The names of the victims and the suspect, a 32-year-old petty officer second class, have not been released pending notification of the victims' family in Singapore, Navy officials said. The suspect, who has been in the Navy for 13 years, was assigned to the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. He is being held in pretrial confinement in the Navy brig on Ford Island.

Navy Region Hawai'i spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell said the man walked into a Navy security office at about

11 a.m. yesterday and told officers to respond to an emergency at his home in the Hokulani subdivision just outside Pearl Harbor.

When emergency personnel arrived at the home on Leal Place they found two women dead on the second-floor of the home. The Navy believes the women died early yesterday morning.

Campbell would not say how the two women were killed, but she did say suspected murder weapons were removed from the home by investigators.

"All of those details remain part of the investigation and that is ongoing," Campbell said.

The couple's three children ­ two boys ages 2 and 5 and a 3-year-old girl ­ were not injured. They initially were placed in the custody of the Navy's Family Advocacy Program and then transferred to the state's Child Protective Services.

The city's medical examiner will determine the cause of the women's deaths.

Because the deaths occurred in military housing, they are being investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and not the Honolulu Police Department, Campbell said. The man likely will face a court-martial and under federal law could receive the death penalty if convicted, she said.

Neighbor Beulah Senoren said the man's wife and her mother were from Singapore. The suspect's mother-in-law was in her mid 70s, Navy officials said.

Senoren said the family lived at the end of a cul-de-sac on Leal Place for more than two years, and she was shocked to hear what had happened.

Senoren said she exchanged greetings with the family, but they rarely spoke at length. She said she never heard an argument from the victims' home and that the man "always smiled" when greeting her.

Other neighbors described the family as a "happy-go-lucky family" and "quiet, regular people."