Sister, firefighter, patrolman describe discovery of quadruple homicide in Winchester

By Brian R. Ballou and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

WOBURN – A Winchester woman who lost her mother, sister, nephew, and niece to murder described peering through the window of her family’s home and seeing blood staining the walls, a light switch, and the main stairwell.

Debra Stone Sochat today testified at a hearing in Middlesex Superior Court, where her brother-in-law, Thomas Mortimer IV, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder for the June 2010 killings of Ragna Ellen Stone, 64; Laura Stone Mortimer, 41; Charlotte Mortimer, 2; and Thomas “Finn” Mortimer V, who was four years old.

Mortimer’s court-appointed defense attorney, Denise Regan of the Committee on Public Counsel Services, wants Superior Court Judge Leila R. Kern to rule that some of the incriminating evidence found by police should not be used against him during his trial. According to court records, among the items found inside the home was a typed confession allegedly written by Mortimer .

Today, Sochat testified that she had called her sister’s cellphone on the morning of June 15.

Thomas Mortimer answered. “It was very unusual he would answer the phone,’’ Sochat testified. “He said about my sister, ‘She’s upstairs, she’s busy. She’ll have to call you back. It will be a while before she calls you back.’ ”

That night, Sochat said, her mother had not shown up for dinner.

A day later, Sochat testified, she stood outside the home at 2 Windsong Lane, deeply worried about what might have happened to her family.

Sochat said she did not have the key to the house she usually carried. But after seeing the bloodstains, her worry intensified and she rushed to get the help of a neighbor, Daniel P. Murphy.

Sochat and Murphy returned to the house. Murphy partially broke a door down, but then stopped and called Winchester police, who told them to stay outside.

A Winchester firefighter forced open the door and led the way inside, followed closely by Sochat and Murphy. As the firefighter turned the corner in a hallway, Sochat testified he abruptly stopped and told her to go no further.

“I walked with him, but as soon as he turned the corner, he told me to leave, that my mother had fallen,’’ Sochat testified.

She said the firefighter ordered Murphy to take her out of the house while public safety officials entered the home.

Sochat and Murphy stood underneath a nearby tree and were still there when they were told all four of her relatives had been found, and all four were dead.

Mortimer’s court-appointed defense attorney, Denise Regan of the Committee on Public Counsel Services, wants Superior Court Judge Leila R. Kern to rule that some of the incriminating evidence found by police should not be used against him during his trial.

According to court records, authorities recovered a confession allegedly written by Mortimer .

Mortimer allegedly wrote that after he and his wife quarreled over a bounced check of $2,499 he sent to the IRS, he exploded into a homicidal rage. In the confession, he allegedly blamed himself for “bottling up my anger ... until one murderous night.”

“What I have done is extremely selfish and cowardly,” the former sales executive allegedly wrote. He confessed to cutting his children’s throats and that he stabbed his wife and mother-in-law. “I took the easy way out. ... I am ashamed, frightened, relieved, surprised that I murdered my family, disgusted with myself.”

He allegedly wrote that he believed his children were better off dead than they would have been as children of a divorced couple. “Looking forward to peace but already missing terribly Finn and Charlotte,” he wrote, using his son’s nickname. “That will be my `hell.”’

“I expecially [sic] sorry to Finn that he had to witness these horrid acts,” Mortimer wrote in a paragraph that was unsealed today by the Massachusetts Appeals Court. “It was not supposed to be this way.”

Winchester Fire Lieutenant Steven B. Osborne Jr. said a call came in at 11:15 a.m. for a well-being check at 2 Windsong. He was the first person to enter the home. Two other firefighters followed him. “After opening the door I shouted ‘Hello, hello, fire department!’ and continued walking straight ahead, and I turned to the left at a hallway. I saw a person lying on the floor.”

Sitting on the witness stand, Osborne, wearing his dark-blue firefighter’s dress uniform, pointed to a large diagram of the house floor plans, to the spot where he saw the body.

“I walked to the body to see if there were any signs of life, and then I saw another body, covered with something, a cloth or a blanket. I moved the blanket back. It was a child. The child had a large wound to the neck. I immediately realized it was a crime scene and backed out of the building.”

Winchester Police Patrolman Claude P. Austin testified that the lights were on in the house when he arrived. He saw two bodies and then noticed a trail of blood leading into a foyer. He said he noticed small footprints in blood in the foyer. He followed drops of blood into the living room, where he saw two legs spread out underneath a rug. The body was lifeless, and as Austin followed the trail upstairs, he called his station to report a third body.

As Austin spoke, Sochat, seated in the front row of the courtroom, started sobbing and was consoled by relatives.

Austin said he was drawn to a room where a dog was barking and a television was on. He peeked into the room, being careful to not allow the dog to run out. The dog had already clawed away carpet and scratched the door.

Austin closed the door and continued down a hallway with another officer. He went into what appeared to be the master bedroom, and noticed blood droplets on the bed but no body. He then entered an adjacent bedroom, where the other officer called out, “We have another body!”

Austin said he found the body of a girl in a crib.

The officers then backed out of the house, as homicide investigators arrived

The hearing is continuing today.