One block, two houses, four family members killed. Neighbors and teen arrested in Central Valley deaths
When police officers went to a house on South Church Avenue in Reedley, Calif., on Saturday morning to make a welfare check, they were not prepared for the scene that greeted them when they entered.
They saw evidence of a burglary, but also signs of a violent crime, Reedley Police Chief Joe Garza said at a news conference Wednesday.
In the backyard, they found two bodies — and what appeared to be freshly dug earth, Garza said. Police officers painstakingly dug up the ground with their hands and found a third body in a shallow grave.
By Wednesday, police had found and identified the bodies of four people, spanning three generations of one family. They had also made three arrests in a crime that has shocked Reedley, which saw just one homicide in 2023.
“In my 30 years, this is one of the most heinous crimes I have ever been involved in,” Garza said.
Three days after discovering the the first corpses, police accused a 17-year-old boy of committing the killings — along with a fourth homicide discovered Tuesday.
But Garza delivered a chilling update Wednesday: “My belief is that the 17-year-old did not do this on his own,” he said.
Two adults were accused of being accessories after the fact to the homicides in Reedley, a small town about 25 miles southwest of Fresno.
The Reedley Police Department on Monday announced that 81-year-old Billy Bonds and 44-year-old Guadalupe Bonds had been found killed in their home on South Church Avenue on Saturday. On Wednesday, police identified the person found in the shallow grave there as 61-year-old Darrell Bonds, who was Billy Bonds’ son.
There was evidence of a physical struggle in the house. In addition, a safe in the Bonds family’s garage had been pried open and the contents within it — including weapons — taken.
The triple homicide touched off a massive investigation by the department, joined by the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and the Clovis Police Department.
A trio of search warrants were executed early Tuesday morning in Reedley as well as in Selma and Parlier, police said.
It took more than a decade, but authorities have finally learned the identity of a Jane Doe homicide victim in Kern County.
During the execution of the Reedley warrant — which was at the house next to the Bonds residence — officials arrested the 17-year-old boy, whose name was not released, along with 34-year-old Brynn Curtis and 21-year-old Rafael Gonzalez. In a detached garage, they found a fourth body, which belonged to Matthew Bonds, the husband of Guadalupe, son of Darrell and the grandson of Billy.
Matthew Bonds had been missing since his relatives were discovered Saturday. Police said that Matthew Bonds used to be friend with the 17-year-old now accused of killing him.
“This identification adds a new dimension to our understanding of this complex and deeply distressing incident,” the department said in a Facebook post.
“The death of these four individuals is not directly linked at this time, but the evidence collected may provide valuable insight into the circumstances. Various items potentially linked to the homicide investigation were found during the search of the Reedley residence,” the Police Department said in a Facebook post.
Curtis and Gonzalez were booked on suspicion of being accessories after the fact, while the 17-year-old was booked on four counts of homicide, the Police Department said. The 17-year-old had no criminal history.
After a worryingly weak start to the winter for California’s mountains, two storms are expected to dump several inches of snow on the Sierra Nevada this week.
Curtis had two criminal charges in her past: one from 2017 for consumption of marijuana and one from 2009 for resisting a peace officer. She pleaded no contest to the resisting charge and was sentenced to a year in jail. It was not immediately clear what the outcome of the marijuana charge was.
Garza said Gonzalez had weapons and narcotics charges in his past.
Curtis also had numerous “school attendance review board” cases about her minor son, who was “not registered for school,” according to one court document filed in June.
ABC reported that Curtis’ son is the 17-year-old, but the station’s account could not be verified independently.
Curtis and Gonzalez were released on bond Wednesday, while the 17-year-old suspect remained held without bond.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
