Authorities will spend a sixth day Thursday looking for a 5-year-old boy whose 35-year-old father was under arrest for a time but who has since been released.
The search has spanned several Southern California counties, most recently expanding to Santa Barbara, where authorities searched Tuesday in the Lake Cachuma Recreation Area where Aramazd Andressian Jr. may have been with his father last Friday.
Investigators were still working to build a case against Aramazd Andressian Sr., who was released from jail Tuesday after being held in lieu of $10 million since Saturday, when he was found unconscious in a park in South Pasadena and could not account for his son’s whereabouts, sparking a search for the younger Andressian.
Authorities have also search Orange County, where a gray 2004 four-door BMW owned by Andressian was seen last Friday morning at Disneyland in Anaheim, where he and the boy apparently spent the day last Thursday, officials said.
On Saturday morning, Andressian was found passed out next to his car in South Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco Park. His son was nowhere to be found. Andressian was taken to a hospital, then arrested on suspicion of child endangerment and child abduction.
Andressian was released from custody Tuesday, with the sheriff’s department saying it had decided “not to present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office for filing consideration at this time. The matter remains under investigation.”
Sheriff’s Capt. Chris Bergner said Andressian’s statements “have been convoluted and not consistent.”
The boy’s mother contacted police at 9 a.m. Saturday to report her son missing. She said her estranged husband, with whom she shares custody of their son, had failed to drop off the child at a pre-arranged meeting place.
The boy was last seen by his mother Tuesday via a Skype video call from an unknown location, South Pasadena police said.
Police dogs from the South Pasadena Police Department and nearby agencies joined in the effort to locate the boy over the weekend. Bloodhounds combed Arroyo Seco Park at least twice, and Sierra Madre’s search-and-rescue team and the San Gabriel and San Marino police departments also joined the search.
Detectives have been in touch with relatives in Armenia and customs agents, though local police say they do not believe the boy has traveled there.
The child is white, 4 feet 1, 55 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a plaid shirt and plaid shorts and has a small mole on the bottom of his right shoulder.
South Pasadena police asked anyone with information about the boy to call them at (626) 403-7297. Sheriff’s detectives can be reached at (323) 890- 5500.
—City News Service