Suspect helped in search for slain friend

A 16-year-old who was part of a search party looking for a missing high school sports star led the group that discovered the boy’s body – but investigators suspect he was the person who fatally stabbed his longtime friend and left his body in bushes near a riverbed, Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said yesterday.

Jeremy Sanchez, 17, was found dead on Thursday in a riverbed in South El Monte, about 20km from downtown Los Angeles, investigators said.

The teen’s father assembled a group of the boy’s close friends to search for him after he didn’t show up for school on Thursday. The suspect and another friend found Sanchez’s body later that day.

‘‘The person who killed him is the one who said, ‘Look, there he is’,’’ sheriff’s homicide Lieutenant John Corina said.

Investigators believe that the teenage suspect, whose name has not been released because of his age, stabbed Sanchez multiple times and left his body in the wooded area.

UNITED STATES:

PHOTO: AP Wrestling coach Ray Castellanos, right, and assistant coach Monique Cabrera mourn at the site where their South El Monte High School athlete Jeremy Sanchez, 17, was fatally stabbed, allegedly by a teenage friend.