LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Eleven-year old Yonatan Daniel Aguilar weighed just 34 pounds when he was found dead, wrapped in a blanket, lying on a hard tile floor inside a bedroom closet in this small Echo Park home. Sources close to the investigation told us the closet was so small, Yonotan couldn’t stretch out his legs. 
 
 According to juvenile court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times the boy, who had been diagnosed with autism, was often locked away in closets for three years and sedated with liquid sleep medication, apparently to keep him quiet. 
 
 Investigators believe even the boy’s step father who lived in the home didn’t know the boy was living there. 
 
 CBSLA’s Randy Paige asked Department of Children and Family Services Director Philip Browning on Thursday: “How could someone live in that house and not know a little boy was there?” 
 
 “Well, I think that’s what’s so puzzling,” Browning said. 
 
 Previous Stories: Yonaton Aguilar Case 
 
 Four years before, when reports of possible child abuse were reported, Yonotan’s mother Veronica Aguilar, who was a volunteer at the school and attended parenting classes, was able to convince his teachers, counselors, coaches, medical staff and social workers that her son was safe in her home. Then, when Yonotan stopped showing up for school, his mother told people he had gone to live in an institution in Mexico. 
 
 According to the court documents, Yonotan’s three siblings and his mother were the only ones in on the secret. 
 
 “I think there was a façade that occurred that took everyone in, including law enforcement,” Browning said. 
 
 According to the Los Angeles Times, redacted court records indicate Aguilar effectively disappeared in 2012 after he was seen at school with a black eye and school officials said he was hoarding food. 
 
 Aguilar told the boy’s therapist that Yonatan lived with his maternal grandmother until age 3, and he was likely deprived of food during that time and developed the habit of hoarding food, according to the records cited by The Times. 
 
 Soon after, the boy was pulled out of school and wasn’t seen as the family repeatedly moved. 
 
 Officials with county Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) — which had responded to six reports of possible abuse or neglect involving the family from 2009 to 2012 and marked the boy’s risk of abuse “high” four times — had no further contact, according to The Times. 
 
 After claiming allegations of abuse were inconclusive or unfounded, social workers never formally opened a case, according to the records cited by the paper. 
 
 At one point, Aguilar told Jose Pinzon, the boy’s stepfather, that he had died. Pinzon had been told previously by Aguilar that she sent Yonatan to Mexico to live with family, and he hadn’t seen the boy in years, The Times reported. 
 
 Aguilar led Pinzon to a closet in their home on Aug. 22 and found Yonatan’s emaciated body described as being covered in pressure sores from the tile floor. There was foam in his nose and medicinal cups of pink and red liquid near his balding body, according to the records obtained by The Times. 
 
 Pinzon then ran to a 7-Eleven and called police. 
 
 Aguilar, 39, is now charged with murder and child abuse causing death. She remains jailed on $2 million bail. ||||| LOS ANGELES, CA – An 11-year-old boy who was found dead in his family’s home was kept hidden in a closet for years, according to court documents the Los Angeles Times obtained. 
 
 Three years ago, Yonatan Daniel Aguilar stopped going to school and seemingly disappeared. When people asked his mother Veronica Aguilar, 39, where he was, she told them he was in an institution in Mexico, court records say. 
 
 But that wasn’t the case. Aguilar was keeping Yonatan in a locked bedroom closet, sedating him with liquid sleep medication to keep him quiet. 
 
 According to the Los Angeles Times, investigators say the boy was so well-hidden that even his stepfather, Jose Pinzon, who lived in the home didn’t know he was there. 
 
 On August 22, 2016, Aguilar told Pinzon Yonatan had died, and that’s when she led him to the closet where Yonatan had been kept. Authorities say he weighed only 34 pounds, and the closet was so small he couldn’t even stretch his legs out. His body was covered in pressure sores from the tile floors, and there were medicinal cups of pink and red liquid near him. 
 
 Pinzon then ran to a nearby 7-Eleven and called police. 
 
