Baby And Toddlers Slain In Reseda Identified

RESEDA, CA — The Los Angeles County coroner on Monday identified a baby and two toddlers who were stabbed to death Saturday morning in Reseda. Their mother was arrested hours later in connection with the crime.

The slain girls and boy were Joanna Denton Carrillo, 3, Terry Denton Carrillo, 2; and Sierra Denton Carrillo, a 6 month-old, according to the coroner's office. Autopsies are pending for the children.

Police allege their mother, 30-year-old Liliana Carrillo, stabbed her children to death before fleeing to the Ponderosa area of Tulare County where she was arrested.

The slain children were found early Saturday in an apartment in the 8000 block of Reseda Boulevard, near Strathern Street, according to Officer Rosario Cervantes of the Los Angeles Police Department. The victims were found by their grandmother, according to Police Lt. Raul Jovel.

The LAPD reported early Saturday afternoon that Carrillo may have carjacked a silver Toyota pickup in the Bakersfield area before her arrest.

The children's father was embroiled in a custody dispute with Carrillo and had made attempts to get the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services to intervene due to her erratic behavior, according to multiple media reports Sunday.

Erik Denton, identified in a GoFundMe page as the children's father, lived in Tulare County where Carrillo was arrested. He had sought custody of his children in a petition filed March 1 in Tulare County family court where he sought a mental health evaluation of Carrillo, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Carrillo responded by seeking a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Denton on March 12 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, according to the Times. The restraining order was granted but was set to expire.

Carrillo was supposed to surrender the kids to Denton on Sunday, he told the Los Angeles Daily News. According to Denton, the Los Angeles Police Department declined his requests to get involved.

At a memorial vigil on Sunday outside the apartment where his children died, Denton placed toys and a bubble machine next to a portrait of the children. His cousin, Dr. Teri Miller described the family's ordeal to CBSLA.

“I mean, we’re completely destroyed,” she told CBSLA. “Those kids were everything. I mean, his whole being and essence just revolves around those kids. He had his heart set on seeing the kids because he was supposed to pick the kids up today and have them for the week.”

Miller said the family had watched Carrillo's mental health decline following the birth of her children.

“She believed that the city they were living in was unsafe and that there was a sex-trafficking ring and that most of the city was involved in it,” Miller told CBSLA. She also believed her children were being pulled into the sex-trafficking ring, Miller added.

The GoFundMe page created by a childhood friend of Denton had raised more than $27,000 Monday to cover the funeral expenses for the children.

"I am so sorry for your tremendous loss," wrote one donor. "It is inexcusable how the system failed you. The system must be Reformed and there must be Justice for these precious babies."

Their deaths stunned the community.

"My heart is broken," Dayna Campbell, a resident in the Reseda neighborhood, told NBC4. "Every time I see news about children like this, my heart breaks in pieces. And now, it's like right in front of my building. It's unbelievable."

Another neighbor, Mishal Hashimi, told NBC4: "Leave the house, leave the children, leave your family or whatever, but don't harm children."

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.