George Duarte, 40, and Joseph Blunt, 38, killed in crash on May 12 near Reedley.

A deadly car accident turned into a homicide investigation near Reedley on Monday. The crash happened near Buttonwillow and Jefferson in Fresno County.
The Fresno County Sheriff's Department spent hours near Reedley, trying to piece together evidence of how two men died in quiet, rural part of Fresno County.

Broken trees and scattered debris shows just how violently the two men were killed. George Duarte, 40, and Joseph Blunt, 38, were killed around midnight. But it wasn't until the coroner's office discovered one of the victims had a gunshot wound on Monday afternoon that California Highway Patrol officers realized this was a possible homicide.

"Apparently while there they found some injuries that are inconsistent with the traffic accident and they've called in our homicide team to take over the investigation," said Deputy Chris Curtice of the Fresno County Sheriff's Department.

The sheriff's department arrived on scene after the car was towed. They reclosed Buttonwillow Street for a few hours while they studied the remaining evidence.

"It's the beginning stages. We don't know where it's going to go right now," said Curtice.

Sheriff's investigators are still searching for a motive and any suspects in the case.

"We are treating it as a homicide at this time, so we are making sure we get all of our bases covered before we call it anything else," said Curtice.

A victim's family member told Action News that the victim was mere yards from his home when he was killed. Neighbors in the area say this road is a nice, rural part of Fresno County that rarely gets minor accidents or serious crime.

A neighbor who lives just down the street says he knew one of the victims and that the man kept to himself but was always friendly.