Search Underway for Missing Boy, 7

Dozens of police officers and volunteers canvassed a neighborhood near the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills as a search intensified Monday for a 7-year-old boy who disappeared from a weekend birthday party.

Paolo Alexander Ayala was last seen at a classmate’s party Sunday. He was not present when his parents arrived to pick him up about 5 p.m., authorities said.

LAPD Capt. Rich Wemmer said police are baffled by the child’s disappearance.

“We’re going to use every resource we have to find this boy,” Wemmer said. “Right now we just don’t have any answers as to why he’s missing.”

The boy’s father, Franklin Ayala, and his wife, Edwina, dropped Paolo off at the party about 1 p.m. Sunday.

“It’s hard for me to believe this happened,” Franklin Ayala said. “I feel guilty because I should have stayed with him.” The Ayalas live in West Los Angeles and have two other children--a 13-year-old son and a 10-month-old daughter.

Two bloodhounds and a helicopter were used overnight to trace the child’s whereabouts. Paolo’s scent was followed to Wilshire Boulevard, about a half-mile from the party on the corner of Wyton Drive and Beverly Glen Boulevard, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Michelle Veenstra.

Searchers armed with photos of the boy included PTA members from El Rodeo Elementary School in the Beverly Hills Unified School District. They worked from a command post at the home where Franklin Ayala sat clutching a cell phone, talking to police and sometimes crying. He sat under a blue tent next to officers who pored over maps of the neighborhood.

Paolo was described as 4-foot-6 and weighing 50 pounds with brown eyes and black, curly hair. He was last seen wearing blue and white swimming trunks, barefoot and shirtless.

Two of Hugh Hefner’s employees stopped by the command post with homemade cookies and bottles of water for police and Ayala. “All of us [at the mansion] are so concerned,” said Mickey Pierson, a butler.

Police found a shoe in Holmby Park, which is next to the house. But Ayala said it did not belong to his son.

Paolo has never wandered away before and police do not believe foul play was involved, Veenstra said. There were about 10 adults supervising the party, she said.

Police said Paolo and about 20 other children played in an expansive, unfenced yard, which faces Beverly Glen Boulevard, a major thoroughfare. On Monday deflated balloons were still tied outside the home.

Students who attended the party were questioned at the school Monday, Veenstra said.

Police distributed a picture taken of Paolo at the party. It shows the child playing pinball.

Those with information are asked to call LAPD detectives at (310) 575-8404.