SALT LAKE CITY -- Police have identified the three victims found dead in a Salt Lake City home Friday night, including a 2-month-old baby girl, and a man who was found inside the residence with a firearm faces three counts of murder in connection with the case.
Heike Poike, 50, and Lyrik Poike, 2 months old, were found shot to death. Later Saturday, police identified the third victim as 28-year-old Dakota Smith.
Police discovered the bodies after an 8-year-old boy wasn’t picked up from school at the appointed time Friday afternoon. Det. Dennis McGowan, Salt Lake City PD, said the school worked to contact the boy's guardian.
Several hours later, around 6 p.m., police officers went to the address listed on the boy's guardians' contact information, a residence on the 600 North block of Sir Phillip Drive. There was no answer when police knocked on the front door.
“So they went around to the back door, and the back door was open," McGowan said. "And so the police entered to do a protective sweep.”
Det. Richard Chipping offered more details Saturday about what officers found inside the home.
"They entered the house and called out to anyone inside and located a man inside," he said. "A man inside the house with a firearm."
Police also found three victims.
"They located three different bodies, all with gun shot wounds," Chipping said.
It wasn't immediately clear whether officers located the victims or the suspect first upon entering the residence.
Heike Poike was the 8-year-old boy's grandmother, and the baby was his sister. It was not clear what, if any, relationship the third victim, Dakota Smith, has to the other victims.
Alexander Tran, 32, was the man inside the home, and officers said he complied with the officers. Booking documents indicate Tran faces three counts of aggravated murder. The documents note he was also booked for prior warrants for reckless driving and a charge relating to no fault insurance.
Authorities said Tran lived in the basement of the home and that at least two of the victims lived upstairs. A neighbor tells FOX 13 Tran lived in the basement of the home and that Poike had been renting the upstairs portion of the residence for about 6 months.
McGowan said the 8-year-old boy is safe and is staying with relatives.
"We're very, very sad when we go into these types of situations, and we can only feel horrible for this 8-year-old boy, who has to continue living with this information," Chipping said.
