What to Know
- Four people were found dead in a basement apartment in Troy, New York, a city known for its Louis Comfort Tiffany stained-glass windows
- A property manager found the victims; authorities said Wednesday they include a 5-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy
- "We're going to do everything we can to look into this and get to the bottom of what happened here," the local police captain said
A 5-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy were among the four people found dead Tuesday in a basement apartment in New York's capital region, a horrifying apparent homicide scene that a local police chief described as "the worst that we've experienced" at a Wednesday afternoon press briefing.
Few details on the victims, whose bodies were found at a home on Second Avenue in Troy, a city near Albany, have been released. Troy Police Chief John Tedesco said Wednesday they range in age from 5 to 36, but did not elaborate on the older victims or release the names of any of the parties.
No information was provided about a possible motive or any trauma the victims may have suffered. Tedesco said autopsies would be conducted Wednesday, adding that he did not believe the slayings to be random.
A property manager made the grisly discovery at the home Tuesday afternoon. Police Capt. Daniel DeWolf described the situation as "horrible" and "sad" later that day, as officers swarmed the area around the home in the Lansingburgh neighborhood, which runs along the Hudson River in Troy.
A phone call to one of the home's apartments Tuesday was answered by someone who declined to comment.
Jason Fenton has lived across from the home for about two decades. He told reporters that he was horrified by what had happened in what he called a quiet neighborhood of families who are "trying to make Troy better, and they're trying to make this capital region better."
Troy is home to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, though it's miles away from the crime scene. The city also is known for the Louis Comfort Tiffany stained-glass windows that grace multiple churches and buildings from Troy's industrial heyday in the late 1800s and early 1900s.