19-year-old charged in stabbing deaths of girl and her mom in Rancho Cucamonga

Weeks after authorities uncovered video of a person approaching the house where a Rancho Cucamonga mother and her 8-year-old daughter were stabbed to death, officials have arrested and charged a suspect in the case.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials took Jacob Wright, 19, into custody Wednesday, more than a month after Jia Jia, 44, and her daughter Ruby Meng died of multiple stab wounds. Another woman, a 38-year-old friend who was sleeping in the family’s home, was hospitalized for days with stab wounds she also received in the attack, sheriff’s officials said.

Prosecutors on Thursday said they had charged Wright with two counts of murder, one count of premeditated attempted murder, and one count of first-degree burglary. Officials claim that the slayings were committed during a burglary.

Detectives did not find any relation between Wright and the victims and think the Rancho Cucamonga resident acted alone, according to a department news release. A motive in the attack remains unclear, officials said. San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Jason Anderson said late Thursday that the crimes did not appear to be motivated by hate.

Detectives arrested Wright following a traffic stop Tuesday in Bloomington. They searched his home, interviewed him and then booked him at the West Valley Detention Center on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

A 911 call about “an unknown problem” led first responders to a residence on Bergano Place at 3 a.m. on March 7, according to a sheriff’s report. They found Jia and her daughter dead at the scene and the family friend suffering from stab wounds. Two other family members who were asleep in the house were not injured, deputies said at the time.

Investigators said the assailant entered the home “by unknown means,” attacked the three females “and fled through a rear sliding door.”

For days, detectives did not have any suspects. Then, two weeks after the attack, the Sheriff’s Department asked the public for help identifying a person seen in a security camera video walking close to the victims’ home on the night of the fatal attack.

Investigators released the video after days spent combing the neighborhood, talking with residents and reviewing home security footage, said Cindy Bachman, a spokesperson for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. They think Wright is the person in the video, she said.

“As you can imagine, the people in and around that area were scared and they were nervous,” Bachman said. “Every day that the suspect wasn’t identified, I’m sure was extremely difficult for them.”