RANCHO CORDOVA (CBS13) – A mom and two of her young kids were killed in cold blood, and the suspect was the children’s uncle, who had made death threats in the past.

The suspect’s family tried desperately to get him help.

Tuesday, the Rancho Cordova home was a gruesome crime scene. Wednesday, it was a gathering place for friends, family and church members of the victims.

Family members say they saw warning signs from 19-year-old Grigoriy Bukhanstov, but like family will do, they stood by his side through his troubled life.

“The hardest part is to believe that she’s gone,” said Katie Zdor, Alina Bukhantsov’s sister. “We were planning a girls’ night soon.”

Inside what was once a crime scene, so gruesome even to investigators, family and friends of the victims had the haunting task of cleaning it up a day after Alina and her two toddlers were found murdered.

“Alina was so good, so beautiful,” said Pastor Stepan Skots of Bethany Slavic Missionary Church.

Nearby at the church that Alina and her family attended every Sunday since she was a little girl, the pastor was preparing for their funeral.

“We can’t believe it’s happened,” said Skots.

Alina was a Sunday school teacher at the church before giving birth to her three children. It was here she met her husband Denis.

The couple, Skots says, were madly in love. Denis even wrote a love song to Alina in 2008, the year they got married.

But the couple also had a black sheep in their family.

The pastor says Grigoriy Bukhanstov was a sweet boy until high school. That’s when he believes he got into drugs.

“Father come to me, say ‘Here, can you help him? He was so wild,’ ” said Skots.

Grigoriy’s troubled life, Skots says, seemed to get even worse last year.

“He said ‘I kill you’ to the bishop,” said Skots. “‘I kill you’ another one. ‘I kill you’ everyone,” said Skots.

The church called the police on Grigoriy several times after threats. The pastor reached out to him, begged him to go to rehab.

Instead, Grigoriy would land in jail for burglary.

He would eventually get out of jail, and Denis and Alina would help him from time to time, offering a place to sleep and food.

“A really great mom, a good sister, a wife,” said Zdor.

Sadly, the last time Alina would open her door, it would end in tragedy.