Body of missing boy found in California

LOS ANGELES — Homicide detectives have found the body of a missing 5-year-old boy whose father is charged with his murder, authorities announced Saturday.

Based on additional leads, detectives returned Friday to an area near Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County and found the remains of Aramazd Andressian Jr., according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

No other details were released.

The body was flown to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office on Saturday. It will be examined to confirm the boy’s identity, coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter said.

Dental records and X-rays may be used because “the child was up there for the last two (months),” and an autopsy is planned to determine the cause of death, Winter said.

KABC-TV contacted the boy’s mother, and she responded “with three broken heart emojis,” the station reported. Sinaloa, where homicides have spiked dramatically following the capture and extradition of convicted drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

The violence began with a shooting Friday that killed two men near a department store in the town of Villa Union, about 15 miles southeast of the beach resort of Mazatlan.

Officials attributed it to warring drug gang members responsible for recent violence in the state, which is home to Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel.