Series of 3 Balboa Park Killings Linked by Weapon, Police Say

Police homicide investigators said Monday that they have linked three recent killings in Balboa Park to a common murder weapon and are warning male transients and homosexuals not to go to the park alone at night.

The men were shot to death in separate incidents over an eight-day span. “We know that two of the three were transients, and at least two were homosexual,” police homicide Detective Hank Olias said. “If I’m to alert the community, I would have to tell male transients and those of homosexual persuasion that go to the park in real succinct terms to beware.”

Common Link: Weapon

Police spokesman Dave Cohen said the common link in the three slayings was the kind of weapon used, but he refused to comment on other evidence that confirms the killings are related.

Deputy Coroner Max Murphy said the three men died of multiple gunshot wounds, and the bodies did not appear to be beaten.

On Nov. 19 at noon, a park visitor found the body of David Siino, 31, who had been shot to death, in a grassy area at Balboa Drive and Laurel Street, police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

Six days later, about 7 p.m., the body of Edward Hope, 60, was discovered on a ramp that connects northbound Interstate 5 to California 163. He was wrapped in a blanket and had been dead of multiple gunshot wounds three to five days, Robinson said.

The last killing occurred late Saturday when Brian Russell Poole, 36, was found dead with numerous gunshot wounds in a restroom at Marston Point. A black late-model sports car with Connecticut plates that belonged to Poole’s parents was found outside the restroom, Robinson said.

The slayings follow by about a month a rash of crimes in Balboa Park in which 10 robberies, 5 beatings and 1 rape were reported.

In mid-October, Police Chief Bob Burgreen strengthened police patrols in the park to stifle crime, most of which, he said, could be attributed to a band of 15 to 30 illegal aliens who robbed and beat park visitors. The extra patrols led to the arrests of three men.

Police Lt. Phil Jarvis said he does not believe the October attacks to be linked to the recent killings.

“Based on what we know, we don’t think we have seen the same person or the same fruits of these murders before,” Jarvis said. He added that he cannot speculate on whether more than one person is involved in the killings, but said that more patrols will be assigned to the park.

Two police units now patrol the park around the clock, and six others are assigned to the park during daylight. Officer Jim Dickinson, stationed in the Balboa Park police storefront office, said the six units that patrol the park during the day are frequently sent on priority calls to other parts of the city.

Lt. Ron Seden, who investigated the mid-October assaults, concurred with Jarvis that those attacks can’t be linked to the recent slayings.

“The weapons used in the October armed robberies and batteries were screwdrivers and pieces of lumber,” Seden said. “The attacks were mostly confined to the Marston Point area and north of Laurel Street. The crimes were of a violent nature, but nothing of the extreme we are experiencing now.”

“There doesn’t appear to be a motive,” Jarvis said. “There is no evidence of robbery.” He called the series unique in San Diego because of the concentrated area and time in which the killings occurred, and the apparent lack of motive.

Seden said it is possible that the three recent killings were committed elsewhere and the bodies dumped in the park.

Jarvis said the Balboa Park museum-goer is not in danger.

“We don’t believe the average San Diegan is at risk,” Jarvis said. “The high-risk people are the homeless and the homosexual.”