Last Updated Dec 28, 2017 10:00 AM EST
TROY, N.Y. — Four people found slain inside a basement apartment the day after Christmas have been identified as two children, their mother and a second woman, authorities said Wednesday.
The victims were a 36-year-old woman, her 5-year-old daughter, her 11-year-old son and a 22-year-old woman who had a relationship with the mother, Troy Police Chief John Tedesco said.
“I can simply say, in my career and I think of anyone else, this is the worst we’ve experienced,” Tedesco said.
A property manager found the bodies Tuesday after being asked to check on the welfare of the residents of the apartment, one of five in a house located in the city’s Lansingburgh section along the Hudson River just north of Albany, police said.
The slayings weren’t a random act, Tedesco said during a news conference at City Hall. He called the killings the worst he has seen in 42 years in law enforcement but didn’t provide details.
CBS Albany affiliate WRGB reports Tedesco said his department is working with the New York State police major crimes unit, its forensic team and computer crimes unit, as well as New York State parole.
Police swarmed this home at 158 2nd Ave., in Troy, New York, after four bodies were found on Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2017.
WRGB
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that a person who committed this crime is capable of anything,” Tedesco said, adding that police don’t believe there was an imminent danger to the public.
The victims’ names were being withheld pending notification of relatives, he said.
Pastor Jackie Robinson Sr., of the Oak Grove Baptist Church, told WRGB he’s been counseling people in the community.
“Killing people period is terrible but killing children, you know, that is unimaginable,” he said. “They’re traumatized. A lot of grown folk are traumatized. … This monster is still out there.”
Police didn’t know when the slayings occurred, but Tedesco said it was hoped autopsies being conducted Wednesday would provide investigators with clues. State police were involved in the investigation along with New York parole officials, Tedesco said.
“This will be a full-court press, if you will, until we bring someone to justice,” he said, adding that police were seeking any information the public may have about the crime.
Investigators remained at the scene Wednesday. Police cars blocked vehicles from approaching the home, which is set amid older, restored houses, and yellow crime tape was stretched across the street, running along the river’s east bank. Few people ventured out on the snow-covered sidewalks in temperatures in the teens.
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