Family asks Fresno County DA to file charges in double-homicide, but no arrest made yet

Supported by several friends holding signs, the family of double-homicide victims Jennifer Dupras, 55, and Cynthia Houk, 88, gathered quietly outside the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office in downtown Fresno on Monday to urge the District Attorney to file charges.

“We expected an arrest much sooner,” said Alison Dupras, whose mother and grandmother were slain eight months ago.

The gathering was not a protest but a “silent sit-in” to let District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp know the community cares about the case and is anxious to see charges filed when the case is submitted to her office for review, perhaps within a couple of weeks, Dupras said.

Not long after the sit-in started, Dupras met personally with Smittcamp inside the district attorney’s headquarters.

Dupras had this to say after meeting Smittcamp: “She reassured me the District Attorney’s Office is as passionate as I am about this.”

In a one-sentence statement, the District Attorney’s Office said the the case is under investigation by the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department and it has not been submitted to the D.A.’s Office for review.

But Dupras said she knew immediately who killed her mother and grandmother.

Additionally, a detective told her the evidence points to one person and that there’s enough evidence to show a jury and get a conviction, she said.

“There’s a lot of worries that this person is still living on the streets of Fresno and hasn’t faced any consequences so far,” Dupras said. “It’s very unsettling to me.”

She declined to name a suspect but said she is “very close” to the suspect.

Her mother and grandmother were found dead Dec. 11, 2017 inside their northwest Fresno home, in a quiet neighborhood on North Colonial Avenue, after a concerned neighbor asked authorities to check on them.

There were no signs of forced entry to the home.

After the bodies were discovered, investigators served search warrants at the Kingsburg home that Jennifer Dupras shared with her estranged husband, Alan Dupras. He was questioned and several firearms were removed from the home but there was no probable cause to arrest him, the sheriff’s office said at the time, noting that he fully cooperated with investigators.

Dupras and her mother started living together after Dupras filed for divorce three months prior to her death.

Dupras was a retired elementary school principal in Kingsburg who was active with Alliance Francaise de Fresno. Houk was the widow of a former intelligence officer with the U.S. Air Force.

“They just deserve so much better than this,” Alison Dupras said Monday.

Sheriff’s detectives are also reviewing an arson of the Alliance Francaise building, and a fire that consumed a vehicle owned by one of the victims, to see if there are any connections to the double-homicide, sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti said.

Danette Watson of Kingsburg came to the silent sit-in to support the family.

“She was a wonderful lady,” said Watson, noting the Dupras helped her find employment.

Marlene Guerra of Kingsburg said her granddaughter attended schools where Dupras was an educator.

“She was very kindhearted,” Guerra said. “She took an interest. You knew she cared. You could see the kindness in her face.”

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This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 5:18 PM.