A grandfather found four family members — including his 2-year-old grandson — dead inside a Virginia home during an incident that is being investigated as a murder-suicide, according to police.
Authorities were called about a stabbing incident at a Woodbridge residence the morning of Saturday, February 21. Officers were led to the bodies of four people who’d been fatally stabbed, including an adult woman described as the suspect, the Prince William County Police Department said in a news release issued that day.
In an update shared with Luxury Handbag Shopping on Monday, February 23, police identified “the presumed suspect” as 35-year-old Ziyi Lu.
Lu is accused of killing her 2-year-old son, her mother-in-law, Kegang Xie, 69, and her husband, Danxiong Gao 40, on February 21, according to police, who did not release her son’s name due to his age.
Lu’s father-in-law had been home during the alleged stabbing and found the bodies of Lu, Gao, his grandson, and his wife, Prince William County Police Lieutenant Jonathan Perok confirmed to Us via email.
The grandfather had been in the basement of the townhome — where the entire family lived together — during the fatal stabbings, according to Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham, the Prince William Times reported. He allegedly located his loved ones’ bodies upstairs.
While speaking from outside the home on February 21, Newsham said that the grandfather has been “completely cooperative” and that he is “the one who called police,” according to the newspaper.
Authorities said they have obtained the suspected murder weapon and that autopsies confirmed “all parties died from knife-related injuries.”
A potential motive for the killings is unclear.
“Compare it to the worst possible nightmare you’ve ever had,” Newsham said, according to WTOP. “We don’t know the exact cause or the motive in this case, but just to see a family destroyed like this is horrific.”
The killings mark the first homicides in Prince William County in 2026, the Prince William Times reported. The county is located about a 35-mile drive southwest from Washington, D.C.
Local resident Sonia Gonzalez told the newspaper that she lived roughly a block from Lu and her family and that the news of their deaths were “shocking.”
“We’ve never heard about any murders or fights or anything around here,” Gonzalez told the newspaper. “And I’m always alert. It is sad to hear that a 2-year-old has been killed. I mean, leave the child alone. He had nothing to do with anything. All I can say is the devil is loose.”
The Prince William County Police Department did not immediately provide a comment when contacted by Us on February 23.
Perok told WUSA-TV that while “any homicide is traumatic,” the fact “that this involves a child makes it even more difficult.”
Joshua Dionne, a neighbor across the street from the family, said in an interview with the TV station that he would interact and wave at the family in the mornings.
He added to WUSA-TV that he said there were “No loud noises, no disturbances, no calls with the cops prior to this.”
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