5 bodies found inside Modesto home

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Sunday, July 19, 2015
5 bodies found inside Modesto home
Five people were found dead in a California home after someone called authorities to check on the people inside, police said Saturday.

MODESTO, Calif. -- Police sought to question a 30-year-old man about the deaths of three children and two adults whose bodies were found in a California home on Saturday.

Detectives named Martin Martinez, of Modesto, a person-of-interest in the investigation and are asking anyone with information on him and his whereabouts to call authorities.

Police spokeswoman Heather Graves said she didn't know his relationship to the victims. He was last seen driving a red Lincoln Navigator.

Officers responding to a request to conduct a welfare check on the home discovered the bodies in the afternoon, Graves said.

She had no immediate information on the victims and circumstances of the deaths. She said detectives were waiting to receive court approval to enter the home and process the crime scene.

Modesto is located in the state's Central Valley.

The house on Nob Hill Court is in a tidy subdivision lined with four- and five-bedroom homes that were built seven or eight years ago, the Modesto Bee reports.

Connie Lycan, 59, who lives a block away, said she moved to the neighborhood when it was new and considered to be quiet.

"Well it was quiet. No place is safe anymore," Lycan said.