Bernadette Seajatan, 49, and her daughters, Marlyn Hassan, 29, and Sharon Yassim, 30, were pronounced dead inside the Fox Place home around 08:00 hrs., hours after their husbands had left for work, authorities said.

Yassim was the mother of the two boys, who lived in the house with the six adults, authorities said.

One of the husbands, Alim Hassan, remained unaccounted for last night and police were looking for him. The other two men have been questioned.

The husbands "haven't been ruled out" as suspects," said Lt. Vincent Doherty of the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office.

Relatives who gathered outside the two-storey home Tuesday said the Hassans had been arguing recently over religious issues, particularly over how they would raise the twins Marlyn Hassan was six months pregnant with.

The three dead women were Hindu Guyanese immigrants; their husbands are Muslims.

"They were happy about having the children, but they had this problem about religion," said Baldeo Seajatan, Bernadette's husband and father of the slain sisters.

Authorities declined to comment on the religious tensions alleged by the family or any motives for the killings. However, they said they believe the killings stemmed from domestic violence.

"It's not apparently a stranger-on-stranger thing," said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio, whose first day on the job was yesterday. "We believe it's a family matter."

There were no immediate signs of a break-in, and the contents of the home did not appear to be disturbed, he said.

Daniel J. Gibney, Chief of Detectives for the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, said neither boy witnessed the killings.

Detectives spent much of the day combing the house for forensic evidence. The victims were found clothed and on the floor: one in a back bedroom, one in a front bedroom and another in a hallway, Gibney said.

"The biggest loss is for me -- my wife, my daughters. I can't believe this is happening," said Seajatan, who said he left the house at 05:30 hrs. for his job as a bus driver for NJ Transit.

Seajatan and his wife had been married for 30 years, at least eight of which were spent apart while he was waiting for visas so he and their daughters could come to the U.S. from Guyana. During that time, while working as a firefighter and taxi driver in Guyana, he raised Sharon and Marlyn on his own.

"They sort of raised me, too," Seajatan said. "We were all very close."

Sharon Yassim's husband, Schabeer Yassim, a manager of a Duane Reade, gathered with relatives outside the house.

"I'm so angry," he said, fighting back tears. "Especially for my children. They don't even realise what has happened. (My son) thinks his mother is in the hospital. I haven't told him yet that she is dead."

As detectives continued their investigation and family members gathered outside the house, the two boys could be seen playing in the street, perhaps unaware of the magnitude of the tragedy.

Relatives said the three couples had lived together peacefully until several months ago, when the Hassans began arguing about religion.

Marlyn Hassan, a bank manager at Chase in Manhattan, was converting to Islam, according to Seajatan, but not quickly enough for her husband, a mechanic for a car dealership, who wanted to raise their future children according to strict Muslim customs.

Alim Hassan spent a lot of time worshipping at the Al-Tawheed Islamic Center around the corner from the house, and moved away for a short while in July after having arguments with the family, Seajatan said.

Relatives said the dead women were good housewives who loved to cook and care for the two children in the house.

"They were inseparable," said Donna Duesbury, Bernadette's niece.