PHOTOS BY SCOTT EISEN
Authorities investigate a double homicide at 19 Farm Ave.
BY GAYLA CAWLEY
PEABODY — Police have identified the victims of a double homicide on Saturday.
The couple, Mark Greenlaw, 37, and Jennifer O’Connor, 39, were thought to be living at 19 Farm Ave. where they were murdered, police said.
The Essex State Police Detective Unit with assistance from the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section are seeking two suspects in connection with the crime.
Investigators said a woman came into the State Police barracks in Danvers on Saturday around 11:30 p.m. to report that a crime had been committed at the two-bedroom bungalow.
The woman had left the residence and flagged down a car, which took her to the police station. When Peabody officers entered the house, they saw part of a dead body. They determined there was no one who was alive in the home, police said.
Carrie Kimball Monahan, a spokeswoman for the Essex County District Attorney’s office, said the cause of death has yet to be determined by the medical examiner. Authorities said the victims were staying at the house.
Monahan said the condition of the house, which she described as “poor” and “really messy” initially made it difficult for authorities to determine how many bodies were there. She said the bodies were somewhat concealed. X-ray machinery was used to make that determination, she added.
“There was a lot of debris so it was difficult to see how many bodies there were at first without disturbing a lot of evidence off the bat,” she said. “So, we were just proceeding carefully.”
Rachel Hrubes, 25, a Danvers resident, said she knows a man who lives in the home, whom she said was named David. She said her ex’s brother, William Choquette, died after being involved in a tow truck accident with David.
State police identified Choquette as the driver of a tow truck that rolled over on Route 95 South, and a David Moise as the passenger, according to a 2014 article in The Daily Item.
Hrubes said she never met David, but heard that he rented the house out. Property records list Lucy J. and Stanley J. Pikul Jr. as the owners of 19 and 21 Farm ave.
Hrubes alleged David shot off his leg years ago, and only has one leg. She said she wasn’t surprised to hear a double homicide took place at the residence.
“It’s actually very sad,” Hrubes said. “I’m just really not surprised. I mean, this guy shot off his own leg.”
This isn’t the first crime that has taken place at 19 Farm Ave. In 2013, George Moise, identified as David’s son, was sentenced to prison time after pleading guilty to charges of attempted murder, assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to the Salem News,.
He was charged with stabbing Robert Kowalchik multiple times in the abdomen outside his home. George’s brother, David Jr., reportedly told police that the man “got what he deserved” because Kowalchik was allegedly engaging in sexual relations with George Moise’s girlfriend at the time, according to the Salem News report.
Julia Brown, Nicole Hart and Nicole Powers, three friends who live down the road, said they were returning from a baby shower on Sunday when Julia’s father texted her that there was a homicide in the neighborhood.
“We were all just really shocked and wanted to see what was going on,” 19-year-old Powers said.
Brown, 20, said she didn’t know who lived in the home. She said it was a little unsettling to know the crime happened so close to their neighborhood and they didn’t know about it.
“You pass houses all the time and you don’t know,” Powers said. “It’s just a random house, but something horrible happened here. And I just didn’t think it would happen around me.”
You never expect it until it actually happens, 19-year-old Hart added.
“I was astonished,” Hart said. “It’s just, it’s so scary. This kind of stuff can happen. You see it on TV … I watch Criminal Minds and I love it. And to think, I’m always like, that’s fake. That’s just a show, but it’s happening right here, right now. It’s just wild.
“I don’t really know how to feel,” Hart continued. “It’s really hurts my heart to know that this kind of stuff can happen. It makes me want to watch out when my sisters go out playing … If this can happen to anybody, it can happen to them and I don’t want that. It’s definitely really, really scary.”
It definitely changes things in a way you don’t want, Brown added.
“You always think it’s going to happen somewhere else and then it happens here,” Hart said. “It’s a game changer.”
Thomas Grillo contributed to this report.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected].
