Cops: Man attacked mom, 81, and sister
A Melrose man who blamed his sister and 81-year-old mother for his eviction and other troubles tied them up and brutally beat them with a rubber mallet over the course of four hours after sawing his way into his sister’s apartment, authorities said.
John C. Ferreira’s eyes never left the ground yesterday as he was arraigned in Malden District Court on 10 counts, including attempted murder, home invasion, kidnapping with serious bodily injury and assault to murder.
“I want to see his face,” whispered his 58-yearold sister, her face badly bruised and swollen, as she shuffled, aided by a walker and her son, up to Judge Cesar Archilla, who extended restraining orders that she and her mother had against her brother.
Archilla also ordered Ferreira, 54, to be held without bail until a hearing Wednesday, when the judge will decide whether he is too dangerous to be released under any conditions.
At about 9 p.m. last Friday, officers were dispatched to a Vinton Street home in Melrose, where they were met outside by the defendant’s mother, who was covered in blood and told them her son had fled in a red Toyota, according to a police report.
She directed them to the second floor of the house, where they found the walls splattered with blood and her daughter lying on the floor, her face swollen and bloodied, her ankles bound with zip ties and electrical tape to a chair, police said. The evidence officers gathered from the scene included two of her teeth.
“He’s going to kill me,” she told them, according to the report.
Her mother told them Ferreira had taken her daughter’s ATM card, forced her to reveal the PIN number and taken off in her Toyota Corolla, police said.
The two women were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Police said Ferreira used a saw to cut a 4-by-4-foot hole into his sister’s apartment, where he waited until she returned home around 4 p.m. Then he sprayed insect repellant in her eyes, tried to strangle her with duct tape and attacked her with a rubber mallet, Assistant District Attorney Carrie Spiros said.
Their mother, who lives in the same house, heard the commotion and was seriously injured as she tried to shield her daughter from the blows, police said.
As his sister drifted in and out of consciousness, they said, Ferreira told the women he blamed them “for how things ended up for him.”
After Ferreira’s arraignment yesterday, his nephew said he wanted to thank Melrose first responders, as well as the Westboro police who found his uncle.
“We’re just glad this ordeal is over,” he said.