A man charged with four counts of murder for allegedly killing his parents and two others in a series of shootings that shook Maine earlier this year has been indicted, officials said on Friday.
Law enforcement officials say 34-year-old Joseph Eaton confessed to police to the killings at a property in rural Bowdoin and injuring three people while shooting at vehicles on Interstate 295 in Yarmouth. He faces additional charges related to the highway shootings.
The bodies were found in Bowdoin on April 18, days after Eaton’s release from prison.
MAINE POLICE IDENTIFY GUNMAN WHO ALLEGEDLY SHOT AND KILLED FOUR PEOPLE, WOUNDED THREE OTHERS
Joseph Eaton, who is accused of killing his parents and two other people in Bowdoin, Maine, has been indicted. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle)
The indictment also charges Eaton with aggravated cruelty to animals and states that he killed Max, the Egers’ goldendoodle, “in a manner manifesting a depraved indifference to animal life or suffering.”
A Cumberland County grand jury indicted Eaton last week on 11 charges related to the highway shootings. Those charges include aggravated attempted murder.
Eaton was “intending to cause multiple deaths” when he fired the shots from the highway, the indictment stated.
Eaton’s parents were staying with their longtime friends after his mother picked him up from a Maine prison on April 14, where he served about two years for a sentence revocation after completing a sentence in Florida for aggravated assault, part of a long criminal history in Maine, Kansas and Florida.
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Police still don’t know Eaton’s motive for the slayings. A criminal affidavit stated that an unsigned note found at the scene mentioned “someone being freed of pain and that the writer of the note wanted a new life.”