Man, 2 sons found dead inside home

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives are investigating a possible triple homicide after a man and his two young sons were found dead early Wednesday at their Rowland Heights home.

Investigators were called to the home in the 18000 block of Camino Bello about 8 a.m., Sgt. Bill Marsh said. Inside, Neal Williams, 27, was found with multiple stab wounds. Sons Devon, 7, and Ian, 3, also were dead, but no signs of traumatic injury were found, Marsh said.

There was nothing to suggest that an intruder was responsible for the deaths, Marsh said, because it appeared that nothing had been stolen.

Williams’ wife, Man-Ling Williams, who is in her 20s, told authorities that she had gone to the grocery store Wednesday morning and found the bodies when she returned home shortly before 8 a.m, Marsh said.

Investigators said they were questioning her but that no suspects had been identified.

The deaths stunned residents of the middle-class neighborhood of mostly town homes and condominiums. They said the area was popular with families and known for its safety.

Francine Cerda, 38, who lives across the street from the victims’ home, said she was getting ready for work about 7:45 a.m. when she heard Williams screaming for help and ran to her.

“I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ And she said, ‘My husband’s upstairs hurt,’ ” Cerda said.

“I walked up the stairs and I see blood all over the walls and the floor. He’s laying in the hallway on his stomach. He was covered with blood. I knew he was dead.”

Cerda said she ran downstairs and told her daughter and another neighbor to call 911.

Cerda, who did not know the family, said Williams told her that she had gone for a drive the night before between 10 and 11 p.m. “to cool off her head” and that she found her husband’s body when she returned home Wednesday morning.

She said Williams then started asking, “Where’s my boys? Where’s my boys?”

Cerda said she asked her about the children and Williams told her that they were in their upstairs bedroom.

At that point, James Brown, 19, another neighbor, entered the house with a sheriff’s deputy. Brown said they opened the door to the children’s bedroom and found them in their bunk beds, possibly strangled.

“It was horrible seeing both kids dead,” he said. “I’m still shaking.”

Brown said he had talked to Neal Williams and his children and liked them. Another neighbor talked about how the boys liked to pretend they were superheroes, and how the older child, Devon, was affectionate toward his younger brother.

“He was very cool,” Brown said of Neal Williams. “The kids were really cool too. [He] didn’t deserve this, and neither did the kids.”

Some neighbors said they often heard the couple arguing at night.

They said the last time they saw the family together was on the Fourth of July when they were outside barbecuing.

Resident Maria Pesqueira, 46, who gathered with neighbors across the street from the Williams home, said everyone was shaken by the experience.

“This is a neighborhood where people don’t lock their doors at night,” she said. “Some of the neighbors are already talking about moving away.”

tiffany.hsu@latimes.com

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com

Times staff photographer Irfan Khan contributed to this report.