A day of celebration turned into tragedy after a couple and the wife’s mom were found stabbed to death in their Newton, Massachusetts, home on Sunday.
The night before the murders, Jill and Bruno D’Amore, 73 and 74, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, the Daily Mail reported. The couple were supposed to renew their wedding vows surrounded by friends and family during Sunday’s service at Our Lady Help of Christians Church, but they never showed up.
The couple’s bodies along with the body of Jill’s mother Lucia Arpino, 97, were discovered at 10:14 a.m., shortly after mass started, by a concerned neighbor.
The couple lived just a mile from the church in the Italian American neighborhood of Nonantum, the Boston Globe reported. According to a tribute written by family members, Lucia had attended mass at the church every Sunday for more than 60 years.
According to the church’s pastor, Dan Riley the couple were “the best vision you could have of a Catholic Italian-American family.’
The three victims suffered stab wounds and blunt force trauma. Authorities said evidence shows the house was broken into.
District Attorney Marian Ryan said there was an attempted break-in at 5:45 a.m. on Sunday at a house just a half mile away from where the victims lived. It is uncertain if there is any connection between these two incidents, and investigators are still figuring out when the slayings occurred.
“This is the night to lock your doors and windows, even if you do not normally do that,” Ryan said.
The neighborhood is quite shaken up by the loss of the three, and preparations for a vigil are underway.
“People are scared, they are not getting complete information,” Fran Yerardi, a longtime neighborhood advocate told the Globe. “Everyone is distraught over this.”
Jill helped with “beautifying” the religious space by changing the flowers and decorating with each liturgical season. Rev. Dan Riley has known the couple for six years.
“They were great people,” Riley said. “They had family warmth, a tomato garden outside, and hospitality. They were just great people.”
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