On Christmas Eve of 2007, a quiet home in Carnation, Washington, became the scene of a devastating family tragedy. Among the victims was five-and-a-half-year-old Caucasian female, Olivia Ryan Anderson. She, along with her three-year-old brother Nathan, her parents, and her grandparents, were brutally murdered in a pre-meditated and calculated attack orchestrated by a family member.
Olivia was a young girl who dreamed of being a dancer and a teacher.
The horrific events were set in motion by Olivia's paternal aunt, Michele Anderson, and her then-boyfriend, Joseph Thomas McEnroe. Fueled by anger over financial disputes, Michele Anderson had been fantasizing for weeks about killing her family. On the afternoon of December 24th, she and McEnroe went to her parents' home. Once inside, McEnroe shot and killed Olivia's grandparents, Wayne and Judy Anderson. After cleaning the initial crime scene and hiding the bodies, they lay in wait for the rest of the family to arrive for a Christmas Eve gathering.
When Olivia arrived with her parents, Scott and Erica Anderson, and her younger brother, they were ambushed by Michele and McEnroe. Her parents were shot, and during the chaos, her mother, Erica, managed to make a brief 911 call before McEnroe smashed the phone. In a final, chilling act to eliminate any witnesses, McEnroe then shot and killed both Olivia and her brother Nathan. The attackers fled the scene but returned two days later, where they were encountered by police who had discovered the bodies.
Michele Anderson and Joseph McEnroe were arrested and subsequently confessed to the murders of all six family members. They both faced trial for six counts of aggravated first-degree murder. Joseph McEnroe was convicted and, after the jury could not unanimously agree on the death penalty, he was sentenced to six life sentences without the possibility of parole. Michele Anderson was also found guilty on all six counts and received the same sentence of life in prison without parole.
