Boy, 12, found hanging
Published: Tuesday, 22 July 2008, 3:37PM
Police are investigating the death of a 12-year-old boy who was found hanging from a tree.
Friends and neighbours found Joe Richardson in woodland near his home in Upholland, West Lancashire, on Monday.
The youngster was rushed to Wigan Royal Infirmary but died shortly after.
His mother raised the alarm when he was more than an hour late in returning home from playing out.
The Coroner for West Lancashire has been informed and Lancashire Police are not treating the death as suspicious.
A police spokesman said: "We received at call at 10.10pm yesterday from the boy's mother, Soffia Rawsterne, reporting him as missing from their address in Dewberry Fields, Upholland.
"He was last seen by his mother at 7.50pm and was due home from playing at 9pm.
"Having been alerted to his disappearance, friends and neighbours undertook a search of the local area, where they found 12-year-old Joe Richardson hanging from a tree in a wooded area off High Meadow, adjacent to Dewberry Fields."
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