Deputies Stumble Upon Gory Scene : Crime: While investigating another matter, they find two bodies in the initial stages of being dismembered. Two suspects are arrested.

Authorities began suspecting this was more than the usual double homicide when they discovered that the slain Soviet immigrants were in the initial stages of being dismembered, and that all of their fingertips had been cut off.

That, according to authorities, was the gruesome scene they stumbled onto when they went to a West Hollywood home in a quiet neighborhood Sunday night to investigate a report of an abandoned car.

When two West Hollywood sheriff’s deputies went to a home in the 8000 block of West Knoll Drive about 9:30 p.m., a man drenched in blood, identified as Serguei Ivanov, answered the door and after a short exchange, pulled a gun on them, authorities said. The deputies wrestled the gun from Ivanov, and then noticed two bloody corpses.

Ivanov, 28, and another man in the home, Alexander Nikolaev, 31, both former members of the Soviet army, were arrested. On Monday, they were charged with murder. They are being held without bail pending an arraignment Wednesday in Beverly Hills Municipal Court, Deputy Bill Linnemeyer said.

At least one victim was also a member of the Soviet army. But detectives said they are not sure who lived at the house, or what the relationships among the men were--except that they believe the victims were killed “due to a dispute over an alleged financial dealing,” Sheriff’s Deputy John Ashley said.

Because the suspects speak little or no English, it may take a while for the gory details to emerge, authorities said.

Meanwhile, the case has sparked more than the usual amount of interest, even among jaded homicide investigators. “It’s a bit bizarre,” said one official. Another said: “It’ll be interesting down the line, that’s all I can say.”

Authorities emptied the contents of the small stucco home Monday and refused to release more details. Neighbors gathered nearby to figure out whether the two victims and two suspects were the same four young men that could sometimes be seen quietly entering and leaving the house.

Some neighbors said there are many immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the area.

Steven Walker, who lives across the street, said four men rented the house.

The two male victims, both 28, had been shot several times, one was stabbed, and both were mutilated, “in an attempt to prevent the victims’ identification and allow the suspects time to flee the state,” Ashley said.

One official close to the investigation said one victim had “a very deep cut from a very large knife” and that he thought the two suspects were so bloody because they had begun dismembering the victims and placing parts in plastic bags. “Apparently they both were doing the cutting when the deputies knocked on the door,” he said, adding: “You don’t really come across bodies like this . . . not even in L.A. County.”

Ashley said authorities removed a large amount of computer equipment, computer laser printers and facsimile machines that were in the original boxes and believed to be stolen. He said the nature of the business dispute was unknown, and authorities were trying to determine if the dispute was related to the computer equipment.