A California personal trainer accused of decapitating his two children has now been charged in their grisly murders, authorities said.
Police charged Maurice Taylor Sr. with two counts of murder on Tuesday for the gruesome beheadings of his 12-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter in their Lancaster home last week, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Officers responded to their home on a report of a possible gas leak on Friday and found the kids’ headless bodies, police said.
A woman and two other boys — ages 8 and 9 — were in the home during the incident and questioned by police. Taylor was also charged with child abuse for allegedly harming those other kids, CBS reported.
Taylor, 34, was working as a personal trainer in Santa Monica and had been recently conducting sessions virtually because of the pandemic.
The gas leak was reported by worried clients who told the Los Angeles Times they hadn’t heard from him in days.
Taylor is being held on $4.2 million bail and faces up to 57 years to life in prison.