Mother, Man Held in Death of Girl, 8, Discovered in Park

The mother of an 8-year-old girl whose badly burned body was found last week in a San Pedro park has been arrested on suspicion of murdering her, as has the woman’s boyfriend, Los Angeles police said Monday.

Natividad Flores, 26, and Alejandro Lara, 29, were arrested Friday at their home south of downtown and are being held without bail, Lt. Fred Nixon said.

Results of an autopsy on Alba Susanna Flores indicated that she had been sexually abused and died of multiple injuries before she was set ablaze and dumped in Alma Park last Thursday, officials said.

“The arrests were made because of information we developed during our interviews with them, coupled with physical evidence,” Nixon said. He would not elaborate.

Went to Buy Ice Cream

The couple had originally reported that the girl had gone to buy ice cream and did not return. Investigators said Flores told them she awoke at 11 p.m. Wednesday to find her daughter missing, then summoned police.

The girl’s charred body was found by a passer-by about 6 a.m. the next day miles away in Alma Park. A flammable liquid had been poured on her, police said.

As news of the arrests spread in the run-down Mid-City neighborhood where the girl lived, acquaintances painted an unsettling portrait her last days. They said the girl was locked in the house most of the time since she arrived from El Salvador three months ago to live with Flores and Lara, who had lived in the home on West 24th Street for about five years. Alba was not sent to school, neighbors said.

Flores, who has two other children, a boy and a girl, “hit and yelled at them,” said neighbor Gloria Pineda, a hotel housekeeper.

Witnessed Argument

Pineda said she last saw Alba about a week ago. “She was leaning against a car in the back yard, crying,” the neighbor recalled. “I asked her why she was crying and her mother started screaming at her and saying bad words. I told her, ‘Go back inside or your mom will hit you.’ ”

Pineda said she had another verbal confrontation with Flores, who operated a lunch truck with Lara, after she “insulted my mother.”

Another neighbor also told of seeing the child being struck by the mother. A third neighbor, Jose Cortez, said that when Alba was allowed outside she was very shy and would hardly talk to other children.

The Flores home was deserted Monday. But on the porch steps of the triplex bungalow, a vase of fresh spring flowers had been delivered. An anonymous note written in Spanish said, “In memory of your daughter.”

Flores is at Sybil Brand Institute and Lara is jailed at Parker Center, police said.

Meanwhile, the body of Alba remained unclaimed at the county morgue.