A mental health activist was stabbed and her elementary school teacher mother slaughtered in a savage home attack that rocked their Los Angeles neighborhood, police say.

Meera Varma, 25, and her 59-year-old mother, Arti Varma, were found stabbed inside their $1.5 million Burbank home around 6am on Monday, according to the Burbank Police Department.

Both women were rushed to the hospital, where Arti succumbed to her injuries. Meera, who has worked with leaders such as Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Kamala Harris, Oprah Winfrey and Shawn Mendes, is listed in stable condition.

'Investigators conducted a comprehensive investigation, which included interviewing witnesses, canvassing for evidence, and collecting and reviewing surveillance video,' police said.

Surveillance footage obtained by ABC 7 showed a grainy figure fleeing from the home after the attack. 

Police later identified 30-year-old Sergio Fraire as a person of interest in the case and executed a search warrant at his residence, less than three miles from the Varma home.

'He was taken into custody without incident, and evidence related to the crime was recovered,' Burbank Police said. 

Fraire was arrested and booked for murder and attempted murder. Formal charges against him are pending review by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. 

Police said the relationship between the suspect and the victims remains under investigation, as does the motive.

Meera, a UCLA graduate, describes herself as 'a nationally recognized Mental Health Activist and TEDx speaker with 10+ years of experience working with federal, private, and nonprofit entities,' according to her website.

'She is deeply committed to reducing [self-murder] rates through policy change and by fostering conversations about mental health on an interpersonal level.'

Arti worked as a teacher in the Burbank Unified School District for more than 15 years, according to her school biography.

'I migrated from India over 40 years ago and spent my childhood there with a loving, extended family. I miss my homeland dearly and have a deep connection with my family even to this day,' Arti wrote.  

She was a first-grade teacher at Bret Harte Elementary School and boasted about her two kids, who received an education through the public school system. 

'This news is heartbreaking. Our deepest condolences are with Ms. Varma's students, colleagues, friends, and loved ones, and with all members of the Bret Harte community who may be struggling with this loss,' Interim Superintendent Dr. Oscar Macias said in a statement.

'Words cannot fully express the sorrow we feel or the care we hold for those who are grieving.'

Her husband, and Meera's father, Rajesh Varma, was reportedly in India at the time of the attack. The whereabouts of the couple's son, 28-year-old Abhinav Varma, remain unclear.

Neighbors told the local news station that the community has been shaken by the brutal crime. 

'Is it something that we have to worry about as a neighborhood?' family friend Cristina Strattan said.

'If it's someone they know that makes it even harder to process because they were such a good people. I can't imagine someone would intentionally want to hurt them.'