In The News

Boston Globe
December 21, 2007

Everett mother is slain in murder-suicide
Ex-boyfriend broke into her apartment with gun

By John R. Ellement and Anna Badkhen,

EVERETT - A woman who recently volunteered at a fund-raiser to help victims of domestic violence was shot and killed yesterday morning by a former boyfriend in an apparent murder-suicide.

The gunman, whom authorities identified as Edward H. Pettengill, 44, used a shotgun to blast his way into the second-floor apartment of Altijana "Tina" Moric, 36, shortly after midnight. Once inside, he opened fire, first wounding the woman's new boyfriend.

As he assaulted Moric, she screamed for her 11-year-old daughter to run. After a struggle that lasted longer than 20 minutes, while police waited outside hoping to negotiate with him, he killed Moric and then turned the weapon on himself, authorities and neighbors said.

"Tina fought for herself and fought for her 11-year-old daughter," Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said during a press conference yesterday at the Everett Police Department.

Neighbors described the harrowing sounds of violence coming from the Morices' apartment: the screams of the woman and the girl, the shotgun blasts, and, moments before Pettengill killed Moric, his scream. "You're going to die tonight," he said, according to Ruth Giannasoli, who lives in the apartment downstairs.

"Right after that, I heard two [shotgun] blasts," Giannasoli said. "It was awful. . . . At least nothing happened to the little girl."

Pettengill climbed the back stairs of the second-floor apartment on Russell Street about 12:30 a.m. and shot through the door, neighbors said. When Moric's new boyfriend, Joseph E. Scimemi, 35, heard the noise and went to investigate, Pettengill shot him in the arm and rushed past him, toward Moric, Leone said.

Scimemi stumbled outside and called police at 12:32 a.m., said Chief Steven Mazzie of the Everett Police Department. While the struggle continued, police arrived and prepared to force their way into the apartment, Mazzie said.

Moric's daughter ran out of the apartment and into the arms of a police officer, who whisked her away from the scene.

Mazzie said officers were prepared to storm the apartment but wanted to try negotiating first. He cited police training that teaches officers not to use that kind of force at a home where hostages are being held at gunpoint, especially women and children, "to try to prevent the loss of life." But yesterday's case "just ended up, unfortunately with more loss of life," he said.

The officers tried calling the apartment to speak to Pettengill, hoping to negotiate a peaceful resolution, he said, but no one picked up the phone.

While police were still outside, Pettengill shot and killed Moric and then turned the gun on himself, authorities said.

From the first 911 call until Pettengill killed himself, 23 minutes elapsed, according to Mazzie. Officers waited another nine minutes after Pettengill shot himself before forcing their way inside, Mazzie said.

Moric, a Bosnian, came to the United States in 1998 with her daughter and her husband at the time, Samir Moric, now 40, whose twin brother, Amir Moric, had been living in the Boston area.

The couple was divorced in 2004, but maintained amicable relations "because of their daughter," Amir Moric said by telephone.

Altijana Moric and Pettengill had dated for three years before they broke up in August, shortly before she moved from East Boston to Everett.

"During that time, although there was some rocky times during their relationship . . . there were no restraining orders," Leone said.
Altijana's neighbor, Elena Aresco, said Moric had recently told her that Pettengill was unstable and did not get along with her daughter.

"I think that's why they ended things, because [her daughter] came first in her life," Aresco said.

Moric, who worked as a banquet manager at the Wyndham Hotel, had volunteered last September to help at "A Taste of Chelsea," an annual fund-raising event that benefits Harbor Communities Overcoming Violence, a Chelsea organization that promotes ending domestic violence.

Hotel officials did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

The group's acting executive director, Kourou Pich, said she did not know whether Moric had experienced domestic violence before she volunteered.

Yesterday's murder-suicide brought to 55 the number of deaths resulting from domestic violence in Massachusetts this year, said Toni Troop, a spokeswoman for Jane Doe Inc., a statewide coalition against domestic and sexual violence. In 2005, there were 19 such deaths.

Jay Ash, Chelsea city manager, said he knew Moric personally and described her as "gentle, caring," and "a pleasant person to run into and deal with."

Ash, a local Rotary Club member, frequently saw Moric at the club functions at the Wyndham, which Moric had helped organize.

"The Rotarians have been forwarding e-mails back and forth about her passing and recommitting to work with domestic violence," Ash said.