Alleged hit man confesses to 1980 Cape murder, implicates husband, court records say

Jack Atwood, Carriere's attorney, ridiculed the evidence against his client. He said it rests on Stewart's word, and that of a dead man, Richard Grebauski of Wareham, who was also charged in the case but died before he went to trial.

"The case is relatively weak and based on the statement of a rat," Atwood said.

An attorney for the Carrieres' now-adult children said they are supporting Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe's prosecution of their father for the death of their mother.

"They are ecstatic that their father has finally been brought to justice for her murder," said Terrance O'Connell, an attorney and private investigator for the children. "The family has been seeking justice for their mother for 30 years."

However, the youngest sibling, Ginger Kirby, was in the courtroom with her own son, Eric Kirby. both of whom gave a wave to Edmond Carriere when he appeared in the prisoner's dock today. Afterward, Kirby explained why he offered the wave to his grandfather.

"Because we love him,'' he said.

When she was 14 years old, Ginger accompanied her father to Florida, helping provide an alibi that showed Carriere was not in Bourne on Jan 3, 1980, when Frances Carriere was found murdered inside the family home.

"She is torn," O'Connell said of Ginger. "Who wants to believe their father can execute this horrific murder?'"

Carriere was arrested Friday at his Head of the Bay Road home, the same house where his wife was found with four stab wounds, including one to her heart, and defensive cuts on her hands and arms.

Stewart, in his alleged confession, said that Carriere paid $10,000 for the killing, and that Grebauski told him the murder had to be committed before Carriere returned from Florida. Stewart said he and Grebauski split the money, according to the police report.

Stewart, according to a police report filed in court, allegedly confessed that Grebauski handed him a fishing knife and that he then broke into Carriere's house in January 1980.

He encountered Frances Carriere just as she was entering a second-floor bathroom. The terrified woman ran into the bathroom, closing the door behind her, according to the statement.

“Stewart stated he forced the door open and grabbed Frances by the neck and began to squeeze her neck,” according to the police report filed in court today. Stewart told police the woman hit her head on a metal radiator. He then began stabbing her.

Afterwards, Stewart told police, he reported back to Grebauski.

"Stewart stated that he phoned Grebauski and told him the job was done,'' according to the report. “Stewart then told investigators that he left the area, discarded the knife in the ocean and returned to Brockton where he lived.''

Stewart was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2005. But the Supreme Judicial Court last year overturned that conviction, setting the stage for his alleged confession to prosecutors just before a new trial got underway.

Grebauski died in a motor vehicle crash while visiting Carriere in 2005.

(Globe correspondent Vince DeWitt contributed to this report.)