 Aguilar’s other three children were the only people who knew Yonatan was in the closet. In fact, two of them slept in the bed right outside the closet door, but Aguilar had forbidden them from telling anyone. 
 
 Aguilar, 39, is charged with murder and child abuse causing death; she is in jail on a $2 million bail. ||||| Ryan Avery Fish 
 
 Montville — State police have charged a former Montville High School substitute math teacher with supervising a "fight club" during school hours. 
 
 Ryan Avery Fish, 23, of Bozrah was charged Thursday on a warrant with two counts of risk of injury to a minor, second-degree breach of peace and four counts of second-degree reckless endangerment. 
 
 Officer Karen Moorehead, a school resource officer, wrote the arrest warrant affidavit. In it, she said Assistant Principal Tatiana Patten learned about the fights on Oct. 10 last year and immediately told Principal Jeffrey Theodoss about them. School officials fired Fish that day. 
 
 Moorehead said police learned of the incident from a social worker who spends time at the Waterford Juvenile Matters Court. The social worker on Dec. 14 told police that a teenager, later identified as a victim in this case, said he had been robbed and beaten by other Montville High School students. 
 
 In a meeting with police in December, Patten told officers of the suspected "fight club," noting multiple videos had surfaced of students "slap fighting each other in the middle of Mr. Fish's class," according to the affidavit. 
 
 She showed police cellphone videos of one of the fights, which involved “open hand strikes.” Moorehead wrote in the affidavit that the strikes appeared to be “full force.” In one of the videos, Moorehead wrote, Fish could be heard “saying something to the effect of, ‘Move this way, away from the door.’” Students could be seen “hooting and hollering” in the background. 
 
 Patten has been on leave since January pending separate investigations by the school district and police. Superintendent Brian Levesque said at the time that he placed her on leave in relation to an incident that led to the termination of a substitute teacher. 
 
 On Thursday, neither Levesque nor Montville police Lt. Leonard Bunnell would say whether the Patten investigations are connected to Fish's alleged actions. 
 
 Bunnell said the inquiry into Patten was ongoing but referred further questions to state police and the school district. State police referred to school administrators in response to a question about Patten. 
 
 Patten did not immediately respond to a voicemail. 
 
 Levesque said Patten was an active employee but did not discuss whether she still was under investigation. He added that the "safety of all of our students is always our highest priority." 
 
 Superintendent says he was unaware of more than one video 
 
 Gary Kleeblatt, spokesman for the state Department of Children and Families, noted that under state law, teachers and administrators are mandated reporters who must alert DCF "when they have a suspicion that a child has been abused or neglected. It doesn't have to be a certainty, just a reasonable suspicion." 
 
 Kleeblatt couldn't comment about the Montville case specifically. He noted that there were some "legitimate sports activities involving boxing with correct equipment and safety gear" but, when informed that Fish's alleged activities took place in math class, he said such activity "would definitely be of significant concern to us." 
 
 He added that DCF conducts "extensive training throughout the year with schools and others," so mandated reporters should know what constitutes a reasonable suspicion of abuse or neglect. 
 
 In an interview Thursday evening, Levesque said on the day he terminated Fish, he was aware of only one incident that was caught on video. 
 
 He said due to privacy issues and the investigation, he could not describe in detail the incident he saw on video. He said what he saw warranted Fish's termination but not alerting authorities, especially because he "thought it was an isolated incident that didn't rise to that level." 
 
 "If I had known the severity of this and the number of instances ... we would have called police and DCF," he said. "But I only knew of the one incident. We terminated the person, so it seemed like it was over." 
 
 Levesque said he learned of additional videos involving Fish and alleged fights in December, when police investigating the case asked him questions with details that did not match the video Levesque had seen in October. 
 
 The district's information technology department then found additional videos uploaded to the district's servers, Levesque said. Levesque said he couldn't comment regarding who was aware of the videos, who uploaded them or why he wasn't notified about them. 
 
