The Hartford woman who was charged with the slayings of a Griswold husband and wife and their 21-year-old son told police that she committed the slayings with her brother and that the couple’s son was involved with the plan to rob the house, according to court documents.
Ruth Correa, 23, of Hartford, was charged with murder, murder with special circumstances, robbery, arson and home invasion in connection with the deaths of 56-year-old Kenneth Lindquist, his 61-year-old wife, Janet Lindquist, and their 21-year-old son, Matthew Lindquist on Dec. 20, 2017.
Correa’s brother, 26-year-old Sergio Correa, has not been charged in the case. His attorney told NBC Connecticut that he has been made aware an arrest warrant has been issued for his client for murder in the case in New London County. The attorney said his client maintains his innocence.
Court documents released Tuesday reveal new, graphic information about the case, what led police to arrest Correa and what she told them about what happened on that December night.
Text messages detailed in the court documents show that Matthew Lindquist promised to give one of the Correas guns in exchange for drugs and cash.
Lindquist wrote: “U give me the cash when I show u safe right?”
“Cause I know there’s at least 2 guns”
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The response from the Correa phone: “Text me where to meet you”
Lindquist suggested Walmart, but someone wrote back: “Too many cameras I want to pay you and leave this car is registered to me”
Lindquist responded: “If u pull up street from my house and give me a stack I’ll show you right where the safe is”
According to her arrest warrant, Ruth Correa told police her brother said that Lindquist owed him money and that he was going to pretend to give him drugs and get guns. In another text message, Lindquist wrote to the Correa phone: “U got the 10 b of white fire?”
Ruth Correa told police that her brother had asked her to join him that night and told her that “this guy owed him money and he was going to pretend to give this guy drugs and he was going to get guns,” then he told her she was “going to pretend to pick a lock to the safe at the guy’s house,” according to the arrest warrant application.
When the brother and sister were in the car together, a guy Ruth Correa did not know got into the back of the vehicle and asked her brother if he had the drugs. Her brother responded that “he was not getting anything unless he got what he was promised,” Ruth Correa said. That was when the man, Matthew Lindquist, mentioned a fake robbery and told the brother and sister that the basement door was unlocked, Correa told police.
The two men also discussed tying Matthew up and making it look like a robbery but Matthew Lindquist got “panicky and fidgety” and ran, Ruth Correa said. Her brother then chased after him with a machete and hit him in the back of the head.
Then, as her brother started tying him up, Matthew Lindquist started to “yell and freak out” and her brother stabbed him until Matthew stopped moving, Ruth Correa told police.
She said she hesitated, but her brother grabbed her hand, guided her and she stabbed Matthew Lindquist in the chest around 10 times, Ruth Correa told police.
After the stabbing, Ruth Correa and her brother went into the house through the basement.
When they went upstairs, Kenneth Lindquist was awake and went after her brother, Ruth Correa told police. The family’s dog was also in the house and came after them, so Ruth Correa said she hit it with a golf club she had brought from her brother’s car because they had been warned about the dog.
Ruth Correa said her brother was the one to beat Kenneth Lindquist up, using a bat, and he was also trying to get the keys to the safe, but Kenneth Lindquist refused.
Janet Lindquist emerged from another room as the dog barked and her husband was yelling and Ruth Correa grabbed the woman by the hand, led her to a bedroom and told her she didn’t have to see what was happening,” Ruth Correa told police.
After Ruth Correa told the woman she did not want to hurt her and said she needed the keys to the safe, Janet Lindquist asked where her son was and Ruth Correa told her he was the reason this was happening and “her son had set her up,” according to the arrest warrant application.
After getting the keys to the safe, Ruth Correa’s brother showed up in the bedroom with a gun, pointed it at the mother and taunted her as Ruth Correa walked around the house, grabbing items, the arrest warrant application says.
When Ruth Correa went back into the bedroom, her brother had a rope around Janet Lindquist’s neck and a foot on her back, the arrest warrant application states.
As they were going bath through the basement, her brother told her to look for something flammable and they poured a liquid in several locations, then her brother set the fire, according to the arrest warrant application.
Connecticut state police began investigating when dispatchers received a 911 call at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 20 about a fire at the home at 70 Kenwood Drive in Griswold and state police, the Griswold Fire Department and several fire companies responded.
The bodies of 56-year-old Kenneth Lindquist and his 61-year-old wife, Janet Lindquist, were later found inside their burned-out home, according to police.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that Janet Lindquist died of “homicidal violence including blunt impact injuries to the head” and smoke inhalation with thermal injuries and Kenneth Lindquist died of homicidal violence, including skull fractures, cerebral contusions and additional injuries. His death was ruled a homicide.
A person who was walking his dog found Matthew Lindquist’s body on Saturday, May 5. An autopsy revealed several stab wounds and his death was ruled a homicide.
