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NorCal Mother, 2 Toddlers Brutally Slain; Brother-In-Law Arrested

RANCHO CORDOVA (CBS Sacramento) - The brother-in-law of the Rancho Cordova woman killed along with her two toddler children Tuesday night has been identified as a suspect in their deaths.

Grigory Bukhantsov, 19, was detained Wednesday at 2 a.m. at a Denny's in Rocklin after police found a white minivan belonging to the family of the slain mother and child parked outside, according to Sacramento Sheriff Department spokesman Sgt. Jason Ramos.

Bukhantsov is the brother man who's wife and children were slain.

According to the Ramos, the father came home to the house in the 10100 block of De Soto Way about 3:30 p.m. and saw the bodies inside. He ran to a neighbor's house and they called 911.

The 2-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl were killed "very violently" along with their mother, who was in her 20s, Ramos said. A crying 6-month-old baby boy was also located in the back of the home unharmed in a crib.

"This is somebody who confronted a family inside their homes and took their lives very violently," Ramos said.

Ramos had to pull himself away from an on-camera interview to compose himself.

"We're all human so it impacts all of us significantly," he said. "We're looking into everything. We have a mom and two kids dead."

The woman's family issued a statement Tuesday night: "We'll greatly miss her and the children. She was a lovely woman of heart, one of a kind, an awesome mom for the babies. We still can't believe they're gone."

CBS13 learned the woman was a Sunday school teacher at a local Slavic church and had recently graduated from Sacramento State.

Ramos, said "something bad was brewing for some time" between Bukhantsov and his
extended family and said he was the only suspect in the killings.

He described the manner of the attack as "stabbing, slashing" but declined to go into further detail pending a coroner's inquiry.

Bukhantosov was arrested in 2011 for allegedly burglarizing a home in Carmichael, which was caught on surveillance video.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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