Ex-School Worker Held in Boy’s Death : Crime: A former child-care employee who had worked at the slain child’s school is arrested in connection with the grisly slaying.

A former employee of a PTA child-care program for latchkey children at a Northridge elementary school was arrested Saturday in connection with the grisly death of an 8-year-old student, whose body was found gagged and burned beyond recognition in a field south of Simi Valley.

Investigators are calling the death of Paul Bailly, who had apparently been handcuffed before he was set on fire, one of the most disturbing and violent homicides in Ventura County in recent memory.

The suspect, Greg Smith, 21, of Canoga Park, was arrested on suspicion of murder and held without bond in the Ventura County Jail on Saturday after Ventura County sheriff’s investigators said they found evidence linking him to the crime.

Smith was fired about three weeks ago for “inappropriate behavior” on his job supervising latchkey children at Darby Elementary School in Northridge, homicide investigators said. They declined to elaborate.

The Northridge boy had been set ablaze with a flammable liquid, investigators said. A pair of handcuffs, which appeared to have been used on the youngster, were found near the body in the Santa Susana Knolls area near Simi Valley about noon Friday.

The coroner’s office said it had not yet been determined whether the boy was already dead when his body was set on fire or if he died as a result of his burns. A motive for the crime has not been identified, detectives said.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve never had one of this nature,” said Dr. Warren Lovell, chief medical examiner for Ventura County. “People think that I’d be used to it, but you never get used to something like this.”

Investigators said the boy disappeared about 7 a.m. Friday after his mother, Mary Bailly, dropped him off at the elementary school, where he was enrolled in the school-sponsored child-care program.

When she returned to pick him up at 5 p.m., the youngster was gone. School officials said the boy never showed up for class, investigators said.

Los Angeles police called Ventura County investigators Friday night to report that they thought the youngster found in the field was the child missing from the school, Ventura Sheriff’s Lt. Joe F. Harwell said.

Weary investigators worked throughout the night searching for clues and questioning school officials in Northridge.

Harwell said investigators learned that Smith had been seen around the school after he had been fired and identified him as their prime suspect. They said they staked out his house until about 5:30 a.m., when he came out and got into his car.

“He saw the officers and he ran several stop signs,” Harwell said. “He was then taken into custody.”

Ventura County investigators said it was the worst homicide they have seen since 2-year-old Amy Sue Sietz of Camarillo was found strangled and sexually molested in the driveway of a Topanga Canyon home in 1978. The child’s killer, Theodore Frank, was given the death sentence. He is awaiting execution.

“There’s a lot of people very shaken up,” said Vincent W. France, a Ventura County Sheriff’s Department commander who is overseeing the investigation into the Bailly killing. “You think you’ve seen everything, and then you learn you haven’t. This is one of those crimes that hits home to everyone who has children. It’s a horrible crime.”

France said authorities found the boy after two motorists reported a brush fire near the Black Canyon Road south of Santa Susana Pass about 11:50 a.m. Friday.

A car matching the description of Smith’s was also spotted in the area, Harwell said.

When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found the child face up near a small tree not far from the road, investigators said.

“It was apparent that he was brought there against his will,” Harwell said.

“Anytime you’re dealing with the death of an 8-year-old, it’s hard not to become affected emotionally--in this case especially because of the nature of the death,” he continued. “It’s a terrible catastrophe for the family.”

On Saturday afternoon, two investigators from the Ventura County district attorney’s office were escorted through the Darby Street School complex. They declined to discuss the case.

Darby Principal Sidney L. Yukelson expressed shock at the killing and said a crisis team of school psychologists will be on hand Monday to help children deal with the tragedy.

“I’m just horrified. Absolutely devastated,” he said.

Yukelson said Smith had been employed by the Parent Teacher Assn. in a school program that leases two rooms on school grounds. He said he did not know why the man was fired and referred a reporter to local PTA officials, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

The principal, who has worked at the school since August, said he did not know the slain boy.

A resident at the Northridge apartment complex in the 9500 block of Reseda Boulevard where the boy had lived with his mother said she had talked to them on a few occasions. The woman asked not to be identified.

“She was always picking him up at school. I used to see him at 3 o’clock every single day,” she said. “She was always with him. I never saw her without him. She picked him up religiously every day.

“I swam with him,” she added. “He used to come and put his foot in the water and I’d laugh. All I used to say to him was, ‘I’m glad school is over today for you.’ He was a lovely boy. Oh, my God. I feel really bad.”

The woman said that when she took out her trash at 11:30 p.m. Friday she saw a policeman walking through the apartment complex.

“Why would they take a little boy like that or any child? Oh, my God,” she said.

Another resident of the complex, Gary Horn, expressed dismay at the tragedy.

“It just horrifies me,” said Horn, who was playing miniature golf with his 7-year-old son at the complex. “You think of Northridge as a pretty safe neighborhood. I guess it’s a sign of the times. You never know when anybody’s safe. It can happen anywhere.”

A resident of Black Canyon Road, where the body was found in Ventura County, said Saturday that she was still in shock over the brutal slaying.

“Living up here with nobody around, you definitely get frightened,” said Susan Vincent, who lives on a ranch near where the body was found.

Vincent, 31, said she has lived in the area for several years.

“It makes me sick to my stomach . . . especially a little kid like that. I mean that’s really unbelievable that they’d take a little kid and light him on fire. . . that’s sickening. Just to think that somebody would do that to a kid gives you the creeps just being up here.”

Several area residents attending a Little League baseball game at Knolls Park, located at the foot of Black Canyon Road, expressed concern and fear for the safety of their children.

“It’s scary; I’m horrified,” said April Helvig, who came to the park to watch one of her three sons play baseball. “I’ve lived up here six years. I always felt safe. I got a little 7-year-old. I would always let him walk down to the park by himself for practice. Now I wouldn’t let him do that again.”

Times staff writer Philipp Gollner also contributed to this story.