California father of missing children, slain wife arrested after standoff

[December 12, 2014]  By Marty Graham
 
 SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - A Los Angeles-area man sought in the disappearance of his family was arrested on Thursday after a standoff on a freeway near San Diego during which police rescued his four sons, and authorities said a woman's body found in a car trunk was his wife.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Kevin Pearlstein said the four boys aged 6 to 11 are now in police custody.

"The kids are doing good - they're playing and talking with us," Pearlstein said. "Physically they are fine, the mental part takes time."

Authorities in Montebello, a small city about 9 miles east of Los Angeles, had been searching for 43-year-old Daniel Perez, his 39-year-old wife Erica Perez, and their four young sons since they were reported missing on Tuesday, police said.

Police late on Wednesday afternoon discovered a woman's body in a Honda Accord belonging to the family. Montebello police late on Thursday identified the woman as Erica Perez, citing the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.

Authorities are investigating the incident as a homicide, and considered Daniel Perez to be a person of interest.

Montebello police said the parents' unstable marriage had been troubled with a history of domestic violence.

In a tense, lengthy stand-off on Thursday morning, local and state police backed by armored vehicles surrounded Daniel Perez in a car on a freeway overpass in the San Diego area that police had closed to traffic.

Perez eventually emerged from the car with one of the boys, and police fired a non-lethal round to subdue him after they said he appeared ready to leap off the overpass, Pearlstein said.

"He tried to jump and that's when he was shot with the beanbag," Pearlstein said, adding Perez was not seriously injured.

While police surrounded the vehicle, two of the children left the car and ran to police officers, though it was unclear whether Perez released them or they had escaped, Montebello police said.

Another boy could be seen in news footage exiting the car moments before Perez was arrested.

Police located Perez and the children by tracking a stolen-vehicle signal emitted by the car. When police tried to stop the car, Perez fled and entered the freeway. El Cajon police and California Highway Patrol officers were able to surround the car on an overpass.

(Editing by Eric M. Johnson, Sandra Maler and Eric Walsh)

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