On the afternoon of Christmas Eve in 2007, a horrific series of events began to unfold at the rural Carnation, Washington home of Wayne and Judith Elaine Fisher Anderson. Judith, a 61-year-old Caucasian female and a postal worker, was inside wrapping Christmas gifts with her husband, Wayne, when they were brutally murdered. The perpetrators were their own daughter, Michele Anderson, and her boyfriend, Joseph McEnroe.
Michele and McEnroe, armed with pistols, had driven to her parents'
home with a plan that had been forming for weeks. After fatally shooting Wayne and Judith, they dragged their bodies out of the house and meticulously cleaned the scene. Their violent rampage was far from over. They then lay in wait for Michele's older brother, Scott, his wife, Erica, and their two young children, five-year-old Olivia and three-year-old Nathan, to arrive for a planned Christmas Eve celebration.
When Scott and his family arrived, they too were mercilessly gunned down. Erica was able to make a brief 911 call, during which dispatchers could hear arguing, before the line went dead. McEnroe reportedly took the phone from her and smashed it. Police were dispatched to the residence, but a locked gate prevented them from proceeding up the long driveway to the house, and they left without discovering the grisly scene within. The bodies were not discovered until two days later, on December 26th, when a friend of Judy's went to the home to check on her after she failed to show up for work.
Michele Anderson and Joseph McEnroe were arrested when they returned to the property while police were investigating. They both confessed to the murders. Michele's motive appeared to stem from a financial dispute; she was reportedly angry that her parents were asking her and McEnroe, who lived in a mobile home on their property, to start paying rent. She also claimed her brother owed her money and that her parents had taken his side. Both Michele Anderson and Joseph McEnroe were tried and convicted on six counts of aggravated first-degree murder. They were each sentenced to six consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.
