On a cold January evening in Charlton, Massachusetts, the life of 37-year-old Kristen A. Carey, a White/Caucasian female, was tragically cut short in an act of domestic violence. On January 2, 2021, police and emergency services responded to a distressing 911 call from a residence on Southbridge Road around 7:15 p.m. The caller reported a heated argument between a couple inside the home.
The events that unfolded within the walls of that home would leave a lasting scar on the community and, most profoundly, on the lives of two children.
Upon their arrival, first responders were met with a grim scene. Inside the residence they had shared, they discovered Kristen with multiple gunshot wounds. Nearby was her 49-year-old boyfriend, Keith M. Cuthbertson. He was found deceased from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Despite the immediate medical assistance provided by the emergency crews, Kristen succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead. Her child was reportedly in the home at the time of the shooting.
The investigation that followed, conducted by the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit, Charlton Police, and other forensic teams, quickly determined the incident to be a murder-suicide. Authorities identified Cuthbertson as the sole suspect in Kristen's death, and with his own death at the scene, the case was concluded without any arrests. The tragic event left friends and family in shock, mourning the loss of a woman described as a bright, funny, happy, and dedicated mother to her two children, Nick and Natalie. The community rallied around the grieving family, left to grapple with the senseless violence that took a loving mother from her children's lives.
