The victims of a horrific quadruple murder that has stunned the upstate New York city of Troy were found bound with their throats slashed, according to police sources quoted by a local news outlet.

Multiple law-enforcement sources told the Albany Times Union that the family, identified as two young siblings aged 5 and 11, their mother, and the mother’s lesbian partner, appear to have been targeted for an unknown reason. The bodies were found the afternoon after Christmas, in their rented basement apartment, by a property manager who was reportedly asked to do a welfare check.