Boy Suffocated Before Fire Was Set, Official Says : Kidnaping: The Ventura County coroner rules that 8-year-old Paul Bailly choked to death while he was bound and gagged.

Paul Bailly, the 8-year-old Northridge boy whose burned body was found Saturday in a field near Simi Valley, choked to death before being set on fire, the Ventura County coroner ruled Thursday.

Dr. F. Warren Lovell said the boy vomited at some point during his abduction March 23, but because he was gagged at the time, he choked on his own vomit and died of asphyxia.

After Paul was dead, his body was set on fire, Lovell said.

The boy’s body was found about four hours after he was apparently abducted from the front of Darby Avenue Elementary School in Northridge, where his mother had dropped him off to attend a day-care program.

The body was bound and gagged, investigators said. A set of handcuffs were found nearby.

There was no evidence of sexual assault or other injury, Lovell said.

Investigators said Gregory Scott Smith, 21, of Canoga Park is the sole suspect in the case, although he has not been charged. Smith, who had been fired March 6 as a child-care aide at Darby, was arrested Saturday and is being held without bail in the Ventura County Jail.

An arraignment hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Lovell said that pressure applied to Paul’s neck, possibly from a strangulation attempt, may have caused the boy to throw up during the abduction ordeal.

“It could have been” strangulation that cause him to vomit, Lovell said. “But I think it was something akin to . . . grabbing him around the neck.”

Fear also may have caused him to vomit, he said.

Asked whether it was possible that the boy’s death was intentionally caused in such a manner, Lovell said, “I don’t know.”

Investigators said they are continuing to look into Smith’s background as a $6-an-hour child-care aide employed by the 31st District Parent Teacher Student Assn. latchkey program.

Included in their investigation is a report that he brought handcuffs to one school in October, said Sgt. Terry Hughes of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

In addition to being assigned to Darby, Smith previously was employed by at least nine other schools in the district.

Staff members of the program said that, on Halloween, Smith came to the child-care center at Chatsworth Park Elementary School dressed in a camouflage outfit equipped with handcuffs.

Asupervisor told Smith that the handcuffs were inappropriate and ordered him to put them in his car.

“We consider it circumstantial evidence, and it has been incorporated into our investigation,” Hughes said of the incident.

Hughes said investigators believe the handcuffs found near Paul’s body belonged to Smith but would not elaborate on why. “We are still trying to determine if they are the ones he had taken to the school that day,” he said.

Investigators will review PTA records of any problems relating to Smith’s treatment of children, Hughes said.

PTA officials said this week that their written records include notations of at least two incidents in which Smith was criticized by superiors for improper behavior with Paul.

“We are aware of the documented activities between the victim and the suspect,” Hughes said. “We are looking for anything else about his behavior.”

Administrators of the child-care program said they were gathering any notations about Smith from the supervisors’ logs, at schools where he worked.

“Our intention is to go over all evaluations of Greg, even where he had worked only an hour,” said Cecelia Mansfield, president of the 31st District PTA.

Times staff writer Sam Enriquez contributed to this report.