Playa del Rey

Los Angeles police are searching for a 15-year-old Playa del Rey resident who they say may have been involved in the fatal shooting of a young man whose body was found beneath the house where the teen-ager lives with his mother and stepfather. The youth has been missing since the body was discovered Oct. 8.

Police found the decomposed body of 19-year-old Payman Khalifian of West Los Angeles after residents along the 200 block of Redlands Avenue in Playa del Rey complained of a foul odor coming from beneath the teen-ager’s home.

Police are withholding the youth’s name and address.

Khalifian was shot several times in the chest and abdomen, police said. He was last seen Sept. 27 before leaving his family’s home to sell his motorcycle. “We have reason to believe this homicide was the result of an argument about Khalifian’s motorcycle,” said police Lt. Tim McBride.

Police found Khalifian’s motorcycle a few blocks from where his body was discovered. Another youth told police he was keeping the motorcycle for the missing boy.

Police said they plan to search the San Francisco Bay Area where he may have fled to join his father.