Chilling details emerge in Wash. family massacre

updated 6:16 p.m. ET Dec. 28, 2007

SEATTLE - After slaughtering their parents before their eyes, Joseph McEnroe apologized to his girlfriend's young niece and nephew before shooting both point-blank in the head to end a Christmas Eve massacre, prosecutors alleged Friday as they filed aggravated first-degree murder charges.

Although he outlined in detail the attack that left six members of Michele Anderson's family dead in the rural city of Carnation, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg was at a loss to explain the motive behind the crimes to which the McEnroe and Anderson confessed.

"In the end, what motive could you find that would make sense of the senseless slaying of the Anderson family?" Satterberg said. The couple is being charged with the only crime punishable by death in Washington. He has 30 days to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

"I pledge to give this case serious consideration for the state's ultimate punishment."

The two face an arraignment on Jan. 9.

The father died first
Court documents said McEnroe, a store clerk, and Anderson, who is unemployed, told detectives they armed themselves on Christmas Eve and went to her parent's home near Carnation, about 25 miles east of Seattle.

There, they confronted Anderson's parents, Wayne Anderson, 60, and Judy Anderson, 61, in their living room.

Michele Anderson told detectives her brother, a carpenter, had failed to pay her back money he borrowed years earlier and she was upset with her parents for failing to side with her. Additionally, she said her parents were pressuring her to start paying rent for staying in the trailer on their property.

"Michele stated that she was tired of everybody stepping on her," the court papers say. "She stated that she was upset with her parents and her brother and that if the problems did not get resolved on Dec. 24, then her intent was definitely to kill everybody."

Satterberg said Michele Anderson fired once at her father's head but missed. McEnroe stepped in, leveled his gun and fatally shot Wayne Anderson in the head.

'You don't have to do this'
Judy Anderson heard the shots and ran from the back room where she had been wrapping gifts. She was shot by McEnroe, who apologized to her before shooting her again, this time in the head, the court documents said.

Satterberg said that during the next 30 to 45 minutes, the two dragged the bodies to a shed behind the house, used towels and carpets to sop up blood stains. They awaited the arrival of the dead couple's son, Scott, his wife, Erica, both 32, and their 3-year-old son, Nathan, and 6-year-old daughter, Olivia, for a Christmas Eve visit.

Her brother and sister-in-law put up a brave struggle, according to the documents.

"Michele told detectives that Scott charged her when she pulled out the gun and that she shot him at least twice and maybe as many as four times," court documents stated.

Michele then shot Erica Anderson twice, but she was able to crawl over the back of a couch to call authorities.

McEnroe told detectives he tore the phone from Erica's hands and destroyed it.

Huddling with her children, Erica Anderson pleaded with McEnroe not to shoot her, saying: "You don't have to do this."

McEnroe told her: "Yes, we do,"' and shot her in the head, according to the affidavit.

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