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Public Safety

Authorities ID Rancho Santa Fe Murder-Suicide Victims

An aerial view shows a Rancho Santa Fe home where sheriff's deputies found the bodies of two women and a teenage girl in a possible double murder-suicide.
10News
An aerial view shows a Rancho Santa Fe home where sheriff's deputies found the bodies of two women and a teenage girl in a possible double murder-suicide.

Authorities on Friday publicly identified the two women and a teenage girl who died in an apparent double murder-suicide at a home near Rancho Santa Fe Golf Course earlier this week.

Sayeh Amini, 52, fatally stabbed her niece, 15-year-old Hannah Arya, and family friend Ihnwon Shin, 56, on Monday morning before killing herself in the same manner at the house in the 17100 block of Via de la Valle, according to sheriff's officials.

Their bodies were found by deputies responding to a report of possible child abuse, homicide Lt. Kenneth Nelson said.

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Authorities have declined to discuss a possible motive for the killings, but an attorney for the family of the teenager and her aunt told reporters the latter had become delusional and suicidal following the cancer death in April of the girl's father, Michael Arya, who had owned the luxury home where the three died.

Friends of the Arya family identified Shin as a Los Angeles real estate broker who had known Michael Arya and his daughter for many years.

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