Groom’s body found in car near reception

Hours after exchanging marriage vows with his teenage sweetheart, 22-year-old Ernesto Frayre was found shot to death Sunday morning in his car, a block away from the wedding reception in Pico Rivera, authorities said Monday.

Frayre was discovered by paramedics in the driver’s set of his Ford sedan at 9:30 a.m. Sunday in the 8100 block of Sideview Drive, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Oscar Butao.

Frayre appeared to have been shot in the head. Investigators had not ruled out the possibility of suicide, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Maribel Rizo.

But family members said Frayre was happy and that they were doubtful he would have taken his own life.

“I don’t think he would have done that,” said Junior Castro, Frayre’s brother-in-law. “Just that night he was hugging me, telling me that he loved me and that he was happy to finally be officially part of the family.”

Castro said Frayre had married his sister, Amy, 19, on Saturday about 3 p.m. at a civil ceremony. The couple met in middle school and had been dating eight years, he said.

They had been saving to get married for more than a year, prompted by Amy’s pregnancy with their daughter, Emily, now 4 months old, Castro said. And Frayre had recently landed a job with the city of Anaheim, he said.

Frayre had a good relationship with his wife’s family, and the couple were planning on baptizing Emily in the next few weeks, he said.

“He’d been the happiest I’d seen him,” Castro said.

The newlywed couple lived with Amy’s father in their Pico Rivera duplex on the edge of Rivera Park, just one block from where Frayre’s body was found, he said.

After Saturday’s ceremony, Frayre and about 30 friends and family members met at the home to celebrate the marriage, Castro said.

After playing pool with Castro, Frayre stepped out about 1 a.m. to go to his car but didn’t tell anyone why, he said.

Later Sunday morning, Castro said, his family began to worry when Frayre didn’t answer calls made to cellphone.

Castro said his sister went walking around the neighborhood looking for her husband’s car, when she saw the police milling around his vehicle.

“She’s devastated,” Castro said. “We couldn’t believe how this could have happened so close to home. No one said they heard any gunshots, just what sounded like a car door slamming.”

Rizo declined to give any further details. Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Frayre’s autopsy is scheduled for today.

--

francisco.varaorta@ latimes.com