Couple who had just celebrated their 50th anniversary are brutally murdered in their Massachusetts home: Cops hunt for suspect as they tell people in their neighborhood to lock their doors
- Three elderly people were found murdered in their home in Massachusetts
- They included an elderly couple and the woman’s mother, in her late 90s
- Police said there was evidence of a break in and told locals to lock their doors
An elderly couple that failed to appear at church on Sunday to renew their wedding vows in a celebration of their 50th anniversary were later found murdered in their home, along with the wife’s mother who was in her late 90s.
The unidentified couple, who were described as ‘fantastic Italian people who wouldn’t hurt a soul’, had celebrated their wedding anniversary on Saturday night and were due to renew their vows at Our Lady Help of Christians Church on Sunday.
The three were found at their home in Nonantum, an Italian-American neighborhood east of Boston, by a neighbor who had been checking on them at around 10.14am – nearly an hour after the day’s mass began.
All three were said to have died of stab wounds and blunt-force trauma. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan confirmed at a news conference on Sunday night that there were signs the house had been broken into.
Police advised residents to keep their doors closed and check their surveillance cameras in case anything had been captured on video but had not identifies any suspects as of Sunday night.
The unidentified Italian couple and the woman’s mother, who was in her late 90s, were found by a neighbor in their home outside of Boston
Police said there was evidence of forced entry into the elderly couple’s home and a separate incidence of burglary was reported that morning around half a mile away
The elderly couple were expected at church on Sunday morning but did not show up, causing a neighbor to check in on them at their house (pictured)
Jim Sbordone, a retired Newton Fire Department lieutenant who was also close friends with the victims, told The Boston Globe that the family had long been patrons of the nearby Our Lady Help of Christians Church.
‘They were fantastic Italian people who wouldn’t hurt a soul, and they would just do anything for anybody,’ Sbordone told the newspaper.
‘These were great people.
‘This isn’t the type of thing that happens in the neighborhood,’ he said. ‘I hope it never happens again to anybody.’
There was a separate attempted burglary on Sunday morning at around 5.40am half a mile away in the town of Newtonville, police said.
Ryan said authorities were still working to establish if the two events were related and if so, in what order they had occurred.
She said an investigation was ongoing and told residents to report anything suspicious.
‘This is the night to lock your doors and windows even if you do not normally do that.
‘It’s a warm night, people may have air conditioners going, be vigilant,’ she said during the conference.
Their three bodies were reported to police soon after 10am on Sunday morning
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan (pictured at the lectern) said authorities were still working to establish if the triple murder and another incident around half a mile away were related
Newton Police Chief Chief John F. Carmichael Jr. said that there would be additional police presence on the streets on Sunday night.
A neighbor that lives two doors down from the couple but wanted to remain anonymous also expressed confusion and shock at such a seemingly arbitrary act of violence.
‘Why them?’ they told The Boston Herald. ‘Why a nice couple like them? Why this neighborhood? Nothing like this happens in this neighborhood.’
He said the victims were a ‘very, very nice couple’.