Palm Springs Police said Tuesday the suspicious death of a 38-year-old woman in the city Monday is being investigated as a homicide and that no suspects have been arrested at this time.
According to a police report, officers responded just after midnight Monday to the area of Cherokee Way and East Palm Canyon Drive after reports of gunfire in the area. Upon arrival, they found the woman dead in the driver’s seat of a parked vehicle. She had suffered an apparent gunshot wound to the head while she was seated in the parked vehicle.
As police detectives work to investigate the apparent homicide, they are asking for the public’s help. Anyone who witnessed or has information related to this incident can contact Detective Ben Ryan at 760-323-8145. Anonymous information can be provided to Crime Stoppers at 760-341-7867.
Neither the identity of the woman nor the circumstances surrounding her death were immediately available, and the Riverside County Coroner has not filed a report. KESQ-TV reported Monday that the woman was a Desert Hot Springs resident.
The homicide is the seventh reported in the city this year — two more than reported in all of 2020. In September, police arrested a suspect in two of the murders, 31-year-old Luis Cantor of Palm Springs. Cantor is suspected of home invasions that ended in the deaths of 80-year-old Joseph Rajczi and 59-year-old Jennifer Dillon.
One other death is currently being investigated by Palm Springs police, but they have not ruled it a homicide. In that incident, a 44-year-old Rancho Mirage doctor died at Desert Regional Medical Center on September 17. A GoFundMe page set up to help his family reports only that the man died of “unfortunate and unexpected circumstances.”
