LAPD, FBI Conduct Grid Search For Teenage Boy Missing Since Last Week

SAN FERNANDO (CBSLA.com) — Authorities Friday were asking for the public's help in the disappearance of a 14-year-old Pacoima boy who has been missing for a week.

A $50,000 reward has been offered to help find Elias Rodriguez was last seen after leaving Cesar Chavez Learning Academies, at 1001 Arroyo Ave. in San Fernando, at about 1 p.m. last Friday – just as a massive storm hit Southern California. Police say Elias had borrowed someone's cell phone to call his mother at work to ask if she could pick him up, but she missed the call.

More than 60 Los Angeles police officers and FBI agents have been called in to conduct a grid search for the teenager in the neighborhood where he was last seen in the hope of generating clues to find him, LAPD Capt. Robert Marino said.

Since Elias disappeared, helicopters searching the Los Angeles River found nothing. Elias' mother, Pahola Mascorro, said friends and family members have conducted their own searches for the boy and remain desperate to know where he is.

"We just need him to come home and (to) know he's OK," she said. Elias has never run away and his disappearance is out of character, police said.

Elias was described as a Latino teenager with brown hair and brown eyes, 5'4" and about 100 pounds.

Anyone with information about Elias or his whereabouts can call the Los Angeles Police Department's Mission Area Watch Commander at (818) 838-9800.