It may be one of the most disturbing news events we've ever reported: 4-year-old Oscar Velasquez has been found dead, the child was apparently murdered. He went missing on Monday afternoon from an area near his home on Antelope Street Extension.
And 72 hours later that is where his body was found this evening. It was locked in an old refrigerator in an abandoned house across the street from where he lived and was last seen. Reports are that his hands were tied. 7NEWS was on the scene and our coverage begins tonight with reactions from his mother Maria Sanchez and his father Jorge Velasquez.
Maria Sanchez, Oscar's Mother
"We were just searching. They had this lady who come and prayed with us and we started to pray and she called for the angels. Then we went to search in the swamps again because I didn't give up. We went to search and we didn't find anything. We went in this house over this side and when we saw they had this refrig with a lot of worms
so...[crying]...we decide to open the refrig and when I opened it I saw my son was in there. I don't know why they do my son that; he hasn't done anybody anything for them to do him that. Why didn't they do me instead of my son; he is so innocent."
Keith Swift,
Maria do you think this could have been an accident that maybe he was playing around the refrigerator and he fell in there?
Maria Sanchez,
"I don't know what happened. I just want to know what happened or who did this to my son."
Keith Swift,
Did he have on the same clothes he had on when you last saw him?
Maria Sanchez,
"I did not even see. I just opened the refrig and when I saw it, it was my son I went running outside crying."
Jorge Velasquez, Oscar's Father
"As far as I know right now I see my son and it looked like somebody tie him up and put him in there; somebody killed my son and set him in there."
Keith Swift,
He's dead?
Jorge Velasquez,
"Yeah he's dead."
Keith Swift,
Who made the discovery?
Jorge Velasquez,
"The neighbors because the owner of the house come check the house today and they smell something stink in the house."
