The arrest of an 18-year-old Lynn man who is accused of murdering a 68-year-old woman not known to him in Danvers Thursday has come as a shock to his neighbors, who say he never showed any signs of being troubled growing up.
Anthony DeMayo is charged with murdering 68-year-old Janet Swallow of Danvers. Prosecutors say DeMayo broke into Swallow’s home on Amherst Street and stabbed her to death while she was in bed. Investigators believe he acted alone, and that this was a random attack.
Rebekah Vestal lives next door to DeMayo’s family, and said she never would have expected anything this like to happen.
“When I found out last night, I really, it obviously hit close to home. It was like, ‘wow,'” Vestal said. “Never, never in a million years would I have expected that. He’s always been such a great kid.”
Another neighbor recorded video of detectives taking evidence bags out of DeMayo’s home on Thursday.
“The Lynn police department executed a search warrant at the DeMayo residence in Lynn where they located clothing that had stains consistent with blood,” Prosecutor Erin McAndrews said in court Friday.
A third neighbor told 7NEWS DeMayo shoveled snow each winter for people on the street to earn some spending money when he was younger.
Vestal said she never saw any signs of trouble or mental instability while he was growing up.
“I do know they own pets and he seemed really good with them,” she said. “And you know, I’d see him out shoveling with his mom and just doing normal teenaged things. And he just seemed, all around, a very well-rounded child.”
DeMayo was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation before his next scheduled court appearance in April.
