Boy Reported Missing Is Found 18 Hours Later

Sheriff’s deputies who spent most of Wednesday night combing the cliffs of Rancho Palos Verdes for a missing 15-year-old boy found him sitting on a curb the next morning in front of a friend’s house, two blocks from where he was last seen.

Rafael Ascencio Jr., who was with his father at a home construction site in the Portuguese Bend area, wandered off about 5 p.m. on Wednesday to take pictures near the cliffs, said sheriff’s Lt. Todd Rogers. When he didn’t show up after sunset, his father, Rafael Ascencio Sr., of La Puente, reported him missing.

Sheriff’s deputies began their search about 9 p.m., calling in a helicopter and a search and rescue team. They suspended the operation at 2:20 a.m. Thursday but resumed about four hours later and brought in three search dogs, two officers on horseback and set up a command post at Wayfarer’s Chapel.

Deputies discovered the teenager shortly before 11 a.m. sitting on the curb in front of the house where he had spent the night, Rogers said. It was not known why the boy did not tell his father he was staying with a friend.