Death Penalty Considered in Carnation Slayings

Murder charges filed yesterday in the Christmas Eve slaying of six family members in a house in Carnation, Wash., added chilling details to the account of the deaths, and made the perpetrators liable for the death penalty, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.
Michelle Anderson and Joseph McEnroe have been charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the killing of Anderson's parents, brother, and his wife and two children.

The two confessed to the killings and gave detailed accounts of what occurred. The last to die were the two children; their mother, already wounded, begged the shooters to spare their lives, but McEnroe shot them each in the head, apologizing to each before firing. Each of the six counts the two face can be a capital offense in Washington state, and the prosecutor has promised to give the option serious consideration. (More Carnation, Wash. stories.)