2 young people found beheaded in Lancaster house, officials say

A personal trainer described as “gentle” and “reliable” was arrested on Friday over the deaths of his two teenagers, who were found beheaded in the family home in Lancaster, authorities said.

Maurice Taylor Sr., 34, is being held in lieu of $ 2 million bail, according to officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department who are investigating the crime.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department was called to a house in Century Circle’s 45,000 block just before 8 a.m. on Friday on reports of a possible gas leak. Once inside, firefighters discovered the bodies. The Sheriff’s Department in a statement described the couple as having “lacerations and stab wounds.”

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris confirmed that both victims were beheaded.

“It was pretty brutal,” he says.

MPs found the children’s bodies in separate rooms of the house, Lt. Brandon Dean said. The two children were identified by sheriff officials as a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl. We don’t know how long they were dead, Dean says.

Both parents were at home when MPs responded on Friday morning; they were detained without struggle and brought for questioning. The mother of the children was questioned but was not arrested, Dean said.

Two other children at the home appeared to be unharmed, but they were taken to hospital as a precaution and the sheriff’s department is working with the Los Angeles County Department of Child and Family Services to place them, said Dean. To her knowledge, none of the children had previously been involved with DCFS and no MPs had recently been called to the home to complain about their welfare.

DCFS did not say if it had any previous contact with the family. “We mourn with the community this tragic loss,” the agency said in a statement.

The fire department first responded to the house following a report of a potential gas leak, but officials from the Sheriff’s Department confirmed there was no leak. Concern about a gas leak came from Taylor’s past and current clients, whom he had worked with at a physiotherapy and fitness center in Santa Monica. They had struggled to contact him all week.

Howard Kern, an attorney and writer who has seen Taylor for about seven years, said he called the Los Angeles County Fire Department at 7:34 a.m. Friday, after others trained by Taylor tried to call the sheriff’s department to convey their concerns.

“I said, ‘I’m worried,’ Kern recalls. “’We are concerned about a possible gas leak. There are four children and two adults – and we are concerned for their safety. ”

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Another client, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Taylor had been working remotely due to the pandemic. The customer described him as “so reliable, so responsive” and “gentle”.

The client said she knew something was wrong this week when Taylor failed to send a Zoom link for a scheduled session and then failed to appear at the agreed time. He was not reachable, she said, and she and other customers texted each other wondering if something was wrong.

“I knew they weren’t out of town. They had no money to travel, ”she said.

The client said she called the sheriff’s department on Tuesday and the property management company managing Taylor’s residence was also contacted.

“We were afraid of the carbon monoxide poisoning, or they were all dead after falling asleep,” she said.

Several clients told The Times that Taylor was a diligent and hardworking trainer who worked patiently with each client.

“Think about the nicest person you know, then multiply that person by five,” Kern said. “He worked so hard to provide for himself. Unfortunately, we don’t know enough to say what happened or what didn’t. “

Kern said Taylor had worked and lived alone since he was 18, and he felt Taylor “was living under tremendous pressure”.

Over the years, Kern said, he knew Taylor had faced challenges, including a marriage that could seem “controversial” following phone calls Taylor had received from his wife at the gym. “It was embarrassing – you could hear him yelling at him,” Kern said. “He would be very sorry and she would yell at him.”

In Lancaster, the first reports of the two deceased children were shocking, prompting a neighboring landlord to revisit what he had observed at Taylor over the years.

The owner said he started noticing the house about two years ago. The owner, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of being linked to the incident, said when he visited his property the house “just looked strange”.

Other neighbors spend time outside or greet each other from time to time. This family was strangely silent, he said.

“I remember this house looked weird every time I was there,” he says. “I never saw anyone come out of this house. It almost seemed that the windows were all blackened.

The owner said he knew a couple and two young children who lived there but had never seen them. He was surprised to learn that two other children may have lived there.

Parris, the mayor, said he was still collecting information about the incident, but said it looked like the economy, the closure of schools and public places and the cramped quarters in homes in the middle of the pandemic had created a stressful environment.

“The social fabric of the country and the world has been torn apart, and we are starting to see the consequences,” Parris said. “What I see is that more and more people are feeling hopeless, and that can only have one result.”