28 June, 2017
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials and District Attorneys are charging the father of the missing five-year-old Aramazd Andressian Jr. - whose disappearance gripped the South Pasadena community- with homicide and attempted suicide and stated that he was planning to leave the country.
He was being held on $10 million at the Clark County Detention Center as he awaited extradition back to L.A.
The father and son were last seen together at about 1 a.m. on April 21, as they were leaving Disneyland, where they had been spending the day with relatives. Andressian was later found passed out in a park. Sheriff's officials said he had taken prescription pills and the auto was doused with gasoline in an apparent attempt to take his own life.
Investigators were told by Andressian that he had taken a prescription drug that was his that same morning, which led him to blacking out. "I can only speculate that I must have been attacked", he said afterward.
His 5-year-old son was nowhere to be found.
Aramazd Andressian Sr. lawyered up not long after his son disappeared, and within a week of the child going missing, he released a statement through that attorney in an attempt to explain what had happened on April 22. Early on in the investigation, he was arrested on allegations of child endangerment but was later released.
The mother of the boy, Ana Estevez, implored the public for any information about Andressian Jr.'s disappearance and asked for volunteers to help hand out flyers.
Andressian had also changed his appearance by dying his hair and shaving off his facial hair and had been socializing while living out of a Las Vegas hotel for 47 days, conduct characterized as inconsistent with that of a grieving parent, Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Joe Mendoza said.
Andressian Sr.is now facing an unusual "no-body murder charge", Lacey said, according to KTLA. The artificial lake is about 15 miles northwest of Santa Barbara. If convicted as charged, the suspect faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, District Attorney Jackie Lacey said. But despite weeks of intensive searches, investigators have not yet found the boy's body.
This undated photo provided by the South Pasadena, Calif., Police Department shows Aramazd Andressian Sr.
Authorities eventually gathered enough circumstantial evidence to charge the father with suspicion of murder and promptly picked him up on Friday.
"If California wants me they can come and get me", he told Justice of the Peace Eric Goodman.
In a statement during Monday's news conference, a statement was read aloud from his mother, Ana Estevez, who had nicknamed him "Picqui". Officials planned to discuss the case in more detail at a scheduled press conference on Monday.
A $30,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information on Andressian Jr's body.
