New evidence sought in Peabody double slaying
FBI agents and state and local police spent the day yesterday digging up land around a Peabody house of horrors where last February a couple were murdered and partially buried in a cellar under garbage and debris.
“During the investigation into the double homicide that took place at this location last February, information was obtained that necessitates a further search of the property,” said Carrie KimballMonahan, spokeswoman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, in a statement.
“There is no danger to the public’s safety,” she added.
A huge backhoe worked a fenced-off area beside and in front of the boarded-up house, scooping up discarded tires and other rubbish from the backyard.
“The FBI’s Evidence Response Team is assisting the Peabody Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Essex County District Attorney’s office in an ongoing investigation,” said FBI spokeswoman Kristen Setera, who declined to comment further.
Mark Greenlaw, 37, was killed by a shotgun blast to the head last year. His girlfriend Jennifer O’Connor, 40, was raped and fatally stabbed in the neck and torso. Investigators found Greenlaw and O’Connor’s bodies wrapped in plastic and carpeting.
Wes Cameron Doughty, 40, of Danvers, is charged with two counts of murder, rape, attempted arson of a dwelling, armed carjacking and kidnapping.
The murder scene is owned by the parents of a longtime friend of Doughty, the friend told the Herald yesterday.
“It’s a continuing nightmare for myself and my family to have this still going on,” said Stanley Pikul, 28, as he returned home from work to find the Farm Avenue property on which he grew up swarming with police, federal agents and excavation crews toiling in mud and driving rain. “Eleven months after the fact, it’s still going on,” he said.
Pikul, whose parents gave authorities permission to search the land, said he has known Doughty for more than a decade.
“The last person I would have thought would do something like this was Wes Doughty,” Pikul said. “He was a really nice guy to me and my family. We really liked him. The Wes that I know and the Wes that supposedly did this ... I don’t know how to put those two together.”
Michael C. Hebb, 46, of Peabody, who was also charged in the case, pleaded guilty in October to being an accessory after the fact to O’Connor’s murder and attempted arson for plotting to cover up the crimes by burning the house down. Hebb was sentenced to six to seven years in state prison.