In the space of a few weeks, three separate family tragedies have left communities in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in mourning. Two happened in Pennsylvania this October. A third, from 2023, is still moving through a Massachusetts court. The cases are not connected.
What happened
On Oct. 12, police say Metallica Rose Harrison, 27, of Towanda, Pa., called 911 from a room at Great Wolf Lodge, a family resort in the Poconos. Her husband and their 3-year-old son were found dead from stab wounds. Harrison was hurt and taken to a hospital.
The next day she was charged with two counts of criminal homicide, meaning the unlawful killing of a person. Monroe County District Attorney Mike Mancuso called it a "violent domestic tragedy." Harrison is presumed innocent, and the charges have not been tested in court.
Three days earlier, on Oct. 9, police say Matthew Stone Sr., 45, shot and killed eight people at his home on Perry Street in Erie, Pa., then took his own life. Officers began arriving in under two minutes after a sensor detected gunfire, but police say the victims had already died.
Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said relatives described years of controlling behavior. Stone was charged in a 2019 case involving his wife, but the charges were withdrawn after she changed her statement. He had no other criminal record and was legally allowed to have the gun.
In Massachusetts, Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, is charged with murder in the January 2023 deaths of her three young children in Duxbury. Her trial ended Sept. 4 in a mistrial, which means the jury could not agree. Eleven jurors favored acquittal, or a not-guilty verdict, and one did not.
Prosecutors say she acted deliberately. Her defense says she had postpartum psychosis, a rare and serious mental illness that can follow childbirth, and was not criminally responsible. A judge has refused to find her not guilty for lack of evidence. She is expected to stay in a psychiatric hospital until the case is settled. Her former husband has said he forgives her.
Who they were
In Erie, those lost included Stone's wife, a pregnant daughter and her unborn child, two adult sons, a 5-year-old boy, a 1-year-old girl, and two women who came to the home and were shot outside.
At Great Wolf Lodge, a father and his 3-year-old son died. The family had been staying at the resort since Sept. 21.
In Duxbury, three young children were lost.
Behind each of these losses is a person whose family and friends are now grieving.
What we don’t know yet
Police do not know why the Great Wolf Lodge deaths happened. They searched the family's Towanda home on Oct. 14 looking for answers. Harrison's plea and lawyer were not listed in court records reviewed by reporters.
The reason for the Erie shooting is also unknown. Relatives described suspected methamphetamine use (a powerful illegal drug) and mental-health concerns, but police found no record of mental-health history. District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz urged the public not to guess. Reports differ on the pregnant daughter's age (21 or 24) and on whether the two women outside were friends, neighbors or relatives.
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not decided whether to try Clancy again, seek lesser charges or drop the case. Her lawyers plan to argue next month that a new trial would break the rule against double jeopardy, which says a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime. Prosecutors strongly dispute the defense's claim that the evidence did not prove she did it.
Researchers who study domestic violence say family killings are very rare. They point to warning signs such as past abuse, access to guns and threats of suicide, and say such killings can be prevented. A gun-rights column in September questioned blaming guns for these killings. The reporting reviewed shows no measured rise in such cases in 2026.
