CHELSEA — The teenager charged with murder in the deaths of two people at a Windsor Road home on Wednesday was the foster child of one of the victims and had previously threatened to kill both victims, relatives said.

On Friday, Maine State Police evidence technicians continued to work at the site of the killings, collecting evidence and loading large plastic tubs and furniture wrapped in black tarps into white vans with biohazard symbols stenciled on their sides.

Maine State Police identified the victims as Christopher Hunnewell, 43, and Ty Carter, 22. Family members told the Morning Sentinel, however, that Carter was adopted and went by Tyler Carter Hunnewell.

The Morning Sentinel is not identifying the 16-year-old accused in the killings because he is a juvenile.

Jessie Carter, Christopher Hunnewell’s wife, stopped by her home midday Friday and spoke with reporters.

“He took half my world in 20 minutes,” Carter said. “I feel betrayed. I feel like he took something from me that I can never get back.”

A cousin of Christopher Hunnewell said the family had repeatedly warned social services officials that the teen needed psychiatric help but was told no beds were available.

Danica Zirkle, 40, of Burlington, Vermont, told the Morning Sentinel that Hunnewell and his adopted son were killed in a knife attack Wednesday after a caseworker had come to the house and told the teen that he was being placed in a new foster home. Zirkle said Ty Carter’s fiancée was seriously injured in the attack inside the home but was able to escape and call 911.

Jessie Carter and two daughters were not home when the teen attacked Hunnewell with a knife, Zirkle said. The boy then called Ty Carter and his fiancée downstairs, where he began to attack her after Ty went to his father’s aid. Ty interrupted the attack and was killed as she fled, Zirkle said. The woman suffered serious head injuries and has undergone surgery, she said.

Teen is victim’s cousin

The teen is Christopher Hunnewell’s cousin, Zirkle said. Hunnewell and his wife took the boy in about two years ago to try to help him because he suffered from mental and behavioral issues, she said.

“I know that within the last 30 days, a notebook detailing how he planned to murder them was found,” Zirkle said, “and the caseworker was made aware of this. I also know that it was recommended at one point in time that he be placed into psychiatric inpatient care and my family was told they were ‘waiting for a bed.'”

Zirkle said that the caseworker apparently visited Wednesday afternoon and — before informing the Hunnewells — told the boy he would have to be placed in a new foster home several hours north of Chelsea. The murders occurred soon after that, she said.

“There is a witness — Ty’s fiancée was there. She was injured severely but survived, and her statement is how we know what happened.”

The reasons Christopher Hunnewell, whom family members called CJ, wanted to help his teenaged cousin ran deep, Zirkle said.

“CJ was a survivor of abuse and himself had been in foster care in his early years because his mother was also killed during a violent altercation,” she said.

Hunnewell’s wife had known early on in the foster relationship that something was wrong.

“Families are families, and families have issues, but this kid had a lot of issues,” Jessie Carter said.

Carter said her husband refused to give up on the youth.

“He was just sick. I knew for a long time if he stayed that something terrible would happen,” she said. “I just didn’t think it would be this.”

Carter said she would like the youth to be charged as an adult.

“People are saying, ‘Oh, this kid snapped’ and stuff, but there’s things we have discovered that led up to (this),” she said.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment when contacted Friday.

“Thanks for reaching out,” spokesperson Lindsay Hammes said. “As a matter of statute, the department is prohibited by state and federal confidentiality laws from offering comment.”

Christopher Hunnewell worked as a direct service worker for people with cognitive disabilities, Zirkle said. Ty Carter was preparing to get married and start college, as he wanted to be a graphic designer and animation engineer.

“CJ and Ty were both strong and caring men,” she said. “CJ was an incredibly resilient, intelligent person. He was kind and wanted to try and help this young man because they were family.”

Growing up together

Zirkle recalled the close bond she and her cousin developed when they were children growing up in Portland, Gardiner and Chelsea.

“CJ was more like a brother to me — we both had so few direct family members we could count on. We saw each other at least once per year, usually more. CJ and I lived in the same building as young kids,” Zirkle said. “My grandmother rented an apartment to my parents, and she and CJ lived downstairs, in Portland on Houlton Street. Again when I moved to Gardiner and Chelsea, my grandmother took care of us all.”

Zirkle believes that the state failed the teen accused of the killings. Maine, she said, has a dire lack of resources allocated for mental health. Zirkle and Christopher Hunnewell are cousins through their mothers. The foster boy was Hunnewell’s cousin on his father’s side, she said.

As she grieves in the aftermath of the tragic deaths, Zirkle struggles with the circumstances.

“It’s the stuff of nightmares,” she said. “I’m still processing. I’m also so shocked that there is no way to hold the state liable. It’s unfathomable.”

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice, juvenile offenders were involved in about 1,122 murders in the U.S. in 2020, representing about 8% of all known murder offenders. Between 1994 and 2003, the estimated number of murders involving a juvenile fell 65% to its lowest level since at least 1980, the office website says. The estimated number of juvenile murder offenders between 2003 and 2006 increased 28% and then fell 42% through 2013. That decline was followed by an 83% increase through 2020.

Maine State Police troopers were called to the home at 616 Windsor Road Wednesday and found the two men dead when they arrived just after 8:30 p.m., Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

“A juvenile male was arrested at the scene and charged with murder,” Moss said in the statement. “He was taken into custody and transported to Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland.”

Detectives and evidence response technicians with the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit Central processed the scene and the bodies were taken to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta, where autopsies were expected be conducted to determine the cause and manner of death.

Chelsea town records list Christopher Hunnewell as the owner of 616 Windsor Road, as well as a property at 630 Windsor Road. Zirkle said 616 Windsor was the former home of her and Christopher Hunnewell’s grandmother.

Staff Writer Dylan Tusinski contributed to this report.