( CNN ) -- From the outside , Carol Coronado embraced motherhood . She played with her three girls -- ran after them , kissed them , smiled with them , a neighbor recalled . Her children seemingly had no shortage of joy , as evidenced by their own abundant laughter . `` She ( said ) she loved being a mother , '' Ashley Madrid said of Coronado , her neighbor . But the inside -- at least inside her Southern California home on Tuesday -- was a different story . According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff 's Department , Coronado is believed to have killed her children . The oldest was 3 years old , the youngest all of 2 months . Sheriff 's deputies arrived at a home in unincorporated Torrance early Tuesday evening to find `` family members who told ( them ) that a mother had killed her children . '' Inside , they found three juveniles dead and their mother `` adjacent '' to them , the sheriff 's department said . Authorities told CNN affiliate KTLA the young girls were lying in a pool of blood . Their naked 30-year-old mother was holding a knife , investigators told the same station . Coronado eventually emerged from the house , wearing little more than a blanket . Madrid told Nancy Grace of CNN 's sister network HLN that Coronado looked blankly at the ground . `` I could see the blood smears all over her face and arms and legs , '' Madrid recalled . `` And she was just stone-faced . '' The mother was brought to a local hospital , then to the department 's Carson Station to be booked on murder charges , said the sheriff 's department . As of Wednesday evening , online records did n't indicate that Coronado was officially an inmate in the county , and it was n't known whether she had a lawyer . So exactly what happened ? And why ? There 's been no official word about a motive , nor has the sequence of events been spelled out . Madrid had known Coronado since the latter moved into the neighborhood four to five years ago . In that time , Madrid and Coronado would talk at the grocery store or across the fence about their children . Never did she hear any arguments or see any signs of trouble . `` Never , '' the neighbor said Wednesday . `` Completely opposite of what happened yesterday . '' The girls ' father was across the street working on a car when it happened , Madrid said . `` I ca n't imagine how he feels , you know , '' Robert Marino , a family friend , told CNN affiliate KCAL . `` It 's just not right . '' Police : Utah mom admits to killing at least six of her babies . Mom kills two of her children during attempted exorcism . Opinion : Why would a mother kill her babies ? CNN 's Sonya Hamasaki and Ed Payne contributed to this report .
NEW : Neighbor says she ` ` never '' saw indications Carol Coronado was a threat . Unknown : A family member says the slain child 's mother is distraught ; ` ` it 's just not right '' Torrance mom is accused of killing children , whose ages range from 6 months to 3 years .