“The police are now patrolling the commune. Parents are afraid to send their children to school.” The town of Cena in Timiș, in shock after the murder of a 15-year-old child

The entire community of Cenei, Timiş county, is in a state of shock, after the case of the 15-year-old boy who was killed by two friends, one of the same age and another of 13 years, who is not criminally responsible. The parents are afraid to take their children to school anymore, accusing that the 13-year-old student is free, and the school management cannot forbid his presence in the institution, the mayor of the commune told News.ro.

• Three teenagers, two aged 15 and one aged 13, are the main suspects in the case of the crime in Cenei. One of the 15-year-olds is accused of killing their friend, together with the 13-year-old. The two then called the second 15-year-old suspect to help them hide the body.
• The two 15-year-old teenagers were detained, while the 13-year-old child was released.

“We are all still in a state of shock and we are trying to take some measures now because the little one (ed. – the 13-year-old, who is not criminally responsible) was let go and we don't know what to do now, since the children don't want to go to school, the parents are panicked and we have to somehow get him out of the community”, declared, on Thursday, for News.ro, the mayor of Cena commune, Sîrgean Tanasin.

The measures taken at Cenei

The mayor specified that there are, in total, 254 children who go to school in the locality and that there is a state of “tension” in the commune due to the event, which is why he ordered certain safety measures.

“Now we have organized a safety committee and a team from DGSPC, School Safety, from the police must also come, let's see what we do, because we must return to normality with the children, let them come to school, parents should no longer be afraid to take their children to school. The principal is panicked by the fact that the student can come to school, she has no legal basis to expel him”, he emphasized the mayor.

He added that a police car was sent to constantly monitor the school area.

“We have crews patrolling the commune and a police car will be permanently stationed at the school to monitor the whole area,” said the mayor.

Asked if at this moment the 13-year-old child, who is not criminally liable, according to the law, should not be monitored by the Child Protection Directorate, the mayor stated that, in his opinion, this institution should report itself “somehow”, because “the mother did not take care of him”.

“We considered filing a criminal complaint against the mother for not taking care of him and not giving him supervision”, specified the mayor of Cenei.

“The school tried to separate them”

According to the mayor, the 13-year-old child is a student in the 5th grade, after he was repeatedly suspended twice, once because his behavior average was lowered, and the 15-year-old was repeatedly suspended three times, being sent to a school with special needs in Timişoara.

Asked if the school representatives had previously done anything to prevent any incident, the mayor said that the three met outside of school hours.

“That's what the school did, separated them, let them repeatedly separate them somehow. But they didn't go to school and were still around the commune. And then, the youngest (ed. 13 years old) kept going out of school and meeting the others. The victim (15 years old) was in the 8th grade and had been in the same class as the 15-year-old (ed. currently, detained)”, explained the mayor.

In his opinion, children are also negatively influenced by everything they see “on TV, on phones, in video games that are “just brutal”, with all kinds of crimes and other forms of aggression.

The film of the crime from Cenei

The crime in Cenei, where a 15-year-old teenager was killed and buried in a garden, took place in the evening of January 19, 2026, around 9:30 p.m., announced the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Timiş Court. Two of the 15-year-old teenagers suspected of the crime were detained, and another 13-year-old minor, who is not criminally responsible, was taken for a psychiatric evaluation.

The crime was premeditated, thought about a month ago, according to prosecutors.

According to News.ro, the 13-year-old boy who participated in the crime confessed to the investigators that, together with his two older friends, they envied the boy because he had things they couldn't dream of, such as an electric scooter or an ATV. The aggressors claimed before the investigators that the boy terrorized them, threatened to beat them and even hit them.

On Monday evening, they allegedly called the boy to the 13-year-old's home, saying they wanted to show him a new ATV. Around 9:30 p.m., he took his scooter and went to the meeting.

Once there, one of the 15-year-olds hit him with an ax, and the 13-year-old with a knife. They then called the third teenager to help them get rid of the body.

“In fact, it was noted that, on 19.01.2026, at around 9:30 p.m., the first minor suspect, together with another 13-year-old minor (who is not criminally responsible), having well established a predetermined plan that they made a month ago and waiting for the opportune moment, killed a male minor by hitting him repeatedly with a hatchet and a knife, while they were at a building on the outskirts of the town of Cena, Timiş county”, the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Timiş Court reported,

According to the prosecutors, the three minors set the child's body on fire and then buried it behind a garden.

“All three minors acted together and desecrated the victim's body by setting it on fire and then burying it behind the garden. The second suspect actively helped the first two to get rid of the body, as well as to erase the traces of the crime,” the prosecutors said.