Payne Street Homicide: Neighbors Say Suspect Kept To Himself

As detectives continue their homicide investigation residents of the tract development say the blue house on Payne Street where a body was found was always quiet.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Clarence Fulton, 77, told Patch Monday morning. “I didn’t know them. They kept to themselves.”

But now a murder investigation is underway. Police were called to 32560 Payne Street at approximately 4:50 p.m. Sunday, and when they arrived they found a dead female.

“There was evidence of homicidal violence and a later autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death,” according to a Monday morning news release from the Lake Elsinore Sheriff's Station.

The victim’s identity has not been released by authorities pending notification of next of kin, , and was booked into Southwest Detention Center early Monday morning on suspicion of murder.

Officials would not immediately confirm, but police scanner chatter on Sunday indicated that a man called into emergency dispatch and reported killing his wife.

But Fulton said he never heard anything unusual on Sunday – no shots fired, no screams.

He first learned something was amiss in his neighborhood around 6 p.m. Sunday. “I was sitting in my living room and saw deputies everywhere,” he said, noting that investigators didn’t clear the area until about 6:30 a.m. today.

Indeed, Monday morning was quiet on Payne Street. With the exception of a pair of used latex gloves on the weedy front yard of the blue house, there was nothing to indicate a crime scene. No police tape, no police signs, no onlookers. Monday morning appeared like any other on Payne Street.

"We’ve always thought that house was vacant. It was always closed up … there were sheets on the windows," Lori Day, 44, told Patch Sunday.

“In four months I have never seen anybody at that house. I’ve never seen a wife at that house," Day said. "Nobody watering the yard," she said. “Nothing’s ever open. The windows are never open. The blinds are never open."

Just once in all that time, Day said she spotted a man drive out of the garage, back up and close the garage door.

Speaking Monday morning, Fulton said he’d occasionally see Howard and another man at the residence, but not a female.

“I can’t remember ever seeing a woman,” he said, noting that he had only spoken to Howard once, during a quick passing at the local Home Depot store.

Javier Hernandez, 52, lives in the neighborhood and said he remembers Howard moving in around 1995, but thought the house might now be abandoned because the weeds are high, the windows are covered, and debris in the yard hasn’t been touched.

Hernandez didn't inquire about a vacancy because he never really knew the people who lived there.

Speaking through an interpreter – his niece, Daisy Hernandez, 16 – Hernandez said he saw a car go in and out of the Payne Street garage regularly, but he couldn’t say for certain who was driving or whether anyone was actually living at the home.

However, Hernandez is sure the driver wasn’t female: He has not seen a woman at the Payne Street house for at least six months, he said.

“They hardly ever came outside,” he said of the men spotted at the residence. “It seemed like the house was alone.”

According to jail records, Howard is due to appear in court on June 20.