Police in Altadena, California, found the bodies of two people on Monday after they were attacked at their home while one of them was on a Zoom call.
According to a report from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, the female victim was in a video call with her co-worker some time before 2:45 p.m., when the male victim was attacked.
The co-worker witnessed both ambushes via Zoom and called 911 to report them as possible abduction.
When police arrived, they found the victim man on the sidewalk with several stab wounds. He died on arrival, as did the woman victim, who was found inside the home.
“The male was inside the house,” Lieutenant Barry Hall of the Sheriff’s Homicide Division told NBC in Los Angeles. “The lady was still talking about the Zoom when the male was dragged out of the house. This alerted her. Then the suspect came in and attacked her.”
A suspicious man, identified as Robert Cotton, 32, later showed up at the house in one of the victim’s cars, identifying himself as a resident of the house. Police arrested and reserved Cotton for two counts of murder, the police report notes.
The identities of the victims have not yet been released, but NBC Los Angeles reports that both were 60 years old. The relationship between Cotton and the victims is unclear.