Boy Found in Forest Grave Is Mourned at Emotional Funeral

A week after his tiny body was uncovered in a hurriedly dug grave, 5-year-old Ernesto Barrera was properly laid to rest Tuesday at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, surrounded by his family and dozens of strangers who learned of his killing from news reports.

Earlier, his mother, Petra Barrera, wept uncontrollably during a Mass in Spanish at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Pacoima, where she was joined by more than 100 mourners.

“Mi hijo, mi hijo”--my son, my son--Petra Barrera cried, hunched over the small white coffin.

Ernesto, a dark-haired boy with small features, was dressed in a white suit. Heavy makeup concealed the bruises that investigators say the boy received when he was beaten to death by his father.

“I did not know her, but I know she’s alone” in the United States, Elyza Alvarado, 69, said of Petra Barrera, who attended the funeral with three of Ernesto’s siblings. “She needs people to comfort her.”

According to investigators, Ernesto was part of a complex family involving his father--Marco Barrera, 34, a street vendor--who had up to 13 children with Petra Barrera, 35, and her 28-year-old sister, Juana Barrera. The children ranged from 3 weeks to 16 years old.

Petra lived with some of the children in a rented room at a house in Arleta. Marco and Juana Barrera and most of the children lived about two miles away in a converted garage in Pacoima.

The children often went between the two homes. Ernesto, Juana’s nephew, was at the garage visiting two weekends ago when police say Marco Barrera beat him to death. No motive has been given.

Investigators said Barrera visited Petra the morning of March 1 and told her that Ernesto had died accidentally, possibly of a heart attack. He said he would make funeral arrangements but did not return.

That night, Marco Barrera allegedly loaded the body into a car--bringing Juana Barrera and three of Ernesto’s siblings--and went to Lopez Canyon Road, about two miles north of the Foothill Freeway in the Angeles National Forest, where the family dug an 18-inch-deep grave amid tall brush.

Sheriff’s deputies patrolling the area noticed the family’s parked car about 11 p.m. and as they inspected it, Marco Barrera emerged from the vegetation. He led them to the grave where the family was gathered.

Scratching lightly at the freshly dug earth, the deputies discovered a child’s hand and took the family into custody.

Juana Barrera was charged as an accessory to murder. But investigators believe that the children at the grave thought that their little brother had died of natural causes and they had to bury him surreptitiously, fearing that the law would not allow them as illegal immigrants to hold a proper funeral.

In all, 12 children--including six of Petra’s--are in the custody of county social workers. Petra has been granted visitation rights pending a hearing in April, said Schuyler Sprowles, a spokesman for the Department of Children and Family Services.

Tuesday’s mass was attended by Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who made arrangements for the funeral and burial by obtaining funds from Mary Immaculate Parish and a Los Angeles funeral home.

“This is a moment full of sadness,” Father Thomas Rush said. “We can think of all that Ernesto could have been. At the same time, we have to face what is.”