Court documents reveal bitter custody battle before slaying of California boy
LOS ANGELES — Divorce documents reveal a bitter custody battle filled with accusations of potential parental abductions, harassment, allegations of molestation, and a request for a domestic violence restraining order by the parents of a 5-year-old boy whose body was found near a lake in June, reports CBS Los Angeles.
Detectives believe Aramazd Andressian Jr. was killed by his father after a family trip to Disneyland because the father wanted revenge against the child's mother. Andressian, Sr., 35, is charged with his son's murder. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held on $10 million bail.
According to legal filings in the divorce paperwork obtained by the Pasadena Star-News, the boy's mother, Donna Estevez, and father fought for sole custody, fearful that the other parent would flee with the child to another country — he to Iran or Armenia and her to Cuba.
In November of 2016, Estevez filed for a domestic violence restraining order, saying Andressian Sr. lied about his employment as a Dean at ITT Technical Institute. She says she found out during the divorce that ITT Tech let him go in 2012.
Estevez also cited that Andressian Jr. told his grandmother he heard his father say that grandma "needed to go be with the angels because she didn't belong here anymore."
Estevez says the boy also told her that his father "tries to hurt mommy so she can go to the hospital, so he can have me."
According to the Pasadena Star-News, Andressian Sr. also told South Pasadena Police that his son was being molested by a 13-year-old boy named "Omar," the son of Estevez's boyfriend, which launched an investigation by the Department of Child and Family Services.
According to court documents, in April the estranged couple agreed to alternate weeks with the boy.
Andressian Sr. got the first week of the new custody agreement with his son.
The boy's body was found near a Southern California lake more than two months later.
