AMESBURY, MASS. (WHDH) - Authorities have identified the 27-year-old man who is accused of fatally stabbing his mother and seriously injuring her husband during an attack in Amesbury on Saturday afternoon.
Officers responding to a reported stabbing on Chester Street around 4 p.m. found a 65-year-old woman and her 65-year-old husband suffering from apparent stab wounds, according to the Essex District Attorney’s Office.
The woman, who was identified as Barabra Diehl-Peirce, 65, was taken to Boston Medical Center, where she later died, the district attorney’s office said. The man was taken to Portsmouth Hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Dielh-Peirce was identified as the mother of the suspect, John Brittain of Amesbury, and the man was identified as his stepfather, according to the district attorney’s office.
Brittan was arrested at the scene and will be arraigned Monday in Newburyport District Court on charges of murder, assault and battery on a person over 60 and assault with intent to murder.
Neighbors said the alleged murder was disturbing.
“It’s definitely unsettling, I feel like things like this are happening so often now I’m sort of getting numbed to it,” said neighbor Baylee Fournier. “You never know know what happens behind closed doors.”
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