After property manager discovers bodies in apartment in upstate city, police chief says killings not a random act and the worst he has seen in 42-year career

Four bodies found in a basement apartment in New York state were identified on Wednesday as those of two children, their mother and a second woman.

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The Troy police chief, John Tedesco, told reporters the killings were not a random act and were the worst he had seen in 43 years in law enforcement. He did not provide details.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that a person who committed this crime is capable of anything,” Tedesco said, adding that police did not believe there was an imminent danger to the public.



The victims were a 36-year-old woman, her five-year-old daughter, her 11-year-old son and a 22-year-old woman who had a relationship with the mother, Tedesco said. The victims’ names were being withheld pending notification of relatives, he said.

Tedesco said a property manager found the bodies on Tuesday after being asked to check on the welfare of the residents of the basement apartment, one of five in a house located in the Lansingburgh section of Troy, a city of about 50,000 people on the Hudson river just north of Albany, the state capital.



Police did not know when the slayings occurred, Tedesco said, but he added that it was hoped autopsies being conducted on Wednesday would provide clues.

State police were involved in the investigation along with New York parole officials, Tedesco said.

“This will be a full-court press, if you will, until we bring someone to justice,” he said, adding that police were seeking any information the public may have about the crime.



Earlier, Troy police captain Daniel DeWolf said the deaths were “horrible. Terrible. Sad especially at this time of year. We’re going to do everything we can to look into this and get to the bottom of what happened here.”

The apartment where the bodies were found is located in a residential neighborhood. A phone call to one of the apartments was answered by someone who declined to comment.

Investigators were still working at the scene. Police cars blocked vehicles from approaching the home, which is set amid older, restored houses. Yellow crime tape was stretched across the street, running along the river’s east bank. Few people ventured out on the snow-covered sidewalks in temperatures in the teens.

“This heinous atrocity is unimaginable, incomprehensible. I believe it affects the whole community,” said the Rev Jackie Robinson, pastor of Oak Grove Baptist church in Troy, who did not know the family. “Kids are traumatized. A lot of adults are traumatized too, because this monster is still out there.”

Jason Fenton has lived across from the home for about two decades. He told reporters 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”.