Mass. man to be arraigned in slayings of wife, mother-in-law, 2 children in suburban home

Mass. man to be arraigned in 4 relatives’ slayings

WOBURN, Mass. — A man accused of killing his wife, two children and mother-in-law in their home and writing letters claiming credit for “horrible things” was set to be arraigned Friday.

Thomas Mortimer IV, prosecutors say, wrote two identical letters found in his Boston-area home that read: “I did these horrible things. What I’ve done was extremely selfish and cowardly. I murdered my family.”

Mortimer, 43, was captured Thursday by police in northwestern Massachusetts hours after he was charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths.

The day before, authorities were summoned to the Mortimer family’s home in Winchester by a relative who could not reach them.

Police officers found carnage: The bloodied body of Mortimer’s 41-year-old wife, Laura Stone Mortimer, and their son, Thomas Mortimer V, were in the front hallway. Not far away, the lifeless body of Mortimer’s mother-in-law, Ellen Stone, was under an oriental rug.

And upstairs, at the end of a trail of blood, was the body of Mortimer’s 2-year-old daughter, Charlotte Mortimer, in her crib.

All appeared to have been killed by blunt trauma and sharp objects, prosecutors said.

District Attorney Gerry Leone said there were signs Mortimer had attempted suicide before he fled the home, in an upper middle-class suburb north of Boston.

Leone said the slayings followed a fight and “ongoing marital discord.”

The discovery of the bodies led to a search for Mortimer, with police issuing alerts about his sport utility vehicle on electronic signs across the state. A man who had seen news reports about the search and recognized the SUV called police — after helping Mortimer jump-start his stalled vehicle in Montague.

Mortimer was spotted by police in Bernardston, about 100 miles from Boston, and was captured after a brief pursuit.

Leone said the slayings appeared to have taken place between late Monday and early Tuesday, the day Mortimer called in sick to work and called his son’s school to say he wouldn’t be in.

Leone said Mortimer’s wife’s sister, Debra Stone, tried to call her Tuesday but he answered her cell phone, which was unusual.

Mortimer told Stone, “It’s going to be a while before she can get back to you,” Leone said.

Mortimer was scheduled to be arraigned in Woburn District Court for the killings, which the prosecutor described as “brutal and unspeakable.”

Mortimer had recently landed a job at M&R Consultants Corp., a Burlington technology consulting firm, after several months of unemployment, said Anil Shah, the company’s president.

“He was very professional, very nice guy … always very positive,” Shah said. “Somehow my heart doesn’t believe he could be involved in anything that he’s been charged with.”

Mortimer had left a message for his supervisor around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday to say he wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be at work, Shah said. About two hours later, Mortimer told a co-worker he had been up sick all night and would be back at work on Wednesday, Shah said.

Authorities had camped out at Mortimer’s parents’ home in Avon, Conn., in case he showed up there. Leone said it was possible that Mortimer, after driving west through Massachusetts, intended to pick up a highway that leads south into Connecticut.

Mortimer’s father, Thomas Mortimer III, declined comment Thursday and appealed for privacy for his family.