The two stabbing victims who were discovered on Monday after a partially captured attack on Zoom were identified as an administrator at a California college and her brother.
Robert Cotton faces two counts of murder in the deaths of his mother, Carol Anne Brown, a staff member at Pasadena City College, and his uncle, Kenneth Wayne Preston, NBC Los Angeles reported.
The college said in a Facebook post that Brown was on a “conference call with other college employees” when the incident happened. However, no one saw the stabbings of Preston, 69, and Brown, 67, at their home in Altadena, about 15 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, officials said.
MPs responded to the residence at block 3,100 on North Marengo Avenue at about 2:45 pm local time after a 911 caller witnessed a man dragging another man into the living room, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Angeles. The officers found the bodies of Preston, who had been stabbed several times, in the driveway, and of Brown inside the house, the statement said.
Investigators found that a vehicle belonging to one of the victims was missing from the residence. At some point, Cotton, 32, who lived in the house, returned to the scene with the missing vehicle and was arrested, according to the police station.
Cotton was eventually charged on murder charges, officials said. The reason for the stabbing was unclear. He is being held at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in place of $ 2 million bail and is expected to appear in court on Thursday, according to NBC Los Angeles.
In the Facebook post, the president of Pasadena City College, Erika Endrijonas, wrote: “Yesterday afternoon, our CCP family suffered a terrible loss. Dr. Carol Brown, who most recently served as co-coordinator of the Black STEM program, was the victim of a violent crime in which she and her brother lost their lives. “
She added that counseling services and resources would be made available to students and staff who suffered from her death.
