A man whose wife, two children and mother-in-law were found slain in the family's Winchester, Massachusetts home in 2010 has pleaded guilty, according to WHDH.
Thomas Mortimer IV was charged him with four counts of murder and was taken into custody in Bernardston, Massachusetts after the bodies of 4-year-old Thomas Mortimer V, 2-year-old Charlotte Mortimer, their mother, Laura Stone-Mortimer, 41, and her mother Ellen Ragna Stone, 64, were found inside the Mortimers' Windsong Lane home.
He entered the plea on Wednesday in a Massachusetts court.
The Boston Globe reports that Mortimer's confession said he went into a "homicidal rage" during an argument with his wife over a $2,499 check he wrote to the IRS that bounced.
Before Mortimer was found in Massachusetts, police went to Mortimer’s parents’ Avon home.
The Boston Globe reported that Thomas Mortimer IV had been out of work for about a year when his family was killed, but had recently secured a job as a software salesman and that he, his wife and children had lived with Ellen Ragna Stone and were waiting until the economy improved to buy their own house.
According to the district attorney's office in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Mortimer wanted to use his children's college funds to pay for his bail and legal fees. Because of this, a bill was filed in the state legislature to prevent a murder suspect from using victim's estate for defense fees.
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No additional details are yet available.
