2 face death penalty in Christmas Eve massacre

updated 7:30 p.m. ET Oct. 16, 2008

SEATTLE - A prosecutor in Seattle said he will seek the death penalty against a woman and her boyfriend who are charged with killing six of the woman's family members on Christmas Eve.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said he has been weighing the decision for 10 months and made his decision based on the magnitude of the crimes.

Michele Anderson and Joseph McEnroe face charges of aggravated first-degree murder in the shootings of three generations of Anderson's family.

Anderson confessed to authorities that both of them shot her parents, brother and sister-in-law, while McEnroe killed the two children, according to a separate affidavit. No motive has been given for the deaths.

The defendants pleaded not guilty, but Michele Anderson has said repeatedly she hopes to be executed for the shootings at her parents' home near Carnation, east of Seattle.

McEnroe and Anderson, who had been together for six years, lived in a trailer about 200 yards from her parents' house.

The court documents indicate the couple tried to flee to Canada after the killings, but for some reason returned the following day to the scene, where they were detained and confessed.

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