SOUTH PASADENA – Six weeks after the disappearance of a 5-year-old South Pasadena boy, his mother said she hasn’t given up hope of seeing him again.
“I look at his picture all the time,” Ana Estevez told Fox11. “I have a picture in my room. I talk to him; I pray that I will see him in my dreams.
“I sleep with his little sweater; I hug it every night, imagining that it’s him,” she said. “I just want him (to know): don’t give up hope, mama’s looking for him.”
Aramazd Andressian Jr. last was seen the evening of April 20 at Disneyland in the custody of his father, Aramazd Andressian Sr., who was found unconscious at Arroyo Seco Park two days later and was unable to account for his son’s whereabouts.
Andressian was jailed for three days on $10 million bail before being released. He told investigators he had arrived at the park with his son and waited for the golf course to open, and admitted ingesting prescription medication that was not prescribed to him, sheriff’s Lt. Joe Mendoza has said.
But the father said he did not remember what happened to his child or any details that were useful in locating the boy, according to Mendoza, who said a prescription bottle was found inside Andressian’s vehicle, which was doused with gasoline inside and out.
Andressian was in the middle of a divorce and custody battle with Estevez, who police say is not a suspect in their son’s disappearance, Fox11 reported.
On May 25, detectives served a warrant at the Montebello home of the boy’s paternal grandmother. The boy’s father had reportedly recently moved into the home, where investigators “seized various items of evidence,” according to a sheriff’s statement released at the time. Other details were not disclosed.
Authorities conducted another search of the park on May 18 after receiving what they said was a “credible” tip, but did not find any evidence. The search was in the same general area that was scoured by South Pasadena and San Marino police soon after the boy went missing.
The search for the boy has spanned several Southern California counties, including Santa Barbara, where authorities scoured the Lake Cachuma Recreation Area, where he may have been with his father on April 21.
On April 28, the day a search warrant was served at his South Pasadena home, Andressian released a statement through his attorney about his son’s disappearance. It’s been his only public statement so far.
“I hope and pray for the safe return of my only child, my namesake, who has been missing since last Saturday morning, April 22nd,” he said then.
He said he and his family “are heartbroken and grief-stricken that Aramazd Jr. is missing and may be in harm’s way. I am pleading with the public to come forward with any knowledge of Aramazd Jr.’s whereabouts or information regarding the circumstances leading up to his disappearance.”
The boy’s mother contacted police at 9 a.m. April 22 to report her son missing. She said her estranged husband had failed to drop off the child at a pre-arranged meeting place.
In mid-May, she made her first public statement at a news conference, where she tearfully appealed for help in finding her son.
A $20,000 reward has been offered by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for information that helps authorities locate the child, who is white, 4-foot-1 and 55 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes and a small mole on the bottom of his right shoulder.
Anyone with information on the case was urged to call homicide detectives at (323) 890-5500.
