Murders near Fresno: Fourth body found, 17-year-old neighbor boy arrested

Police called to a home Saturday morning found an empty gun safe -- and, in the backyard, the bodies of a woman and an elderly man.

A 17-year-old neighbor boy has been accused of killing four people in what was initially reported as a residential burglary in the Fresno County city of Reedley.

The boy’s mother and her boyfriend were also arrested, on suspicion of being accessories after the fact.

The first two bodies were discovered around 9 a.m. Saturday by officers who had been called to a home on a block of neat bungalows. They found a gun safe from which weapons had apparently been taken — and, in the backyard, the bodies of a woman and an elderly man. They were later identified as Guadalupe Bonds, 44, and Billy Bonds, 81, both residents of the home.

On Saturday night, the police reported that a third victim, a man, had been found dead at the crime scene and that another resident was missing and feared to be at risk. The missing resident was identified as Matthew Bonds, 43; Fresno TV station KFSN said he was Guadalupe Bonds’ husband.

Early Tuesday, a police SWAT team searched the property next to the Bonds home and found a man dead in a detached garage there. He has not been publicly identified, and police did not indicate whether the body was that of Matthew Bonds.

The residents of the home where the fourth body was found were taken for questioning. They were identified as a 34-year-old woman, her 21-year-old boyfriend and her 17-year-old son. On Tuesday evening, Reedley police reported that the boy was facing four counts of homicide and that his mother and the boyfriend faced accessory charges.

At the same time as Tuesday’s search of the Reedley home, search warrants were served in Selma and Parlier, and vehicles were seized at both locations, the police said.

The police announcement on Tuesday evening said the investigation is “still active.” The identities of the other two victims have not yet been released.