A mother and her 11-year-old daughter are dead in California — and police say her husband is the one who killed them.

Leonid Solomonovich Yamburg, 51, allegedly confessed to killing his wife, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said Thursday in an official release.

DPS Captain Craig Anderson said that Yamburg came into their lobby around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday and told a record clerk on duty "that he had killed his wife earlier in the day."

Yamburg was detained while officers went to his home to conduct a welfare check.

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Officers arrived to a gruesome scene and "unfortunately found the suspect's wife dead inside the garage, and the suspect's daughter dead inside one of the bathrooms," Anderson said.

Yamburg was arrested, Anderson said, and "declined to be interviewed or provide any additional detail and invoked his right to an attorney."

A lawyer for Yamburg could not immediately be identified by PEOPLE. It is not clear if he has entered a plea at this time.

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Online records from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office show that Yamburg was booked into the county's main jail on Thursday and is being held without bail.

Yamburg's wife has been identified as Svetlana Nikitina, but authorities have not released their daughter's name.

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The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner is investigating Nikitina and her daughter's causes of death. The medical examiner-coroner did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Anderson called the alleged double murder a "horrific tragedy" and said "our hearts are broken for the family, for the victims and all their friends."

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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