Grief for a ‘Sweet’ Boy : Neighbors, Friends Remember Slain Tustin Youth, 14, in Back-Yard Service

Carl Dan Claes was remembered Monday by about 100 friends, neighbors and classmates as a sweet and vivacious boy who loved to play hockey, break dance and teach other children how to skate.

They gathered in Claes’ back yard for an informal memorial service to grieve over the 14-year-old who was found slain last Wednesday, dumped in a Lemon Heights ditch with a bullet wound to the head in a case that has baffled sheriff’s investigators.

The killing has shattered the tight-knit neighborhood off Garland Avenue, where Claes spent nearly his entire life.

“I just don’t know who could have done something like this,” said Jimmy Garcia, 15, one of Claes’ closest friends. “He never did anything bad, and he always tried to stay out of trouble.”

Beau Bradshaw, 10, burst into tears as he remembered how his friend taught him to play roller hockey and other sports. Even though Claes was a teen-ager, he didn’t mind playing with children much younger than himself, Beau said.

“He was a real nice kid, and I wish he didn’t leave us,” he said. “I feel kind of scared because I saw him the day this happened, and he didn’t seem different or anything.”

One by one, friends and neighbors stepped up to a microphone set up in the back yard and shared their memories.

MaryAnn Hare, who lives next door, said Claes was a role model for the younger kids in the neighborhood and always tried to teach them new things.

“Carl was really nice to my kids,” she said. “Many times, I saw him cutting a rose for my 2-year-old daughter and putting it through the fence. I thought it was such a sweet gesture for a teen-age boy.”

Hare said the murder has made everyone on the block jittery.

“I can barely sleep at night,” she said. “And I don’t think I will until I find out what really happened.”

The boy had lived with his grandfather, Dan George, 73, since he was 18 months old. His grandmother died two months ago, and he was getting ready to move to Northern California to live with his mother, Danella George.

“I had already gotten his room prepared for him,” Danella George said.

Although still shaken by her son’s death, she said it helped her to have a memorial service with Carl’s friends.

“We need to do that for closure,” she said. “It’s important because we all need to go on with our lives.

Dan George said it also touched him to hear friends share their memories.

“That’s why we wanted to have this,” he said.

Dyane Tyson, who knew the youth for seven years, said he always struck her as being a bit lonely.

“Carl was a really good kid, but he needed to be loved,” she said. “He wanted a little brother so bad. That’s why he was so good to all the little kids in the neighborhood.”

Sheriff’s investigators have searched for evidence at the site where the body was found and have interviewed students at two Tustin area middle schools, A. G. Currie and Columbus Tustin.

Sheriff’s officials said he apparently was not kidnaped but was lured away and had gone voluntarily.