Forest Grave Yields Boy’s Body; Father, Aunt Held

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST —  The father and aunt of a 5-year-old boy were arrested Monday on suspicion of murdering the child after sheriff’s deputies found them beside a makeshift grave late at night in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Marco Barragon, 34, and Guana Barrera, 28, were found Sunday night along with three other children--14-year-old twin boys and a 7-year-old girl--gathered around the shallow grave the family had dug, said Lt. Ray Peavy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s homicide unit.

Investigators at first believed that the boy, Ernesto Barrera, had died naturally and that the family could not afford a proper funeral nor pay for the body’s return to their native Mexico.

“We were of the opinion this was a natural death and they chose to bury him themselves,” Peavy said. By Monday morning, however, after more questioning, the investigators believed that the child was killed by at least one of the adults. Investigators would not say what led them to that conclusion.

The fully clothed body had no gunshot wounds or other obvious signs of violence, Peavy said, but “we believe we know how the child died.”

An autopsy by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office will seek to determine the cause of death.

Barragon has fathered a number of children with Guana Barrera and her sister, Petra Barrera, who is the dead boy’s mother, deputies said. The relationships of the three other children found at the grave site were not immediately clear.

Nine children who are part of the extended family--including six who were not at the grave site--were placed in care of the county’s Department of Children and Family services, said Schuyler Sprowls, a spokesman for the agency.

The children range in age from 3-month-old twins to the 14-year-old twins, according to authorities.

“They’re safe,” Sprowls said. “They will remain in custody.”

Peavy said no charges were expected against any others present at the grave.

According to investigators, deputies patrolling Lopez Canyon Road, which cuts through rough terrain about two miles north of the Foothill Freeway, noticed the family’s Honda Accord in a dirt turnout.

Barragon emerged from the vegetation on the west side of the road as deputies checked the car, investigators said. After brief questioning, he led the deputies about 50 yards into the tall brush to a small clearing where the grave had been dug.

The boy had already been interred, and the family was gathered in an apparent burial ritual, deputies said.

The deputies scratched lightly at the foot-deep grave, discovering a small hand, Peavy said. They took the family into custody, and homicide investigators were called.

The twin boys had apparently done much of the digging because their hands were covered with dirt, Peavy said. A pick and a shovel were nearby.

Investigators said they doubted that the family had been in the United States long because neither the adults nor the children spoke much English.

In interviews Sunday night and Monday morning, investigators learned that the family initially wanted to take the body to Mexico, but decided that would be too expensive. Instead, they decided to bury it themselves, deputies said.

They also wanted the grave to be near the family so “they could visit on weekends,” Peavy said.

Investigators said the family appeared to be attempting a proper burial.

On Monday, a crucifix was found as the body was dug out by an anthropologist.

“They wanted to be here together to bury the child,” Peavy said of the family. The other children “probably wanted to say goodbye.”