A man who lived in Denver and Englewood in the early 1990s is the subject of a nationwide manhunt after his wife, two young children and mother-in-law were found dead Wednesday in an affluent Boston suburb.
Thomas Mortimer IV, 43, lived in apartments on South Forest Street in Englewood and South Quebec Street in Denver from 1990 until he moved to Boston in 1995, public records show.
Investigators described a horrific scene at the Mortimer home in Winchester, about eight miles north of Boston, though authorities have not said how the victims died.
“Having been at the scene, I can tell you it was horrific, disturbing and unspeakable, and the acts do not appear to be random,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone said at a terse news conference today. He did not elaborate and declined to take questions.
He identified the dead as 64-year-old Ellen Stone, her 41-year-old daughter, Laura Stone Mortimer, and Laura’s two children, 4-year-old Thomas Mortimer V and 2-year-old Charlotte Mortimer.
Thomas and Laura Mortimer had been married seven years, the Boston Globe reported.
Investigators declined to discuss a possible motive.
Thomas Mortimer IV also has previously lived in Avon, Conn., and Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
The Boston Globe reported that he is thought to be driving a silver Toyota Highlander.
Anil Shah, the president of M&R Consultants – which hired Thomas Mortimer about two weeks ago — told the Globe that Mortimer called in sick Tuesday and was also absent from work Wednesday.
Some neighbors said Laura and Thomas Mortimer were going through marital problems, but Shelley Smyth, who grew up in the neighborhood and whose parents still live there, said there were no outward signs of discord between the couple.
“There was no sign of that, they looked like a happy family,” she said. “That’s why we are in shock, they looked so happy.”
Laura Mortimer was a senior economist with the commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis.
Police, firefighters and relatives found the victims when they broke into their home at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday after other family members said they had not been able to reach them since Monday night, the prosecutor said.
Neighbors on the quiet street expressed shock as they watched investigators come and go at the two-story yellow house roped off with crime scene tape.
A visibly distressed woman who said she was friends with Ellen Stone drove up to the house and began to tremble when she heard that the children were not spared. She quickly drove away, in tears, before identifying herself.
