MARSHFIELD – State and local police are searching for a man they believe brutally murdered a couple in their Marshfield home. Authorities said Christopher Keeley, 27, should be considered “armed and dangerous”.
Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz said officers were called to Carl and Vicki Mattson’s home on Gotham Hill Drive at 9:19 p.m. Tuesday for a wellness check and found the married couple dead. Cruz said the two were stabbed and clubbed. Carl Mattson was 70 and Vicki Mattson would have been 71 on Wednesday.
The district attorney said investigators then issued an alert to be on the lookout for Keeley, who knew the couple.
“This appears to be a targeted attack on these two individuals,” Cruz told reporters during a press conference Wednesday morning. “The individual we are looking for at this time, we consider armed and dangerous.”
According to court documents, the victims were found just inside their home with evidence of the struggle, including an overturned bookcase. The couple were likely attacked last week, and it was a friend of Keeley’s who asked the police to check the house, telling them that Keeley was living with the couple on behalf of a family member, but that he had recently been asked to leave.
The documents say Keeley told a friend it was an argument over a barking dog that led to the attack, and that Keeley had recently been acting “psychotic” and told the friend that he felt the need to hurt people, including the couple he lived with. , and was known to carry knives.
According to the documents, Keeley was angry and feared he would find himself homeless after a woman who had considered letting Keeley stay with her in Weymouth evicted him.
Keeley was last seen driving a black 2019 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited that belonged to the Mattsons, but Cruz said he left the area. Just after noon on Wednesday, investigators said the Jeep was “picked up unoccupied” from an Avon parking lot.
Marshfield Police Chief Phil Tavares said Keeley may have changed his appearance and dyed his hair red.
State police described Keeley as white, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He is about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. His last known address was on Pleasant Street in Weymouth, according to police. Cruz said he believed Keeley had “mental health issues” and “prior involvement with the justice system.”
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Anyone with information is asked to call the police immediately.
Police cordoned off the street and stayed home through Wednesday night. Two bodies were seen being placed in a van at a medical examiner’s office around 7am.
Cruz declined to describe how the couple and Keeley knew each other, saying only that he was an acquaintance of the Mattsons.
