Cousin charged in West Brookfield slays
A 32-year-old man is being held without bail after he pleaded not guilty to stabbing his cousin’s wife and her three children to death in March and then setting fire to their West Brookfield home.
Mathew Locke of Ware was arraigned in East Brookfield District Court yesterday on four counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Sara Bermudez, 38; and her children, Madison, 8; James, 6; and Michael, 2.
“I’m glad we have some sense of closure,” their father and Locke’s cousin, Moses Bermudez, said outside court. “I never thought anything like this could happen to my family. I wish things were different.”
A relative called police shortly before 4 p.m. on March 1 and told them he had found the four dead in their Old Warren Road home while Moses Bermudez was in California, according to a police report.
Officers who responded to the scene found the victims dead on the second floor, police said. All of them had stab wounds, and officers noted the odor of a recent fire and stains on the walls from smoke, the report states.
In interviews with investigators on March 3 and 23, Locke repeatedly told them he had not been to the home in six to eight weeks before the killings, according to police.
He voluntarily gave investigators a DNA sample. On March 23, the State Police Crime Lab told investigators that his sample matched the DNA found on a disrobed portion of one of the children’s bodies, police said.
On. Feb. 28, Locke’s car was seen leaving his Eddy Street home shortly before the murders and returning shortly after them, police said. He later confirmed that he had driven the car that day. Authorities have not commented on a motive for the murders.
Yesterday, Moses Bermudez said speculation that he was somehow involved in the killings was “immense.”
“We have to be patient with law enforcement,” Bermudez said. “I did want someone to be held accountable for what happened … This cuts so deep, to lose a wife and three kids.”
Locke has been in custody since March, when he was charged with misleading police.
Prosecutors said he told investigators his cousin had implied that the gang MS13 was responsible for the murders, but police said the two men didn’t see each other after the killings.
Locke’s attorney was killed last month when a crowbar crashed through his car windshield while he was driving.
Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said the investigation into the murders remains active and urged anyone with information to contact state police detectives assigned to his office at 508-832-9124 or West Brookfield police at 508-867-1405.
Locke is due back in court Oct. 18.