Lockport, LA -- The Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Department and Lockport Police are jointly investigating the death of a woman and her two children in Lockport.
The town is in shock, after investigators discovered the three dead bodies inside their home.
It happened on Elliot Drive around 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
Residents in the quiet town woke up to the unthinkable; crime scene tape and flashing blue lights from police cars.
Some residents tell FOX 8 that this is the town's first murder that they can recall in the last 40 years.
Sunday morning, Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Deputies and Firefighters responded to a call from Carlos Neives,who said that his home was on fire.
When investigators arrived on the scene they discovered three victims each with a stab wound to the body.
All three were pronounced dead on the scene.
The victims are: 29-year-old Jacqueline Geautreaux Nieves and her 7-year old and 20-month old daughters.
"To walk up on a Sunday morning to the porch of the grandmother who immediately recognizes the sheriff and the police chief coming, that there's absolutely no good news, is just heart-wrenching," says Lafourche Parish Sheriff, Craig Webre.
Investigators believe the fire was intentionally set.
Webre says the father, Carlos Nieves was not injured when he called in the fire, however, Webre calls him a person of interest.
The couple had been together for 13 years and married for eight.
Preliminary investigations show there had not been any prior calls to police from the home.
"They have had some period of separation, but they've reunited and they were presently living together," says Webre.
Webre says he will leave no stone unturned in this case.
"This is a potentially, complex homicide which could ultimately result in a capital offense so our goal is to be very precise, and methodical and not rush to judgement so we are going to make sure we investigate every piece evidence before we move to that point in the investigation," says Webre.
Carlos Nieves is being detained and still be questioned about the incident.
Webre says he does not know if there's more than one assailant involved in this crime.
