Three days after a Shepherd teen died in a rollover crash, community members and even law enforcement continue to wonder what happened amid a wall of official police silence.

Evan Duffiney, 16, was pinned under the pickup and pronounced dead at the scene of the crash northeast of Mt. Pleasant.

Lucas Judge, another Shepherd student, was hurt but is recovering at home.

Tribal police were first on the scene, and dispatch records combined with recollections of those working that night confirm that they were either pursuing or at least near the pickup truck when it crashed.

But the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police did not return messages on Sunday and on Tuesday referred inquiries to their public relations department, which also did not respond.

Others in the law enforcement community also wonder why Tribal officers did not refer the investigation to another agency if they were involved, which is normal procedure, and did not call a state police reconstruction team, also protocol in a fatal crash.

“Tribal police handled the investigation, which is odd considering when there’s a death that they wouldn’t call in an accident reconstruction team from the state, which they did not do,” one officer said. “So it was just them.”

Another public safety official working that night also said either the Tribe was in pursuit or at least witnessed the crash.

Archived radio traffic reveals a Tribal officer reporting a roll-over at Valley and Summerton, northeast of Mt. Pleasant, without ever being dispatched to an accident.

Others join that officer quickly and as tension grows an officer can be heard calling for rescue personnel from Shepherd Fire and Mobile Medical Response.

Shepherd Police Chief Luke Sawyer heard a Shepherd student was involved and joined Isabella Sheriff Michael Main to notify family members of the death and the injured youth.

Sawyer said if a Shepherd youth was involved he felt he should make the notification as an obligation and courtesy.

It is not clear if Main was at the scene.

Sawyer said he was at the scene a matter of minutes and didn't ask for details, and has not asked for them since.

“I can only comment on what I know from our department perspective,” Sawyer said. “I responded to the scene and left after a few minutes to make the death notification with another officer. That is it for us.”

Main said that, although he does deputize Tribal officers to give them police powers in situations involving non-Natives, that he could not comment.

“I would not be able to comment on another agency’s cases or investigations as a matter of protocol and respect,” he said.

It appears no other agency is investigating.

Neither state police in Lansing nor at the Mt. Pleasant post are investigating the accident, nor is Shepherd, the Isabella County Sheriff’s Department or the Mt. Pleasant Police Department.

Funeral services for Evan Duffiney will be 11 a.m. Saturday at the Charles R. Lux Family Funeral Home in Mt. Pleasant.

Sources close to the two teens have said that Duffiney, who did not have a driver’s license, was driving Judge’s truck when the crash happened just after midnight Saturday.

Visitation will be Friday from 2-8 p.m. and on Saturday one hour before the service.

Evan is survived by his father Lucas (Erica) Duffiney of Shepherd; mother, Melissa (Ken) Lamb of Portland, Tenn.; three siblings, Brandon, Brittany (Jacob Turner), and Alex; five step-siblings, Jasmine, Katelyn, and James Lamb, and Audrey and Blain Flohr, among others

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