Drifter Suspected in Boy’s Death

LA HABRA —  The schoolboy whose dismembered body was found encased in concrete was killed by a one-handed drifter who lived alone in a backyard shed strewn with sexually explicit magazines and children’s toys, police alleged Monday.

Six people who live in a house and trailer on the property where Juan Delgado, 12, allegedly was killed were released by police Monday, a day after they were arrested. But prosecutors plan to charge the remaining suspect, John Samuel Ghobrial, 27, an Egyptian emigre, with murder.

Police allege that Ghobrial, who is missing his right hand and forearm, killed the boy and dismembered his body while the other residents of the property were away from home. Ghobrial then encased some of the boy’s body parts in concrete blocks, one of which weighed 200 pounds, and dumped them on some nearby lawns, police charged.

As a shocked city left tributes of flowers and stuffed animals at the spot where Juan’s body was found, and schools gave their students counseling and safety lessons, a picture emerged of the young victim as an outgoing, independent boy who reportedly had complained in recent weeks that he was being followed by a stranger.

Police, meanwhile, struggled to explain how one man, and a one-handed man at that, might have killed Juan and disposed of his body alone.

“It’s difficult, and we are wrestling with this all the time: How could one person, especially one person who doesn’t have two full arms and hands, accomplish this?” Police Capt. John Rees said. “But we haven’t been able to determine that one person couldn’t do it.”

Police have yet to establish a motive for the killing, Rees said, but are investigating the possibility of a sex crime. The boy’s pelvis is still missing, Rees said, making it difficult to determine whether the boy had been sexually abused.

A 10-year-old friend of Juan’s said in an interview Monday that his friend had complained to him three weeks ago that a man had been following him.

“The last time he told me about the guy was like three Sundays ago at church,” the youngster said. “Juan pulled me outside and told me that some guy kept bothering him. He said he was scared and the guy kept following him after school.”

Parts of Juan’s body were found Saturday, mainly in two concrete cylinders containing blood and human tissue. The cylinders were found within two blocks of the Greenwood Avenue property where Ghobrial had rented a backyard shed since Feb. 28.

Police believe Ghobrial asphyxiated and dismembered the boy in the shed, then encased some of his remains in concrete he mixed and poured in white paint buckets. Then, Rees said, police believe Ghobrial rolled the heavy cylinders into an upended shopping cart, rolled the righted cart into the street and dumped the concrete cylinders on neighbors’ lawns.

Police said the other people living on the property had solid alibis and are no longer considered suspects. But investigators have not ruled out the possibility that Ghobrial may have had some assistance from unknown people.

As the police investigation continued, La Habra residents who said Ghobrial was a well-known panhandler said they had never considered the quiet man dangerous. Shoppers at the Plaza Shopping Center often gave him money.

Maria Eugenia Asturias, who owns the home in the 600 block of Greenwood Avenue with her two grown children and rents a trailer on the property to three more people, said she agreed to rent the shed to Ghobrial in late February for $100 a month.

“My kids didn’t want me to rent the shack to him, but I just felt sorry for him,” Asturias said.

“He doesn’t have an arm and he can’t work. It’s really sad. . . . Now we’re scared.”

Inside the shed Monday were several children’s storybooks on a shelf. Another shelf was covered with children’s clothing. On a third was a mannequin’s head, heavily made up and smeared with red nail polish. Stuffed animals were strewn on the floor next to sexually explicit magazines.

It was not clear when Ghobrial, who emigrated to the United States through Mexico, arrived here, police said. Ghobrial told authorities he lost his arm when he was attacked by a mob of Muslim fundamentalists.

Police said he may have befriended Juan at a Harbor Boulevard butcher’s shop near the boy’s house and persuaded the sixth-grader to go home with him voluntarily.

The owner of the market, Imran Bholat, said Ghobrial often came in seeking money and a job. Juan was friendly with employees and sometimes carried shoppers’ bags to their cars for tips.

But Bholat and other employees of the store said they had never seen the two together.

They had nothing but praise for Juan.

“He was such a good kid, a good kid,” said the butcher at the store, who spoke on condition he not be named. “He wanted to grow up fast and work to help his mother. He really loved his mother.”

The boy had been missing since last Tuesday afternoon, when he left Washington Middle School but failed to come home.

Margarita Delgado said her son had left home twice before for several days, turning up at the houses of friends. So when he did not come home Tuesday, she did not worry.

But when her son was still missing Thursday afternoon, Delgado called the police.

At the home where Juan lived with his parents and five sisters and brothers, friends and relatives spent much of Monday speaking with the mother.

“He was nice to everyone. Everyone on the block knew him,” Delgado said, speaking haltingly of her fourth-born child.

“He was so friendly. He would go to his friends’ houses and forget to call home. . . . I was worried about his independence. I was worried that something would happen to him, being off alone.”

Delgado said her husband, a truck driver, is on his way home from a job in Massachusetts.

As neighbors left flowers, stuffed animals and lighted votive candles near where Juan’s remains were found, La Habra parents worried for the safety of their children.

Administrators at the La Habra City School District said their schools are cautioning students on safety. And at the middle school that Juan attended, four psychologists and four counselors spoke with students Monday about the sixth-grader’s death.

Laura Johnson, 34, who lives next door to Ghobrial, said she kept her daughter home from school Monday and walked her son.

“It’s a terrible feeling,” she said. “I just pray to God that he will protect us because this can happen anywhere, any time.”

Police have established the Juan Delgado Memorial Fund to assist the Delgado family at California State Bank, 441 W. Whittier Blvd., La Habra, CA 90631.

Times staff writer Erika Chavez contributed to this report.

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Words of Warning

In the wake of the murder of Juan Delgado, a 12-year-old La Habra sixth-grader, schools throughout the city are offering safety tips. The following is a list of tips for parents and guardians:

* Rehearse with children their full name, address and phone number and how to make emergency phone calls.

* Walk the neighborhood with children, showing them safe places they can go to in an emergency. Such places may include a neighbor’s home or open store.

* Tell children never to accept gifts, candy or rides from strangers.

* Check for unsafe neighborhood areas, such as spots with overgrown shrubbery, abandoned buildings and vacant lots, and poorly lit locations. Tell your children, and show them, to stay away.

* Teach children to go to a store clerk or a security guard and ask for help if they are lost or being followed or harassed.

* Tell children never to go into a parking lot alone.

* Accompany children to public restrooms.

* Emphasize that no one, including friends, family members and strangers, has the right to touch them in any way that makes them feel uncomfortable.

* Tell kids to stay away from strangers.

* Don’t hang a house key around your child’s neck.

* Encourage children to walk and play with friends, not alone; to stay in well-lighted, open areas; and to be alert to what’s going on around them.

Source: La Habra Police Department