BOSTON – Jill D’Amore helped make Our Lady Help of Christians Church beautiful, tending to flowers and decorating the parish season by season. Her mother, 97-year-old Lucia Arpino, never missed morning Mass until the coronavirus pandemic hit. And Jill’s husband, Bruno, proudly flipped burgers at the parish picnic.
Their apparently random beating and stabbing deaths over the weekend — when the church had planned to celebrate the D’Amores’ 50th wedding anniversary in a post-Communion blessing — have shaken the parish and the wider community of Newton, a city comprising a network of villages in suburban Boston.
“It’s a shocking loss, the grief is horrifying, but I’ve got to say the love coming forth from the people has just been not surprising but so edifying and inspiring,” said the church’s pastor, the Rev. Dan Riley.
Christopher Ferguson, 41, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Newton District Court to a murder charge in the death of Jill D’Amore, 73, along with two counts of assault and one count of burglary. Additional charges are expected in the deaths of Bruno D’Amore, who was 74, and Arpino after those autopsies are completed.
Jill D’Amore had 32 beating and stab wounds to her upper body, including her head and face, prosecutor Nicole Allain said in court.
Ferguson, also of Newton, was arrested Monday, but it appears he had no other connection to the victims, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said. Investigators have yet to identify a motive.
Judge Mary Beth Heffernan ordered Ferguson held without bail until a probable cause hearing July 25. During Tuesday’s arraignment, at least eight relatives of the victims listened silently in court as prosecutors detailed their investigation. They left without talking to reporters.
A Mass of Peace was scheduled for Tuesday evening.
“Bruno was known for his big voice and his exuberant personality,” and for being treated as “head chef” at picnics, Paul and Ginny Arpino, who were related to the victims, wrote in a letter to the church community.
Jill D’Amore, they said, had taken on the ministry of beautifying the church’s environment.
“Without a single day of liturgical training she simply followed her heart, caring for the flowers and decorating for the liturgical seasons,” they wrote.
And, they wrote, “Lucia will be especially missed on the upcoming Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Festa weekend as she faithfully walked in that procession through the streets of Nonantum well into her 90’s,” referring to the heavily Italian American neighborhood where they lived.
The victims were discovered in a bedroom by a friend shortly after they failed to show up for 10 a.m. Mass on Sunday, Allain said. The friend called police, who discovered signs of forced entry through a window. Investigators found bare footprints on the tile floor, along with blood droplets and fingerprints.
Surveillance video from a nearby home showed a man with no shirt or shoes staggering about shortly before 5:30 a.m., Allain said. Several people, including police officers, identified the man as Ferguson, whose footprints matched those in the home, she said.
___ LeBlanc reported from Cambridge, Massachusetts.