Body of Missing 8-Year-Old Boy Discovered at Construction Site

Investigators are waiting for the results of an autopsy today to determine what caused the death of an 8-year-old boy whose body was found at a Mid-City construction site six days after he disappeared.

Los Angeles police said the body of Carlos Alberto Pineda was found at 2 p.m. Friday at an apartment construction site on the corner of Muirfield Road and Edgewood Place.

He had been missing since last weekend after he left with his mother’s boyfriend, 25-year-old Manuel Morales, police said.

Morales told police last week that the boy had been kidnaped by three men who attacked him near the corner of Olympic Boulevard and Highland Avenue on July 7 and stole $1,500, police said.

The boy’s mother, Adela Pineda, 35, told police that she last saw her son earlier that day when she let him leave with Morales.

Police said Morales and the boy’s mother had quarreled the day before about her plans to return to El Salvador.

Morales was against her leaving and threatened to “do something she would remember for the rest of her life” if she left, police said.

By the next day, a Saturday, the couple had made up and Morales left with the boy to borrow $1,500 from his boss to pay for the trip to El Salvador.

On Sunday, Pineda, concerned about not hearing from her son, notified police that he was missing, police said.

Officers found Morales on Wednesday and arrested him on charges of child abduction. Morales has denied having anything to do with the child’s disappearance.

Two days after Morales’ arrest, police found the boy’s body at the construction site where Morales worked. The site is a few houses away from where Morales was temporarily staying, police said.