Docs reveal new details in Peabody double homicide
Chilling details of how a couple were slaughtered in a Peabody house of horrors — as well as the terror experienced by a grandfather carjacked and held hostage for hours by one of the suspects — have emerged in newly filed documents.
The Herald first reported yesterday that builder Mark Greenlaw, 37, was killed by a shotgun blast to the head, and his girlfriend Jennifer O’Connor, 40, a Stop & Shop clerk, was fatally stabbed in the neck and torso, according to their death certificates at Peabody City Hall.
Their bodies were dumped Feb. 18 in the garbage-stuffed cellar of a since-condemned bungalow on Farm Avenue. They were not dismembered, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office said, squelching rumors that began with authorities’ initial report they didn’t know how many victims they had.
Wes Cameron Doughty, 39, of Danvers, and Michael C. Hebb, 45, of Peabody, are now in custody, charged with murder and held without bail after days on the run. Doughty, captured Friday in Boiling Springs, S.C., days after a nationwide fugitive alert was posted, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Peabody District Court. Doughty, his body tense, angrily complained his handcuffs were too tight as a court officer told him to relax.
“Everyone has heard the commonwealth’s version of events. Today, the defense investigation begins. And as more facts come out, we’ll let you know what’s going on,” Doughty’s courtappointed attorney, John Apruzzese, said afterward. Judge James D. Barretto impounded Doughty’s and Hebb’s case files, as well as search warrants executed at the crime scene and the Peabody apartment where Hebb was captured last week.
Doughty is also facing charges of armed carjacking, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and kidnapping. A criminal complaint in Salem District Court states Doughty carjacked a 64-year-old man in a parking lot in Middleton last week, cutting the man’s throat with a pocket knife as he tried to flee. The man lived, and was freed three hours later in Boston’s South End.