Did social workers fail to protect 6-year-old Paso Robles boy?

May 13, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

Despite receiving multiple calls reporting the neglect of a young boy, San Luis Obispo County social workers appear to have failed to protect the 6-year-old child who allegedly died after being left in a car while his father went to work on Saturday.

Briant Reyes Estrada, a 27-year-old Mexican national, worked and lived in Cambria in 2023 and 2024 with his son. The child’s mother reportedly lives in Mexico.

In 2023, Reyes Estrada secured a job at the Fireside Inn on Moonstone Beach in Cambria. On several occasions, the father left the boy in his vehicle while he went to work, leading to at least two reports to SLO County Child Welfare Services, according to Matt Griffith, a supervisor at the inn.

In late Sept. 2023, management at the inn suspended Reyes Estrada regarding issues which were not related to leaving his son in a vehicle while he worked. He was then terminated in Oct. 2023, Griffith said.

In Nov. 2023, Reyes Estrada allegedly used a Fireside Inn manager’s credit card at a hardware store, where he spent $1,000. He is facing two charges of embezzlement regarding the hardware store purchases.

Reyes Estrada then secured a job at the Paso Robles Inn and moved to Paso Robles with his son, who attended Pat Butler Elementary School. During the short time they lived in Paso Robles, the boy frequently missed school.

On at least five occasions, school officials reported their concerns to SLO County Child Welfare services, according to a Paso Robles Joint Unified School District official.

On May 10, Reyes Estrada allegedly left his 6-year-old son in his vehicle while he worked a shift at the Paso Robles Inn. Paso Robles experienced record breaking 99 degree high temperature that afternoon.

Reyes Estrada drove his son from the Paso Inn parking lot to Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton. He left the car running and the door open while he ran into the hospital with his son, according to a witness at the hospital. The child was pronounced dead.

On Tuesday afternoon, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office filed two felony counts against Reyes Estrada – murder and child abuse.

“Reyes Estrada did unlawfully, and with malice aforethought murder confidential victim, a human being,” according to the complaint. “Reyes Estrada did willfully and unlawfully, under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm and death, injure, cause, and permit a child to suffer and to be inflicted with unjustifiable physical pain and mental suffering, and, having the care and custody of said child, injure, cause, and permit the person and health of said child to be injured and did willfully cause and permit said child to be placed in such situation that his health was endangered.”

Reyes Estrada has an arraignment and pre-trial conference scheduled for Wednesday.

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