A Mother’s Double Dose of Grief

Petra Barrera was devastated when she was told Sunday that her 5-year-old son, Ernesto, had died of a heart attack.

The news came from the boy’s father, whom she calls her husband, though they are not married.

“My husband said he would take care of the funeral arrangements,” recalled San Fernando Valley resident Barrera, 35, who has six other children, including one 2 weeks old.

But her grief turned to near-panic when, on Monday, she was watching Spanish-language KMEX-TV Channel 34 and learned that her son’s body had been discovered in a shallow grave at the edge of Angeles National Forest.

Even more stunning was the news that the boy’s father, identified by police as Marco Barragon, 34, was arrested on suspicion of killing the child. Barrera’s sister was booked as an accessory. The two are scheduled to be arraigned today.

“I came here for a better life, but it ended up worse,” said Barrera, who slipped into the country illegally last year.

On Tuesday, sheriff’s deputies said the child was beaten to death by Barragon. The boy died as a result of trauma to his head, authorities said.

Barragon is a part-time gardener with a tangled home life that apparently included fathering up to 13 children born to Barrera and her sister, identified by police as Juana Barrera, 28.

At the time of the boy’s death, Barragon was living with Juana in a shabby converted Pacoima garage littered with dirty dishes, toys and mattresses on the floor, authorities said. The surroundings pointed up the poverty of everyone involved--illegal immigrant families who sold elotes (corn on the cob) to fellow immigrants on the streets and in the parks of the Valley.

Living with Barragon were the victim and nine other children, born to the two sisters. Authorities and family members said Barragon moved from one sister to another, fathering children.

The mother of the dead child lived two miles away in Arleta in a one-room rear apartment with a soiled carpet and little furniture.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Ray Peavy said he knew why the father buried the boy clandestinely. “He killed the child,” Peavy said.

Sheriff’s officials said Barragon had been arrested more than once on suspicion of spousal abuse. But there was no word on the disposition of those arrests, and no court records on the cases could be found.

Many questions about the bizarre situation remain unanswered.

Authorities learned of the death on Sunday evening when sheriff’s deputies happened upon Barragon and his 14-year-old son along Lopez Canyon Road in an isolated area of the national forest.

Nearby, authorities found the freshly dug grave. The dead boy’s aunt, sister and the twin brother of the 14-year-old were still gathered around it when officers arrived.

While Barragon and the woman were being questioned, authorities took custody of the nine remaining children who had been living in the decrepit garage.

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Schuyler Sprowles, spokesman for the county Department of Children and Family Services, said officials had found no record of child abuse investigations involving Barragon.

“There’s a lot left to sort out,” Sprowles said. “We’re trying to determine who the kids are and where they’re from.”

The children in the extended family reportedly traveled back and forth between the sisters’ two homes often, authorities and relatives said. Ernesto spent at least part of his final weekend with his aunt and father.

“My husband told me [Sunday], he said, ‘You have to be strong,’ ” recalled Petra Barrera, who authorities said is not a suspect in her son’s death. “Ernesto had an accident. He is dead.”

She told The Times the father attributed Ernesto’s death to an accident. Earlier she told an interviewer for Channel 34 that Barragon said his son died of a heart attack.

“I was so upset to hear about my beautiful boy,” the grieving mother said Tuesday, holding back tears and seeming not to believe all that had happened to her.

Her 7-year-old son, Juan, saw the television news Monday and thought he recognized the blanket that covered the body as belonging to Ernesto.

The mother, who has no telephone, said she ran across the street to the house of her neighbor Angie Salazar and told her what she had seen on television.

“She was very upset and said she thought the body they found might be that of her son,” Salazar said.

The neighbor called the Sheriff’s Department. A deputy said someone would be over shortly, but no deputy appeared for 24 hours, according to Salazar.

The death of Ernesto came after Petra Barrera’s eldest son, Edilberto, 16, her mainstay in supporting the family, left home.

“He said he was looking for a better life,” she said.

The mother spoke on Spanish-language television Tuesday to plead publicly with Edilberto to come home to help the family. She now wants to return to her home in the impoverished western Mexican state of Guerrero.

“Edilberto, I love you very much: Please come home,” Barrera said, her hair in a long braid, or trenza, in the style of rural Mexico. “I need you.”

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She described Barragon as a good provider and said she didn’t believe he killed the child. But if he did, she said, “he should go to jail.”

Barragon’s neighbors said they were surprised by the arrests, remembering the accused pair as devoted to their children.

“They were people that were dedicated to working,” said Esteban Vasquez, 23. “We used to ask him, ‘You have all those children?’ He would say, ‘They’re not all mine.’ We never asked them whose they were, though.”

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Times staff writers Solomon Moore and T. Christian Miller contributed to this story.