A 16-year-old boy was arrested Thursday for allegedly fatally stabbing a 17-year-old friend and then pretending to find the body in the riverbed of the San Gabriel River near South El Monte in an apparent effort to fool investigators into thinking he wasn’t involved in the death, authorities said.
The body of Jeremy Sanchez of South El Monte was found about 4 p.m. Wednesday near Parkway Drive and Thienes Avenue in the Avocado Heights area, authorities said.
On Thursday morning, sheriff’s investigators arrested the 16-year-old boy, who they said was a friend of Sanchez, after serving a warrant at the suspect’s home, sheriff’s Lt. John Corina said.
The suspect, whose name was withheld, was booked on suspicion of murder and was being held at Los Padrinos Juvenile Detention Center, Corina said. The murder weapon has not been recovered.
Sanchez was a student at South El Monte High School. Extra counselors were on hand at the campus Thursday.
Corina said the boy’s father had reported him missing after he didn’t show up for school Wednesday. The father and the boy’s friends — the suspect among them — went looking for him, Corina said. Authorities initially had reported that the father had found the body.
“Actually, it was the suspect in this case who `discovered’ the body,” Corina told Fox11 early Thursday afternoon. “The suspect joined the father in searching for the victim, and it was the suspect who found the body, and he then called the dad and said, `Hey, he’s over here.’ So it’s kind of unusual. The suspect went ahead and tried to make it seem like he was trying to help out the investigation.”
Sanchez played on the school’s football team and was a member of the wrestling and baseball teams.
A friend, Briana Amigon, established a GoFundMe page to support the family.
“Jeremy Sanchez was a loving young man who was outgoing and full of energy,” she wrote on the page. “He loved playing sports. He was on the varsity football team and also on the wrestling team. We have no words to describe the grief that their family is experiencing right now, and many friends and family have asked how they can help at this difficult time.”
The page is at www.gofundme.com/in-loving-memory-of-jeremy-sanchez.
Anyone with information on the case was urged to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.