2 Arrested in Schoolyard Slaying of Teens

Glendale police arrested a 15-year-old boy and a second male on suspicion of beating two La Crescenta teenagers to death and leaving their bodies in a deserted schoolyard, officials said Tuesday.

The teenager, whose name was not released, was booked Monday night after detectives searched his La Crescenta home, said Glendale Police Lt. Don Shade.

The second suspect, whose name and age were not released, was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon, Shade said.

Before the first suspect was arrested, police searched a house on Santa Carlotta Street less than a block away from Valley View Elementary School, where police say 14-year-old Blaine Talmo Jr. and Chris McCulloch, 13, were beaten to death over the weekend.

Blaine’s stepmother said the last time she talked to him was Saturday night when he called to say he was going to spend the night at a friend’s house.

“He promised he would call Sunday. He said, ‘I love you, mom, I’ll call tomorrow,’ ” said Alana Talmo, standing on her porch Tuesday evening, on the verge of tears. “But I never got that call.”

She said she was shocked that a 15-year-old had been arrested in connection with the deaths of her stepson and his friend.

“I can’t imagine anybody their age could commit such a heinous crime,” she said. “I never thought you’d let your child out in La Crescenta and this would happen.”

Blaine’s family said his biological mother is deceased.

Chris’ mother, Aileen McCulloch, had reported him missing Sunday night. She declined to comment Tuesday, saying she was too upset to talk.

Police released few additional details of their investigation Tuesday. But neighbors of the home that was searched by police said a teenage boy lives there.

“They were working over there all day Monday,” said Bill McDonald, who added he saw four investigators at the house. “We watched them carrying stuff out, bag after bag.”

Detectives peered into a storm drain and took several photographs of the front door, the door handle and the screen door, McDonald said.

He said he overheard an officer ask another neighbor “if he heard the kid come home on Saturday night.”

Shade and other investigators declined to discuss motives or how the suspects were connected to the two dead boys.

“We’re still in the middle of the investigation,” Shade said.

The two boys suffered multiple blunt force injuries, according to a Los Angeles County coroner’s report released Tuesday. Both bodies were covered with cuts, bruises and scratches consistent with an assault, coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier said.

Detectives have not said if they recovered any weapons from the playground. But Frank Hoogenhuizen, who lives near the school and discovered the bodies Sunday night, said a heavy bench was pressed across the throat of one of the boys and a large rock was near the head of the other.

As additional disturbing details emerged and the news spread that a teenager and another person were suspects in the vicious beatings, fresh waves of grief stirred La Crescenta, a tranquil, middle-class community nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. At Crescenta Valley High School, where the two boys would have started school in the fall, counselors met with upset summer school students Tuesday.

Even if many of the teenagers weren’t able to articulate everything they felt, it was clear--from the white ribbons pinned to backpacks, to the cards being signed by kids--that many were shaken by the killings.

“It’s so hard to deal with this,” said 14-year-old Ashley Penland, who said she was a close friend of both boys. “To know they were killed is so awful.”

Ashley said the boys called her at 10 a.m. Sunday and asked her if she wanted to come over to Blaine’s house. She said she couldn’t go because she had to go to church.

That would mean the boys were killed sometime Sunday. Glendale police, who have said only that the deaths occurred sometime between Friday night and Sunday night, would not comment on her statement.

Police have also said the beatings were not random, and that Chris and Blaine were specifically targeted.

During several interviews Tuesday, friends described their concerns that the boys had recently gotten mixed up in drugs.

Blaine, the son of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeant also named Blaine, and Chris, a skateboarding buff born in Scotland, had recently shifted out of a skateboarding circle and into a rougher, tougher crowd, said Cher Mick, the mother of a friend of the boys.

She said she knew Chris well. “He was a good kid. He just got turned around,” Mick said.

The change for Chris began after his mother separated from his stepfather in February and moved from their La Crescenta home to a La Canada Flintridge guest house, friends said.

Chris shaved his head, began wearing different clothes and often stayed with the family of his friend Mike Hamami of La Crescenta, said Adnan Hamami, Mike’s father.

Scott Bristow, Chris’ stepfather, also said he saw a change in Chris.

“He was a good kid; he just went through some teenage stuff,” Bristow said.

Bristow added that Chris had recently started spending time with the youth minister at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church.

Mike, 14, said he and Chris “were like brothers.” He said he knew Blaine, but avoided hanging out with him because he saw Blaine smoke pot and sell it to other students.

“Blaine used to smoke pot daily and he sold for a little while,” Mike Hamami said. “He always had $60 to $70 in his pocket.”

Alana Talmo said Blaine had “problems here and there” but denied he sold drugs or even used them. Talmo said he had just made the freshmen football team at Crescenta Valley High and was into sports.

Services for Blaine are scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m. at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montrose. A memorial service for Chris is scheduled Friday at 7 p.m. at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church.

Times staff writers Annette Kondo, Andrew Blankstein and Martha L. Willman contributed to this story.