Police Seek Help Tracing Path of Murder Suspect

Police are asking for help in tracing the movements of a man suspected of killing and butchering a 12-year-old.

John Samuel Ghobrial, 27, is accused of dismembering Juan Delgado’s body and encasing his limbs in concrete blocks. Detectives are trying to place Ghobrial’s whereabouts from March 17, when Delgado disappeared, to Sunday, when Ghobrial was arrested, Police Capt. John Rees said.

“Although a great deal of information has surfaced, uncertainties still remain,” he said.

Rees said Ghobrial was seen pushing a shopping cart near Imperial Highway and Oxford Drive in La Mirada on March 19 about 2:30 p.m. He said Ghobrial may have solicited a ride from a gray-haired man in a blue Ford pickup truck.

That man, whom police hope to find and question, may have driven Ghobrial to Harbor Boulevard and Imperial Highway in La Habra, Rees said.

Several businesses, including Target, Best Buy and Contractors’ Warehouse are located at or near the intersection.

Merchants at the La Habra Plaza, where Ghobrial was a known panhandler, said they saw Ghobrial begging for money as usual on Saturday.

Ghobrial, an Egyptian immigrant, has one arm. He is 5-foot-8 and 170 pounds and has black, wavy hair.

He is being held without bail and is awaiting arraignment.

Anyone with information regarding the case is urged to call police at (562) 905-9761.