For Alejandra Hernandez and her family, the last month has been a chaotic whirlwind, from the unimaginable grief of losing the beloved niño de la familia, 13-year-old Oscar Omar Hernandez, to the frenzy of media interviews and services that followed.
As the close-knit immigrant family from a small rural town in Honduras awaits the release of the coroner’s report by the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office, Hernandez told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol in an exclusive interview, their top priority remains supporting one another as they wake up each morning and attempt to navigate their new normal: living without her brother Oscar.
“It’s been so difficult and heartbreaking for all of us,” said 28-year-old Hernandez, a wife and mother of three young children. She is the oldest of the three surviving Hernandez siblings. Oscar, who was the baby of the family, and his mother Gladys Bautista left Honduras to join his father Oscar Daniel Hernandez and older siblings in Sun Valley, California, three years ago.
“Losing my little brother has shattered us,” said Hernandez, who spoke softly while discussing the pain of losing Oscar. Her voice shifted to a stronger, yet still quiet tone, however, as she talked about the tragic and unexpected circumstances surrounding her brother’s untimely death.
“What happened to him was just so horrible,” she said. “It was something none of us ever could have imagined.”
For now, she said, the only balm for their heartache is looking ahead to the upcoming trial of Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino, who was charged April 7 with first-degree murder with special circumstances in Oscar’s death. His arraignment will be April 30 in downtown Los Angeles.
The special circumstance charge against Garcia Aquino, who was Oscar’s soccer coach, alleges the murder happened during the commission or attempted commission of lewd acts with a child.
He has also been charged with two felony sexual assault charges involving two other teens.
“We’re going to follow every step of this trial against this man, until the very end, in memory of my brother,” said a determined-sounding Hernandez. “There needs to be justice. We want him to get the punishment he deserves for what he did to Oscar and for any other kids that he harmed.”
Losing Oscar
Hernandez said Oscar first met Garcia Aquino at Whitsett Fields Park in North Hollywood, which has multiple soccer fields that are filled every weekend with youth and adult futbol teams, primarily made up of Latino immigrants from the surrounding communities. Garcia Aquino invited Oscar to play on the team he coached, the Huracan Valley boys’ soccer club.
“We heard that he had been playing and coaching soccer in the community for a long time, for seven or eight years,” recounted Hernandez. In addition, she noted, “He said he had two children – I don’t think the kids lived with him, but being a father made him seem more trustworthy.
“Who would ever think that a person who is a parent, who has kids of his own, could ever turn out to be such a depraved person – a person who could actually hurt children?” she added.
The weekend Oscar went missing – after he boarded a Metrolink train to meet the coach at his home in Lancaster for a paid job helping him make soccer jerseys – she said they tried calling Oscar on his cell phone, but the coach answered and said Oscar was too busy to talk.
That’s when the family started to worry, recalled Hernandez. On Saturday, March 29, the coach claimed he drove Oscar all the way from Lancaster to Sun Valley, and supposedly dropped him off at the Sun Valley Metrolink station, which is located near the family’s apartment, she said.
“He claimed my brother asked him to drop him off near the train station because he was going to go straight to a friend’s house for a party, but that didn’t make any sense,” said Hernandez. “I know my brother – if he wanted to go somewhere, he would have come home to tell us. He would have asked [the coach] to drop him off at home, not at the train station. And I know my brother wouldn’t have gone anywhere without taking a shower and getting ready to go out.”
As her fears continued mounting, Hernandez told Garcia Aquino that she doubted his story.
“I told him, ‘You have kids, right? Imagine yourself in our situation – what would you think?’” she said. “I said, ‘You have to understand why we suspect you’re lying to us. As a father, if your child hasn’t come home, wouldn’t you start to have doubts about the last person he was with?’”
He tried to allay the family’s growing concerns by meeting with Hernandez on Sunday, March 30 – the day they contacted the authorities to report Oscar missing. That day, while her parents were searching for her brother in Lancaster, Garcia Aquino was driving Hernandez and her husband to different parks and other places across the San Fernando Valley under the guise of helping them look for Oscar.
“But he already knew what he had done,” she said in a steely tone.
On April 2, their worst fears were confirmed: her brother’s body was found off the side of a road near Leo Carrillo State Beach in Oxnard. “My family will never be the same,” said Hernandez.
Thankful for Community Support
The Hernandez-Bautista family laid Oscar to rest at San Fernando Mission Cemetery on April 16, four days after his funeral Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Hollywood. Nearly 200 relatives, classmates, friends and community members attended both services.
Hernandez said she’s incredibly thankful for the outpouring of community support, including the contributions to the family’s GoFundMe page to assist them with funeral costs, which they closed after the burial service.
“I thank God that so many people have been so kind and so giving,” she said, noting that at least a few hundred people attended an outdoor meal fundraiser on the day after the funeral. “The truth is I became very emotional when I saw how many people showed up to help my family.”
Hernandez said she hopes that by sharing their story that other families can be spared from experiencing the same pain. She also prays that justice will prevail in the trial against Garcia Aquino, who could face the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“We want justice,” said Hernandez. “He has to pay for what he has done.”
Oscar’s death has impacted so many people including myself as a mothers I understand the family’s pain . I feel the sadness and pain of Oscar’s loss without even knowing him he was just an innocent boy however I do believe that because of him others now have a voice and I’m 100 percent sure he has saved many others . RIP SWEET BABY BOY OSCAR HERNANDEZ ❤️
Thank you for this article and the updates…Oscar’s story has impacted me tremendously as I have boys around his age who also play soccer. People…we can’t true anyone with our children, people change all the time, and an evil person is real good at trying to hide their evil ways.