Web page portends death of couple

Christian Mogensen's Web page depicts a date of death for him and his wife, Sharon Glassman.

Burdened by debt and facing eviction, a self-employed Boston computer consultant killed his wife and then shot himself Sunday night - but not before leaving a chilling posting on his Internet website announcing their deaths, according to the posting, Boston police, and court records.

Christian Mogensen, 61, was inside the couple's 20th-floor apartment in Charles River Park when he shot and killed his wife of almost 12 years, 60-year-old Sharon Glassman, with a single gunshot around 9:30 p.m., authorities said. He shot himself a short time afterward, police said.

Glassman's stepmother and a co-worker at Brigham and Women's Hospital were stunned by the sudden end to her life.

"She was fine" during a conversation they had earlier on Sunday, her stepmother, Alice Glassman, said in a telephone interview yesterday. "They must have had a big argument."

A hospital co-worker, Donna Cutillo, said in a telephone interview that Glassman was a "very lovely, lovely person. We were all shocked by the news."

According to a law enforcement source briefed on the investigation, Mogensen apparently became despondent over mounting financial problems. Investigators were trying to determine whether the shooting deaths were a joint decision or whether Mogensen acted on his own.

Mogensen owed about $28,500 in consumer debt, according to records at Boston Municipal Court, dating to 1994 in two separate loan packages. Collection efforts were active as recently as 2006, when the companies owed money were given the right to collect their debts from Mogensen, records show.

A more pressing financial problem was back rent. The couple owed $6,100 in rent and their landlord, Equity Properties of Chicago, had obtained an eviction order from Boston Housing Court, records show.

An Equity spokesman said company policy prohibits talking to reporters about its tenants.

Mogensen, in a 911 call relayed from State Police to Boston police, told a dispatcher about the shooting. "Just killed my wife," Mogensen said in the telephone call, according to Boston police. "When you come to the door, I am going to shoot myself."

Arriving officers evacuated other 20th-floor residents while awaiting a SWAT team. Witnesses said that before the team arrived, they heard two gunshots.

Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said SWAT officers learned about Mogensen's Internet death posting while they were outside the apartment.

Mogensen was a computer industry consultant who ran his business out of the couple's apartment since 2001. Before that, Mogensen worked for a variety of high-tech companies in the Boston area, according to the resume he posted on his website.

At some point - it was not known when - Mogensen updated his website. When done, the site 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.

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

Police waited until 1:30 a.m. to force their way inside, Driscoll said. Once inside, police confirmed that the couple were dead.

The couple apparently did not have any children, according to law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation.

The couple did not have any known history of domestic violence.

The law enforcement sources said police had not been to the apartment before Sunday, no restraining order was issued by a court, and there was no divorce action pending in probate courts.

Neither had a history of violence and neither was licensed to buy or own firearms.

Cutillo, the co-worker, said she had gotten to know Glassman over the last two years and found her to be a caring, unselfish person. Last year, during a bad snowstorm, Cutillo, Glassman, and a third person stayed at the hospital until they knew they were not needed.

As they made their way home, Glassman and the other person stopped to push a car out of a snow bank, Cutillo recalled.

"She was a very, very nice person," said Cutillo, who added "there was no sign I could recognize" of domestic troubles.

Glassman was a program manager at Brigham and Women's burn center. Before that, she was a secretary in the radiology department at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2004 to 2006.

A neighbor of the couple at Charles River Park, Kathleen Carriere, said last night she often saw Mogensen in the lobby chatting with the concierge.

Carriere said she was shocked by the deaths and how Mogensen had posted the death announcement on his web page.

"It gave me a feeling like you can see people every day, and not know what's going on in their heads," she said. "It was chilling."