Pair found beaten to death in Bellwood home

A man and woman were found beaten to death this week in a home in Bellwood in the western suburbs.

Officers were called to investigate an odor coming from a home Wednesday afternoon in the 3400 block of Warren Avenue, police said in a statement.

Inside officers found a 63-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman, police said. The pair was pronounced dead at the scene.

Autopsy results released Wednesday revealed they both died of head injuries from an assault, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Their deaths were ruled homicides.

The man was identified as Charles Banks Jr. and the woman as Angela Banks.

Bellwood, a village of about 19,000 people, has had one other homicide this year, according to medical examiner’s office data. Jearlean Willingham, 76, was stabbed to death April 1 in the 3800 block of Van Buren Street.

Police did not release the circumstances of any of those homicides.

Bellwood recorded one homicide in 2020, three homicides in 2019 and five homicides in 2018, according to the medical examiner’s office.