3 Murders in San Diego Park Are Connected, Police Report

Three recent murders in Balboa Park are connected, police said Monday as they warned male transients and homosexuals not to frequent the city’s famous park alone at night.

“We know that two of the three (victims) were transients and at least two were homosexual,” Detective Hank Olias said of the men who were shot to death in separate incidents last week. He said that, in alerting the public to the danger, his succinct advice to “male transients and those of homosexual persuasion” who go to the park is to beware.

Police spokesman Dave Cohen said the common link to the slayings is the kind of weapon used, but he declined to comment on the nature of any further evidence.

On Nov. 19 at noon, a park visitor found the body of David Siino, 31, shot to death in a grassy area at Balboa Park Drive and Laurel Street in the Redwood Circle area, police said.

Six days later, the body of Edward Hope, 60, was discovered on a ramp that connects California 163 and Interstate 5. He was wrapped in a blanket, dead from multiple gunshot wounds.

The last murder occurred on Saturday, when Bryan Poole, 36, was found dead of gunshot wounds in a restroom at Marston Point.

The murders came about one month after an outbreak of crime in the park in which a series of 10 robberies, five beatings and one rape were reported. In mid-October, Police Chief Bob Burgreen beefed up police patrols in an attempt to stifle the crime wave, most of which, he said, could be attributed to a band of 15 to 30 illegal aliens. The extra patrols resulted in the arrests of three men.

Homicide Lt. Phil Jarvis said that, based on the kind of weapon used in the shootings, he does not believe that the October attacks are related to the murders.