Man Leads Officers to Bodies of His 2 Children in Dumpster

A man who walked into a sheriff’s substation late Sunday afternoon and told deputies he had hurt his two small children led police to their bodies in a dumpster behind a Long Beach apartment complex, authorities said.

Police said they recovered the bodies of a 1-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy from a dumpster in an underground parking area at the sprawling, three-story complex in the 6400 block of Atlantic Boulevard, across from Jordan High School in north Long Beach.

The bodies were wrapped in an unidentified material and there were no obvious signs of violence, such as gunshot or stab wounds, said Long Beach Sgt. Steve Filippini.

Filippini said police were investigating reports that “this guy drowned his two kids. We can’t confirm that. We got that information from somebody and we’re looking into it.”

The father, 26, was being detained at Long Beach police headquarters but had not been arrested as of late Sunday night. Filippini said officers had been dispatched to adjacent Paramount to inform the children’s mother of their deaths.

Police said the children’s father indicated he had been staying at the apartment complex.

But a man who answered a telephone at the apartment office and identified himself as one of the owners said the father was not a resident. “I have reason to believe he did not live here and, if he was staying here, it was only since this morning,” he said.

The search for the bodies began after 5 p.m., when the father walked into the sheriff’s substation in Paramount and confessed. Sheriff’s deputies then called the Long Beach Police Department and told them to look for the dumpster.

But after police were unable to locate it, deputies drove the father to the property and he led police to the bodies.