Man slaughters family after row
A man killed his wife, two young children and mother-in-law in their suburban home after a family argument.
Police in Massachusetts captured 43-year-old Thomas Mortimer IV yesterday.
He appeared in court today on four charges of first-degree murder and was remanded in custody.
The bodies of the women and the children, a boy of four and girl of two, were found on Wednesday in their home in the middle-class Boston suburb of Winchester.
They all appeared to have been stabbed or bludgeoned to death.
Prosecutors said he wrote two identical letters found in the house that read: “I did these horrible things. What I’ve done was extremely selfish and cowardly. I murdered my family.”
A father and son saw Mortimer’s vehicle yesterday and alerted police.
He was arrested in Bernardston, about 100 miles from Boston.
Police would not say how the victims died, but District Attorney Gerry Leone described it as a “horrific, disturbing and unspeakable” scene.
His office said the killings followed an argument.
