Body Found Buried in Buena Park Thought to Be Missing Student

A body unearthed from a back yard grave Monday night is believed to be that of a 17-year-old high school honor student reported missing on New Year’s Eve, authorities said.

Lt. Timm Browne of the Orange Police Department said four suspects were arrested Monday afternoon in connection with the disappearance of Stuart Tay, who left his parents’ upscale home in Orange on Thursday and never returned.

But police would release few details in the case. They declined to identify the suspects other than to say that there are three juveniles--all about the same age as the victim--and one adult.

Browne said police obtained a search warrant Monday for a home in the 6000 block of Fullerton Street in Buena Park, where authorities uncovered the body about 9 p.m. from a six-by-eight-foot area of the yard marked by fresh soil.

Witnesses recently saw people burying a large object in the yard, Browne said. When they inquired about the activity, the witnesses were told that it was for a dead dog, he said.

Police also said there was evidence of a violence, including “a quantity of blood” on the walls of a two-car detached garage at the Fullerton Street house.

Tay, who wanted to be a doctor like his father, an Anaheim gynecologist, has been the subject of a search across Southern California since his family reported him missing Friday. Family associates said he told relatives when he left that he was going to Fullerton to repair some computers, one of his hobbies.

On Saturday, police in Compton said they found Tay’s car stripped and vandalized. Friends of the family said Tay’s parents had given him the car--a 1990 Nissan 300 ZX--three weeks ago as a present for his birthday and for his good grades in school.

Police arrested one youth in connection with the car theft but did not indicate whether he was thought to be involved in the teen-ager’s disappearance.

A private investigator speculated that Tay may have gone to the Fullerton Street house after he left home on Thursday.