Autumn Pasquale's estate is claiming local police failed to follow the correct procedures in the search for Autumn, therefore "failing" the 12-year-old murder victim and her family.

The estate, which is comprised of Anthony Pasquale, Autumn's father, and her two siblings, filed suit against six municipalities, three Clayton Police officers, the state police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office stating they failed to utilize "adequate law enforcement techniques."

Autumn Pasquale was reported missing on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012. Her body was found two days later, stuffed into a recycling bin on an abandoned property adjacent to the home of 15-year-old Justin Robinson, who later pleaded guilty to her murder. She was strangled the day she disappeared, according to autopsy reports.

The lawsuit, filed in Gloucester County's Superior Court claims law enforcement should have implemented the Child Abduction Response Team (CART) — a "multi-disciplinary approach to responding to missing or abducted children" — as soon as Autumn was reported missing, rather than the next day. It also claims local and state police refused assistance from Joseph Nicholas, a retired law enforcement investigator.

"Law enforcement did not follow appropriate procedures as they should have been trained to do, including canvassing the immediate area. Law enforcement failed Autumn," the suit reads.

If police were trained in proper search techniques and those techniques were used "Autumn may have been discovered sooner, and a reasonable chance exists that she would have survived," the suit claims.

"Law enforcement could not have prevented the death of Autumn, because she was killed several hours before she was ever reported missing, said Bernie Weisenfeld, a spokesman for the county prosecutor's office. "Any civil action seeking monetary damages by pointing blame at police is misplaced."

The Pasquale estate is asking for monetary damages on seven counts against the government entities named in the suit.

In addition to losing the "support and care and attention" of Autumn, they also stipulate that her parents have lost "any direct financial contributions which would have been made" by Autumn as she became a wage earner and that they "lost the value of the child's anticipated services to survivors such as household chores and care of siblings."

Anthony Pasquale also filed suit last year against Justin Robinson's parents, Anita Saunders and Alonzo Robinson. In that suit he claims the parents should have known that their son was regularly stealing bicycles and had pre-existing emotional psychological and neurodevelopmental problems.

Anthony Pasquale refused to comment on the lawsuit. The estate's attorney Gregg Zeff was not immediately available for comment Monday morning.

Rebecca Forand may be reached at rforand@southjerseymedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @RebeccaForand. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.