The woman accused of stabbing to death her three children in a Reseda apartment was “extremely paranoid” and claimed she was solely responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reported Monday evening.
Liliana Carrillo’s boyfriend and the father of their three children made the claims to a Tulare County judge last month shortly before he was granted physical custody of the children, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Eric Denton told The Times and in petitions to a Tulare County judge that Carrillo, 30, had struggled with postpartum depression for years, expressed thoughts of suicide, self-medicated with marijuana and, in court filings, claimed she had “lost touch with reality” in recent months.
The Times further reported that interviews with Denton and court records showed that warnings to officials at the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and the Los Angeles Police Department that Carrillo was a danger to the children were made on numerous occasions.
Despite conversations with Denton and a court order from a Tulare County judge restricting the mother’s custody, social workers chose to leave the children with Carrillo, The Times reported.
DCFS declined to comment on the case, citing state confidentiality laws, but said in a statement that the department “joins the community in mourning.”
LAPD Cmdr. Alan Hamilton told The Times in child custody matters officers will follow the recommendations of the DCFS.
“If DCFS told us they were going to the apartment and needed our help, we would have been there,” Hamilton said.
In Tulare County, Carrillo accused Denton of being involved in a pedophile ring, prompting a police visit to their home, but no arrests were made, Denton said in court papers.
In late February, Carrillo left Tulare County with the children and Denton claimed she took the children’s legal documents and threatened to flee to Mexico and refused to let him know where she and the children were located.
Denton was able to secure a court order in March for the children’s custody that required any visits between Carrillo and the children be supervised.
The order was received by Carrillo in early March, according to court records, and she went to the LAPD’s West Valley Station to hand over the three children, but apparently disregarded the order, The Times reported.
Earlier this month, court records show Carrillo sought a temporary restraining order against Denton and accused him of sexually abusing their oldest daughter. Denton denied the accusation.
That order was granted, but was due to expire at a hearing on April 6, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
The coroner Monday released the names of victims.
Joanna Denton Carrillo was 3 years old; Terry Denton Carrillo was 2; and Sierra Denton Carrillo was 6 months, 23 days old, according to the coroner’s office. Autopsies were pending.
Carrillo, was arrested Saturday in the Ponderosa area of Tulare County, east of Porterville, according to LAPD Officer Rosario Cervantes.
The LAPD reported early Saturday afternoon that Carrillo may have carjacked a silver Toyota pickup in the Bakersfield area before her arrest.
The bodies of the three children were found about 9:30 a.m. Saturday in an apartment in the 8000 block of Reseda Boulevard, near Strathern Street, according to Cervantes.
According to NBC4 and ABC7, which both cited police sources, the victims were found by their grandmother and had been stabbed to death.
A GoFundMe page set up to help the family identified the father as Erik Denton, and included a photograph of him with the three children. It has raised $34,752 raised.
Neighbors were shocked at the crime.
“My heart is broken,” Dayna Campbell, a resident in the Reseda neighborhood, told NBC4. “Every time I see news about children like this, my heart breaks in pieces. And now, it’s like right in front of my building. It’s unbelievable.”
Another neighbor, Mishal Hashimi, told NBC4: “Leave the house, leave the children, leave your family or whatever, but don’t harm children.”