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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pair plead not guilty in family slaying


Michele Anderson appears in court before pleading not guilty to six murder charges at the King County Courthouse in Seattle on Thursday. The killings of Anderson's family took place on Christmas Eve in rural Carnation, east of Seattle. Anderson's boyfriend, Joseph McEnroe, also pleaded not guilty to the charges.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Gene Johnson Associated Press

SEATTLE – A woman and her boyfriend, accused of slaughtering six members of her family as they gathered to celebrate Christmas Eve, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that could bring the death penalty.

Michele K. Anderson and Joseph Thomas McEnroe, both 29, entered the pleas in King County Superior Court to six counts of aggravated first-degree murder, as Michele’s one surviving immediate family member – her sister, Mary Victoria Anderson – watched from the front row, clutching her son’s hand.

Anderson and McEnroe gave detailed confessions when questioned by detectives, prosecutors say, but not-guilty pleas are routinely entered in potential death-penalty cases.

According to charging papers, when the pair arrived at the home of Anderson’s parents, McEnroe shot her father, Wayne, 60, in the head. Her mother, Judy, 61, rushed out from where she had been wrapping presents, and McEnroe killed her, too.

The pair hid the bodies, and when Anderson’s brother Scott arrived with his wife, Erica, both 32, and their two children, 5-year-old Olivia and 3-year-old Nathan, Michele and McEnroe executed them, the charging documents say. McEnroe apologized to the two children as he shot them in the head, according to prosecutors.

The two were arrested when they returned to the home in rural Carnation, east of Seattle, the day after Christmas, as detectives were processing the crime scene.

Prosecutors have given no motive, but said Anderson told detectives her brother owed her money and that she was upset because her parents did not take her side. She also said her parents were pressuring her to start paying rent for staying in a mobile home on their property.

McEnroe and Anderson appeared at their arraignment unshackled and in street clothes, separated from the spectators by a glass wall.

McEnroe had shaved his goatee and closely cropped his wild, shaggy hair.

Friends and relatives of the victims packed the courtroom, consoling one another and crying. Michele Anderson never appeared to look toward her sister, whose son, Ben, sobbed as he watched.

Deputy Prosecutor James Konat asked the defendants whether they understood each charge against them. The defendants answered “yes” in barely audible voices, so quietly that Konat at one point told Anderson, “I’m sorry, you’ll have to answer out loud.”

Their lawyers entered the pleas of not guilty on their behalf.

After the hearing, the family rushed out of the courtroom, down the hall and into an elevator without speaking to reporters and television cameras that followed them.

Prosecutor Dan Satterberg has 30 days from when charges were filed on Dec. 28 to decide whether to seek capital punishment, though such deadlines are typically extended to allow defense attorneys to present information – such as mental health histories – that might persuade prosecutors not to pursue execution. Satterberg’s spokesman, Dan Donohoe, said prosecutors have not yet received any such materials from the defense attorneys, nor have they spoken with family members about whether they wish to see the pair put to death if convicted.

The only other possible sentence for an aggravated murder conviction in Washington is life without release.

Judge Cheryl Carey set the next hearing in the case for Jan. 29.