BELVIDERE, Ill. (NewsNation Now) — A 24-year-old man arrested for a parole violation was identified Wednesday as a person of interest in the weekend slayings of a man and two young sons in northern Illinois.

The Huntley man had spent part of Sunday with Andrew Hintt, 31, and the boys, Benjamin, 7, and Sebastian, 5, the Belvidere police department said.

According to Belvidere police Chief Shane Woody, the boys were found Sunday night in a bedroom and Andrew Hintt’s body was found in the living room. Belvidere is about 70 miles northwest of Chicago.

“Whether or not Andrew was asleep is something that the pathologist would have to be able to provide, if at all. But it does appear that this was truly a situation where whoever did this unspeakable act had no regard for human life,” Woody told NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield.

The person of interest was interviewed by police and was being held at the Boone County jail. Separately, police seized evidence from a house in Huntley.

More than 50 people gathered outside the home Tuesday night to pray.

“I can’t tell you it’s not going to hurt. It’s going to hurt for a while,” the Rev. David Smith of First Assembly of God Church told the family. “But look around and remember: In the moment that it hurt the most, these people came out here to be beside you.”

Hintt’s aunt, Theresa Eileen, said he operated his own meat truck.

“He spoiled the heck out of his kids,” Eileen told the Rockford Register Star. “He would take them everywhere. He brought the boys their own (electric) dirt bikes. He taught them how to ride.”

Hintt and his fiancee were the parents of five children, though Benjamin and Sebastian lived with other relatives in the area. Eileen said Hintt regularly saw them.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help pay for the boys’ memorial service.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.