A baby girl and her two-year-old brother lived alone with the bodies of their murdered parents' and older sibling for three days until they were finally rescued, it has emerged.
Mum Rachel Ozuna, 34, dad and drug dealer Michael Coleman, 39, and Ms Ozuna's 14-year-old son from a previous relationship, Kyrrus Ozuna, were all found with their throats slashed in the family home.
Grim new details about the triple murder emerged during a court hearing for three of five men accused of killing them in May 2019 in Spotsylvania County in the US state of Virginia.
Police bodycam video played in court shows Ms Ozuna face down on the blood-spattered nursery floor, her two-year-old son standing next to her and her baby girl strapped into a swinging infant seat, NBC News reported.
An officer speaks softly to the children and picks up the two-year-old and then the baby. He carries them past the victims' bodies and out of the house.
The children were dehydrated and crying, but otherwise uninjured, the Free Lance-Star newspaper reported.
The boy’s nappy was overflowing when the children were rescued, the court heard.
Detectives believe the drug-related triple murder happened three days before police arrived at the house.
The court also heard a chilling 911 call from Kyrrus' father, Benjamin Jimenez, who found the bodies and the surviving children when he went to check on Kyrrus.
Mr Jimenez, who became worried when he was unable to contact his son, broke down in tears as he told a dispatcher during the 12-minute call: “Somebody got murdered."
The dispatcher asked: "Where is your son?"
Mr Jimenez, unaware that Ms Ozuna and Mr Coleman were also dead in the house, replied: "He’s in the bathroom tied up and in a pool of blood."
He added: "I can't go back in there. I can't see him like that again."
The court heard that Mr Coleman was a large-scale cocaine trafficker who would often keep as much as £100,000 in cash in the family home.
Police found equipment used to make kilo-sized packages of cocaine.
Five suspects - James Myers, 36, Hugh Cameron Green, 31, Durward Anthony Allen, 29, Jamal Bailey, 28, and Montel Jaleek Wilson, 28 - have been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and other offences.
Reports claim Wilson is the nephew of Mr Coleman's ex-wife.
The men are accused of travelling 200 miles from Philadelphia the day before the massacre, and then visiting a strip club with stacks of cash days after the murders.
Two of the men took selfies near a pool at a hotel they checked into the day before the killings, and three went to a nearby Gold's Gym to work out.
One posted video on social media showing him flipping tyres at the gym.
The group allegedly drove to the family's house the next day, arriving at noon and leaving about an hour later.
Mobile phone records indicated that the suspects’ devices were near the murder scene, it is alleged.
After the killings, one of the suspects allegedly told a jailed relative during a recorded phone call "that's the money machine", as the slapping sound of cash was heard in the background.
One of the suspects recorded a video showing stacks of money on a floor, the court heard.
Lawyers for the suspects claim there was no physical evidence linking them to the murders, and argue that the case was circumstantial.
A judge ruled there was enough probable cause to certify the first-degree murder charges against Allen, Green and Wilson, it was reported.
A preliminary hearing has not been held for Myers or Bailey.