 He added that DCF conducted its own review of the case in December. 
 
 Peter Yazbak, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said educators and administrators suspected of misconduct can be investigated by the department "to determine if possible licensure actions need to be taken." 
 
 In Fish's case, no such action is necessary because, as a substitute, he does not hold an educator's license, Yazbak said. 
 
 As for Patten, "any investigation by CSDE would depend on the outcome of the Montville district/police department's investigation," he said. 
 
 Police: Teacher on video encouraging fighting 
 
 As part of their investigation into Fish, police obtained a search warrant to access all relevant video clips that had been sent to school administrators. A trooper reviewed the footage and determined there had been two fights, each occurring on a separate day and each involving two teenagers. Both occurred about 1:50 p.m., and both were between students who didn’t appear to be evenly matched, police noted. 
 
 Police identified four juveniles — one 14-year-old boy, one 15-year-old boy and two 16-year-old boys — as victims. At least one of them was not a willing participant in the fights, police said, and at least three of them weren’t assigned to Fish’s classroom. 
 
 In the videos, the affidavit states, Fish can be seen encouraging the fighting. In one of the fights, police said, one of the two participants stopped fighting because he started throwing up. According to the affidavit, Fish tried to get the two to start fighting again after the victim stopped vomiting. 
 
 One of the victims told police that Fish additionally allowed students to draw lewd pictures on the board and encouraged them to add him on Snapchat. 
 
 Another victim said Fish “didn’t really set up the fights but he would watch them.” 
 
 A third victim described Fish as a mentor, police said. 
 
 In an interview with police, the affidavit states, Fish said he started teaching in August and had about 15 freshmen in his room. He told police the fights began in September as horseplay and became more serious, the affidavit states. Fish allegedly said he knew of four fights that had happened in his classroom. 
 
 Fish told police that he wanted his students to feel comfortable opening up to him. He also said he was “immature” and an “idiot” who wanted to befriend his students, according to the affidavit. 
 
 Fish was arraigned Thursday in Superior Court in Norwich. He was appointed a public defender. Judge Arthur C. Hadden ordered him released on a written promise to appear in court and scheduled his next court date for May 9. 
 
 Underground brawling groups were in part popularized by Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 novel, "Fight Club," followed by the 1999 film of the same name, directed by David Fincher. 
 
 Some parents on Facebook indicated they had heard students were slapboxing, which simulates boxing or sparring but involves open-hand slaps instead of fists. 
 
 l.boyle@theday.com 
 
 b.kail@theday.com
– Police found Yonatan Daniel Aguilar dead in the bedroom closet of his family's Los Angeles home in August—and authorities say the malnourished boy, who was 11 years old but weighed just 34 pounds, had been hidden away in locked closets for three years. He was last seen publicly in 2012, at which time teachers reported that he had come to school with a black eye and seemed hungry. After that, his 39-year-old mother, Veronica Aguilar, told almost everyone, including Yonatan's stepfather, that she had sent the boy to an institution in Mexico, the Los Angeles Times reports. Yonatan was reportedly autistic and had issues with soiling himself. Authorities say that only his three siblings knew Aguilar was keeping him sedated with sleeping aids and locked in closets, some of them so small he couldn't stretch out his feet, per Fox 59. In the years prior to his vanishing from public life, Yonatan's family had been reported to DCFS six times for possible abuse or neglect; Yonatan's risk of abuse at home was gauged as "high" four times in the three years before he disappeared. But social workers never opened a case, and Aguilar, who volunteered at her kids' school, apparently convinced everyone nothing was amiss, CBS LA reports. "We talked to the school nurse, the school doctors, school counselors, the teachers, everyone, including the LAPD investigators, who all said everything was OK," says the DCFS director, who adds that social workers are "distraught" at Yonatan's death. The boy's mother has pleaded not guilty to his murder. Police say his stepfather had no idea Yonatan was hidden in the family home, and he alerted police when his wife brought him to the boy's body.