He was a good-natured and outgoing little boy who loved being a big brother to his six-month-old baby sister, Caitlin. On Sunday, March 24, 1991, at 12:30 p.m., Michael was with his family, having just arrived at a school playing field where his mother was to play an afternoon game of touch football. They parked their red Datsun station wagon along the single row of other parked cars on the west side of the playing field. Michael asked if he could go over to the children’s playground area at the side of the school. It was a short distance away, just on the other side of an empty basketball court. He was told that he could, but was not to go off playing elsewhere with the other kids on the playground and to stay within sight. It was the first time Michael had ever been allowed to go to a playground alone, but his parents were no more than a hundred metres away and they would be able to easily see him from the football field. Michael went off toward the playground area as his mom was putting on her football cleats and his dad was settling Caitlin into her stroller.At the football field Bruce checked on the score of the game in progress and then stepped onto a boulder jutting out of the ground at the side of the field so that he could look over top of the cars and keep an eye on his son.
