The attorney of a man who murdered his five-year-old son after taking him to Disneyland has tried to kill herself in the same spot where the boy’s body was dumped.
Rebecca Lizarraga, 50, was arrested on Thursday following a two hour stand-off with police near Bradbury Dam in Santa Barbara, California after she fired her gun several times while threatening to kill herself.
The lake is the same location where the badly decomposed body of Aramazd ‘Piqui’ Andressian Jr. was found dumped in June last year after he went missing two months earlier while in his father’s care.
Lizarraga was the family attorney who represented Piqui’s father, Aramazd Andressian, in his bitter divorce and helped him win back custody of his son just one week before the boy was murdered.
Rebecca Lizarraga, 50, was arrested (above) Thursday following a stand-off with police near Bradbury Dam in Santa Barbara, California after she fired her gun and threatened to kill herself
Lizarraga was the family attorney who represented Piqui’s father, Aramazd Andressian, in his bitter divorce and helped him win back custody of his son just one week before the boy was murdered after a trip to Disneyland
The stand-off involving Lizarraga took place exactly one year after Andressian was sentenced to 25 years in prison after he admitted to killing his son.
Santa Barbara Sheriff’s deputies responded to the lakeside location on Thursday afternoon after one of Lizarraga’s family members called 911 to report that she was armed and suicidal.
Authorities described her as being ‘distraught’ and that she fired several shots over the duration of the two hour stand-off.
Lizarraga was taken into custody after deputies used ‘less lethal impact weapons’ to subdue her, before she was transferred to hospital for mental health evaluations.
The sheriff’s office said they would recommend to the district attorney’s office that she be charged with illegal and reckless discharge of a firearm.
Lizarraga was not involved with Andressian’s criminal case after he was charged with murdering his little boy.
The stand-off involving Lizarraga (left) took place exactly one year after Andressian (right in July 2017) was sentenced to 25 years in prison after he admitted to killing his son
The lake is the same location where the badly decomposed body of Aramazd ‘Piqui’ Andressian Jr. was found dumped in June last year. Pictured above are detectives investigating the boy’s murder
She represented him in his bitter divorce and custody battle with Piqui’s mother Ana Estevez.
Andressian and Estevez had both been fighting for sole custody of their son. They both feared the other parent would try and flee with Piqui to another country – Andressian to Iran and Estevez to Cuba.
Lizarraga fought hard to obtain the joint custody outcome and court documents tied to the divorce showed the estranged couple eventually agreed in April last year to take care of the boy on alternating weeks.
Andressian took his son to Disneyland about a week later on April 21.
Authorities said Andressian killed his son after the day out in a revenge plot to get back at his estranged wife.
Investigators revealed at his trial that Andressian had smothered his son to death with a child’s jacket in his car about an hour after they arrived in Santa Barbara.
His father was found passed out in a park the following morning, sparking an intensive search for the boy. Andressian had taken prescription pills and was found in a car doused in gasoline in an apparent suicide attempt.
Authorities said Andressian killed his son after the day out in a revenge plot to get back at his estranged wife Ana Estevez. She has spent the past year lobbying lawmakers for family court reform in her slain son’s honor
Piqui’s Resolution was finally passed on Thursday, which will aim to protect children by prioritizing their safety in custody battles
Investigators searched for more than two months before they found the boy’s badly decomposed body on June 30 near the lake.
During Andressian’s sentencing hearing last year, his sobbing estranged wife wished him an eternity in hell.
‘I hope you relive the image of murdering my baby every day of your insignificant life,’ Estevez told Andressian just before he was sentenced.
‘May your dark soul burn in eternal hell.’
Estevez also called her husband a failure as a father, a man and a human being.
‘There is no real pain, just an incomprehensible deadness. Like my son, I, too, have died,’ she said.
The boy’s mother has spent the past year lobbying lawmakers for family court reform in her slain son’s honor.
Piqui’s Resolution was finally passed on Thursday, which will aim to protect children by prioritizing their safety in custody battles.