2 Teenagers Arrested in Boy’s Death

Police accused two teenagers Thursday of fatally bludgeoning a 12-year-old boy with whom they lived in a Calabasas group home and leaving the body in a dumpster.

The boys, 16 and 17, were arrested early Thursday at an unidentified group home, authorities said. Sources identified the home as Passageway, a home for wards of the county juvenile court.

They were booked at the Lost Hill sheriff’s station and later transferred to a an undisclosed juvenile facility, where they were being held without bail, said Lt. Joe Brown of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department homicide division.

Brown said he did not know how the boys had ended up in the parking lot behind the shopping center but other sources said the boys had run away from the home.

The name of the victim could not be released because relatives had not been notified, said Scott Carrier of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

“We have a tentative name,” Carrier said. “But we’re waiting for relatives to come forward. Right now we have not been in touch with anyone.”

An autopsy was pending to determine the exact cause and time of death, Carrier said.

The body was found early Wednesday in the parking lot behind KwikMart, a convenience store in the strip mall about 200 yards from the Las Virgenes Road exit off the Ventura Freeway.

A janitor first noticed blood on the dumpster in an enclosed trash area and notified a KwikMart employee who had worked all night.

The worker told his boss, Eli Adrabi, who has owned the store for 10 years, that he did not hear anything unusual during the night.

Deputies from the Lost Hills station were called after the discovery.

The victim was a ward of the court who was on probation, according to authorities. He had been placed at Passageway, which helps teenagers find work and master everyday survival skills. It also operates facilities in Canoga Park and Agoura.

The home where the boys lived was a private facility that contracts with Los Angeles County Department of Probation, said Craig Levy, a spokesman for the agency. Children are placed at such homes for a number reasons, such as abuse, neglect or delinquency.

Calls to the home were referred to the Sheriff’s Department.

Levy said he was prohibited by law from discussing the minors’ criminal cases or other background.

“Even though he is dead we still have to await court permission” to release information about the victim, Levy said.

The two assailants were also on probation, according to sources. Their cases were being handled out of the county’s Centinela Probation office and a probation office in Ventura County.

Investigators gathered enough evidence Wednesday to trace the boy to the group home, Brown said.

“The investigators went to the location,” he said. “Their investigative efforts led to the identification of the suspects.”

The two teenagers were being held without bail, officials said.

Several group homes have come under criticism recently for failing to properly care for children.

In November, state officials closed Pride House, a group home in Van Nuys that housed abused youngsters as well as juvenile offenders who were on probation.

At that time, the state Department of Social Services said in an accusation filed against Pride House that its teenage residents appeared drunk in public, flooded the home by setting off a sprinkler system, pelted police with debris and beat a fellow foster child.

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Times staff writer Sharon Bernstein contributed to this story.