Officer response investigated after Washington deaths
An estranged daughter helped murder her parents, brother, sister-in-law and young niece and nephew in a Christmas Eve row, it was alleged today.
Michele Anderson and her boyfriend Joseph McEnroe, both 29, who are alleged to have shot dead three generations of her family, were being questioned by police about the tragedy in remote Carnation, Washington state, today.
Meanwhile police were investigating why two officers responding to an emergency call from the family’s trailer home around the time of the shootings left without checking inside.
The victims were Wayne Anderson, 60, his wife Judy ,61, their son Scott, his wife, Erica and their two children, Olivia six and Nathan three.
Authorities are trying to discover why deputies did not fully investigate an emergency calls on Christmas Eve that came from the house.
It ended after about 10 seconds, and the operator reported hearing “a lot of yelling in the background … sounded more like party noise than angry heated arguing”.
Operators twice called back, but both calls went on to answer machine.
About 30 minutes later two deputies arrived at the property which stands alone at the end of a long dirt road, but found a locked gate and did not enter. The dispatcher’s log reported the deputies saying: “Gate is locked, unable to gain access.”
“They didn’t go past it,” a spokesman said. “I don’t know why yet. That’s one of the things we’re looking into.”
He said the bodies were found by a colleague of one of the victims who had gone to the house because they did not report for work with the US Postal Service.
