A 22-year-old man has been charged with murdering his mother in their home in Avon, Massachusetts, on Tuesday
Police identified the victim on Wednesday morning as Astrid Joseph, and the suspect as her son Thadeus A. Joseph. Both lived in the home where the murder occurred.
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Thadeus A. Joseph was arrested with the help of Braintree Police at South Shore Plaza at around 8 p.m. Tuesday.
He was transferred to the custody of Avon Police for questioning overnight.
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Investigators say that at around 4 p.m. Tuesday, a family member called 911 after returning home and finding Astrid Joseph unresponsive.
She was lying on the floor of the home on Nichols Avenue with visible injuries and what looked to be signs of a struggle.
She was pronounced dead on scene.
The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said investigators quickly developed a suspect and tracked him down at the mall less than four hours later.
A friend of the family said a couple and their two boys live in the home. He said the couple has been together since their college days at Northeastern, and the entire family is well-loved and well-known in this community.
“Sorrow, just sadness," a friend of the victim Keith McDermott said. "Because someone like that, no one should ever go like that."
Thadeus A. Joseph was arraigned on a murder charge Wednesday morning in Stoughton District Court. Prosecutors said he had been struggling with anxiety, mental health issues and concerns of harming himself.
They said he stayed home from work Tuesday with his mother while his father went to work. Around midday, Astrid Joseph called her husband, who heard the two arguing through the phone before it disconnected.
The father rushed home and found his wife dead in the kitchen, lying in a pool of blood with a carving knife next to her body. His son and the family's Nissan Pathfinder were gone.
Braintree police later located the SUV in the South Shore Plaza parking lot, with red-brown stains on the driver's side door, and took Thadeus A. Joseph into custody.
Prosecutors said he essentially admitted to the murder when he was being booked at the Avon Police Department.
Family friend Richard Gideon said, “It’s tough, very tough to hear that and the family’s going through some things and you know and they are trying to just kind of come to grips with what happened.”
Thadeus A. Joseph is due back in court April 10.
