A family of six people was found dead on Thursday in a south-side Chicago home, USA. The victims have been identified as a Mexican couple, their son and daughter and her two young sons.

Police had said five adults and one child were killed, but on Friday they said that two of the victims were children, aged 10 and 13.

“There were no signs of forced entry to the residence. And, despite rumors and reports yesterday afternoon, the victims were not bound and there did not appear to be any ransacking of the house,” Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy told a news conference.

Chicago police later said the family was “targeted”.

The multiple homicides come on the heels of a surge in murders in Chicago last year and in the first month of 2016. Chicago had more than 480 murders in 2015, up from 407 a year earlier, and there were 51 murders in January, the highest number for any month of January since 2000.

The bodies were found after a workmate of one of the victims called police to request they check because the person had not shown up to work for two days, police said.

The older woman and middle-aged man were stabbed and beaten, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said. An older man and two boys were stabbed to death, and the middle-aged woman was shot, the office said in a statement.

According to a GoFundMe Internet page started by family member Azucena Martinez in Texas, the dead were Rosa Hernandez, Noe Martinez, Noe Martinez Jr., Herminia Martinez, and her sons Alexis and Leonardo.

Police said they would not release the names until the medical examiner had concluded official identification by a family member.

Azucena Martinez did not respond to a message sent by Reuters through the Web page.

The GoFundMe site had raised $5,000 from 193 donors by midday on Friday. Martinez wrote on the site that she was seeking the donations to send the bodies to Mexico for funerals and burial, saying that is what the family would have wished.

“This has shocked and left their family, relatives and loved ones speechless and heartbroken as the household was nothing but a loving and gentle family that was always quiet,” she wrote on the page.

•Adapted from a Reuters report.