The body of a missing 5-year-old boy was found near a Santa Barbara lake the day after his father was extradited from Las Vegas to face murder charges in California.
The remains of Aramazd Andressian, who had been missing from his South Pasadena home for two months, were recovered Saturday near Cachuma Lake in a popular recreational area, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office.
Aramazd’s father, Aramazd Andressian Sr., 35, was arrested a week ago in Las Vegas and returned Friday to face murder charges in his son’s death.
Andressian, who was divorcing his wife and sharing custody of the boy, was captured on surveillance videotape at Disneyland with his son the night of April 20. He failed to return Aramazd to his mother the following day as scheduled.
Andressian was found unconscious that morning in Arroyo Park near his South Pasadena home, and his car had been doused with gasoline.
Six days after his son was reported missing, Andressian released a statement — and photos of the boy — pleading with the public to help find him. He claimed he had no memory of what happened but said he suspected he had been attacked after he took his son to the park the day he vanished.
Andressian will appear in court Monday, and will plead not guilty, said his lawyer, Ambrosio Rodriguez.
“This is a sad and solemn day for the Andressian family, one they all hoped would never come,” Rodriguez said in a statement sent to HuffPost the day Aramazd’s body was found.
He called the case a “perfect example of mob mentality and rush to judgement by the sheriff’s department.”
“The charge is very serious but we don’t yet know what happened to the boy,”Rodriguez said.
Andressian was arrested on June 23 in Las Vegas after detectives searched the home of his mother in California.
He has changed his appearance by shaving his beard and lightening his hair and was planning to travel to a country apparently to avoid extradition, investigators told The Los Angeles Times.