30-year-old Liliana Carrillo and her three young children were staying with her mother in an apartment in Reseda, California after she took the children from the northern California home she had shared with their father Erik Denton.
Saturday April 10, at 9:30 a.m. their grandmother called 911. Officers rushed to the scene for "a radio call involving a possible death." Inside the apartment officers found the three children, 3-year-old Joanna, 2-year-old Terry, and 6-month-old Sierra dead.
Authorities have not officially released the cause of death, but it is being reported that the children were stabbed.
The Los Angeles Police Department soon after issued a press release asking for the public's assistance in locating Carrillo calling her, at the time, a person of interest. At the time of that release, they had also received a tip that she may have been involved in a car jacking in Bakersfield, California, approximately 100 miles north of Reseda.
Later in the day Carrillo was taken into custody in Tulare County.
At this time she is still in the custody of the Tulare County Sheriff's Department, who spells her last name with a single 'R' whereas LAPD uses two, and has been charged with second-degree robbery. She has a bond amount listed as $60,000.
LAPD took to Twitter to confirm that Carrillo was not only the mother of the three children but also to state that "she is considered the sole suspect in this case."
Dr. Teri Miller, Denton's father, spoke with KTTV and said that the couple was involved in a custody battle over the children. Dr. Miller also reported that Denton had contacted the Department of Children and Family Services as well as the police on numerous occasions saying that Carrillo "needed help."
In speaking with CBSLA, Dr. Miller, who is trained in emergency medicine, said that Carrillo had never received a mental health evaluation despite the family noticing a distinct change after she gave birth to her second child. The birth of her third child coupled with COVID exacerbated the situation.
"She believed that the city they were living in was unsafe and that there was a sex-trafficking rung and that most of the city was involved in it," Dr. Miller explained. Carrillo allegedly believed that her children were being pulled into the ring.
A GoFundMe account has been established by one of Denton's childhood friends in order to assist with the funeral and other expenses.