By Andrea T. Smith

On January 3, 2025, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco gave a press conference at the Sheriff’s Administration Office in the city of Riverside and was livestreamed through various social media platforms. Bianco spoke about the murder of 7 victims that occurred in Aguanga on September 7, 2020. “On that day, several armed individuals stormed the residence in the unincorporated area of Aguanga while the victims were asleep in what we believe was a home invasion-type robbery of an illicit marijuana operation,” Bianco stated. He explained that arriving deputies found six people deceased with one female suffering from critical injuries, she later died at the hospital. Numerous others were in the home who were able to escape harm. “This investigation has been extensive and extremely difficult. It also highlights a major obstacle that law enforcement routinely encounters when investigating crimes committed against people who are in this country illegally, especially those who we believe are victims of human trafficking,” Bianco continued. He explained that “The cultures of those countries do not have the same view of law enforcement that we do, law enforcement from these countries are (sic) usually corrupt and further victimize the victims.”

“When these immigrants come to our country, that fear of law enforcement makes them easy targets of crime because the suspects know that the victims will be reluctant to cooperate with the criminal investigation or they may not report the crime at all. This case has been an example of that,” Bianco said. “We have followed up on hundreds of leads and interviewed dozens and dozens of people. We have identified several persons of interest who we believe committed this crime and those who may have knowledge. We are fully aware of the reluctance from our migrant communities to assist law enforcement. However, you must help

us so we can help you. We need our community's help. We know there are people out there who have additional information about these murders and the identity of the suspects. We are pleading to you to do the right thing for these victims, and the victims’ families, and to protect the community from further being victimized by these criminals who prey upon us. We also need help identifying some of our victims, if you are aware of their identity or know family members of any of our victims, please reach out to our investigators. We are fully committed to solving these murders and we will not stop until the suspects of this brutal crime are in custody and held accountable.”

Bianco then handed the stand to Sergeant Jarred Bishop from the Central Homicide Unit.  Bishop explained that since September 7, 2020, the Sheriff’s Central Homicide Unit has been investigating all leads to the murder of the 7 victims. During the initial investigation, the location was identified as a large-scale marijuana operation. Generally, these operations are known to contain large amounts of cash. During the search of the property, no cash was found. Based on this information, and the large amount of processed marijuana remaining on the property when the deputies arrived, the investigators believe that the incident may have been a robbery for money, not marijuana. According to Bishop, investigators have obtained tens of thousands of pages of digital media evidence related to this case, from cell phones to social media records. Many of the records were in Laotian and have taken a substantial amount of time to translate. Through various advancements of cell phone technology, investigators have been able to identify several records and phone numbers that are believed to be pertinent to the case. There were multiple survivors at the