According to the county prosecutor’s office, a 34-year-old heroin addict killed his mother, 70, and set her body on fire outside the $900,000 house they lived on upscale Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
After the Cape Cod SWAT team invaded the home on Friday night, Adam Howe was taken into custody. Family friends who wanted to check on Susan Howe’s mother’s wellbeing summoned the police to the house in Truro.
The local fire department was dispatched to the site at the same time the welfare check was requested due to a report of a fire.
According to Tara Miltimore, an assistant district attorney, “a family member had phoned and wanted to check on the house.”
According to a source close to the family, Adam and his wife both had heroin addictions.
According to the source, Adam had been living with his mother, who had been considering evicting him because of his drug addiction.
When police got on the scene, they instantly discovered that the fire was caused by a dead person burning, according to a joint news statement from the police department and the prosecutor’s office.
When the police came, Adam—who had been standing close to the fire—ran inside.
He was taken into custody soon after. Police were able to identify the burning individual as Howe’s mother.
Susan Howe served as both the president of the Truro Historical Society and the head of the Truro Commission on Disabilities. Susan also had a job at a clothes business in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, according to her Facebook profile.
Susan often shared pictures of herself with her son and Ailey, the wife of her son’s son. The most recent post was made in September 2021, when she uploaded images of her family having breakfast while having fun.
In a Facebook post, Adam claimed that he wed his wife in December 2019. “365 days ago I married the finest lady in the world,” he said on Facebook the night before their first wedding anniversary.
Together, the couple has a daughter. I’m a new husband and a new father, Adam stated on his page’s Intro section. My life is fantastic!
Adam claims to have previously worked as a chef at many establishments in Vermont and Massachusetts on his LinkedIn profile.
He made an appearance alongside Anne Burrell in an episode of Chef Wanted on the Food Network in 2012. Adam also wrote about food for the publication Southern Vermont Landscapes.
Adam is pursuing a degree in English at Castleton University, according to the most recent update on his site. He had previously attended Boston’s Emmanuel College to study English literature.
Is That My Ring, Adam’s most recent children’s book, was set to be released on September 15, he said on Facebook.
The story revolves on a little girl hunting for her mother’s wedding ring while exploring a large metropolis.
The same day, Adam expressed his gratitude for the outpouring of support for his wife Aliey in a Facebook post.
He stated: “We are glad to announce that Aliey is on her way back to her beloved family.” Aliey is safe, doing well, and healing, he said.
We are all getting ready for the day when the Howes are all where they should be, the murder suspect continued. And where everyone may live their healthiest, happiest lives possible.
A few weeks before turning 71, Susan passed away.
She was a Natick, Massachusetts native who earned degrees from Boston University in 1978 and Syracuse University in 1974.
Following Howe’s passing, the town of Truro released a statement that said, “Our hearts are heavy with the news that we have lost a valued member of our community, Susan Howe.”
We send our condolences and prayers to her family and friends at this difficult time, it continued. We have no other comments at this time since we are following law enforcement’s lead as they look into this tragedy.
Christa Washington, a writer, was killed and raped in her townhouse in 2002. According to the Herald, O’Keefe refused to “go into analogies” between the two instances.
When the incident happened, Washington was at home with her daughter. Her daughter suffered no injury.
Later, Christopher McCowen, a trash collector, was found guilty of the murder and given a life sentence.
“I don’t believe it will shock people to learn that we have a dysfunctional mental health system and it’s been broken for a long time,” O’Keefe said to the publication.
O’Keefe said that his office is attempting to get Howe released from police custody and sent to a mental health hospital in a different interview with the Boston Globe.
“We have to establish positively that this individual was sane at the time of the crime at any later judicial processes,” he stated.
The examination should be completed as soon as possible after the events that caused someone to pass away.
As a consequence of discussions with and information from family members, officials had previously said that Howe would go through a mental health examination.
The State Police Detectives assigned to the District Attorney’s Office, Truro Police, and the State Fire Marshalls Office are looking into the event.