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How authorities say they tracked down the Newton murders suspect
Authorities said they matched Christopher Ferguson's footprint to a bloody footprint found at the crime scene.
Bloody footprints and home security video helped authorities link Christopher Ferguson to the deaths of three Newton residents who were found stabbed and beaten in their home Sunday, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said Monday night.
Ferguson, 41, has been charged with murder, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and burglary in connection with the deaths of Gilda “Jill” D’Amore, 73; her husband, Bruno D’Amore, 74; and her mother, Lucia Arpino, 97.
Ryan told reporters that investigators aren’t aware of a connection between Ferguson and the victims and have no reason to believe the attack was anything but random. Investigators found evidence of forced entry in the basement, she said.
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Ferguson, who is also a Newton resident, is expected to be arraigned in Newton District Court Tuesday.
Arpino and the D’Amores suffered from apparent knife injuries and blunt force trauma, Ryan said during a press conference. The DA said Ferguson is expected to face additional charges once the medical examiner completes autopsies on Bruno D’Amore and Arpino.
“There were obvious signs of struggle in one of the bedrooms of the home, including broken furniture and a crystal paperweight covered in blood,” Ryan said of the crime scene. “We also found in the kitchen a knife with red-brown stains.”
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Forensic specialists processed the ceramic tile floor outside the bedroom where the struggle had taken place, she explained. According to Ryan, the investigators used leucocrystal violet, a chemical that can help enhance bloodstains and make them visible.
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“They were able, having done that, to find bloody bare footprints on that tile hallway floor,” she said. “Like fingerprints, the skin of people’s feet is unique and leaves an impression that can be compared as well.”
Ryan said investigators obtained an impression of Ferguson’s footprint on Monday and matched it to one of the footprints taken from the hallway floor, which led to Ferguson’s arrest.
Security video from 455 Albemarle Road — less than a half-mile from the D’Amores’ Broadway house and about 100 yards from Ferguson’s Washington Street home — showed a man walking around at about 5:20 a.m. Sunday with no shirt or shoes and with a “staggering gait,” Ryan said. She said several officers who saw the video identified the man as Ferguson, who was “known to them.”
At the D’Amores’ house, officials also recovered “what we hope will be a number of fingerprints that can be matched from the screens and the windows that were removed” in the home’s basement, Ryan said.
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The DA praised the “tireless work” and “dogged” investigation that ended the intense search for suspects in a crime that rattled Newton, a city with a historically low crime rate.
“This was a careful, thoughtful, and relentless investigation, and it required the collaboration of multiple agencies,” Ryan said.
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