PITTSFIELD — Authorities have found evidence that accelerants were used to start a fire at a Massachusetts home in which a family of five was found dead in an apparent murder-suicide.
Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington on Monday said investigators located evidence of an accelerant in different parts of the Sheffield home, including two 20-pound (9-kilogram) propane tanks on the upper floor.
Harrington says there is “overwhelming evidence” that 41-year-old Luke Karpinski killed his wife, 41-year-old Justine Wilbur, their 7-year-old twins, Alex and Zoe, and 3-year-old son, Marek, last Wednesday morning before starting the fire and killing himself.
Authorities have not said how the family died and autopsy results are pending, but Harrington says police did not find any evidence of guns in the home.
The investigation is ongoing.
FALL RIVER — Police are investigating anti-Semitic messages and Nazi imagery scrawled on gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts as a hate crime.
Fall River police say the vandalism at Hebrew Cemetery occurred over the weekend. Sgt. J.T. Hoar says police were alerted on Sunday by a cemetery maintenance worker.
Police also received a report of a suspicious vehicle that had been parked in the cemetery on two occasions but determined the vehicle was not involved.
The Herald News reports that at least 30 gravestones were defaced with swastikas and phrases including “heil Hitler” and “Hitler was right” in black marker. One was tagged with “Oy vey! This is MAGA country,” an apparent reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
No arrests have been announced.
BOSTON — Massachusetts State Police say a World War II memorial was vandalized in Boston.
Authorities say the vandalism was reported Monday morning, and troopers found an oil-like substance splashed on the Castle Island memorial. Crews tried to clean off the substance Monday, but dark splotches remained even after hours of washing.
Police say it is unclear when the act of vandalism took place.
The memorial, located at the beginning of the causeway to Castle Island, features the names of the 216 South Boston residents who died in World War II.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch says he is sickened by the vandalism, and asks anyone who may know how to remove the substance to reach out to his office.
CANTON — Massachusetts State Police say a Maine man struck and killed by his own pickup truck on a highway near Boston may have suffered some kind of medical emergency.
Police identified the victim of Sunday afternoon’s accident on Interstate 95 in Canton as 72-year-old Michael Kulas of St. Albans, Maine.
The preliminary investigation shows that “a serious medical event” may have caused Kulas to stop and get out of his pickup. Police say the transmission remained in drive, and the truck struck and killed Kulas.
The death remains under investigation. No other information was released.
From Associated Press