Man Held in Slayings of Wife, Mother-in-Law : Violence: Neighbor attempting rescue in burning Anaheim home says he saw bodies, suspect washing knife.

Octavio Garcia said he heard the shouting three doors away Wednesday morning, then the smoke alarm and a woman’s screams for help. When he plunged into his neighbor’s smoking house, he said, he stumbled onto a horrifying scene--two women apparently dead of stab wounds, a flaming lawn mower in the living room and a man calmly washing his hands and a knife at the kitchen sink.

“He didn’t say nothing to me,” said Garcia, who told the same version of events to authorities. “I kept asking him: ‘What did you do? What did you do?”’

Authorities later arrested 32-year-old Tuan Ngoc Le on suspicion of stabbing to death his estranged wife and his mother-in-law following an argument that neighbors said was the latest in a family that feuded noisily but otherwise remained apart from those sharing Hearth Lane, a cozy cul-de-sac in an unincorporated section of Anaheim.

Le lived in Santa Ana, but neighbors said he regularly visited the single-story home occupied by his wife, their three children and members of her family.

The suspect’s sister-in-law was hospitalized after suffering smoke inhalation and burns on her feet, apparently from one of the fires encountered by Garcia and firefighters, who arrived minutes later.

Le turned himself over to deputies shortly after Garcia arrived and was being questioned Wednesday afternoon.

He was being held on suspicion of killing both women. Investigators were also exploring whether Le set the fires and said arson charges might be added later.

The slain women were identified as Loi Thanh Phan , 30, Le’s wife, and Sao Thi Nguyen, 69, his mother-in-law. The injured sister-in-law, identified as 46-year-old Lien Thi Phan, was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange.

A spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said the dead women had suffered numerous stab wounds.

The motive for the attack was still unclear, although neighbors said they had heard loud arguments from the house before.

“You always heard arguments, but you never expected anything like this,” said 22-year-old Eli Figueroa, who lived four doors away. “They had arguments. That’s it, though.”

Neighbors said they heard arguing from the home shortly after 9 a.m., then saw children and Lien Thi Phan run from the house as smoke began seeping from its windows.

“The little kids came out. They were crying. They were crying real bad,” Garcia said. When he ran inside, Garcia said, he found a body on the living room floor and the lawn mower burning a few feet away. He said he saw Le washing what appeared to be a steak knife in the kitchen.

Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Martini said that Garcia recounted the same version of events to investigators.

Garcia said he pulled the woman’s bloodied body out and went back inside, to discover the badly stabbed body of Loi Thanh Phan, partially clothed in a rear bedroom. He said he also pulled her body to the front of the house.

Firefighters also described finding food burning on the stove and patches of flaming carpet inside.

The incident shook up a normally placid enclave where neighbors watch after one other’s children and newcomers make the rounds to introduce themselves. Even the street’s name--Hearth Lane--bespeaks its homey quiet.

“It’s the kind of place where you don’t lock your doors and you trust your neighbors,” said Kim Earles, who moved to the street a year ago.

But Le and his family had remained virtual strangers to neighbors since moving in three to four years ago, residents said. Speaking Vietnamese on a street where most speak English and Spanish, the family kept to itself and made few connections with other residents there.

The children played with others on the street and an elderly relative was often seen riding his bicycle, but even the closest neighbors never learned the names of the family living in the well-tended home at the end of Hearth Lane.

“She always seemed happy. They always seemed happy when they were outside washing the car or watering” the yard, said Georgann Bryden, who lives two doors away.

But the neighbors also recalled disputes that echoed into the street, though they could not understand the words spoken. Garcia said that on Wednesday morning, he heard the crash of objects during an argument, followed by the smoke alarm.

Firefighters, called originally to respond to a blaze, were warned en route that the situation might be something worse, said Daniel W. Shell, a firefighter with the Orange County Fire Department. Deputies had guns drawn when the first firefighters showed up, reporting two victims dead and a third needing care.

“It was very chaotic,” said Shell, who was in the first crew to arrive. “One minute we’re setting up to fight a fire and the next we’re bringing out victims of a heinous crime.”