PICTURED: Girl, 13, and her 12-year-old brother 'decapitated by their personal trainer father' as he's charged with murder and it's revealed he forced their younger siblings to look at corpses then locked them in their rooms without food

A Southern California father of four has been charged murder after allegedly decapitating his teenage daughter and 12-year-old son and abusing his two other boys.

Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 34, faces two felony counts each of murder and child abuse under circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death, the Los Angeles County District Attorney´s Office announced Tuesday.

Taylor is charged with fatally stabbing Maurice, 12, and his older sister, Maliaka, 13, on November 29 in Lancaster. It was five days before their bodies were found, according to reports. 

During this time his other two boys, ages eight and nine, were allegedly shown their siblings' bodies and forced to stay in their bedrooms without food, prosecutors said. It has previously been reported the children's mother was also at the home.

Taylor is charged with fatally stabbing Maurice, 12, right, and 13-year-old Maliaka, left, on November 29 in Lancaster, according to a news release

Taylor is scheduled to be arraigned December 21. It wasn't known Wednesday if he has an attorney.

Taylor worked at a physical therapy center in Santa Monica but had been conducting training sessions online during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Some of his clients contacted authorities after he failed to show up for scheduled appointments, leading to the discovery of the victims, CBS Los Angeles reported.

Exclusive video footage obtained by DailyMail.com on Tuesday shows the moment Taylor was wheeled away from the scene handcuffed to a stretcher.  

Lauren Henry, who used to live next door to the family, told DailyMail.com: 'I remember when each of the four kids were born and I remember the excitement there was surrounding them.

'As they grew up, it was obvious they had a sense for adventure and new experiences, even at a young age. Maliaka was very smart, very adventurous and observant. She really would have grown to reach her potential.

'Mo Jr. looked up to his big sister and admired all she did. I’m sure they stuck very close to each other as they grew older and I know they were together in the end. I will always remember their smiling faces.' 

Exclusive video footage obtained by DailyMail.com on Tuesday shows the moment Maurice Taylor Sr was wheeled away from the scene handcuffed to a stretcher

Taylor was arrested without a struggle and booked into Lancaster station where he is being held on $2million bond

Authorities made the gruesome discovery while responding to reports of a possible gas leak at a property on the 45000 block of Century Circle, where children were found in separate bedrooms with lacerations and stab wounds.  

Taylor was ordered held in lieu of $4.2 million bail. If convicted, he faces a possible maximum sentence of more than 57 years to life in state prison. 

It is unknown what motivated the attack and the incident remains under investigation, however, Taylor's personal training clients told the LA Times they had grown concerned over his well-being earlier in the week.

The fitness trainer, who was described as 'mellow' and 'reliable', had sparked concerns when he failed to show up for fitness sessions he had been running over Zoom. 

Howard Kern, an attorney and writer who had taken personal training sessions with Taylor for about seven years, told the Times he reported the gas leak Friday morning, leading the fire department to find the bodies.

'I said: "I'm concerned". We are concerned about a possible gas leak. There are four children and two adults - and we're concerned about their safety,' Kern told the paper.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department was called to the single-story home at around 7.50am. 

Neighbors of Maurice Taylor Sr., arrange memorial at his residence for the deceased children he is accused of killing on December 7

One of Taylor's clients told the LA Times he had called the police to report a gas leak at the home, leading the fire department to find the bodies

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said both victims had been decapitated and described the scene as 'brutal'.  

'LA County Sheriff's deputies responded out to the location and saw that there were two individuals inside, both very young, possibly in their teenage years, deceased,' Lt. Dean told reporters at the scene Friday morning. 

'One appears to be a male, one appears to be a female, possibly suffering from some type of a sharp trauma, either stabbing or slicing device.' 

Dean said there was no sign of a gas leak at the property.  

'It doesn't seem to be that the cause of death from the two people inside have anything to do with a gas leak,' he said.  

Another client told the Times she had also contacted the Sheriff's Department days earlier on Tuesday when Taylor failed to show for a session over Zoom. 

She said she knew something was wrong when he didn't send a Zoom link for a session and then didn't show up at the allotted time.  

Taylor was a personal trainer at a Santa Monica physical therapy and fitness center but was now holding sessions over Zoom due to the pandemic. 

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said both victims had been decapitated and described the scene as 'brutal'

The fitness trainer, who was described as 'mellow' and 'reliable', had sparked concerns when he failed to show up for fitness sessions he had been running over Zoom

Kern told the Times he worried that Taylor 'was living under a tremendous amount of pressure' having lived and worked on his own since he was 18 and being in a marriage Kern described as 'contentious'.

The client said he would often hear Kern on the phone to his wife at the gym and hear 'her yelling at him'.

'He'd be very apologetic and she'd be yelling at him,' said Kern. 

He described him as the 'nicest person that you know, then multiply that by five'.

'He worked so hard to support himself. Unfortunately, we don't know enough to say what happened or what didn't happen.' 

Mayor Parris said he believes the fallout from the pandemic had created a stressful environment. 

'What I'm seeing is more and more people feeling desperate, and that can only have one result,' he said, according to the Times. 

A property owner in the area told the Times he thought only two children lived in the home. 

He said the home environment 'looked strange' with the family keeping themselves to themselves and the windows were often 'blacked out' in a neighborhood where most others would stop and chat outside.