GROTON, Mass. — A 22-year-old Rockport man is facing four murder charges in connection with what authorities said was a brutal domestic violence crime in Groton, Massachusetts, on Friday.
Police in Groton found two women and a man dead inside a house and another woman’s body outside Friday night. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said the victims – an elderly man and woman and two middle-aged women – appeared to have died of blunt force trauma.
Their identities and other details had not been released Saturday pending notification of next of kin, but authorities said they believe all parties were known to each other and that this was “a tragic incident of family violence.”
Neighbor Wagner Alcocer, 52, said the suspect, Orion Krause, showed up at his back door Friday evening, naked and muddy with blood splattered on his face, and said he “just murdered four people” after asking for help.
“I was totally shaken,” Alcocer told The Sun newspaper in Lowell, Massachusetts. “I didn’t want him to run, so I told him to go to the backyard and sit in a chair.”
When asked where his clothes were, Krause said they were in the woods, Alcocer said.
Alcocer said he contacted authorities after Krause was seated, and two officers showed up and spoke to Krause. Alcocer and his wife, Thekla, gave police a sheet to cover him. Krause was questioned and taken away on a stretcher.
Alcocer said he was in disbelief about the deaths until police later confirmed the killings.
“Your neighbors. It’s shocking. At first, I couldn’t believe it,” Alcocer told The Boston Globe. “He’s just a kid. How could someone have the strength?”
Alcocer didn’t immediately return a message left for him by The Associated Press on Saturday.
Authorities said Krause will be charged with four counts of murder. A possible weapon was found. It wasn’t known Saturday if Krause is represented by a lawyer.
Ryan called the slayings “a situation of tragic family violence.” Groton Police Chief Donald Palma Jr. said the killings weren’t a random act and “the town is safe.”
The Sun reported that the killings are believed to be the first homicide case in Groton since 1996. The town is located about 43 miles northwest of Boston.
According to the town’s website, a community vigil will be held Sunday for the four victims.
Krause attended Camden Hills Regional High School. Archives of the Courier-Gazette say that he won a maestro award for a drum solo in his senior year. In 2014, he was the drummer for the band Mostly Brothers & Company.
He also studied jazz at Oberlin Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio.
Stephen Betts of the Courier Gazette contributed to this report.
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