Mother MURDERS 6-Day-Old Baby and Husband!

Police gathered at an urban crime scene.

A six-day-old baby girl never had a chance — and the person who took her life was the one who had just given it to her.

Story Snapshot

Marine Basmajian, 30, allegedly shot her husband Khajag, 31, their 2-year-old son Alec, and their 6-day-old daughter Ella before dying by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in their North Hills, California home.
Los Angeles Police Department homicide detectives publicly identified the mother as the suspected shooter based on evidence gathered at the scene.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner classified the husband’s and children’s deaths as homicides and the mother’s death as suicide.
Family members have since revealed chilling details about the final hours before the killings, adding a haunting layer to an already unthinkable crime.

A Quiet San Fernando Valley Street, Then Four Bodies

Officers responded to the North Hills home at approximately 7:50 p.m. and found all four family members dead from gunshot wounds. ^[1] The neighborhood is the kind of place where people mow lawns on weekends and kids ride bikes — not the kind of place where a mother allegedly executes her entire family and then herself. But that is precisely what Los Angeles Police Department homicide detectives say the evidence points to, and the medical examiner’s findings align with that conclusion. ^[2]

Marine Basmajian had given birth to Ella just six days before the killings. ^[4] That timeline is almost impossible to process. A newborn still measured in days. A toddler who had barely learned to speak. A husband who, by all accounts, had no idea what was coming. The family’s relatives have since stepped forward with details about Marine’s final hours — details that are being described as chilling, though investigators have not yet publicly disclosed the full content of those accounts.

What the Medical Examiner’s Office Confirmed

The Los Angeles County medical examiner released the identities of all four victims: Marine Basmajian, 30; her husband Khajag Basmajian, 31; their son Alec Basmajian, 2; and their daughter Ella Basmajian, 6 days old. ^[4] The examiner’s classification — homicide for the husband and children, suicide for the mother — is the forensic backbone of the murder-suicide determination. That classification carries legal and investigative weight that goes well beyond a police department press statement.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s homicide division stated publicly that evidence initially gathered at the scene suggested Marine was the shooter. ^[1] When detectives make that kind of statement this early, it typically means the physical evidence — bullet trajectories, weapon placement, gunshot residue, and wound patterns — told a coherent story at the scene. Investigators do not usually point the finger at a deceased suspect unless the forensics are pointing there first.

Family Accounts Deepen the Mystery of What Went Wrong

Relatives who spoke to media described the hours before the shooting in terms that suggest something was visibly wrong with Marine, though the specific nature of what they observed has not been fully detailed in public reporting. ^[7] This is where the case becomes more than a crime story. Postpartum mental health crises are real, severe, and dangerously underdiagnosed — particularly in communities where seeking help carries stigma. Whether that played any role here is not yet established, but it is a question that will almost certainly surface as more details emerge.

What makes this case land differently than most is the six-day-old. A child that age is not even a memory yet — she is a heartbeat, a smell, a weight in someone’s arms. The 2-year-old Alec had a whole personality forming. Khajag was 31 years old. Three people who had no ability to defend themselves, and one who apparently chose not to let them live. Whatever drove Marine Basmajian to this point, the wreckage she left behind is absolute and permanent. The family that gathered around her during her pregnancy will spend the rest of their lives trying to understand what happened in those final hours — and they may never fully get there.

What This Case Forces Us to Confront

Cases like this one expose a hard truth that polite society prefers to avoid: the most dangerous place for some families is inside their own home, and the most dangerous person is sometimes the one who was supposed to be the protector. The instinct to search for an outside threat — a stranger, an intruder — is deeply human. But the data on family annihilation cases is consistent and grim. The perpetrator almost always lives at the address. ^[3] What remains is the question of why, and whether anyone close to Marine saw enough warning signs to have changed the outcome — a question her family will carry forever.