into the DiGiacomos’ driveway between 3:30 and 4 p.m. the day Reno died, hours before his parents arrived home.

In his report to state police, Sheridan described the similarity between the vehicle those witnesses said they saw and a vehicle driven by one of the people he interviewed.

Showing a reporter and photographer around the barn, Mr. DiGiacomo pointed out how the rope was fastened to a hook at one side of the structure, then looped up around a winch at the second story. He does not believe his son could have acted alone to unfasten the rope, tie it around his neck and then wind the other end back around the hook tightly enough to draw it taut.

“I think he was talked into it,” Mrs. DiGiacomo said. “I think it went bad. And I think they left him here like a dog.”

At the same time, the couple aren’t looking for culprits, but closure.

“Somebody knows something,” Mrs. DiGiacomo said. “What we’re trying to do is to get someone to come forward with the truth.”

HOW TO HELP• Family members encourage anyone with information about Reno DiGiacomo’s death to call or text a tip line at 570-472-2648.• The Pennsylvania State Police Wyoming Barracks may be reached at 570-697-2000.

Reach Roger DuPuis at 570-991-6113 or on Twitter @rogerdupuis2

Reach Roger DuPuis at 570-991-6113 or on Twitter @rogerdupuis2