Banning Triple Homicide: 'We're Following Up On Leads, We Need More'

Detectives, patrol officers and support staff have received leads about the triple homicide discovered Tuesday inside a home on Phillips Avenue in Banning, but they need more information, Chief of Police Leonard Purvis said Thursday evening.

No suspect or suspects had been publicly identified as of early Friday.

"We haven't singled out a motive yet," Purvis said. "Our main focus is to reach out to the community and encourage anyone who has any information to report it to our detective bureau.

"We really need anybody who saw anything, especially around that residence," Purvis said. "I know we have a mobile home park that's just south of there, neighbors across the street."

The victims of the killings in Banning were identified by the coroner Wednesday, and a 2-year-old boy who was found bound and gagged in the home with the bodies was released to the custody of a guardian.

Demetrius Hunt, 42, Natasha Biggers, 33, and Cynthia Smith, 57, were found deceased just after 12:20 pm. Tuesday at a residence in the 100 block of Phillips Avenue in Banning.

The boy, who was found in a converted bathroom about three hours after the victims were discovered, was initially hospitalized for observation Tuesday afternoon, Purvis said.

"He was released to Child Protective Services, who in turn released the boy to a guardian," Purvis said Wednesday.

Although a relative of one of the victims has said he believed the motive in the killings was drug-related, Purvis said detectives have yet to establish exactly what happened and who the victims were in contact with Tuesday before they were killed.

The deaths were being treated as the first homicides of the year in Banning. Investigators have already received numerous tips, but they would like to learn more from residents or anyone else who was in the Phillips Avenue area Tuesday morning, Purvis said.

"Even if they think it's insignificant, what they saw occurring around that property that morning, we would appreciate any information that they could provide us," Purvis said. "We really need all the information we can get to try to piece this together as soon as possible."

Purvis said he could not say whether any drugs were recovered in the home where the victim's bodies were found.

"We can't say for sure, and that's why, it's still early on in the investigation, we're still trying to find out if that was truly one of the motives," Purvis said.

"We are following up on leads, we have received information from the public, we are following up on that information, but we need more information."

Anyone who witnessed anything unusual on Tuesday, Sept. 6, or with any other details about what occurred on Phillips Avenue was urged to contact the Banning police Detective Bureau at (951) 849-1196. 

Banning is about 80 miles east of Los Angeles in the San Gorgonio Pass, Riverside County, California.