Couple celebrating 50th wedding anniversary are stabbed to death
CTV
Authorities announced late Monday that they had arrested a 41-year-old man in the weekend killing of a Massachusetts couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, along with another family member, in the small city outside Boston.
Authorities announced late Monday that they had arrested a 41-year-old man in the weekend killing of a Massachusetts couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, along with another family member, in the small city outside Boston.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said police took Christopher Ferguson, of Newton, into custody Monday evening and charged him with the killing of 73-year-old Gilda "Jill" D'Amore after an autopsy revealed she had died from a homicide. Ferguson was also charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and burglary.
Additional charges were expected in the death of 74-year-old Bruno D'Amore and Jill's mother, 97-year-old Lucia Arpino, Tuesday after those autopsies have been completed. Ferguson was expected to appear in court Tuesday or Wednesday.
Ryan said it appeared there was no connection between the three and Ferguson and that police had found signs of forced entry into the basement. She described a chaotic scene in which there were "obvious signs of struggle" in the house where the killings took place. A crystal paper weight was covered in blood, and furniture was broken.
The big break in the case came when authorities were able to match a bloody footprint to that of Ferguson, who lived in the neighborhood, she said. They also collected blood stains near the footprints and bloody fingerprints on the screens and windows from the house, Ryan said.
"This kind of work, this kind of really dogged gathering of evidence and processing in this short period of time in an attempt to both to determine what happened to these families members and also to restore a sense of safety to this community ... has led to the charges this afternoon," she said.
The killings have rattled the small community of Newton and the Our Lady Help of Christians Church, where some of family members were parishioners.
