Joseph Eaton allegedly confessed to the quadruple homicide, police said.
A 34-year-old man allegedly shot and killed his parents and two friends at a home in Bowdoin, Maine, days after being released from prison, authorities said.
Around 9:21 a.m. Tuesday, four people were found shot inside the home: Robert Eger, 72, Patricia Eger, 62, and Cynthia Eaton, 62, inside, while A 66-year-old person was found inside. David Eaton was found in the barn, Maine State Police said at a news conference Wednesday.
The Eatons’ son, Joseph Eaton, had been released from Windham Correctional Facility in Maine on April 14 after serving a sentence for aggravated assault, police said. His mother picked him up at the prison and took him to Bowdoin to stay with the Egers, who were family friends, police said.
Shortly after the four bodies were found, about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Joseph Eaton allegedly shot three people as they drove south on Interstate 295 in Yarmouth, about 25 miles south of Bowdoin, he said the police.
A lone bouquet of flowers marks a desolate makeshift memorial at the end of a driveway in Bowdoin, Maine, on April 19, 2023, where police say four people died.
Rodríguez Ngowi/AP
A woman reacts at the scene of a multiple shooting, April 18, 2023, in Bowdoin, Maine. Four people were found fatally shot in a Maine home Tuesday shortly before three other people were shot and wounded on a busy highway 25 miles away in a pair of crimes that were linked, state police said.
Robert F. Bukaty/AP
One of the victims in the interstate shooting, a 25-year-old woman, is in critical condition, police said. The other two victims, a 51-year-old man and his 29-year-old son, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Joseph Eaton was arrested and “confessed to killing his parents and friends at Bowdoin,” state police said. Joseph Eaton allegedly “believed that the vehicles he had shot on the interstate were police vehicles following him.”
He has been charged with four counts of murder, police said.
A body is carried into a hearse at the scene of a shooting, April 18, 2023, in Bowdoin, Maine.
Robert F. Bukaty/AP
Maine State Police said a shooting on Interstate 295 was linked to four bodies found in a Bowdoin home on April 18, 2023.
WMTW
Joseph Eaton made his first court appearance Thursday morning. He spoke briefly, only to say he understood the charges against him and did not enter a plea.
Joseph Eaton, the suspect in a shooting in Maine, appears in court in West Bath, Maine, April 20, 2023. Eaton, has been jailed since his arrest on Tuesday in a chaotic scene along the highway interstate 295, where traffic was backed up as heavily armed. law enforcement searched the area.
Patrick Whittle/AP
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Ben Stein contributed to this report.
