IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Attack witnessed on Zoom leads deputies to bodies of two stabbing victims in California

A woman was on a Zoom call with a colleague when the attack occurred, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.

Two people were fatally stabbed Monday afternoon in an attack that was partially captured on Zoom, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.

Deputies responded to the 3100 block of North Marengo Avenue in Altadena about 2:45 p.m. local time after a 911 caller reported a possible kidnapping, according to the agency. Authorities found a man’s body in a driveway and a woman’s body inside the home, the sheriff's department said in a release. The man had been stabbed multiple times, according to the release.

While their names have not been released, sheriff's Lt. Barry Hall told NBC Los Angeles that both victims are in their 60s.

Image: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officers at the scene of a stabbing in Altadena, March 22, 2021.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officers at the scene of a stabbing in Altadena, March 22, 2021.NBC4

"During the investigation, detectives learned that the female victim was conducting a Zoom call with a colleague, when the attack on the male occurred," the sheriff's department said in the release. "The Zoom caller witnessed the attack on both the male and female and called 911 to report the crime."

As deputies investigated, they learned a vehicle was missing from the residence. At some point, a man drove up in the victim's missing car and said he lived at the home, according to the sheriff's department. That man, Robert Cotton, 32, was detained and booked on two counts of murder, authorities said.

It was unclear what Cotton's relationship was to the victims.

Altadena is a neighborhood about 15 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.