PEABODY — A North Shore man is facing murder charges for shooting his estranged wife to death Wednesday morning.
Police said Emilio Matarazzo, 55, of Peabody, surrendered at the Everett Police station two hours after he allegedly killed Ersilia Cataldo Matarazzo, 50, as she sat in her car and prepared to drive to work at St. Anthony’s Church.
The couple, who bought a raised ranch-style home on Baldwin Street in Peabody in 2015 for $552,000, had been living apart and were going through a divorce, police said.
Since the separation, Cataldo Matarazzo had been living in her parents’ Everett home, police said.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Everett Police Chief Steven Mazzie said police responded to a report of shots fired on Central Avenue in Everett at about 8:50 a.m.
They found the victim inside her car in the driveway. She had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said the victim had worked at St. Anthony’s for two decades.
Ryan said Matarazzo was licensed to carry a firearm. There was neither court history nor a restraining order filed between the two, the DA added.
As a precautionary measure the Everett High School was locked down briefly in the aftermath of the shooting.