A 41-year-old man who allegedly stabbed his twin 9-year-old daughters to death early Wednesday was found wounded and later was pronounced dead outside their Placentia home, authorities said.

A motive for the apparent murder-suicide was not immediately known.

Officers were called just before 12:40 a.m. about trouble at the home in the 400 block of Swanson Avenue, police Lt. Adam Gloe said.

Officers found a wounded man on a sidewalk near the home, off of Brookhaven Avenue. Inside a house, north of Bastanchury Road, they found the two young girls bleeding, Gloe said.

Paramedics treated the wounded but declared the girls and their father, who was across the street from the home on a sidewalk, dead at the scene, police said.

The father was identified later by police as 41-year-old Timothy Takehara.

The names of the girls have not yet been released but Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District officials said in a press release that the girls were third grade students at Golden Elementary School.

Our thoughts are with the students’ family, friends, and loved ones as they cope with this tremendous personal loss,

the district said in a statement.

The man’s wife, believed to be the children’s mother, and a grandmother were inside the house when the stabbings happened, he said. Police later said it was one of them who called 911.

They heard the suspect and woke up because of it and went downstairs,

Sgt. Bryce Angel said.

That’s when they found the girls stabbed, and the suspect ran out of the house.

The women were unharmed and being interviewed by police. It was immediately unknown if the grandmother was the mother of the suspect or the wife, Angel said.

A chaplain from a fire department went to the scene to speak to them and also the first responders at the scene who made the grisly discoveries, Angel said.

It’s just a really awful situation,

he said.

And we don’t know a motive as of yet.

The white, double-doors to the blue-and-cream home were left open Wednesday morning, with Placentia detectives walking back and forth from inside to their vehicles. Streaks of blood stained the inside of one of the doors.The garage door for the two-story house was partially closed.

Neighbors walked about with their dogs, looking on as officers stood at the corner of Swanson and Gillian Street, near a black screen held up by PVC pipe created to enclose the part of the sidewalk where the man’s body was found.

Sgt. Joe Connell confirmed police had responded to the family’s house in the past though he did not have details about what those calls entailed or if anyone was arrested.

Investigators found a knife in the house believed to be the weapon used, Connell said. But what they haven’t found yet is why the man killed the girls.

Unfortunately sometimes people do these things and we’re left trying to figure out what is the reason,

Connell said.

What could have possibly led up to this?

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.