Utah's Cold Cases FB page-lots of info posted
In May 1992, Lakhbir Banwait disappeared. Was he “stabbed” and “thrown in the garbage”? Did he “leave to get away from things” and go into hiding? Both theories were presented to Salt Lake City...
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Lakhbir Banwait (also known as Lakhbir Singh per naming conventions) was born in India on April 2, 1954. At 38, he was 14 years older than his wife, also a native of India. (Many people are mentioned in this summary, so to help keep them straight we are borrowing a common court practice and describing them by their role.)
Lakhbir had married Wife six years earlier, possibly in New Zealand. They later moved from New Zealand to California, where Lakhbir co-owned the Prince India restaurant in Dublin, California, with his brother. Brother lived in London. Around October of 1991, the Prince India was sold, yielding $12,000 in cash. Brother told Lakhbir to keep it so that he would have something to live on.
About March 1992, a former employee of the Prince India moved to Utah and went to work at the Royal Taj restaurant at 165 South West Temple in Salt Lake City. He called Lakhbir and told him that the Royal Taj was for sale. Lakhbir, Wife, and their three children came to Salt Lake City. Lakhbir made a $9,000 down payment, with the remainder due May 1, 1992.
In mid-April, Lakhbir called a cousin in New York and said he had changed his mind about buying the Royal Taj. Cousin said to give him a few weeks and he would come buy Lakhbir out. In an April 29 phone call, Brother asked if Lakhbir needed any money. Lakhbir said no, he wasn't going to buy the restaurant after all. He expected to get his deposit back (apparently from Cousin) on May 3.
According to Brother, Lakhbir said once the deposit was returned, he planned to go to India briefly, then back to Australia [it's unclear to us when / whether Lakhbir had lived in Australia].
Meanwhile, Lakhbir’s personal life posed challenges. There had been some recent deaths in his family in India and, as Wife later acknowledged, he had been asking for a divorce for three years. Lakhbir, Wife, their three children, the former Prince India Employee, and a Royal Taj coworker were all living in a one-bedroom apartment at 137 E. 3rd Ave., Apt. 20. They did not have a car and would walk to work.
According to the apartment manager, the Royal Taj coworker told him that Wife was "sleeping with the other roommate," who allegedly “seemed to drink a lot”.
MAY 1, 1992, was a Friday. Early that morning, the Royal Taj co-worker had left for California, having been let go from the restaurant (not clear when/by whom; he was not interviewed). The following series of events was reported by the former Prince India employee (roommate), the only witness:
• He woke up about 8:00 a.m. and walked to work with Lakhbir about 9:30-9:45. Lakhbir was wearing a white shirt, black pants, black shoes, and a sky blue turban over his bald head. (Lakhbir was thin; he was 5’5” and weighed about 110 pounds.)
• He went to work in the kitchen while Lakhbir worked up front.
• After ~15 minutes, Lakhbir came back to the kitchen and said, “I’m going to the post office. Be back in about 20 minutes.”
• Other Royal Taj employees arrived about 10 minutes after Lakhbir left.
• Wife arrived at the Royal Taj about noon.
No one else reported seeing Lakhbir Banwait on May 1. None of the tenants in Lakhbir’s apartment building reported hearing or seeing anything unusual. Friday was garbage pickup day.
On May 2, 1992, Lakhbir’s wife called Salt Lake City police. She reported that her husband had left for the post office the day before and never returned, which was very unusual. (Brother agreed that it was “totally out of character” for Lakhbir to disappear, and believed that Lakhbir would have contacted him.)
Wife estimated that Lakhbir would have had $300-400 in cash on him (later estimated at $400-500). No clothing or anything else was missing from the apartment. Over the next few days, police checked Lakhbir’s bank account and saw no activity. Neither Lakhbir’s Social Security number nor passport were used.
On May 8, a brother-in-law of Lakhbir’s came to Salt Lake City from San Bruno, California. He reported a rumor (supposedly from unidentified restaurant workers) that Lakhbir’s wife was having an affair with one of the workers living with them. He reported that the couple were always “fighting.”
A Royal Taj employee told police that, after Lakhbir’s disappearance, the former Prince India employee had scratches on his shoulder and arm. Wife said he had been “scratched by a cat coming through the window”. Another witness said the injuries looked like a burn of some sort. The detective arranged for him to come to the Public Safety Building for an interview on May 7 or 8. He did not show up, and investigators were told that he had left town. He told another co-worker that he was “afraid” and was looking for Lakhbir. This rendered the detective unable to see his reported injuries.
Wife agreed to take a polygraph, which was scheduled by SLCPD for the week of May 20, 1992. On May 21, Wife reported to Social Services that she and her three children had been evicted. (The apartment manager denied evicting them and said he did not know she was leaving.) Concerned about the children, Social Services bought Wife and the children plane tickets to California, where they would be staying with Wife’s sister in Santa Ana, California. Wife left a forwarding address with the detective.
After Wife arrived in California, Lakhbir’s brother flew there from London to ask if she knew where Lakhbir was. SLCPD would not pay to bring Wife back for a polygraph, so Brother hired a private investigator in California who administered a polygraph (twice). Wife was asked if she knew Lakhbir’s whereabouts, if she knew or had involvement in harming Lakhbir or knew who did, and whether she was having an affair with the former Prince India employee. The private investigator reported to SLCPD that she passed.
Brother informed SLCPD that (apparently during their visit) Lakhbir’s 5-year-old daughter said, “Mommy and Daddy had a fight. Mommy stabbed Daddy with a knife. Mommy and [the former Prince India employee] threw Daddy in the garbage.” This same child reportedly also stated that her father was in California, that she had talked with him on the phone, and that she did not know where he was. To detectives, she denied having talked with her father on the phone. Brother remained suspicious, asserting that Wife had $30,000 “back in Australia.”
On May 29, 1992, police searched the apartment, which had been vacant since Wife and the children flew to California 8 days earlier. “We checked the apartment for possible evidence of foul play and found none,” the detective reported. “We checked the cement landing and stairway (apartment was on the second floor) for any evidence, possible blood spatters, none was found.”
In June 1992, the former Prince India employee was interviewed. He denied ever seeing Lakhbir and Wife “fight,” as had been reported by Brother and the other roommate. He denied an affair with Wife, who was “like a sister” to him. He agreed to a polygraph and was asked three questions by an SLCPD polygrapher:
Did you kill Lakhbir? No.
Do you know for sure where Lakhbir went that morning, other than the post office? No.
Do you know for sure where Lakhbir is right now? No.
According to the polygrapher, he passed. SLCPD closed the case on June 11, 1992, stating, “At this time there is no physical evidence to suggest M/P [Missing Person] has met with foul play. This case is closed at this time pending further leads.” In September 1992, though, detectives went to the Royal Taj and spoke with Lakhbir’s cousin, who had arrived after Lakhbir disappeared. He had made the remaining payment and taken over the restaurant.
Cousin said that Lakhbir wanted to go back to India alone, without his wife and children. He said Lakhbir was upset about the recent deaths in his family. Cousin felt that Lakhbir was just in hiding and “just left to get away from things.”
Postscript: Wife left Utah and returned to New Zealand. In May 1994, she filed for divorce in Otahuhu, posting a notice in a Salt Lake City newspaper that said, “Any person knowing the whereabouts of the above mentioned Lakhbir Singh is asked to bring this notice to his attention.”
