Murder-suicide announced on website

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A man who Boston police say was responsible for an apparent murder-suicide last night in a West End high-rise announced the couple's deaths on his own website.

The man was identified by police today as Christian Mogensen, 61. His wife was 60-year-old Sharon Glassman.

Mogensen was a computer engineer who ran his own business out of their Emerson place apartment. He updated his website recently so it had an all black background and a sepia photograph of the couple in which they appear to be standing in City Hall Plaza on their wedding day, which is listed as Dec. 24, 1996.

On the website, he lists his name, his date of birth -- and his date of death of Sept. 28, 2008.

The same information is posted for Glassman -- her date of birth, her name, and the date of death of Sept. 28, 2008.

Glassman worked for the last two years at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where she was an administrative assistant in the burn center.

"Sharon was a vibrant and beloved member of our community -- we offer our support and our prayers and extend our sympathies to her family and friends,'' hospital spokesman Peter Brown said in a statement.

Between 2004 and 2006, she held similar support staff position in the radiology department at Massachusetts General Hospital, an MGH spokeswoman said today.

Mogensen did not use his Web page to explain his homicidal actions. The couple did not have a divorce action pending in Eastern Massachusetts probate courts, according to a court official.

According to a law enforcement source, Mogensen made a 911 call around 10:30 p.m. and told the dispatcher, "Just killed my wife. When you come to the door, I am going to shoot myself.''

Police called in their SWAT team and evacuated portions of the high-rise on Emerson Place, near Massachusetts General Hospital. Police eventually entered the Mogensens' apartment on the 20th floor.

"When officers entered, they first observed a white female lying unresponsive," police said today in a statement. "Officers also observed an unresponsive white male in the apartment. Both victims were pronounced on scene.''

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