Concrete Block May Contain Child’s Body

Authorities arrested a Long Beach man and his girlfriend on suspicion of murder late Tuesday after they found a block of concrete that they believe contains the body of a 3-year-old girl.

The victim, who was not identified, apparently was killed and entombed about five months ago, said Lt. Ray Peavy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Responding to a tip, sheriff’s detectives discovered the block of concrete in the trunk of a silver-colored Buick parked behind a house in the Willowbrook area south of downtown.

Peavy said the 3-by-4-foot block has been turned over to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office to determine if a body is inside it. He said that when the car’s trunk was opened there was a distinct odor of decaying flesh.

Deputies arrested Randy Foster, 22, and his 22-year-old girlfriend at a Long Beach apartment complex, Peavy said. He declined to identify the girlfriend.

Bill Foster, who lives at the house where the car was parked, said the man arrested is his son. Foster said his son told him that the 3-year-old died after an accident in the bathroom several months ago.

Bill Foster said he called police to tell them the girl’s body could be found in the trunk of the car. He said his son told him about the death for the first time Saturday, but he was reluctant to call police because his son was despondent and possibly suicidal.

Foster said that the victim was the daughter of his son’s girlfriend and that he called police only after failing to persuade his son to call authorities himself.

“My main thing is that there was a little girl out there who deserves to be buried, not to be embedded in a piece of concrete,” he said.

The car was parked across the street from Athens Park, where nine people were injured in a drive-by shooting Thursday night.

Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Edson said deputies began their investigation at 3 p.m. Tuesday when a man, whom he would not identify, telephoned the sheriff’s Century station and told them where they could find the car.