Missing 13-Year-Old Boy Found Dead in Oxnard — The Last Person Who Saw Him Faces Charges

A days-long search for a missing California teenager has ended, and now the man who was last seen with him is at the center of a serious criminal case.

A youth soccer coach is facing a murder charge after the body of 13-year-old Oscar Omar Hernandez was found in Oxnard, days after he was reported missing. Authorities announced on Monday, April 7, 2025, that 43-year-old Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino had been arrested and charged with the teen's death.

According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, Garcia-Aquino is also facing special circumstances for allegedly committing lewd acts with a child. If convicted on the murder charge, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Officials said the teen was killed on March 28, the same day he was last seen by family members. His body was discovered five days later, lying beside North Harbor Boulevard in Oxnard, near a woodland area close to McGrath State Beach.

In addition to the murder charge, prosecutors revealed Garcia-Aquino had also been charged in a separate case involving a 16-year-old. He faces a felony charge of assault with intent to commit a lewd act related to a February 22, 2024, incident in Palmdale.

Court records show he was arrested for that case on the same day Hernandez's body was found. He was scheduled for arraignment on Monday but did not appear for undisclosed medical reasons. His arraignment was rescheduled for Tuesday.

Hernandez's family told reporters that the boy had left his home in Sun Valley on Friday evening, March 28, to meet his soccer coach in Lancaster. His older sister, Alejandra Hernandez, said they had dropped him off at a Metrolink station in the San Fernando Valley that evening.

"His soccer coach made soccer jerseys," she said in Spanish. "He had taken other soccer teammates to help him, and that's why my brother went."

The coach and Hernandez had met through an after-school soccer program held at Whitsett Park in North Hollywood. That Friday night, when one of Hernandez's siblings called to check on him, it was Garcia-Aquino who answered the phone. He told the family that the boy couldn't come to the phone because his hands were full of paint.

Hernandez was supposed to return home the next morning. According to his family, when they called the coach, he said he had dropped the teen off that afternoon. Calls to Hernandez's phone went unanswered. However, a text message from the boy's phone said, "I'm going to a party."

Later, another message claimed he was in North Hollywood and didn’t want to be picked up from Whitsett Park. Those were the last messages the family received. His sister said they searched for him throughout Saturday night. "We started contacting his friends, but there was never a party," she revealed. "His friends never saw him."

Hernandez was reported missing to the Los Angeles Police Department the following Sunday morning. Two days later, the case was taken over by the LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide Division. With help from the FBI, detectives traced the investigation to a remote area near McGrath State Beach in Oxnard.

That's where officers located a body matching the boy's description. Authorities have not yet released the cause of death. Garcia-Aquino was arrested by LAPD officers and later handed over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Detective Alan Hamilton did not disclose how or where he was apprehended.

At a press conference on April 7, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman stood alongside Hernandez's family to announce the charges. He expressed sympathy for their loss, calling the case tragic and stating that words could not fully convey the depth of their grief.

Authorities also detailed Garcia-Aquino's 2024 charge. According to Sheriff Robert Luna, the coach befriended a Sylmar family through soccer and invited their juvenile son to stay overnight at his Palmdale home. The family later filed a sexual abuse complaint with the Palmdale Sheriff's Station.

Detectives learned that there was another unrelated case involving the Garcia-Aquino. A separate investigation had been conducted by the LAPD's Foothill Division in 2022. That case, along with the 2024 one, is now being handled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Special Victims Bureau, which investigates child physical and sexual abuse.

Sheriff Luna said Garcia-Aquino had worked with various age groups as a youth travel soccer coach for the Hurricane Valley Boys Soccer Club in Sylmar. Due to the nature of the charges, authorities released photos of him and called for potential victims to come forward.

He also urged undocumented individuals not to be afraid of reporting abuse, assuring them that immigration status would not be questioned. "We're not gonna ask about that. Please, you need to come forward, we will assist you," he said.

Hernandez's family gathered at the place where his body was found. In a video posted online, they could be seen grieving and placing candles and flowers at the site. Speaking in Spanish, his sister described him as "the baby of the family" and "a kid that didn't harm anyone."

Friends of the seventh grader described him as "popular, kind, respectful, happy, and a standout soccer player." While prosecutors move forward with the charges, investigators continue to examine whether additional victims may be connected to the case.