‘DARK DAY’ IN A DARK

DA: Father shoots wife, 12-year-old son in murder-suicide

An Andover father shot his wife and 12-yearold son before turning the gun on himself early Thursday morning at their home, authorities say.

“The incident appears to be a tragic case of domestic violence and murder-suicide,” Essex District Attorney spokesman Glen Johnson wrote in an 11:43 a.m. statement.

The family members located in the home at 48 Porter Road in Andover have been identified as father Andrew Robinson, 56; mother Linda Robinson, 55; and son Sebastian Robinson, 12, according to the update.

“Obviously, we know the how, we’re trying to figure out the why right now,” said Andover Police Chief Patrick Keefe, “so we’re going to need some time to figure that out.”

Keefe said the 911 call came from inside the home at approximately 3:21 a.m. Officials were not revealing who placed the call to 911, but did confirm that there was no one else inside other than the father, the mother and the son at the time.

Police arrived at the home about 5 minutes after the call was placed, Keefe said.

The police dispatcher, according to an audio recording uploaded online, said that he was attempting to reach the caller and that “it appears there was an altercation going on” and that he had heard the statement “Kill me now” cried in the background of the call.

“Roll an ambulance, please” a policeman responded from the scene. “Looks like there’s someone on the floor in the back.”

Police would have to break through two doors to get in, Keefe said, and make the gruesome discovery. Tucker said the investigation remains in its “preliminary stages.”

“I want to make sure the people also know that there is no danger to anyone in the public,” Tucker added in comments made outside the home Thursday morning. “We believe this is a scene that is contained at 48 Porter Road.”

It was the latest in a rash of tragic events that have plagued Greater Boston beginning with the disappearance of Ana Walshe from her Cohasset home on Jan. 1.

Her husband, Brian Walshe, was soon charged with her murder and appeared via Zoom for his latest status hearing just an hour after Essex DA Paul Tucker held a press conference announcing the initial details of the Andover tragedy.

This latest senseless killing comes after three young children died by strangulation at a home in Duxbury — with their own mother, Lindsay Clancy, 32, charged with their murders.

And the month ended with the murder of another young boy. Tyler Lawrence, just 13, who was shot to death while walking near his grandparents’ home in Mattapan. Csean Alexander Skerritt, 34, a man with a violent criminal past, was arrested for Lawrence’s murder on Monday.

Linda Robinson, then known as Linda Hachey Quinn, purchased the Andover home with her former husband Sean Quinn for roughly $1.34 million on June 27, 2003, deed records show, from the company that constructed it.

The couple took out a $975,000 mortgage.

The 20-year-old home is across the moderately busy residential street from older, more-rural looking properties in the affluent neighborhood.

Sean filed to divorce