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CNN Live Today

Autopsy Results Due Today in Death of 7-Year-Old Boy

Aired June 05, 2002 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: First up this hour, autopsy results are due today in the death of a 7-year-old boy who was missing for two days. And he was finally found yesterday at the bottom of a swimming pool, but it's a pool that had been searched several times before. The question now: Did he drown there, or was his body dumped?

Our national correspondent Frank Buckley has more from Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a horrifying discovery, after two days of searching. Seven-year-old Paolo Ayala, missing since a birthday pool party Sunday at this home in L.A.'s exclusive Holmby Hills area, found dead on Tuesday at the bottom of the home's pool.

Police, who had used the home as a search command post until 10:00 p.m. Monday night, immediately indicated foul play.

DEPUTY CHIEF DAVID KALISH, LOS ANGELES POLICE: There's no way that that boy's body could have been in there yesterday when it was searched and us not see it, or anyone else not see it. Somebody placed that body in the swimming pool.

BUCKLEY: But as investigators returned to the scene and began examining clues, a stunning announcement: maybe police and others did somehow miss the body.

KALISH: Is it possible that this child was in there since Sunday? It's possible. Are there other issues that we have to check out? There's many. We are not going to rule out anything out in this case until we're absolutely sure.

BUCKLEY: Paolo's father was with police on Monday helping in the search effort. He said the boy had been dropped off at the pool party.

FRANKLIN AYALA, PAOLO'S FATHER: We dropped him at 1:00, that was the time for him to be here. And then we left -- we left him here and when we came back looking for him. He never showed up. We couldn't find him.

BUCKLEY: Another parent who had dropped off her three children at the party says, in her view, the pool area was being properly monitored.

DORA KOHAN, FRIEND OF AYALAS: Everything was so relaxed. It was so many maids over there, and it was like very OK to me.

BUCKLEY: If it turns out the boy's body was somehow missed, even police wonder how it could have happened.

KALISH: It's not only a heartbreaking story about this 7-year- old child, but it's baffling. With all these people who were involved in the search: the dogs, the family members, the neighbors, even the victim's parents in the backyard looking in the pool, nobody saw anything in the swimming pool.

BUCKLEY (on camera): Police expect an autopsy to reveal just how the boy died, and when. And they hope it will answer the question: Was the boy they were looking for right in front of them all along?

Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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