(L.A.) Elyjah Hearn, 5, Died in Panaroma City

Case Number: 2025-11220

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a five-year-old Black male whose body was found in a dumpster.

The coroner’s office identified the boy as Elyjah Hearn.

Manner of Death: Homicide

Cause of Death: Blunt-Force Trauma

RIP ELYJAH ANTHONY HEARN (March 20, 2020 – July 12, 2025)

Formal pronouncement of death was made on Saturday.

The decedent was a special needs child. His body, wrapped in a fleece throw blanket, was found by a homeless man who was looking inside the dumpster in the 8200 block of Van Nuys Boulevard.

A few days after the discovery, a former boyfriend of the child’s mother was arrested for murder. Brycson Malik Gaddis, 20, has a rap sheet that includes carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon. His bail for this crime has been set at 2.1 million dollars. Case Number: 25CJCM0079501

Prosecutors allege Gaddis beat the little boy to death inside an apartment on Lanark Street before discarding his body. Gaddis remains in custody on $2 million bail and faces a possible sentence of 25 years to life in state prison if convicted.
 

GoFundMe: gofundme.com/f/justice-for-elyjah-anthony-hearn

Description from YouTube Video:

PANORAMA CITY, LOS ANGELES, July 13 (KNN) – A death investigation is underway after a body was discovered in a parking lot near dumpsters in Panorama City.

Officers were dispatched around 7:00 a.m. Saturday to the rear of a parking lot in the 8200 block of Van Nuys Boulevard. There was a body near two dumpsters.

A witness off-camera mentioned to Key News Network that they saw on their security cameras a white vehicle pull up by the dumpsters at around 4:00 a.m. and quickly leave the scene.