Police Find 2-Year-Old Gagged And Tied In Home Where 3 People Were Killed

Police said the child, who had been missing when the bodies were found, was located bound and gagged inside the home. Police were investigating the deaths of three people Tuesday afternoon in an apparent triple killing.


Two women and a man were reported deceased inside a ground-floor living area of a two-story home at 12:20 p.m., Banning police Chief Leonard Purvis said at the scene on Phillips Avenue, just south of Williams Street.
There was blood in the crime scene, and a 2-year-old boy was believed missing. He was located bound and gagged three hours later in a room in the same house, Purvis said.
The boy cried as law enforcement personnel and paramedics placed him on a wheeled gurney for ambulance transport.

Detectives were treating all three deaths as homicides, though a murder-suicide scenario had not been ruled out, Purvis said.
“I’m just glad they found the boy alive,” Purvis said. “This is still a horrific situation, however.”
The dead man and one of the deceased women were believed to the be the parents of the boy, Purvis said.
“We have no suspects or evidence of a motive at this time,” Purvis said shortly after 3:30 p.m., when discovery of the boy was announced.
Residents in the close-knit neighborhood gathered on Phillips and pressed at times against crime scene tape used to close part of the road.