Man Sought in Blaze That Killed Ex-Girlfriend, Baby

A Compton man was named Monday as an arson suspect in a gasoline fire that killed his former girlfriend and her 7-month-old son and injured five others in a Paramount apartment blaze.

Sheriff’s officials said Melvin Orlando Elias, 24, is being sought to face multiple counts, including murder and arson in the early morning fire Nov. 21. Elias, a native of Honduras, is believed to have fled to Baja California, officials said.

Investigators believe that Elias climbed through a window or used a key to enter a ground-floor apartment in the 7300 block of Petrol Street, where his former girlfriend, Martha Chavez, 24, and her son, Luis, were sleeping.

Firefighters found a three-gallon plastic container--still containing fuel--in the hallway outside the bedroom where Chavez and her son died, deputies said.

Residents told detectives that the woman and Elias had argued on numerous occasions and, about two weeks before the fire, she had ordered him to leave.