Dead Boy’s Siblings Revealed Girl’s Grave

It was the siblings of a 5-year-old Pacoima boy who was found in a shallow grave in Angeles National Forest in March who led detectives to yet another makeshift grave believed to contain the remains of their 2-year-old sister, authorities said Friday.

With the innocence of the children they are, the youngsters helped detectives reenact the burial thought to have occurred last year in a brush-filled area off Little Tujunga Road.

“They were able to say, ‘OK, remember we stopped here . . . and Daddy told us to walk over there,” said Deputy Carrie Stuart, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff’s deputies at the grave site Friday did not know which of the siblings led investigators to the body of the buried toddler, but said they were thought to be the same twin 12-year-olds--previously believed to be 14--who were enlisted to help bury 5-year-old Ernesto Barrera in March.

The process that led to the discovery of the second body Thursday began when detectives investigating Ernesto’s slaying came to suspect that the boy had a 2-year-old sister who might also have been killed, deputies said.

Earlier this week, they traveled to Tijuana, where they discovered a birth certificate indicating that the dead boy’s parents--Marco Barrera and his wife, Petra Barrera--were also the parents of a 2-year-old girl who was not among the children living with them when the family buried Ernesto, Deputy Steve Sciacca said.

“Questioning of siblings and family members led them to believe that this girl, too, may be buried in the forest,” Sciacca said.

“It is believed that wrapped in this blanket over there is the missing child,” the deputy said, gesturing toward a 3-foot-deep hole where homicide detectives and coroner’s investigators were huddled over a tiny body Friday morning.

Petra Barrera, 35, was arrested late Thursday in her Arleta garage apartment on suspicion of being an accessory to murder and of felony child endangerment, Sciacca said. She was being held without bail at the Crescenta Valley sheriff’s station, and was expected to be transferred to the downtown Twin Towers jail over the weekend.

Petra Barrera’s landlord, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was indignant at her when he heard the allegations.

“How is it possible that they would bury their children and she would continue acting normally?” the man asked.

“We defended her a lot, thinking, ‘This poor woman and everything she’s been through,’ ” the man’s wife added. “Now we know she’s no victim.”

Sciacca said that investigators have no motive for the alleged slaying and no cause of death, but that “information learned during the investigation implicated both Petra and Marco [Barrera].”

Craig Harvey, chief of the Los Angeles County coroner’s operations bureau, said the body was wrapped in several layers of blankets and plastic and was partially decomposed.

He said investigators may be able to identify the remains through dental records or X-rays, but may have to resort to more involved DNA testing.

Harvey said there were no obvious signs of trauma, and that an autopsy was scheduled for today. Marco Barrera and Petra’s sister, Maria Ricardo Esquivel, were arrested in March after deputies found Ernesto buried off Lopez Canyon Road.

Barrera, a street vendor, is now believed to have fathered 14 children with the two sisters--eight with his wife, Petra, and six with her sister. Ernesto and the missing 2-year-old girl were both Petra’s children, Sciacca said. The remaining 12 Barrera children have been placed in foster homes, he said.

Sciacca said investigators suspect that the 2-year-old, whose name was withheld, was killed and buried several months before Ernesto.

Ernesto’s body was found March 1 after sheriff’s deputies examined what appeared to be an abandoned car on Lopez Canyon Road. As the deputies inspected the parked car, one of Barrera’s twin sons emerged from the bushes on the other side of the road. The deputies asked where his family was and he took them about 50 yards into a small clearing in the brush where they discovered the boy’s body in a freshly dug grave, with Marcos and other children standing around, apparently burying it.

In that case, Marco Barrera, 34, pleaded not guilty two months ago to charges of murder and child abuse in the fatal beating of his son. He is being held in lieu of $1-million bail. Barrera faces 25 years to life in prison if he is convicted of all charges.

Esquivel, the dead boy’s aunt, was charged with being an accessory to murder and is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, eight months if convicted.