Man Stacked His Family's Bodies In Freezer

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Bodies Found Stacked In A Freezer

San Francisco, California - Even veteran police officers were stunned when they responded to a Thursday afternoon call at a San Mateo home to find a financially strapped man had stacked the bodies of his wife and two teen-age daughters in an outdoor freezer chest before killing himself with a shotgun.

Investigators now believe Anthony James Richards, 53, was the anonymous male who called police just before 5 p.m. Thursday to report a triple homicide and a suicide at the family’s Maxine Avenue home just before taking his own life, San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer said at a Friday afternoon news conference.

Officers found a note taped to the front door simply stating: “Go to the backyard.” There, they found the man’s body on the ground feet from the freezer chest.

In a three-page computer-typed note discover inside the home, Richards said the mushrooming debt had caused him to kill his wife, Nicole Marie, 54, and his daughters, Alexa, 17, and Tessa, 13, Manheimer said.

“This is clearly a horrific event,’’ the chief said. “This is an example of domestic violence of the most extreme sort. But, as in many instances, there were no external indicators of violence or abuse.’’

Manheimer said the sudden destruction of the popular family, who were involved in their church and the local Police Athletic League, had devastated the community. She stressed that it was a wakeup call for people to never hesitate to report signs of verbal or physical abuse.

Coroner Robert Foucrault said Nicole Richards died of “blunt force trauma” to the head. The cause of the daughters’ deaths had not yet been determined. An autopsy was set for Saturday.

Authorities would not say how long the bodies had been in the freezer.

Meanwhile, a makeshift memorial of candles, flowers and photographs grew on the family’s front door Friday as neighbors and friends mulled around.

Earlier, as coroner’s officials carried the bodies out to a van, neighbors gasped and hugged and cried. Carrie Girouard, a neighbor and friend of the Richards family, said they had moved into the home about a year and a half ago. She said the father owns a meat delivery company, and the mother works at Siebel, a technology company.

“They were a loving family,” Girouard said. “They went to church every week. The daughters were straight-A students.” She said Nicole Richards was distraught earlier this week over the suicide Monday of a close friend of the family. “She was at our house Tuesday night very upset over it,’’ Girouard said.